Customizing Callaway X Muscle Prototype Quad Dots

Deerslayer · January 3, 2009

Well, he has had the set just over a week now and played in his first tournament with them. I was amazed at how well he hits these irons. There is no doubt a difference hitting into a stiff wind with these irons vs. the Xforged. I watch play from the green and watch shots approach. With his prior set, a lot of his shots would get caught up in the wind and would die. Not with these irons. He was over the top of nearly every pin into the wind today. Once he dials his distances in, he will go very low with these. Today was VERY windy and they were playing one of the most unforgiving tight courses in central Texas. He started out slow with bogies at #1 & #3 due to an over aggressive shot with a fairway wood into a par 5 and a 3 putt, but played the next 16 hole 2 under par to card a (38-34) even par 72 and won going away by 10 shots. Granted this did not have a huge field, but I watched some good payers shoot in the high 80's today. Not a bad way to break in the new set of irons. I think he will be gaming these for a while.

Lefty Cat · January 3, 2009

Deerslayer,

You should remove the medallions in your X-forged. It gives them a unique look and a lot of times people have no clue what kind of club it is.

Deerslayer · January 3, 2009

Lefty, I am considering that. Some of the medallions have quite a bit of chatter on them being they are aluminum, You got me thinking now!

chamgel2 · January 3, 2009

Deerslayer...Congrats to your son and to you on the great job you have done. I too played both junior golf and in college...and the memories I had with my parents during those times will last forever. Keep up the good work and support...as you know..you will never regret anytime you spend with your children. Quick question...kind of off topic...how do those Avon ProD2x grips compare to the GP Multi Compounds? I have been looking at the Golf Prides, but the noticed the Avon's were half the cost so I may go with that route.

Deerslayer · January 3, 2009

Chamgel, I can honestly say........THEY ARE A BETTER GRIP. IMHO. My son is one of the most finicky anal persons about equipment. He is TWICE as bad about his equipment as PGA players that I know. He loves them. They are firm like the GP multi's, but they have a tackier feel for a much longer time. He likes the Patriots on his wedges, but loves the Pro Dx2's. He chose those over the GP's too. As much as he likes the new white GP's, he wont switch due to the feel of these. Great grip for the price. Unbelievable value.

chamgel2 · January 3, 2009

Haha..I was looking at the White's as well...just priced them out in the cart and there was a $60 diff between them and the Avons, needless to say after your recommendation the ProD2xs will be ordered. Thanks for the help.

Range-Rat · January 3, 2009

By the looks of the leaderboard it looks as if he owned.

Deerslayer · January 3, 2009

By the looks of the leaderboard it looks as if he owned

This year, he owns that tour. Last year, there were 6-7 of these players that were all right there. Stratton has significantly improved over the last year. This is the lowest level he plays only in the winter. He plays on another tour that is significantly tougher than this is right now. He has now won 6 in a row and his scoring average is 72.5 in six tournaments and they have played in some brutal weather too. Here is his profile on this tour. I cant touch him anymore. This age on this tour plays from the mens tees, usually 6200 yds avg. His handicap from the tips is +3

Stratton's STPGA Profile

Ham Solo · January 3, 2009

That's awesome! :)

jdub123 · January 3, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

Lefty Cat · January 3, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

Millions of golfers around the world call one day at the course a good test of skill, especially in tournament situations. People post handicap scores after only one day at the course. I dont see how you can justify saying its not a good test when the described conditions are tough. The kid won the tournament by 10 shots, when nobody else broke 80.

Pure745 · January 3, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

Well being you're a 4.0 index.. he'll be beating you all day long.. and any tournament or round for that matter is a test of skill.

Deerslayer · January 3, 2009

LOL jdub,......READ son, he plays in one day events in what we call his "off season" only to keep in sync. Winter, we make swing changes, club changes etc, only play a light schedule. March to July is FULL of nothing but big tournaments. He already has aquired JAS and AJGA exemptions that he will use this summer. (He also won his last two day event from the tips no less playing "up" against 14yr olds if you really want to know) I assure you, he can hold his own in one, two, three and even four day events. Today in the conditions on the course they played, he would have been competitive with the top high school players. That course is unforgiving.

glc3344 · January 4, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

Playing 18 holes is not a test of skill? Give me a break. He shot 72 in really really tough conditions. Lets make it a 2 day tournament and day 2 is much calmer conditions. Now he shoots 69 and crushes the field by what 20? Take your rain else where.

rybo · January 4, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

So the USGA should stop using the 1 day local qualifying for the US Open? As a professional golfer I have to say 1 day is plenty under tournament conditions. And look at his scores compared to the field. He can only play against the course and who shows up that day. He has proven he is better over two+ months. My money is on the kid beatin' you into oblivion!

