I don't care if it is logical or not. I will never yuse the two different sets or 3/5 fairway woods I have again. The new TM M4 3 and 5 arrive tomorrow.

Sometimes you just feel the need.

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Elections have consequences.

better buyer of the club than striker of the ball

New gear is the best.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

I do not hold irrational beliefs all the problems are my piecemeal club set. My actual thought this time is I do deserve brand new for once and I want a single brand/type. My old stuff is all over the place even while all woods being TM. My 3 was a older draw and 5 was another model with different setup. I want these two and after trading in my old stuff for credit am going to get the matching driver.

PS word of warning if not already mentioned. My R11S is going back. I make myself crazy with all the adjustments and different weights etc. I want a solid M4 and will correct myself.

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Elections have consequences.

Heck yeah, treat yourself

I still play a glued/fixed driver for a reason.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Went golfing with my son, sister, and Dad on Saturday afternoon.
I suck at golf. Haven't played in 4 years.

Enjoyable afternoon even though I'm a disgrace to the game.

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That is all that is important. Unless you are a serious menace to others around you.

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Elections have consequences.

My sister and B-I-L are regular golfers. She hassled me for the first 8 holes to try using one of their drivers....my set of clubs is pretty dated.

Ninth hole i did....teed off long and straight...
Maybe I need new clubs.

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Picking up my new driver today. Gonna head to the range after work and hit both drivers to get a good side by side comparison with the different grips. Also I didn't get any sort of tutorial when I bought the thing so need to get one of the pros at the shop to explain the different weights. There is an extra weight/slide ruler type thing on the Flash as opposed to the Epic.

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https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20190824/girls-golf-vernon-hills-schulman-looks-like-sure-thing


Check this out. A couple old friends of mine from childhood got married and their daughter is a golfing prodigy. I've been following her golf career on their facebook feeds for a couple years now the sky's the limit it seems. She just started her freshman year of high school and over the summer won some massive Illinois junior amateur tournament where she beat several girls who were headed to D1 schools on golf scholarships this fall. She shot 2 over for 103 holes or something like that. Just finished 2nd in her first high school meet with a 69. Article says her goal is top 3 in state this year.


Don't know if she'll ever be good enough for the pros, but I would imagine a high level D1 school is in her future.

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Her coach is a good guy. Used to run the local GolfChannel Am tours and such.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

My golf trip next week which has already changed from 4 people to 3 might end up being just me on a golf trip for 1. My other 2 buddies are coming from Orlando next Wednesday, the day after Orlando is supposed to get hit by Hurricane Dorian, biggest hurricane to hit Florida in 30 years.

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Hit the new three and five wednesday night playing nine. So as much as the shot called for it I used it. Also drove the 3 a few times. Made quite a difference. Particularly off the grass. These newer clubs obviously have more forgiveness but also have a seemingly sharper bite to get the ball up, out and on its way. Not one time did I top them which had been an issue. I was surprised the 3 drifted a little right toward slice land especially on the drives but that is my problem really. Anyway if you were on the fence go M4.

Separate question for you guys that golf with your wives or girlfriends. Ordered a nice full set of Cobra XL for my wife. She always played the garbage her ex allowed her to get. Walmart and Top Flite. Anyway the reviews were all good as well as price and I am surprising her this evening. Do you have any word or experience with the newer Cobra/Puma products? Other than Rory and not as cheap as garbage I do not know too much.

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Elections have consequences.

I bought a "used" Cobra King F7 driver from rockbottomgolf two years ago. Its very forgiving and as long as I don't swing like a jackass, it goes for miles and stays fairly straight. Without a doubt its been the best club in my bag the last 4-5 rounds I played. Hit everything right at the Jorr Invitational, but realized I had the ball too far forward in my stance. Once I made that adjustment, I honestly don't think I've missed more than 10 or 12 fairways since.

I say 'used' because it was an open box deal (regular $500, got mine for $200), and either they cleaned this thing up perfectly, or it wasn't hit more than 15 or 20 times because it was basically like brand new when I got it. I would absolutely buy more of their products.

https://www.cobragolf.com/king-f7-driver

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Thanks Frank, for some reason I always thought hitting right was that you were not far enough back in your address (ball more forward). Maybe thats my problem.

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Elections have consequences.

It should be a little forward with the driver. I had it like in front of my left shoe so the club was wiiiiide open by the time I hit the ball. Slice city. Now I address it more towards the instep of my left foot and my drives have improved ten fold.

