Confessions 12 --- Exploding Heads

[Matt J]

Halebopp I used to live in the Arctic tundra of Leadville, Colorado, USA. At over 3200 meters of elevation there's not much of a golfing season. I very much enjoyed XC skiing while there was snow on the ground. What do you do outside during the colder months?

 

Wedges arrived today. During the build it seems the pulls I bought may have been tip trimmed. They seat okay, so I'm assuming it isn't more than the 3/8's of an inch recommended, but I wasn't real pleased. I'll clean the ferrules up and mount the grips then post some photos. Curious how the raw will spin... will report back!

 

Put my old TiNi into the Epic SZ and feel I may have picked up a few yards. Am experiencing a bit of burnout. Totally crumbled in a round on Sunday. Started rough with 4 bogies, then I rallied for back to back birdies to finish the front 2 over, but really fell apart on the back nine. Felt tired and uninspired like I was just surviving.

[Halebopp]

Halebopp I used to live in the Arctic tundra of Leadville, Colorado, USA. At over 3200 meters of elevation there's not much of a golfing season. I very much enjoyed XC skiing while there was snow on the ground. What do you do outside during the colder months?

 

I'm just reading one Finnish golf media's recap of the 2017 season headlined "The shortest season in years" and it continues, "The summer of 2017 will be remembered for its very difficult spring, cold summer and early course closure." :D

 

I have to admit I'm not a huge outdoors person in the wintertime. It's dark for most of the time and the past couple of years we haven't even had much snow, maybe 3 inches at best in December, January and a bit more later on as it's been too warm. Imagine it's 35F, dark, raining and ground covered in ice. It's just not fun to be outdoors! Despite the fact my hometown is slightly further up north than Anchorage, we don't get more than 6-8 inches of snow on average as the Norwegian "mountain range" takes most of the hit. That'll probably change soon though as the north pole is getting warmer and warmer weakening the gulf stream, which in turn will lead to the Siberian climate taking over.

 

I do enjoy cross country skiing myself but the past winters have been awful. With the temperatures staying around 32 F the snow melts or it just rains, which then freezes. Thus we don't get enough snow for all the ski tracks and I have no interest in injuring myself on icy tracks. The city does keep some tracks in good condition by trucking in snow or by using artificial snow but those places tend to be awfully crowded and thus not as much fun. Downhill skiing downright scares me, I'm not a fan of the bigger hills even when doing cross country.

 

The lack of snow also limits some other activities and the general desire to spend time outdoors. If skiing isn't an option, I do go jogging (shoes with built-in spikes are awesome) and two years back I was still cycling on Christmas week as there wasn't any snow or ice.

 

Thus, I spend time at the gym and indoors but when we do get nice winter days, I do like spending time outside. It really is beautiful when we do get a proper winter.

 

Spending more time here on WRX might not be a good idea as I ended up in Tour Talk yesterday and I can't believe some of the things going on there...

[BIG STU]

It's pretty beat up, but no plan to restore. I'm getting more used to patina and chatter.

 

I like chattered, patinad, beat up clubs, it's just character in my books, battle scars even. I like cleanish faces but the rest can be beat and I'm cool with it, I like to think of them as clubs that are battle tested veterans that can be truly trusted instead rookies on their first tour of duty :)

LOL seems like I have a habit of rubbing off on people as in you and Matt--- Have been browsing and see you like the patina battle scarred clubs and use lead tape to cover the sound slot in an Anser and to cover up sight lines on a Scotty--- Right up my alley now if I could just get you guys to play off the proper side of the ball :rolleyes:

[Matt J]

I think every club in my bad has lead tape right now. I'm actually going to start really building clubs with tip weights, so they'll look a little better. My gap wedge has 25 grams of tape on it and looks super ghetto. The raw head experiment was a little of a bust. Too much weight lost for the lighter shafts. Shafts we're weird too. Don't think I'm buying any more pulls. Probably going to go u to the 125 gram Steelfibers so my swing weight can stay high without so much weight.

