New Year–New Shoes: Skechers Go Golf Elite V.3

If there is one thing that I despise shopping for, it would be golf shoes. They are a necessary part of the game, but who wants to spend $250 on a pair of shoes that will get worn for a few hours a month. Of course, then there is the bargain basement models that feel like strapping boards to your feet. Again, not a great deal for me either. Then there’s the ‘clearance colors’ or the off sizes that might just be close enough to fitting correctly to play in, right? Yep, back to those $200+ models again. Oh, but you can save $40 on that pair if you order them online. Unfortunately, if they don’t fit just right, you can often spend $20 or more of that of that sending them back. I’ll admit to it, buying feet coverings for myself is one of the worst experiences around – and that’s putting it lightly.
Last weekend, we were out and about at a local “outlet mall” and I stopped into the Taylor Made/Adidas store to check to see if they had any killer deals that I couldn’t live without. My wife asked if they had, “My shoes,” as was trying to come up with a ‘last minute’ gift idea to finish her Christmas shopping. After checking the store out, and finding a few great deals, I didn’t see anything in the shoe department that really made me swoon, much less something that would become, “My shoes.” She seemed pretty determined to make that my Christmas present, so we went down the road to our ‘local’ golf store, about 40 minutes away. I tried on various shoes, only to find that the sub $100 models returned me to my “feels like a board” thought and hesitated looking at some of the higher priced shoes. Even looking at those, very few of the $250 models came in wider widths.

After looking over the options, I settled on trying on a pair of Skechers Go Golf Elite 2 in a normal width as they did not have them in a wide. It was nice since they were on sale for $69.95, which is a decent price for a decent shoe. Unfortunately, my toes only made it in to the shoe as this style definitely ran narrow. I asked about wider styles and the gentleman at the store pointed out the Elite V.3 style that was available in a wider model. I asked if I was lucky enough for them to have one of those in my size and he said he would check. A few minutes later, he back back with my size and a half size up. I tried on the ‘correct size’ first, but was surprised to feel the end of the shoe with my toes. I went up a the half size hoping that it would be the one that my foot actually fit into. As I slipped them out of the box and on to my foot, I began to understand that not all golf shoes have to be expensive to be comfortable.
The Skechers Go Golf Elite v.3 is the first, non-sale, sub $100 golf shoe that I have felt is worth paying full price for. The arch has excellent support, and the shoe feels extremely solid, while maintaining a lighter weight. If you are in the market for an amazing shoe, head on over to your local store and give Skechers a try. I was shocked that a ‘newbie’ in the golf industry could make a shoe that felt better than Adidas, Nike, Foot Joy and the other big names, but when all you make is shoes, maybe you pay a bit more attention to the details than some. You can hit the Amazon Link here - http://amzn.to/2yuaxc4 – to purchase them online if you don’t have access to a store to try them out with and support this blog at the same time.

More information on the Skechers Go Golf Elite V.3 is available here - https://www.skechers.com/en-us/style/54523/skechers-go-golf-elite-v-3/bbk

No More "Video Call In” Penalties On Tour

I have to admit to hating that this happened to so many people this year, especially considering the majority of the issues that happened were to leaders (TV doesn’t show the 42nd place player very often.) What happened this year with viewers calling in to tournament hosts to tell them that there was a penalty should have never happened. Did an infraction happen for most of them, sure, but missing where you marked the ball by an inch or two on a tap in really doesn’t affect that game at all. Neither does using the rules in horrible ways (like getting relief from a hospitality tent) to your advantage, but that’s another day’s story.) Ultimately, the USGA/R&A announced today that they will no longer allow “viewer call-ins as a part of the Rule decision process.” They also announced a temporary ruling for a Local Rule eliminating the additional 2 stroke penalty for not counting penalty strokes when the player was not aware of the infraction to start with. This would have been a game changer this season for a few players, and honestly never should have been enforced from the start in these call-in situations.

So, congrats USGA for getting this one right. Hopefully, the 2019 rules changes will starting making life a bit easier for all of us, but getting these two put on the books for 2018 professional tournaments is big.