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Had one of my best ball striking days of the year but didn't make any putts. Golf can be a frustrating game.

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Love the new driver, hit it great all weekend. was having a great weekend and then fucked it all up. Started the weekend with an 82, hit 10/13 fairways with new driver and 8 GIR. Next day 85 with a bad 45 on the back. Hit 9/13 with the driver but only 5 GIR. Starting to see a slice happening with all my irons 4-7 and my hybrids. Decided the re-play the back 9 after lunch and shot a 43. Next day played the Woodlands course at Lawsonia and had a tale of 2 nines. First off I decided to try and fix the slice. Decided that I was swinging good enough where I could now try to turn my body a bit on the back swing and try and change the club path so it comes from the inside a bit as opposed to cutting across the ball outside in. I started doing it and it was going great right off the bat, could feel the slight change and the slice was disappearing. Had maybe my best front nine ever, shot a 37 with 2 birdies after hitting the first 8 greens in a row in regulation. Was throwing darts with my wedges as all my birdie looks were within 10 feet. Putting was attrocious as usual. Back nine shot a 45 with a triple on the last hole, basically my usual score on that ridiculous hole.


Then it all went to shit. After lunch decided to play the Links and try to get in 36. First hole, shanked a 9 iron. Uh oh. Threw down anotehr ball, shank. Next hole, wedge in my hand, shank. Instantly ran to my car and went home.

Next morning, played the Links. Front nine held it together with a 41 thanks to some amazing wedge play. Back nine it all fell apart, shanks started around hole 13, by hole 15 every shot was a shank. Didn't finish the last couple holes after maxing out and finished the back with a 55 for a 96 total. Even tried going back to the outside in swing and still shanked everything.

So now I have the shanks again and my big golf trip is tomorrow. I've been so depressed and stressed about this that it woke me up at 5am this morning and kept me up. I'm not kidding when I say I'm now hoping the hurricane stays in Florida for another couple days and the airport stays closed and my trip gets cancelled.

I really thought I was over the shanks for good thanks to the life changing lesson I had beginning of June. Since end of June I've been playing my best golf of my life. From July 1 to now my index went from a 14 to a 10.7, not easy to do especially when you only play from the senior tees with their lower slopes and ratings.

And now I gotta go play 36 holes a day for the next 5 days. Can't wait to go spend $400 at Sand Valley Thursday to shoot 120!

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Hopefully you knocked off early and got in a lesson with Sones. Have fun.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Taking a lesson this evening to go along with the new clubs. Something in the M4s made me refocus something even withe the R11S set up neutral. Killed it this past weekend. Maybe 3ish bad drives.

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Elections have consequences.

Next Thursday afternoon I am playing at Rich Harvest Farms. Staying in a cabin on the grounds and playing Black Sheep on Friday.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

After hitting the ball poorly last time out on a tough course in tough conditions I determined this would likely be my last weekend playing. Too much house stuff to deal with and just kinda lost my passion for it after buying that other house.

Shot 77 yesterday with a double on the first hole and two three putts. Made 4 birdies to help offset that and won a chunk of money from the boys. I think I ended up with 45 rounds this year so that's really not too bad overall. Tempted to get a membership with a cart next year and then try to play a few times during the week and still walk on weekends. A potential 100 round season sounds awesome.
We will see how it goes today.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

That's awesome. One thing I have learned about playing places like that is not to expect too much, enjoy the experience, and if you can make a few birdies or hit some memorable shots that is all you really want so you have a story to tell. I've gone out too many times thinking I'm going to have the round of my life and having my balloon burst early on kind of ruining my experience. Have a blast!

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

That's how I'm approaching it. I'm not going to let poor play ruin the experience.

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Season over. Brief stats breakdown. No huge improvements from last year other than scrambling around the green for par

77.8 avg
43% fairways which is pathetic since I hit irons a lot. Was shooting for 50%
50% greens which was a bit better than last year
30.7 putts per
57.5% scrambling was a big improvement
15% sand saveswas pathetic I struggled all season

45 total rounds 72 birdies and no eagles

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Sounds like a great year. Why is it over for you so early? Did I miss that you got hurt or something?

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Elections have consequences.