Luckily for you dciman's over the top hater post still takes the award for the most ridiculous post in this thread.

Bwadd · January 4, 2009

In my opinion there is no disputing his son's talent and I wish people would stop posting negative comments to an abviously proud father, and who wouldn't be....

On to other things, Deerslayer, you need to do something about those X forged in your bag since we have the same sticks and I would love to see what you can do with them... :)

I will be changing the colour on the numbers to translucent red as you did with your son's as they match my red/white bag, and I am really toying with the idea of taking off the medallions...

Let me knw what you come up with and pics offcourse...

robbie91 · January 4, 2009

May I ask where I could find some of these white GP's they sounds cool.

congrats to your son.

chamgel2 · January 4, 2009

Golfsmith.com has them.

velandgolf · January 4, 2009

i hope your boy is getting straight A's and not f@#$king around in school, nor getting in any trouble.. cuz all i can say is SPOILED!! LOL

You sir are a f*cking Idiot!!!! If you have kids you might want to wake up and just listen!!

eRod v1.0 · January 4, 2009

i hope your boy is getting straight A's and not f@#$king around in school, nor getting in any trouble.. cuz all i can say is SPOILED!! LOL
You sir are a f*cking Idiot!!!! If you have kids you might want to wake up and just listen!!

Slayer, want to adopt me? j/k....very nice sticks. Hope my kids like golf as much as your son does!

Bones01gt · January 5, 2009

Deerslayer, congrats on your son's success and those irons look great. I just got my boy started this year. He's 7. I don't coach too much yet, I just let him have fun. I'll give him pointers and whatnot, but he really enjoys playing. I'm hoping he'll grow to love it and want to continue playing.

You seem like a great dad. That is way-y more impressive to me than any golf score or bag of clubs. I admire you and I hope that my boy turns out to be half the young man yours has. He's awesome.

The big question though....can you hit anything with that contraption you're holding in your avatar pic? I'm from West Virginia so you know I'm a hunter...I have to be or I'd starve with this economy!!!

Deerslayer · January 5, 2009

GCdude, let him do alot on his own and have fun. Stratton didnt start until he was 9yrs old. I never have had to push him and I know it is paying off now. He loves the game and works for hours and hours all by himself.

I don't do a lot of coaching at all with Stratton anymore. He knows as much about his own swing as I do. He and his game has grown to the point that we talk after his rounds and most of the talk is course management type of talk, nothing mechanical.

In this first tournament with his new irons, through the first 8 holes, he watched a competitor in the group ahead and new that he was two down through 7 to that player. (the other player was even through 7) That group got ahead and he did not know how his round was going from that point on. Stratton was 2 over going into the last two holes and walking to 17 tee, he looked over at me and said: "I think I need to birdie these last two" He sank a 10 footer and birdied 17 and gave a big fist pump. His approach was 12' on 18 above the hole. When he made his putt, he gave a bigger fist pump and a determined sounding "YES". When he walked off the green he asked if I thought that might win it. Getting to the clubhouse, we found out that his other competitor had ballooned on 9-18 and ended up 12 shots back. After the round he told me he thought the only way he was going to win was to birdie the last two. :) For those who say a one day tournament is not a good test......Mentally he was spent after the round. He grinded for 15 holes after a bad start to run away with a tournament the he thought was coming down to must make birdies on the his last two holes.

I have been pleasantly surprised on the Proto irons that the sole paint is not wearing at all. Earlier there was a post about this wearing, so I have been looking for it. So far, So good, the red paintfill looks great and that is after thousands of range balls an quite a few rounds. The ball flight is not so much lower, but the ball DOES have a flatter trajectory. It is very noticeable to me watching shots approach into the greens. Stratton is a high spin player and with the X Forged, he would sometimes have too much spin on the greens. He still has spin, but not as much spin as the X Forged had. This sets grooves are conforming to the new USGA rules, so that may be the case on the spin of the ball and thus the ball flight being a bit flatter. He seems to be 1/2 a club long on shots into the wind.

Redman · January 5, 2009

Not to rain on anyone's parade on this topic, but his tournaments are one day. They are great scores do not get me wrong, he is a good player, but you certainly cannot call a one day tournament a good "test" of skill. Keep up the low scores though, certainly has a lot of talent. And hit those Callaway's great!

That's a joke. A good round in any tournament condition is a test period. And on top of that look at his scoring average.

JeffJ · January 5, 2009

I have seen Stratton both hit balls on the range and play. I played in a group in front of him one day and purposely played slow so I could watch him hit. This kid puts in a TON of practice time and I sometimes hit balls up until dark and during the summer Stratton is usually there.