You can check out the USGA video update on this here - https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2017/12/local-rule--new-video-review-protocols-introduced-for-2018.html

Playing A Round: The Golf Club At Echo Falls - Snohomish, WA

Any time that the weather cooperates enough for me to sneak in a round this time of year, you can bet I’m going to do it. Today was one of those days. With my Winter Pass at Echo Falls almost half way finished (it ends at the end of February) I felt the need to get out again today, even though our temperatures are dipping down well below freezing, I jumped on the chance to get out in the sunshine for a round of golf. My hopes for a great round were all but dashed as I arrived at the course to see that holes 1 and 15 both had temporary greens on them. It was a sad to see that even after noon, that the course hadn’t come out of the frost delay from the morning, but at least the team at Echo Falls had a great plan. They shifted the starting hole to 17, which had been in the sunshine for the longest amount of time. So, after a few minutes of loading up the cart, I travelled over to the 17th tee box to start the day off. I ended up playing with a twosome today, which was both interesting and frustrating due to their pace of play, but it was a good adjustment to my normal play speed the last few rounds. I am going to skip the normal shot by shot recap on this round due to the fact that there were some temporary course changes and restrictions due to the weather, but I’ll run down a few highlight holes as a bit of a round-up for the round.

I have to start with 17, since it was the first time I’d really experienced the power of a hybrid from the fairway. Even though I started off with my 2 hybrid off the tee, somehow I made it out to the left rough and was sitting about 230 yards out to the flag. Normally, this would have been a hope and a prayer 3 iron in, but I pulled the 20 degree hybrid and proceeded to hit a perfect laser beam draw right to the right side of the green. On a normal day, that ball would have spun up and stopped almost on the flag, but today, with the greens being a bit more firm (frozen) than usual, it did roll through the green. It was about as solid of shot from 230 yards out as I’d ever hit with a long iron, and this was just my second cold shot of the round. A chip on and a putt that missed by about 3” left me with a bogey 5 to open the round, but I have to consider that a victory on a tough hole in really rough conditions. The 18th played almost straight up at 147 yards again today. My tee shot was just short right of the green in a little “grass bunker” that is the bail out area on the hole. A pitch and a one putt for par and we were back to our normal starting hole. The first had the temporary green about 70 yards short of it’s normal position. I hit a stellar 3 hybrid off the tee, again, reaching about 240 yards, but may have been a bit longer if it weren’t for the frost on the course. I managed to run a 25 yard chip shot onto the temporary flagstick area (though this was not a trimmed area or even a flat one) and took an automatic two putt on it as there was no way to even consider trying to putt through the divots and frost.

I played holes two, three and four in the usual manner, par, par, par. I had a great drive on the fourth hole that found the middle of the fairway about 285 yards off the tee. A 7 iron found an area just left of the green for an easy chip and two putt par. I also had a great approach shot on 3. An 83 yard lob wedge from the left rough found the green about 15 feet from the flag. I missed the first putt by almost three feet, with the green being so much faster than it looked, but I made the return putt without any issue at all. The next three holes were far more exciting, even from a negative standpoint. On the par 3, fifth, I hit an 8 iron off the tee that must have drawn about 40 yards (does that make it a hook?) I started it out straight at the flagstick, but it just kept moving – all the way to the far left rough, about 50 yards from the green. Somehow I managed to hit a pitch that not only found the green, but tracked to about 2 feet from the hole (isn’t that how this usually works – a horrible tee shot followed by a miracle pitch and you still save par?) Then we got to the 6th hole, which I have to say, may be the finest hole of the year for me as far as how well it played. It started off with a 301 yard drive down the right side. I then hit a 178 yard 8 iron downhill to the green. It came to rest about 35 feet from the flag. I waited for the rest of the group to get to the green before leaving my eagle putt about 5 feet short. I was really stressing making the birdie putt, which made it seem like 10 or 15 feet instead of the short 5 that it was,  but I managed to roll it in to get back to even par.

