Typhoon What is better to you? Playing good or winning a couple bucks?

Good question. I think I'd rather play better, but if I was playing better and losing that would be pretty annoying. I went through that a few years ago. In all honesty right now I probably would b*tch either way. My personal life and work have put me under a lot of pressure and I could be one duck hook away from snapping my driver in half and I've never broken a club in anger.

I didn't actually win any money last night, just my match. Kind of an odd match, this big young guy is hitting his hybrid farther than I can hit driver and had fantastic touch with a wedge, but struggling with too much draw in the wind and some of the worst putting I've seen after hitting 2 long putts on the first 2 holes. Not sure what happened to him, but by the 3rd hole I understood why he wasn't giving me a bunch of strokes.

    The format that I play most of the time is a four man team against 5 or 6 other teams. The payouts are pretty broad and shallow. A team has to really suck for all 18 holes to lose their whole ante. We are in for $10 apiece, and I think I speak for almost everyone when I say the highest individual priority is to get our $10 back. Second is to actually win some money. Third is to shoot well.

    However, after it’s done, if I’ve shot 75 I’m on Cloud Nine, and for 85 I’m ready to buy some clubs. Regardless of whether I won $3.50 or lost it. Winning does feel good though. 🙂

    I hate to admit this, but playing bad golf that raises your handicap, but still gets you money is really a win-win.

      Typhoon That's why teams games are so good for golfer morale. "I sucked but won some money" feels way better than "I sucked".

        Getting it back on track today. Second round with the Mike Vapor Pro blades…. Love them like I thought I would. Played the front 9 in -5… and had a few 10-12 footers that I just didn’t read right for birdie. 2 par 5’s I was on on 2. #2 I made a 15 footer for birdie. #6 is a stupidly hard green to get the ball close on and I hit it 4”. Followed up with a nice birdie from 8 feet on the par 3 8th. My playing partner, Jet has my Vapor Pro combo irons… coming off a poorly fit set of Ping i3 blades. He loved the feel.

        Spent time on the putting green yesterday which helped, I needed to be closer to the ball. Driver worked decent…. Still not where I want to be. Irons were great.

        Carlos did well with the build(s)😅...... Ai Smoke TD driver/HL irons.
        11 FWs + a few less than 1' out.
        Driving distances were outrageous. Don't recall any less than 200 and almost all were 225-240ish.

        Irons will take another round to get distances dialed in perfectly, but damn, do they launch the ball. Right now distances are a just bit more than 'normal' for me, but imo they will be longer.
        But still had several balls on the fringe & close to hole, which lead to an ungodly low putt total of 24....12 1 putts!!

        FW clubs were all great. Something clicked with every club it seemed, but still felt like a few strokes were left behind.

        1 Birdie, 1 Bogey. (should have been a couple more birdies)
        Oh yeah......36/36......72. 😲

        90* when it was all over. Nice day, not much wind either.

        Eguller Could not get over how well I hit the irons.
        Esp. when I got Project X LZ...6.0 in them😲. And I could feel them 'flex'.
        Heck, they weigh more than I do.

            Par4QC Yeah, I’m a mess with the LZ and I don’t load the shaft a lot. I can play a stiff or regular iron shaft and not know the difference but the LZ just feels weird to me and I can’t control it.

            I’m betting you’re more of a weight sensitive guy. I know I don’t like an iron shaft that is too light, sounds like you as well. Flex doesn’t really matter but weight does.

                Typhoon I've been using the light steel for years, 105-110. These are back into the 120 range. I did remember the I500 irons I had with the LX 5.5, and went up. Didn't really expect them to feel so good as they did today.
                The irons are nearly perfect in balance/feel for me. Went with the light 46g. grips + added 1/2", not knowing how light Callaway heads are now. I can feel the whole club throughout the swing. Not sure the last time I could do that.
                Plus, I hit more balls than ground today.😉
                We'll see how long this goes on.......

                    I shot 37-40-77 this morning at my "home course," Chippewa GC in Curtice, Ohio. Made 1 birdie, 7 GIR, 30 putts.
                    Beautiful day, and the course is in great shape!

                    Par4QC Nice, hope it keeps up. The modus 105 I had in my Ping ie-1’s were not good for me. Probably the profile as well. The i500 set I basically swapped the ie1’s for have the dg105 and I’ve hit that shaft fine. Not sure how it’s be over the long haul but I do better with heavier.

                      Played the men’s league today. 81 on par 71, which put me in the middle of A Flight. 8 greens with 31 putts. I made 7 or 8 putts of 4 - 15 feet, it was crazy good. Unfortunately none were for birdie and some were for bogey. Had one double.

                      You might recall my pic of hole 2, with a lake at the end of the descending fairway. It’s 215 from the tee to the lake but 9 yards downhill. And the course is playing firm. Anyway I hit my normally 170 yard 9 wood into the lake. Frick. The golf gods gave me one back later when my ball hit the handle end of a rake head on, and stayed out of a bad bunker. 😐

                      Played in a scramble fundraiser today on a gorgeous country club in Suffolk, VA. Our four-man team turned into a three-man team, and so we had to take turns hitting an extra shot.

                      One of the guys plays twice or three times a year, at most, and his best score ever was 105. The other guy is about an 18, but sometimes hits some killer drives and he chips ok. The last time he played was two months ago.

                      I revamped my swing starting about 2-3 weeks ago and had only played 9 holes since the change.

                      We shot 62. I was astounded. Two of us were 'in the zone' for much of the round. My new swing was a stunning success. My new driver is the real deal, too. I hit drives that were easily 20+ yards longer than I have hit in years, and I only missed one or two fairways.

                      It was a really good time.