Johnny Biarritz

It'd be cool to see him win again.

As with most things related to fitting equipment, much of it depends on how it feels to you. Lie angle differences have been brought up, the difference between 3-5-7 is about .5 degrees. On the 7, you could make that up with a shaft adapter but with the 5 wood, you're stuck with it being .5 degrees "wrong." .5 degrees isn't going to do much of anything to impact how the ball is flying. Remember that "standard" for woods was 42-41-40 inches until companies figured out that they could tell people that their clubs hit the ball longer by adding length. Same with drivers, standards were 43.5 inches, now we're up to 45.75 inches. If going to a standard length across all fairway woods feels good to you, that's very likely to improve your confidence and improve your play, even if the lengths aren't "correct."

Might do a day trip to Monterey or a weekend in Palm Desert before the end of the year. Possibly a weekend in Palm Desert in January 2026. I'm probably going to the Western Pacific region in Feb-May of 2026, still in the planning stages where we'll be playing.

There can be merit in nearly anything with club fitting. It all depends on the player. So it would be worthwhile to either get fitted to see for sure what shaft works best with the driver or just experiment to see how a similar shaft feels. I feel like my shafts have been pretty similar, high bend points, forever.

Certainly, that is possible. But if results are far worse with the good feeling shaft, which it doesn't sound like it was, then might be better to go with the one that fits better over feel.

Yeah, I've seen that happen. Always a bummer. At least the course takes care of it quickly. Does seem odd that they shotgun the group off nine holes rather than giving tee times. I never worked at a course or was a member of one that did that.

Rulewich doesn't build courses with hidden features. Sure, the designs were stamped by RTJ. All trail courses are similar, fun to play, moderately scenic, not going to make you think much. They’re Exhibit A for the “it’s all right there in front of you” school of design.

I’m following for more suggestions given that I’m 43 and increasingly tighter. But what I’m doing right now are some basic stretches, hip stretches basically leaning into a lunge, some core/spine stretches by twisting either sitting or a more dynamic motion, and a Good Morning stretch for the rear of the body. For weights, I do pretty basic big muscle group exercise since I’m still in the n00b gainz phase of strength training, or regaining strength. Squat, bench, deadlift (there is no reason to be alive if you can’t do deadlift; I suspect not many will get that reference), overhead press, and ab work. 3 sets of 5 on each lift with modest weight, 3 sets of 10 on abs. I’m in and out of the gym in 20-30 minutes. Stretches can be done where ever. I’d say even if you just do bodyweight squats and pushups, you’ll see mobility improve just by moving around. Results may vary, I’m not a doctor nor a personal trainer.

I feel like I recognize your name from a forum other than here. Are you possibly part of The Emperor's architecture forum?

For me, it's wedges, putter, Play Club, approach club from 9 iron up. Approach from 140 (normal PW yardage) and in is the strong point in my game. Then it depends on the putter. I'm generally good at avoiding 3 putts but struggle to make much between 5-10 feet. Then it's getting the ball in play off the tee, whether that's with a driver or something else. For me, that's 7 clubs. If those 7 clubs are working great, I'll score well as long as the approach clubs are mediocre good. If the wedge game isn't working, it's going to be a long day.

I used Phil as an attainably elite number. Hogan had, I believe, 43 wins and 8 majors after 30. Jack had 42 wins and 11 majors. I think those numbers are close if they're not exact. Palmer is in that realm as well. 43 and 11 would give him 60 wins (if he doesn't win another this season) and 15 majors which is inner circle elite, that's unreasonable to predict.

Mickelson's career from his age 30 season onwards is 32 PGAT wins and 6 majors. That seems attainable for Scottie. Even if it's 25 and 5, that'd be 42 career wins and 9 majors which puts Scottie in the rare air with Watson and Player. I'd say 9 is a reasonable number, 11 is a bit of a stretch.

There's a lot of stuff that can be done. It's never something I did, or considered doing, in the years I spent as a fitter and club builder.

Never two rain gloves but when I was living in Alabama, I'd either use two regular gloves or I'd buy a pair or baseball batting gloves during the summer.

If you tip trim a taper tip shaft, if won't fit. So that's something a little firmer than just a recommendation. All my clubs currently are .370 but if they were .355T I'd use the Wedge shafts and then butt trim them all for the same length. (that's if I wanted to keep them .355T, which I wouldn't, so what I'd really do is clamp the wedge into a drill press and drill it out to .370)

Sure, great golf is generally pretty boring. Seeing a guy hit 12 fairways and 15 greens then making a couple putts isn't all that exciting. But that's usually how great golfers play. Charismatic, great golfers like Tiger, Arnie, etc., are extremely rare.

Only to whatever the standard is. Every shaft gets tip trimmed, with a few exceptions. It used to be with True Temper, the 1 iron got no trim then add 1/2" trim down to the wedges which got trimmed 4 1/2" but that has changed with TT so that 1-2-3 all get zero trim (which is really just an admission that the 1 and 2 irons don't exist anymore) and down to 3 1/2" for the wedge. I tip trim all wedges the same amount because on the manufacturer standard. I don’t tip the short wedges more although you could do that and end up with some X300s in the wedges.