Funny story: One Saturday I was working with one of the pro's at Grey Rock. I had been struggling with my confidence and she stopped me and told me she wanted me to watch someone for a minute. At GR we have a chipping green with four holes on it. It was pretty busy that day and people were milling around everywhere. She wanted me to watch Stratton. He had taken about 25 balls and walked about 40 yards off the chipping green. He was hitting 1/2 wedges into one of the holes. The kid wasnt in the least bit worried about the folks milling around. I watched him hit all 25 within probably 15 feet. Kids got skills and confidence!

benthegolfer · January 5, 2009

I've just got two quick questions...

1. What is Stratton's swing speed

and

2. Does he play a specific Golf Ball (i.e ProV1, Tour Ix, Bridgestone B330, etc.)

TM golf guy · January 5, 2009

Hey Deerslayer, I'm a bit surprised that your son isn't a member here. Is that for his own good? I know we can be a tad influential LOL.

Kreth · January 5, 2009

Chamgel, I can honestly say........THEY ARE A BETTER GRIP. IMHO. My son is one of the most finicky anal persons about equipment. He is TWICE as bad about his equipment as PGA players that I know. He loves them. They are firm like the GP multi's, but they have a tackier feel for a much longer time. He likes the Patriots on his wedges, but loves the Pro Dx2's. He chose those over the GP's too. As much as he likes the new white GP's, he wont switch due to the feel of these. Great grip for the price. Unbelievable value.

Those Avon's do look nice, and they're almost as cheap as the GP Tour Velvets. If they came in black/red, I'd be installing those for next season.

Deerslayer · January 5, 2009

He plays the Callaway Tour i balls and off the top of my head, I think his club head speed with a 5 iron is somewhere in the 83-85 and I believe his driver is somewhere around 100 now. (I am not 100% sure though) We look at the ball speed more than club head speed to tell you the truth. He is using a 46" driver with 8.5* loft. I cut his driver 1" long after he tried a 47" driver that was owned by long drive pro Nyle Pruitt. He was killing that driver with a shaft the was UST XXstiff! His driving average is better than 240yds now and when he jumps on one, it is considerably longer. For his size, it doesn't look right at all he is barely 5' tall. I really am wondering how far he will hit the ball when he gets bigger and if the size will translate. In the last 6 months, he has gained 40yds in length on his drives and he remains the most accurate person I have EVER seen off the tee in all of my years around a golf course. He averages missing only 1 or 2 fairways as well as 1 or two greens per round and usually those misses are in the first cut. I will ask his instructor at his next session on Motion Golf what his driver SS is, I just am not a big numbers guy. I am a person that likes to watch ball flight and how a shaft loads rather than getting into fitting by numbers alone and indoor monitors. I have seen too many shafts/driver combos that are supposed to be the perfect fit for someone and the indoor launch monitor shows great numbers. They take it on course and clearly it doesn't work like it was supposed too. Right now, we are pretty dialed in on Stratton and his equipment. I am his clubsmith and have tried a ton of things trying to optimize the performance of his equipment to his swing and stroke. I have done things he likes, doesn't like, things that work and things that don't. It is fun for me though and he and I have a pretty good communicating relationship because of it.

TM....he is a member. He is PumaBoy. He is not a big internet kid. He talks to his friends on Facebook, but that is about it that I know of. I showed him how to post pictures once. He and his sister have their computer upstairs, so I don't know how much he gets on. I havent seen too many posts by him though.

Grum · January 5, 2009

Pretty cool stuff Deerslayer. Pretty damned cool.

And you are absolutely spot on with watching the ball flight, etc rather than purely looking at numbers. If a club doesn't produce a flight that the player is happy with, doesnt feel perfect, or even doesn't look right, then its not a good fit for the player, no matter how good the numbers.

Pretty good experience working with good players on a club-making/tweaking level. I work with a few guys who are very good players, one who has served his time as a pro, and knows exactly what he wants and 3 that are currently doing their assistants training, or are lined up to do it, and its a rewarding experience.

One of the guys plays his share of seniors golf at a pretty competitive level(still off +2), and I've built, and rebuilt, and in some cases re-rebuilt every club in his bag until he was happy. Hoping for a win or two this season.

Good stuff. Keep up the good work.

benthegolfer · January 5, 2009

Thanks for the quick reply. I agree with you about looking at ballflight spot on, but I was just curious as to how his swing speed relates to being able to hit forged blade irons. I play with forged cavity backs but have been looking into blades to be able to work the ball and control my trajectory a bit better. My SS is about 90-95 with driver but I am a consistant ballstriker so thats why I think I can use forged cavity backs at this point. I am a bit older than your son but i'm still growing so I will look into blades sometime in the near future. You seem to be a great dad to your son. I wish you and your son good luck in the future with the game...