By this point in time, the weather was warming up nicely and things were moving along. The run of 7 through 9 all went along at even par. I had a poor tee shot on all three holes, but not bad enough to kill my score. The short 10th played pretty easy as well, though the green was harder than expected. I scooted through 11 with another par before reaching the par 5 12th in two with a Driver/4 Hybrid combo. A two putt birdie was the result and I moved to 1 under for the round. Keep in mind that this is a completely unofficial score since we all took the automatic two putt on the temp green on 1 and would probably have the same issue on 15 coming up. A 7 iron par on 13 was followed by a pitching wedge par on 14. A 2/3 hybrid combo on 15 got me close enough to the temp green there to chip on for another automatic 2 putt (and yes, I laughingly tried for a birdie on that “green” but it was never going to happen.) We wrapped up our round a bit early on the par 4, 16th with a beautiful 2 hybrid/9 iron combo that left a pretty easy two putt for par. All in all, it wasn’t as impressive as my last round, but I played well enough to escape the course with a modified “one under – 69” on this cold day.

I believe that it may be time for me to step back from the white tees at Echo this winter. Really the only serious difference in the holes is the par 3 yardages, but it should make course play about 1-2 clubs longer on approach shots (which I’m currently hitting mostly 9-LW in with so an extra club or two shouldn’t matter too much.) From there, it’s time to start settling on my ball for the season. I’m really loving the new Wilson Staff Duo Soft, but I have yet to find a location that has the new Duo Soft Spin available to try out – plus I’m not sure how much I would get out of them at this point in time with the conditions being what they are. Other than that, unless a magical package shows up from Wilson for under my tree, I think my bag is 100% set for 2018. I may change the driver out for summer time, going to the Fujikura Speeder shaft over the Alidla Rogue, but we will see how it works out over the next few months before making that call. All I can say at this point is that right now, my ball striking is solid, control is good and distance is pretty well dialed in. All in all, it seems like a good winter season so far.

My Thoughts On The Golf Ball

So, I know that most of you won’t care about my opinion on the golf ball, or, more specifically, the talk about limiting the distance on balls, but I did want to toss my my thoughts out there on the polarizing topic before someone makes a crazy decision on it. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, then let me bring you up to speed on the issue and the potential fix for it. There are some in golfing circles that want the distance that a golf ball can travel to be more regulated, so some of the shorter, more classic courses can hold up to the new technology that golf manufacturer’s are able to push on to courses today. For instance, The Old Course at St. Andrews is in danger of running out of room to become longer, which would soon leave it at the mercy of the Pro’s and render it not challenging to The Open unless a massive wind is blowing. If they can’t make every par 4 450 yards, so shortening the ball seems like an easier solution, right? Well that’s the issue that is staring the PGA, USGA, R&A and the rest of the governing bodies of golf right in the face – should we regulate the golf ball or not?

As for my thoughts, I’m 100% in the camp of NOT regulating the ball and not standardizing it. First off, if they regulated the ball on tour, the “ball contract” for the tour would generate billions of dollars for the tour from the winner, but the losers of the deal would be every other ball manufacturer. Second, golf is a personalized sport, you need to have options on what you play.  I’ll use NASCAR as an example here: it’s boring when you see 42 cars that look identical running around the track. Back in the day, you could tell the Pontiac from the Chevy and the Ford from the Dodge without any issues at all and it was more fun to root for your driver and their car. Now, it’s just a bunch of template cars running circles for a few hours. Could you imagine that the first thing that happens in golf is the ball, then everyone has to carry the same clubs – you know, to keep it even – then they have to use the same grips because of the contractual agreement that the PGA made with _______. It’s going to be a mess.

If I don’t support shortening the ball, then what’s my solution to the issue? Well, let’s take The Old Course for example. Let’s take those 380 yard par 4’s on that and place some bunkers at the 300 yard point in the fairway to put a premium on target golf off the tee. Then, maybe we carve out a few greenside bunkers that are dug in to create a wall on the front, but a simple pitch out to the rear. If they want to go after that green off the tee, they can, but they may not have a second shot if they miss, right? At 7115 yards, there should never been a need for more distance off the tee there. It’s all about punishing those that try to hit 300-350 yards off every tee and leave a wedge into the green. Tighten fairways from about 30 yards to 20 yards in that landing area. Keep them wider up until about 275 and start tapering them in. That’s going to put a premium on accuracy and skill, not just distance. Perhaps another alternative is using more fairway “OB” stakes for keeping people from hitting into the wrong fairway as a better way to play a hole? All of these moves can be done for almost nothing and honestly won’t affect the average golfer or the game at all.