It was a good year overall. Wanted a couple of lower rounds but it was solid I guess. I know what I need to work on to get better. I’m in the process of moving and selling my own home so I am throwing in the towel early this year in order to coordinate all that. Also would like to try to use it as a springboard to some fitness goals and habits I’d like to start before the holidays.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

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Trip was great, or at least we made it as good as possible with our one buddy not being there. My back pretty much held up the whole way which right there makes it a successful trip for me. Only a couple shanks the whole trip, but I did have a lot of fat shots which always happens when I am recovering from a bout with the shanks.

Left wednesday night and we finally arrived at our hotel in the wisconsin rapids at 1 am. Up early and arrived at Sand Valley for our 8:20 tee time. Place is like nothing you'll ever see in Wisconsin. Sand dunes everywhere. Played Sand Valley. Loved the course. It's suppposed to be the harder of the two courses and it was. Not hard off the tee with big fairways and short rough, but really tough greens that seemed to run off into trouble in several spots. I had a lot of drives run off into bunkers and lots of wedges run off greens. But, played pretty good and shot a 41-45-86. Triple on 16 did me in. Lipped out for birdie on #1 and then hit a 20 foot birdie putt on #2. hit 9/13 fairways and 8 greens, but 35 putts were nothing to brag about. Caddies were super nice and did a great job. In fact, everyone there was super nice.

Had lunch in the bar and then headed to the Sand Box, a 17 hole par 3 course. They gave us pencil bags so we could just bring a few clubs as most of the holes are under 100 yards. It was so much fun. The place is mowed tight so the whole course is 2 levels, either a green or basically fringe level cut. They do this because you can also play the course as a putting course. There are different tee boxes for the putting. We only played the course once, but you could honestly play it 5x in a row and have a different experience every time. We ran into one group who was in the middle of a tie breaker over a bet for a single beer. By the time we reached them they were only using their drivers. It was fun to watch and they actually did really good playing the hole from 30 yards out with a driver.

Overall, LOVED Sand Valley. Beautiful land, great course, the nicest people ever.

Next up we drove to Stevens Point and stayed overnight. Next morning we went to SentryWorld. I knew it would be nice and was not let down. Another place where everyone was as nice as you could be. The conditioning was on par with the nicest country club you've ever been to. Unfortunately, walking all that golf the day before did me in and my back never loosened up. Fat shots pretty much all day. 4 triples or worse. Finished 51-47-98 with 8/14 fairways, but only 2 GIR. Lunch at their beautiful bar/lounge on the course, best cheese curds we had all trip!

After that we drove to Berlin and the 27 hole course Mascoutin. Back started to loosen up as we played I went 45-43-35. That means I accomplished a rare feat where I played 5 sets of 9 holes and my score improved each time. 51-47-45-43-35. Of course you gotta start really shitty to accomplish that. I also had my first ever under par 9 hole score with that 35 at Mascoutin. Started -2 through 3 and held on for dear life. Had to hit a 6 foot putt on 9 to finish it. Overall at Mascoutin I hit 11/21 fairways, but only 5 GIR all day.

Next day we teed off at 6:50 at Lawsonia and played till it was too dark to see with a 2 hour break for lunch. Managed to get in 52 holes. Would've gotten in 54 but spent a solid 20 minutes towards the end on one tee box doing shots with teh cart girl and letting her hit some balls. My scores were not good, but by this point it was just survival mode. My back had broken down to the point where I was swinging only with my arms the last couple days. Couldn't move my trunk at all, not even the little bit I usually move it. Shot a 44-45-89 on the Woodlands in the am and then went 45-45-90 on the Links in the afternoon. Then kept going and shot a 39 on the front nine at the Links and was 5 over through 7 on the back. Overall I hit 21/38 fairways and 16 GIR.

The next day was 18 at Washington COunty on the way to the airport. Played pretty good. By now I had mastered the all arms swing and the just get me the fairway drive. Went 41-43-84 for the day with 11/14 fairways and 7 GIR. 33 putts.

I believe overall we played 151 holes from Thursday to Sunday. I survived and was playing pretty good by the end. Have to call that a very successful trip especially considering where my head was going into the trip. We played $1 skins and $5 birdies and I finished last, but respectable. Owed one buddy $29 and the other buddy just $2. i was playing a tee box up from them to help even the odds a bit and also keep me alive. Finished with 7 birdies, good for 2nd overall.

Great trip, played even more golf than we usually do.

next year we are planning on taking this trip to Scotland for my 50th birthday.

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sounds like an awesome trip Shakes!

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