what kind of budget we talking about here? do you know if he plays at the same course or moves around? walk or ride?

first thought is someone that plays 100+ per year burns through consumables...balls, tees, to some extent gloves, etc. helpful to know what kind he likes/already uses.
gift certificate for regripping?
if he often plays the same public course and warms up before playing,
a range ball punch card could be nice.

Awesome questions. Lives on a 9-hole course and has a buddy who lives on another 9-hole course. No driving range.

He rides or pulls.

He'll plays 8-months a year in Central NJ, I live in CT.

He's probably a 15-20 hdcp.

Gift certificate(s) for round(s) at nice courses in the area?

good suggestion.

I went mostly clothes. Found some nice shirts at Golf Galaxy that were on sale and a Caddyshack head cover. Plus the obligatory golf ball wine stopper.

Thanks all. The nice round will be for his birthday in a few months.

Tis the end of another golfing season. Looking back at my GHIN:

1/1/19 handicap: 5.8
12/31/19 handicap 5.6
Low handicap for season: 4.2 on 8/15/19
High handicap for the season: 8.5 on 3/1/19

Low round: 72 (3/3 and 8/4)
High round: 93 (6/12 at Duke golf course, very tough and my second 18 of the day)

Total rounds posted to GHIN: 108

...and I just checked my 2018 rounds, was 110. So I played less! OK, a little less.

Is it a waste of time for me to get fitted for irons as a 20 cap? I got “fitted” as standard length/standard lie angle like 10 years ago and my swing is somewhat better since then, but I wouldn’t call it “repeatable” just yet.

I think it's worth it. But you might be better served to put the $ towards lessons. The pro can give you a good look to see if any of your equipment is way off. But if you have the money, why not get fitted.

1/1/19 handicap: 0.5
12/31/19 handicap 0.2
Low handicap for season: +0.1 on 5/15/19
High handicap for the season: 1.5 on 7/15/19

Low round: 70
High round: 89, at Colorado Golf Club, That place was crazy fast and it tore me a new one. The low point was putting into a bunker, leaving the next one in the bunker, and then 3 putting after I got back on the green for the second time

While my handicap technically dropped a bit my game was not as good in 2019 as it was in 2018. I had a lot of rounds in the 80's that get tossed out of the handicap. But I had a handful of really good rounds thrown in. So the handicap basically stayed the same but it was a lot shakier. My tournament performances were crap for the most part too with the exception of one. Going to be going back to a lot of things I had stopped doing this past year.

This course they are playing in Hawaii is one hell of a nice looking course.

Two years ago I was fit for a magnificent set of irons. Last year was the long game fitting and the jury is still out on that one. Last year was also a terrific putter fitting. I might be fit for wedges this year. What is that like? With the previous 2 you just blast it out there. However, with wedges there's more finess. Do they ask you to hit a variety of different shots? Flop shots etc? How do they determine what clubs and lofts you need?

I would say course conditions dictate wedges more than anything but I could be wrong. Interested to see how that goes.

I shot 82 at Colorado Golf Club in the US Mid Amateur and didn't feel that bad about it. Place is nasty if you get it in the wrong spots.

Demo day tomorrow for all of the new Callaway stuff. Will report back with trackman #s.

Tell the rep you'll buy if you can have one of of the extra hot ones like they give to Xander.

OK here are my numbers. First up is my Rogue Subzero.



The small numbers on the lower left are the averages. I hit 4 with my club.

Here is the Mavrik head.



Here is the Mavrik Suzero head.



So digging into the numbers. First off I was shocked that my swing speed was that high. When I last checked it was 113 a little over a year ago. Two years ago it was 115.

The carry distance average was the exact same on all three heads. The spin and rollout numbers differed on all of them. I really liked the spin numbers on the Mavrik Subzero. The smash factor was a lot lower compared to the other two. The head is pleasing to the eye compared to the regular.

If I could hit the center of the face, as i did later after making a little adjustment, I would be getting better #s off of the Mavrik Subzero. It's not something I need to make a change over right now. I will be searching WRX for a head after a month or two.

I wanted to try the 3 wood but it is a bonded head and they didn't have anything close to what I needed so I didn't even swing one.

Any questions fire away!

Xander is playing the triple diamond tour version too, which if it's anything like last years, is a very different looking head than the normal model. I bought a sub zero epic flash last year, and it had awesome ball speed, but I couldn't not hook it, same thing with the 3 wood. The different tour models are all fade biased at setup. He also definitely has one that's right at the legal limit..

Nice numbers, Scott. I'm eager to try the new taylormade and callaway woods soon. I'm hitting my M5 tour head pretty well, but I know I'm losing a little average damage because it's quite a bit less forgiving than the 460 heads. 460 heads have always messed with me at setup though, so we'll see.

I'm also really tempted to try the new miura 101 blade. I miss the unreal feel of miura irons, like nothing else I've ever hit.

If you are not a big fan of the 460c heads I think you will really like the Mavrik Subzero head. Looks more Titleist like to me.

About 100 days to go before golf here sigh. But did book a trip to Hawaii, helps a bit Not bringing clubs, but guess we will play a couple of rounds. Any recs would be great. Might have to splurge for Kapalua, but then play some more affordable one as well to not go totally bankrupt.

Just sticking to Maui? And yeah Kapalua Plantation is worth the price. You just don't ever see a course like that anywhere else.

Never been and maybe never again, so I guess trying to see as much as possible. Dont love to hurry around on trips but maybe gotta this time. Okay gotta lobby for Plantation, 450$ with clubs ouch (if I looked correctly). Guess no Golfnow hotdeals for there hah.

Meant to do mine earlier.

1/1/19 handicap: hadn't formally tracked mine in a couple years.
12/31/19 handicap: 9.2
Low handicap for season:
High handicap for the season: Golf Canada stats aren't coming up...

Low round: 79 (4/19 and 8/28)
High round: 96 (4/14, second round of the year... 5 days later, look above...)

Total rounds posted to GHIN: 43. Probably played something more like 50-55, when you throw in scrambles, work events, and nines.

Will make better effort in the following years to keeping track officially now.

Tommy 3 gloves finally got a happy ending in the Bahamas today.