[BIG STU]

I think every club in my bad has lead tape right now. I'm actually going to start really building clubs with tip weights, so they'll look a little better. My gap wedge has 25 grams of tape on it and looks super ghetto. The raw head experiment was a little of a bust. Too much weight lost for the lighter shafts. Shafts we're weird too. Don't think I'm buying any more pulls. Probably going to go u to the 125 gram Steelfibers so my swing weight can stay high without so much weight.

Heck I have it all over the PM wedge on the back where they have the holes drilled. I was going to melt some small lead sinkers and fill the holes in but I got it hitting so good with where I have the lead tape at now I am scared to mess with it.

A lot of times with pull shafts you do not know what they came out of or how they were tipped. Different heads frequency out different depending where the COG is.

[Matt J]

These were tipped too much I think, hard to get the ferrules up high enough, took some measurements and they were tipped. Ball flight is low and they're short. Failed experiment.

 

Took that old Vapor driver head and experimented with hot melt this morning, over did it, but it had a few strips of lead tape on it, that saved me cause I ripped those off on the range. Struggling finding a driver setup that I can really lay into but still control with a smooth swing. Tough balance to find. I'm going to bump a couple more heads up to my preferred weight at 206 grams. This would be crucial if you wanted to build a mini. Easy process.

[BIG STU]

These were tipped too much I think, hard to get the ferrules up high enough, took some measurements and they were tipped. Ball flight is low and they're short. Failed experiment.

 

Took that old Vapor driver head and experimented with hot melt this morning, over did it, but it had a few strips of lead tape on it, that saved me cause I ripped those off on the range. Struggling finding a driver setup that I can really lay into but still control with a smooth swing. Tough balance to find. I'm going to bump a couple more heads up to my preferred weight at 206 grams. This would be crucial if you wanted to build a mini. Easy process.

Yep you gotta get it where the shaft kicks and does it's thing for you. Those Vapor heads are light anyhow. I did a trade deal on one brand new never hit with the wrench and everything. The only reason I did that was because it had the same shaft as my 915 and so there is my extra shaft. I did hit it some and used some lead tape to get it where I wanted it but it was just a fun experiment for me. I have never established a preferred base line weight for me on any thing just like I do not swing weight my own clubs. I go strictly off of feel and ball reaction. Now I will throw one thing into the equation on distance and control. A friend of mine talked me into going on his machine one rainy Saturday last year. I learned a wealth of knowledge about side spin on a metal driver. i actually lost distance due to side spin. I ended up changing some of the setup on the 915 and actually de lofting it some. I also changed to a softer ball and those two things did not cost me any distance in fact I picked up maybe 5 yards. Even though I am a get out of jail artist this game is a heck of a lot more easier from the fairway. Keep on experimenting with your knowledge you will get it dialed in

[Matt J]

Thanks Stu. I'm figuring it out little by little. I find it interesting how folks think of so much of this stuff as "voodoo." There is almost as much misinformation on this site as information.

 

We've officially entered the mat season. Drives me crazy. Somehow up in Portland, where it gets colder, and more rain, they have courses that leave grass practice tees out all winter, but not down here. I'm realizing that part of the reason my game falls off is I just don't know what I'm playing with until a few holes into the round. Speaking of, I'm in a slump of decent front nines and poor backs, so I need to focus on finishing stronger.

 

We have a 130 yard long practice hole and I really went to town for an hour this afternoon honing in the wedges. I had gotten into a couple of bad habits I need to correct.

 

Booked a round to play an old Donald Ross course while I'm back in North Carolina next weekend. Don't know that I've ever played a Ross course. Should be interesting. Happy Halloween Confessioners!

[Halebopp]

I got the set of EZ Forged last Saturday and with the snow melting a round in on Sunday and again today!

 

Unfortunately I'm not convinced the EZs are suitable for me, or most probably the shafts (XP 105 S). If I get a chance to play another round this year, I'll be bagging the 4s or 32s to see what I'm capable of doing with them without any kind of reliable swing at this time of the year. :) I did have the MP-4 6 iron on the range with me on Sunday for the pre-round warm up and I was hitting it much better. We'll see.

