All while that Evolve divot tool is sitting there looking amazingDay 2: Golf, Driver Fitting, and FOOD!
Day 2 was a big day with lots of golf, the driver fitting, and good food. I was pretty excited to get the day started and see the course. We got ready and headed to the clubhouse for breakfast. It was a buffet style breakfast with pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, roasted potatoes, oatmeal, and maybe one other thing? It was good. Real good. After that we went to the putting green and did some chipping and putting while waiting for the maintenance crew to finish up the range. The entire property is meticulously maintained and the range is no exception. Once they were done, they brought about range balls and filled the box at each station with Titliest ProV1x balls. Most looked like they could be new. I can only recall one other course I've played having Titleist range balls. Very nice indeed.
It was a little cool out and there were a few drops of rain here and there. I was worried it might turn into a more steady rain, considering my luck, but fortunately it stopped and the clouds even started clearing once we were on the course. So after warming up at the range, we headed to the first tee. First tee nerves are REAL. I can’t imagine the first tee jitters at something like the Morgan Cup with everyone watching. The fact that hole 1 can be a bit visually intimidating didn’t help. Short is bad, left is no good, and right is only slightly less bad than the other two. Somehow, I hit a decent drive and the practice round was underway. I won’t go hole by hole, but I did learn a few things. One, the greens were going to kick my butt. They were in such great shape and they were pretty fast. Add in the crazy undulations and 3 putts were plentiful. The other thing I learned was the importance of knowing where to hit your shots on this course. Lastly, Danny has some serious game and JB was no slouch either. Even with a pop per hole, we were going to need to play well to win the match on Wednesday. Oh, I also can’t overstate how stunning the course is. The views were breathtaking on each and every hole.
View attachment 9082801View attachment 9082802
After a fun practice round on the front 9, we headed back to the range to start the fitting. I was so freaking excited for this! I’ve never been fit a club, so this was going to be awesome. After Danny got everything setup, I started with my current driver to get some baseline numbers. I was playing a TM Sim Max with the Fujikura Ventus Red 5-S shaftLaunch was staying in the 7-9 degree range and ball speeds in the 140s with a high of 149. Spin was on the low side, around 1400-1700, though most were in the 1400 range, if I remember correctly. I think my longest carry was around 251 yards.
View attachment 9082789View attachment 9082796
First up, we tried the Rogue ST Max D with the LinQ Blue shaft. Numbers were better, but I was going left a bit too much. Swapped in the ST Max and it was much better. Then we tried the LinQ Red and man it was good! Long, high, straight bombs! Danny wanted to try the Helium Nanocore shaft and the results were also really good. It ended up coming down to the LinQ blue and LinQ Red, but Danny had me try the LinQ Red one last time and it was pretty obvious that was the fit. It also felt like I had just a bit more control with the LinQ Red and that just further helped my confidence. Launch angle was up in the 9-11 degree range, spin was 2000+, ballspeed in the 154 range, and one of my best carry distances was 269 yards (can’t remember if that was the longest, but I think it might have been). Big time increases for me and dispersion was much better.
View attachment 9082798View attachment 9082799
Next up, Danny started working his magic on Hackitup. I don’t know all of the shafts they went through, but I heard some impressive carry distances and based on the shots I was seeing, there were some serious gains being made. After the fitting we went back to the cottage to change into shorts, while Danny put together out new drivers, then headed to the clubhouse for Lunch.
Lunch was fantastic. The pulled chicken tacos were GREAT. After lunch, we headed to 10 to play the back 9. It started as well as I could’ve hoped with a great drive. I missed the fairway just a little left on 11, but I think I hit every fairway after that with the new driver. I can’t stress how huge that is for me, considering how much I have been struggling off the tee recently. Confidence was sky high at this point. Hackitup and I played the back pretty well. We even managed a birdie on hole 17. It was so much fun! After the back 9, our original plan was to go back to the front, but there was a group going out, so Hackitup and I went to play the back again, while Danny and JB headed back to the cottage to do some work.
The second round on the back was fun and we managed to score pretty well. The extra time with the new driver was nice and it gave us more opportunities to play those crazy greens. Though, I still don’t know that it helped me putting. It was a great afternoon. There wasn’t many people on the course, so we were able to play at our own pace and we still had plenty of time to get cleaned up and ready for dinner after the round. I actually had enough time to go do some shopping in the pro shop. Got me a shirt and putter head over, got my father-in-law a divot tool, a ball marker for my niece, and a tshirt for my wife. Also grabbed some of the little markers while I was there.
View attachment 9082803
Like all the other meals, dinner was great. I went with the ribeye this time with their steak fries and it was wonderful. Dessert was a chocolate cremeux (I think that's what it was called?) I'm still not 100% sure what it was, but it was good. After dinner we headed back to the cottage and saw that they had the lights on and the pins placed on the 18th green. Me, hackitup, and Danny went out and did some night putting, which was pretty cool. All in all, it was just an awesome day. The course was amazing, the driver fitting turned out even better than I could've hoped for, and I got to hang out all day with some awesome people.