I always used the same shaft in all my irons and wedges, in the PW and down I'd tip them all the same and have them all be the same length.

I'd say that Royal New Kent is worth a revisit. For me, it's better than Tobacco Road, Pine Needles, and Sweetens Cove.

Yes...but you're going to be there for a long time. I've ground forged wedges with a bench grinder and it took probably an hour to get it right for each club. You'd be there for weeks trying to hand sand it.

I was in PV a couple weeks ago. Played both courses at Vidanta and the Nicklaus course at Vista Vallarta. Nicklaus course is OK, parts of the routing is hampered by stream beds and such but the views of the mountains are nice. 5/10 Vidanta Vallarta Greg Norman course has this interesting isolation vibe but the course isn't spectacular. The front nine has two island green par 3's that you won't actually realize are islands. It's just a bland resort course. 5/10, but not quite as good as the Nicklaus. Vidanta Nayar...the front nine is the worst routed nine holes I've ever played. The 6th and 7th holes are legitimately 1.5 miles from the 5th green and then 1.5 miles back to get to 8. The back nine improves but only slightly. 3/10 Playing in the summer, the rates were reasonable. I doubt I'd say their winter rates are reasonable.

Track your putting. 95% made from 3 feet and in is reasonable. From 6 feet, for us mortals, 50% is pretty much the limit; the break-even number for the Tour is 8 feet. Over ten feet, Tour average is about 5 makes "per event" (which I'd assume to mean 72 holes) and roughly 1 per event over 20 feet. 7.5 per event over 10 feet is the best on tour. What I'm saying is that no one makes many putts over 10 feet. It's unfair to judge yourself on results from that range. Look at your overall putts made between 3 and 10 feet, track that. Making a bunch of birdies basically doesn't happen. Tour average for 2025 is 3.7. The graphic for scratch players was listed above. Chasing birdies doesn't work. I've been as low as +3 and I've never made more than 6 birdies in a round. The one time I made 6 I shot a 78 because....well, I didn't keep bogeys (and worse) off the card. But I've had many, many times I shot between 67 and 72 with zero bogeys. Here's my mindset. I want to play very boring golf. Fairway, green, 2 putts, onwards to the next hole. On the tee, I'm just thinking about getting the ball out in the short green grass. I don't worry about anything like "well, if I hit up the left side, that'll give better angle to the green." I want the ball on the green grass. Yes, I'll think about going up the left side if there is water down the right or something like that. When I'm in the fairway, I want the ball on or around the green. If the ball is on the fringe but I can use a putter, that's effectively hitting the green. Then I want to hit a good putt, enough to get 2 putts and close enough that the hole will get in the way of some of them. Keep three-putts and doubles off the card, you'll be OK.

I went back and looked at my ranking for courses. I use a bootleg version of Doak's Confidential Guide scale. I have Anchorage Golf Club at 6/10, Moose Run Creek 5/10, Settlers Bay 4/10, Palmer 4/10, and Moose Run Hill 3/10. Thinking back and looking at pictures, I might re-rank them Moose Run Creek 6/10, Anchorage 5/10, Settlers Bay and Palmer same, Moose Run Hill 2/10. For Outdoor activities, you can just pull off the road and find absolutely incredible places to hike and view. There's this walking trail thing downtown that has different places that show the relative distance of planets from the sun, I can't remember exactly where it starts. Alyeska Ski Resort has this tram that'll take you up the mountain and the view is stunning. If you can get ATVs or if you're super fit, go to the far backside of Eklutna Lake and climb up some of the small hills, unbelievable view down the old glacier canyon. 13 miles each direction. You can walk on a glacier out at Mat-Su Glacier. A bit north of Palmer is this super cool drive called Hatcher Pass, there's a moderate hike out there (starts at April Bowl if you look at Google Maps), that goes up to a really cool view on Hatch Peak. There's also a cool spot out there they call the Butte, use the West Butte Trail if you go.

Of course. I’ve played every full size course in Anchorage and the Mat-Su valley. Moose Run Creek is the best, IMO. Anchorage Golf Club is also really nice and hosted a USGA Championship a couple years ago; Senior Women’s Am, I believe. Can see Denali from AGC if the weather is perfect. Palmer is nice, pancake flat but nice holes. View from #1 tee at Palmer is all-world. Settler’s Bay is OK. Moose Run Hill is…well, it’s there. For non-golf, Double Musky for food if you have time. Mirror Lake is fun. There’s Collegiate Summer League baseball up there, but the season might be over. Anchorage is a cool town.

I have some comments but I can’t get to my computer right now. That said, I do have a question, how much time do you spend practicing putting? Also, 1 out of 13 inside 12 feet isn’t as bad as you think it is for us mortals who don’t play golf in front of a video scope. I’ll be back.