By toughening the course, the PGA Tour will be more exciting to watch. Equipment manufacturer’s will have an entire new market of hybrids and driving irons once again and ball manufacturer’s can keep turning out better and better products year after year without the threat of being shut down by regulations. It’s truly an easy solution – don’t make the course longer, make it harder. Shrink the fairways and the greens. Increase the number and difficulty of the bunkers and hazards. Then let them play in adverse weather more often (lightning is still ok to skip out on, but no more “rain delays") and enjoy watching Pebble Beach kick their butts in the spring. These –20 scores are like watching an NBA game that is 72-35… It’s just as much fun as watching skilled players hit great shots when they need to control it perfectly. Anyways, those are just my thoughts on things, but my opinion is pretty worthless. If you have thoughts, let me know in the comments below.

The Wilson Staff C300 Series Fits The Bill For Almost Anyone

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
So, I was pretty stoked about the V6 Tour irons when they were announced about this time last year. I mean, it was a forged offering from Wilson Golf that had a touch more forgiveness than a blade, but still looked amazing from the top. That said, I had just jumped all in on my FG100 blades and wasn’t even thinking about landing another set that fast, regardless of the benefits of the clubs. Fast forwarding a year, I’ve really dialed in my bag to fit my game much better this off-season and the addition of the F5 Hybrids has really made life much easier off the tee and from 200+ yards out. But then today happened and my bag, may just find some new toys in it come spring time. All of this is dependent on actually hitting these new offerings from Wilson, but for a shield junkie, today is about as exciting as things get, short of them bringing out a new blade.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
The C300 series was officially announced over social media channels today and it looks downright impressive from top to bottom. Comprised of a full line of drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and a few iron options, the C300 could be the lineup that returns Wilson to the consumer market in a big way. The driver is available in 3 lofts in right handed or 1 loft in the left handed model. The fairway woods and hybrids are both available in 3 lofts in right hand and 2 lofts in left hand. Finally, the C300 irons are available in a cast or forged variety with steel or graphite shafts. Taking a look at the clubs themselves, Wilson has taken to heart the public opinion on their driver’s noise factor – though not having hit one yet, I can’t verify that the C300 line is any louder or less “powerful” than my F5, the Triton or the D300. The fairway woods seem to be a perfect blend of the driver being downsized and compacted for swinging from the fairway. The hybrids take it a step further and offer an easier to hit long iron experience from less than desirable lies. Finally we reach the two iron options in the C300 lineup. The cast C300’s are a blurring of the lines between a player’s iron and a game improvement iron. The forged counterpart in the C300’s takes the blur the opposite direction and moves the needle from player’s iron to a performance club. 