 

Now I got my eyes on a Ping Sigma G Doon putter. It's a 38-inches long, counter-balanced mallet and it's supposed to work with slow-tempo putting. I've always been drawn towards a long, single sight line line in the middle. It has all the bits and pieces I want after a bad day of putting with my current putters. :D Of course it would be useful to try it out before buying. :)

 

I do have to confess that I'm not a huge fan of Ping, the guy handling the import business isn't very good at his job and it's hurting the brand (also, it took them a couple of months to fix my i20 driver a few year back, that was a huge chunk of one season). Sadly though, it's not much better with Mizuno around here either.

[Halebopp]

I have a confession. The local golf dome had its winter season opening day with a Srixon demo (unfortunately a rather lousy one at that) and free practice. I stopped by, hit some of the Srixon gear (hitting the 765 with Modus 130 stiff much better than my EZs ysterday) and then found out there are a couple of free group lessons too. The teacher's very good (but slightly expensive) and in no time he corrected some things in my setup and made me realize what I should be feeling in my backswing and downswing. If it was summer, I'd be anxious to go out to the range tomorrow and work on the issues, now I just wrote it all down after the lesson and continue working at home on it.

 

Anyhoo, the confession. He talked about how your right (trailing) forearm should be vertical at the top of your backswing. Nothing new there, I've tried to figure out how to get to that position without ever finding a way. Then he made a little test to us all. He asked us to raise our arm to the side to horizontal and forearm pointing up at a 90 degree angle. Then he gently tried to rotate our forearms backwards around the arm. He said the forearm should rotate about 30 degrees backwards for you to be able to swing perfectly and quite often the cause for the chicken wings and the over the top motion is the lack of mobility in your shoulders.

 

Needless to say he couldn't rotate either of my forearms backwards at all. I asked him what I should do to improve the mobility and he showed me several simple stretches for the shoulder area we all are familiar with (but never actually do them). Maybe now is the time to start doing them. :)

[glk]

Weather has been wet/cold for East Tennessee the last three weeks and with our trip to San Diego next week until early December, it looks like much golf until Spring is not in the offing. Still brewing coffee at Starbucks - though my talents at the bar won't develop more until next year cause with the holidays putting me at the bar would be a disaster at this point - yesterday we had 2 registers going, one at the drive through - and still had lines to the door with an easy 10-15 drinks backed up to be made - the 2 for 1 holiday drinks from 2-5 certainly is a big hit - have to believe we sold over $10K of coffee yesterday alone - it was a sort of controlled madhouse. That is a lot of coffee! Handed out freebies to vets - being a vet myself, I never ask for id - enjoyed a nice dinner at the Calhoun's in Knoxville with a view of the Tennessee river - yikes!

[Matt J]

Had a good start today, chipped in for bird on 3, then stuck one close on 6. Standing on the 7 tee box I was nervous sitting at 2 under. Gotta find a way to kick those nerves. Play was pretty week coming in... Gotta keep plugging. First nice weather day in a week. Was nice to play in short sleeves and sunshine.

 

 

[PapaJohick]

Happy thanks giving brothers. Hope all is well and you can all stuff your faces today!

 

I am thankful for this small group of people to talk to about my obsession.

 

:)

[Halebopp]

How's this for a counterbalanced putter? :)

 

I visited a pro shop yesterday and started trying different putters, yet again liking the counter balanced models, the Ping G Sigma Doon, Some W/S models and Toulons. I figured out the reason I like them is that the feel of weight makes me use the bigger muscles in the body decreasing the chances of pushing or pulling with your arms. Now I'm thinking about experimenting with another one of my Bettinardis. Inserting a long bolt with some nuts inside the shaft and a washer to keep it from falling in, then some plastic cap to cover the hole on the grip. I'm not certain if it would work but it should be cheaper than buying a CB grip or a whole putter. Of course the problem lies with the head becoming way too light.

 

 

Our home course reopened on Saturday and I got 27 holes in but didn't keep a score. I did start to get my long-lost swing back for the last 18 holes though. I had the EZs and there were some absolutely flushed shots with the short irons that flew 10 meters further than the very good shots in summertime (it was around +2C). There was also one perfect 5 iron and a some great drives. Too bad the season is ending now after mostly struggling since September. That feeling of your body turning through the ball "perfectly", barely feeling the ball at all and the club ending up pointing (at least almost) towards the target in your finish position is just so addicting.

