CasualLie

I must be close to 25 rounds with these 3DPs. I've played cold days, hot days, windy days, lush conditions and the last few rounds firm links. Overall, great irons, they do everything I want in terms of direction and control, except for one thing. I really can't hit high shots when I want to. It's really perplexing. First week I had them, they felt a touch higher vs T150, but after the honeymoon, I've overall lost peak height. It may have cost me a few years, not sure. As we all know, lower spin, so that might explain the lower flight, but I'm holding greens just fine. These irons have been the most accurate / straight. But every once in awhile, I catch the top of a green side bunker and roll back in it because I've lost that 3-4 yards of carry. With so many people talking about how they hit these irons higher I'm starting to wonder if the MMT shafts are the problem. I've never played MMTs before and truth be told I don't exactly find them lively. If anything, a little tip stiff. Next step will be to weaken the lofts 2 degrees and see what happens. Then lethals different shafts. Can't complain too much, I'm hitting more greens than ever. Playing some links this week in England/Wales. Last three rounds: 75, 74, 76...and I'm not making many birdies as the slower green speeds in UK are driving me nuts.

If anybody wants to hit these irons, find me next week in Newquay! I'll be giving these irons the Cornwall test and following up here!

Open Pts Rory 10 Rahm 5 Fleety 5 Fitzy 10 Fox -3 Presto! 27

Of course he did...one for warmup, but as usual he thought the tournament started on Friday and was LIV holes.

Couple of years ago in Nashville I'm heading up to my hotel room after a night at the Twelve Thirty Club. I get in the lift, doors close, but just as they almost close I can see someone trying to get the up button last second. Being the polite guy I am, I hit the open door button and who's standing right there, Alice. I did hear he had a show that night so all I could say was "how was the show?". He was like great, have to hit the sack, early tee time! Such the anti-rock star, it was cool.

Easy fix, if you can't definitively see the penalty in real time playback (and no zooming in) then it didn't happen. It's the 240 fps slow motion playback that's unfair. And what the tech has also ruined in these situations is a player will not take charge. They defer to officials for the final decision because they don't want to get roasted as a cheater on social media.

Please golf gods, don't give us an Open where everyone falls to the pressure except Scottie. Last thing we want is Scottie going into Sunday with a 5 shot lead. It's been said many, many times before; an Open without a bit of gnarly weather is not an Open. It's pretty rare to get 4 calm days in a row at Portrush, but here we are... And it's boring! There's been little wind and 5 minutes of real rain...boo! P.S. Lowry penalty was completely stupid P.S.S. If you are going to play desert golf, you need to one "beat up" iron in the bag or borrow your friend's club 😉 Question: Can Kate Upton throw a pitch? Because her husband sure can't.

The perils of getting involved in sports picks, indecisiveness, and the effects on your short game. Pretty standard stuff.

He did, shocking. I am tempted to go back to the DVR and watch a bit as I am curious what change did he make that somehow escaped him day 1.

A friend of mine I play 18 with every now and then is like Bryson in terms of power. He wanted to be on tour and as a junior/early adult player he was very good, hits it long, putts well. He could never quite breakthrough, still plays, still hits it a long way. But the one thing he could not do to save his life is flight the ball down with his irons. Wedges yes, but from 4i - 9i, just sky high balls. That just does not work on windy days which in N. Ireland happens on all days that end in 'y'. Trying to overpower a course works in plushy U.S., but U.K...not so much.

What course is Bryson playing?!?! Even Justin Leonard can finish under par.

Ooops!

@touch have to make a chance... Just not sure on Hatton, so give me Ryan Fox. Thanks!

Jeez... If baseball players were any more fragile, they would be... Golfers

There's a dozen pitchers who didn't even make an appearance. They could have thrown a guy on 2nd like normal.

Home run swing off to settle the tie in the ASG. I must be ahead of the curve. Right after I stopped watching baseball, the sport has become completely stupid. Something wrong with using the same extra innings rule as a regular season game? Disclaimer: visiting my parents who love baseball so that's the only reason I'm watching.

And two more pick changes from @touch before the fees kick in.

Can’t believe you guys didn’t know the English caddie story! Your welcome! Now watch him win…haha! Kidding....

pretty good picks…loving Ryan Fox a lot more than Rose

So Harris English's caddie is not allowed into N. Ireland, but Ryan Peake, former gangster/ violent criminal / prisoner, he gets to play? Wow!

I would also factor in, Collin's win was at RSG in considerably better weather vs this week's conditions.

I am more of a die it in the hole when outside ~ 12 feet simply because the hole is "bigger" if the ball is losing speed at the hole. You get more lucky edge putts to fall in. 8 - 12 ft depends if it is uphill/downhill, and inside of 8ft I like to be a bit more aggressive to hold the line and not have any funny stuff happen on the way. As far as "never up, never in", I do think it is a crime to be inside 15ft and leave a birdie putt short. That doesn't mean blast away, but you have to give it a chance.

I don't normally look either, but was curious and quite surprised to see them both down there. I thought Hovland was much higher since last two years his short game has been stellar. But his putting is not. I think if you are trying to move up the leaderboard there is only one way to do that - pick names no one else has and get lucky. The Open is the best chance of that. There are so many golfers who can win this. No other major depends on the right "breaks" to get a win. You need a good tee time draw which you do not know if it is one until you get on the course, and good bounces. Who I do not like is BDC because he's not a great wind player. That being said, if he got lucky and could play this course with little wind, his length would destroy it. But if he tries to overpower it on a windy day he's going to get some funky lies. And he seems to get discombobulated when he faces a lot of "bad luck" bounces/lies which is bound to happen at RP. Scheffler is another one. It took him all week to "figure out" Renaissance and it still gave him problems. RP is on an entirely other level of difficulty. All of his "advantages" he has on U.S. courses are completely negated for the Open, and he tends to shoot himself in the foot when stressed because this year it is not all "coming so easy" like it was the last two years. Rory has to be the favorite, if his tee game is on, lookout. He must have missed 5 putts by an inch this past Sunday. His speed control on the links greens is really good. But for this contest, you only pick Rory if you are already in the top 3 in points...you have to pick Rory. Fleetwood was 2nd last time out at RP. He's older now, so not as good, and I don't know if "wiser" helps. In his case, maybe not. Good top 10 pick though, and probably top 5. But he desperately needs to fly under the radar (not sure how you do that with British media), not be in the last few groups on Sunday and putt like crazy while everyone else collapses to backdoor a win. Overall I am going in on other bets on Rahm. He's playing good, he can flight the ball down with the best of them, and hits good wedges. So it really comes down to putting for him. Someone to watch out for that lots of others are down on. Morikawa. Billy Foster will be a great caddie for him and British media is a little kinder to him vs US media. Others I am ignoring - JJ Spaun, let's see if he calms down for FedEx Cup, but for this major and Ryder Cup...toast. JT...too wild! Macintyre...how did he ever win last year, he's terrible with the Driver. Aberg...if he could just play 72 good holes instead of 68 good ones and 4 horrid ones.

They are both pretty bad this year; below tour average in scrambling %. It is just not Xander's year. The injury threw him off a bit too much to settle into the rhythm of winning. He's talented enough to throw up top 10s in any major at any time. Hovland? Just when you think he has no chance, he shows up on page 1 of the leaderboard. His advantage this week is his long iron game is superb. But the putting? You just never know.