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
First up, we have the C300 driver. Touted as an alternative to the F5 driver that I currently carry, the improvements of the C300 cold easily make their way into my gamer bag this Spring. Though Wilson only mentions a 5-7 yard gain on drives, the forgiveness of the newer model will significantly pick up distance on off center hits over the older F5. With a custom Fujikura Speeder Pro 58 shaft on board, the C300 should be able to fit most users swings very well. While the specs of the 58 aren’t available anywhere that I have found yet, the X rated 60 model features a mid/low kick point with medium spin level. This makes for a medium to high launch angle. I’m willing to bet that the Wilson 58 model will probably be very similar, with just a touch less weight to accelerate the club head. The club is also fitted with the standard Lamkin Crossline grip and the new Fast Fit 3.0 hosel system. I personally can’t wait to check out the new hosel and see if my existing F5 shafts will work in the new heads as well. From there, we get to the head itself. The tri-weight system is back from the Triton, but this time, there is no removable sole plate to get in the way of the action. By adjusting the weights, you can add a draw or fade bias and also change the launch angles to your own personal preferences by just moving around the weights. Overall, the C300 appears to be an upgraded, more adjustable version of Wilson’s top tour model driver.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
The C300 fairway woods and hybrids are both another incremental increase in technology over the F5 models. The fairway woods come in three right handed lofts, 13, 15 and 18 degrees. The 2 left handed lofts are 15 and 18. The hybrids come in a 17, 20 and 23 degree lofts for right handed players and a 20 and 23 degree for left handed hitters.The same Fast Fit 3.0 hosels are in place on both the fairways and hybrids, but the fairway woods feature the same three weight design as the driver, whereas the hybrids only feature a heel and toe weight. Both new models feature a Fujikura Speeder Pro 79 shaft, again, a custom flavor for these clubs and should fill the gap nicely for those looking for more distance out of their longer clubs while keeping a consistent feel from top to bottom in the set.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
Then we have the blur as I like to call it. Wilson’s “crossover” clubs have always been a nice meld of their game improvement clubs, or D series and their player’s clubs, or their F series. Things got strange last year when the V6 irons came on the scene. The feel of the V6’s was similar to my FG 100’s, but they had a touch of forgiveness in them that my 100’s definitely do not have. With the V6’s being a home run in every review that was posted online, it was difficult to figure out where Wilson could possibly take the Staff line next. The C300’s seem to be that answer. The D350’s are a solid choice for game improvement and the V6’s are a definite must for low handicap players to test out. The two varieties of C300’s fit perfectly between the two and offer golfers the ultimate in club fitting and customized makeup of their sets.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
The C300 irons are the first step up from the new D350 hybrid set. They feature a 3 part head construction with new Power Holes that fill the airspace left by the technological breakthroughs that fill the new C series irons. The big “new” advantage to the C300 irons is the fact that the new face technology should allow the average golfer to pickup an additional 2 MPH of ball speed off the face of the club. This translates to a few extra yards, maybe even up to half a club length in distance overall. The C300’s are definitely targeted at those players still needing more forgiveness, but wanting a bit less “chunk” in their clubhead.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
The C300 forged irons are at the opposite end of the blending spectrum. They feature fewer Power Holes around the clubhead due to the elimination of them on the top line of the club. While I haven’t gotten to take a look at them, the MyGolfSpy preview of them really made them look like a solid option for lower handicappers that want a bit of extra distance. In fact, most of the comparisons and marketing related materials have the C300 Forged pinned as a replacement to the legendary FG Tour F5 irons. This means in the last year, everything except for the FG 100 blades have received a full market replacement.

(photo from MyGolfSpy.com)
Now, this leads me to my quandary of - will they roll out a replacement to my beloved FG 100’s or will the C300’s be what I’m looking for in my next set of irons? The extra forgiveness of the C300 Forged irons certainly makes me feel like they are something I want to consider, but at the same time, after dropping my 3 and 4 irons in favor of my new F5 hybrids, I’m not feeling that I need to make any changes right this second. Good thing these beautiful clubs won’t hit the market until next year. I have the winter to remember how amazing my set is before I’ll have a chance to fall in love with something new from my favorite club maker.



UPDATE: I had a few requests for more information on the lofts of the C300 Forged vs. the V6 and have to admit to striking out a bit. According to the information online, the C300 Forged are a degree or two stronger than the F5's that they are targeted to replace. This pins them about 1 to 2 degrees stronger than the V6's. It's also worth noting that there is no indication that there is a 3 iron in the C300 Forged, nor is there a 'stock' X-Stiff shaft available either. It definitely looks like the V6 is still aimed at the 'player's iron' section of the crowd while the C300F is more geared towards the mid-handicapper that's looking for a bit more feel.

Also, I can't stress this enough. The images above were taken from the MyGolfSpy.com first look at the C300 series posts at their site. They do amazing work and I highly recommend adding them to your read list to keep up on the latest, non-biased testing in the golf industry. From balls to drivers, they cover just about everything. I want to make sure that I give them proper credit for the images since they really tell the story of the look of the new C300's. I placed the link below to their articles for more information on them.



Make sure to check out the Hands On First Look of the C300 woods and irons at MyGolfSpy.com - https://mygolfspy.com/first-look-wilson-staff-c300c300-forged-irons/ and https://mygolfspy.com/2018-wilson-staff-c300-metal-woods/


You can hit the links below to check out all the new offerings in the C300 lineup.
Driver - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/drivers/staff-c300-driver
Fairway Woods - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/woods-hybrids/staff-c300-fairway-woods
Hybrids - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/woods-hybrids/staff-c300-hybrid
C300 (steel shafts) - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/irons/crossover/staff-c300-irons-steel
C300 (graphite shafts) - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/irons/crossover/staff-c300-irons-graphite
C300 Forged (steel) - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/irons/crossover/staff-c300-forged-irons-steel
C300 Forged (graphite) - http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/irons/crossover/staff-c300-forged-irons-graphite