 

Hope you all survived all your eating and that black Friday thing of yours! :)

 

Edit. That picture could be slightly smaller but I'm not sure how I could do that outside of resizing it on my computer and then uploading it again but I'm too lazy for that right now. :)

[PapaJohick]

matty left us?

[Pigems]

matty left us?

 

I was wondering the same thing. It says Unregistered now? Is his BST add still up? I wonder why he left?

[PapaJohick]

I even went to look at his last few posts and nothing too heated to get him banned that I could tell.

[Pigems]

I even went to look at his last few posts and nothing too heated to get him banned that I could tell.

 

It would show “Banned” under his avitar if he had gotten Banned. Unregistered must be voluntarily leaving I guess? I still don’t get why though. He was a solid poster.

[Halebopp]

Wow, where did Matty go?

 

I have to confess I tuned in to watch the Tiger. I don't think I've watched golf on TV since the Solheim Cup but I want to see Tiger play.

 

I started playing golf in 2008 and really got into it in 2009 so my memories of Tiger are mostly about his off-course life, surgeries and jokes about his comebacks. There was that one magnificent spring though but I'm still looking forward to seeing Tiger the Player, the Competitor.

 

My first golf memory is watching Sergio running up the fairway in the 1999 PGA Championships but at the time I had no clue about golf or it being a big event, I just remember enjoying watching golf on TV. That didn't lead to me starting to play as no one in the family nor any friends played the game. The next real memories I have of watching golf are Cink beating Watson in the Open.

[BIG STU]

Pigs I just came over here and had not been here for a while. Wondered myself what happened to Matt?. I basically came over here to tell you guys I am back to blades again and built me a "Bastardized set" of Mac VIPs. Right up your alley Pigs

I had always wanted to do this since the 70s and had forgot about it until the subject was brought up in the Classics forum a few months ago.

Back in the 70s and 80s a popular set up in the Carolinas was either Mac or Spalding irons with Hogan Apex shafts. In fact Mr Hogan hated it so bad he sent all of his dealers a letter forbidding them to sell or install Apex shafts in non Hogan clubs

About a year or so ago one of my WRX buddies sent me a pristine set of Mac VIPs like my old beloved ones. They had the 7.0 Brunswick shafts in them which are way too stiff for me anymore. I have been debating for over a year on what shafts to install in them. Basically got sidetracked hitting the 2013 Forged Callys. Well it came up about that conversion in Classics one night. I ended up finding a set of funky Hogan Directors in one of the county bins at work. I purchased the whole set for a whopping $1.50. Yep pulled them down and put the shafts in the VIPs. Man one smooth hitting set of clubs. Yep they are in the front line for today's game. Since they are traditional loft with the PW at 50* I only need 2 wedges. Heck yes I kept the Mack Daddy PM in because it hits so good. The funny thing is and it is so odd in the mainstream today. I can not hit the CB long irons but can still hit a blade long iron so no hybrids today but I did sneak in the 5 wood just in case I need a little more elevation. Even found a 67 model Top Flite 1 iron in the Good Will pile yesterday medium shaft and yes it is in the bag too for today. DeNinny was always right he said I would be back to real blades. Yep those are among one of my best builds ever so smooth. Also putting together a set of Hogan Grinds. I found a partial set a few weeks back missing the 7 and 8 iron> I played them a few weeks ago and subbed my old VIP 7 and 8 irons. Played pretty decent with them. Well another generous WRX member PMed me last night and he had a missing 7&8 iron and they are on the way

[golfluvzme]

matty left us?

Guys,

Matt asked that I drop by this thread and let you guys know that he got into an issue with admin that was such that he felt the best answer was to pull the plug on his membership here and walk away. I know very few details, but believe that he did not take the decision lightly and felt that if he stayed, the relationship between he and the powers that be, here would restrict him in a way that was unacceptable.

Just know that he was not banned, but left of his own free will. There is dignity in that, IMHO.

Have a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

LaMont in AZ

[PapaJohick]

matty left us?

Guys,

Matt asked that I drop by this thread and let you guys know that he got into an issue with admin that was such that he felt the best answer was to pull the plug on his membership here and walk away. I know very few details, but believe that he did not take the decision lightly and felt that if he stayed, the relationship between he and the powers that be, here would restrict him in a way that was unacceptable.

Just know that he was not banned, but left of his own free will. There is dignity in that, IMHO.

Have a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

LaMont in AZ

 

Thanks for the heads up. If you speak to him let him know we wish him well and and I hope everyone has a merry Christmas.

[PeanutsDaddy]

matty left us?

Guys,

Matt asked that I drop by this thread and let you guys know that he got into an issue with admin that was such that he felt the best answer was to pull the plug on his membership here and walk away. I know very few details, but believe that he did not take the decision lightly and felt that if he stayed, the relationship between he and the powers that be, here would restrict him in a way that was unacceptable.

Just know that he was not banned, but left of his own free will. There is dignity in that, IMHO.

Have a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

LaMont in AZ

 

Merry Christmas LaMont. Thank you for taking the time to clarify for those left wondering. May this message find you and Matt well.

[PeanutsDaddy]

I should also add . . .

 

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all those who call this thread home.

[glk]

Still slinging coffee here in the smokies. My wife went down to our place in Charleston to pick up our son who is flying in from San Diego (cheaper SD to Charleston and than to Knoxville),

and she went out to breakfast at the Queen Street Grocery and ran into ... and here I sit in little ole Kodak!

 

 

[BIG STU]

matty left us?

Guys,

Matt asked that I drop by this thread and let you guys know that he got into an issue with admin that was such that he felt the best answer was to pull the plug on his membership here and walk away. I know very few details, but believe that he did not take the decision lightly and felt that if he stayed, the relationship between he and the powers that be, here would restrict him in a way that was unacceptable.

Just know that he was not banned, but left of his own free will. There is dignity in that, IMHO.

Have a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

LaMont in AZ

Thanks for that wish him well and good luck from me

[Palauan Hammer]

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas to all!!

 

I've been working on my game, got to travel to play a tournament in the Philippines (didn't play the way I wanted but it was still fun!) and I just got back from Palau. I went down to Palau to play a Christmas concert, it was a very surreal and spiritual experience for me. It's been 15 years since I had been there.

 

Got some new wedges yesterday, found a set of cleveland rt3's on the bay, they had the shafts I wanted on them and they were in raw finish which is a tour only thing for us lefties. Got them for a good price and took them out on the course yesterday, HOLY BACKSPIN LOL. Also they fly so straight, I'm thinking that's the shafts. Grips are standard size so I'll have to change the grips, feels like I'm holding on to a pencil haha.

 

Hope all is well with everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL!!! (cool)

[scomac2002]

It's been a while since I have stopped by here, but would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Glad to hear that things are going well for you Palauan Hammer! :good:

[Halebopp]

Man, I thought I had beaten the "winter blues" this year. So far the weather's been rather nice and with the golf season ending in late November for me, time has pretty much flown but this week caught me. It's been raining, the snow is melting or turning into ice. It is dark, really, really dark. At least there's Christmas, the New Year, the Winter Olympics are 50 days away and the first ranges should open in late March and soon after it's The Masters. Yay!

 

I did my annual ball inventory yesterday and the total came to 1010 with some 100 junk balls and 430 "tour" balls. Anyone wanna buy some? :)

 

I'm still thinking about a counter-balanced putter but I was told in the putter section I couldn't get the 345-gram Bettinardi head anywhere close to the 375 gram range without lead tape on it, which I wouldn't be a fan of, so I guess it's back to buying a Tank or working on my stroke with my current putters. The Ping isn't for me though.

 

Happy winter solstice, summer solstice to Ham, and Holidays to you all!

[Conrad1953]

Merry Christmas to y'all!

 

Hamster, nice to see an update from you. Nice you went back to Palau for a

Christmas concert.