LIVE UPDATE THREAD Shaft Up #2 Contest and Live Update Thread

Appreciate the feedback, Danny! It's great to hear your thoughts on the different options. Take care.
That is one hot combo!
 
Shaft-UP #2 write up

What a great experience, I can not say enough great things about the whole trip and @JB @DannyLe @fuffle master and @JDSPGA are all wonderful people.

Left Boston on Tuesday and met up with @fuffle master in Philly prior to flying to Saint Louis. So @fuffle master and I board the plane to leave for Saint Louis and he says "man I hope the person who sits next to me is small" or something like that. Little did he know the person that was sitting next to him was right there and was not that small, but not too big either. That was quite funny.

When we got to Saint Louis I thought one of my bags did not make the trip, but we found it in the AA office. I have a bad rep so they might have been trying to bust me. Tried to grab an Uber to the hotel but it was $100, Lyft was $40 or something, remember folks price shop. Unfortunately, we gave the Lyft guy the wrong address, fortunately the correct hotel was the way we were going. I think we got in about 11pm. I did not sleep much the night before and was gassed.

Woke up Thursday morning at like 6am again could not sleep and we met up with @JB and @DannyLe in the parking lot, albeit in the wrong spot, and off to breakfast we go. After Breakfast went to Bellerive and had a great tour of the place, thanks to @JDSPGA . As soon as you get close to Bellerive you can see how nice it is. Then you drive through the brick posts and the gates and heaven! There is so much history there, great pictures and memorabilia and trophies. The facilities were pristine! Always enter these contests, I was lackadaisical on these in the past never again.

@fuffle master got fitted first and I was trying to listen what @DannyLe was saying. But I kept on getting distracted by the view. I was next up and we tried the ST-x, I don't think we ever did the Z. When hitting my BB Fusion driver @DannyLe could see the slice at the end. With the ST-X head we tried a number of shafts and each time hitting them you could see it getting dialed in a bit better. I was starting to really connect and get a good ball speed # (146-147 consistently) and good spin. Eventually the Helium 5F4 was the winning shaft. The head was an ST-X 12* and holy moly that is a nice looking club! That fitting was the start of a great summer o' golf.

After the fitting we had a great lunch at the course, I got the cobb salad but I am still thinking about the adult grill cheese with bacon and sweet potato fries. Then we tee off at 12:50 I think. My golfing was not the greatest but @fuffle master carried us the front nine. Luckily I was better on the back nine and helped out. I have a tendency to pull to much with my shoulders which leads to poor golf shots.

We lost the match which stinks, but I feel like we won the day as it was great.

Went back, showered, and out to dinner at Firebirds which was so tasty, I nice Pineapple Martini, couple of G&T's some great steak, deviled eggs, toasted ravioli's and topped off with Creme Brulee Cheesecake. OMG how good. There are so many good food pics. We just all talked and laughed and drank and ate, what could be better!

I think I crashed by 10pm, lightweight.

Thursday was another 6am wakeup, ready to go for an 8:20 or so tee time. The weather was a bit sunnier and temps were a bit warmer. Another day of great company and great golf. @JB @DannyLe and @JDSPGA all could really hit the ball. That was fun to watch. @fuffle master was d@mn good too. I think we all discovered we have a peanuts (nis?) allergy that day. The match Thursday was not as close as Wednesday's but just as fun. So many great memories and pictures.

The fitting was truly eye opening, I had never been fitted before but will never make that mistake again. I was telling @DannyLe how I was looking at getting fit and purchasing the 921 HMP's and by then he had seen enough of my swing to recommend the recoil 95 F4 shafts with all other settings standard. Those are now ordered.

After sweet goodbye's and safe travels and gratitudes to @JB and @JDSPGA @DannyLe drove @fuffle master and myself to the airport. Unfortunately all of our flights were delayed, @fuffle master got out first, so @DannyLe and myself drank. I got out next a couple of hours late and landed in DC to find out my Boston flight was not leaving until 1:20am, 3 hours late. So I sat at the bar and drank LOL, "I don't got no problems, shut up", "I love ya, man". Watched the B's win and the Lakers lose landed in Boston at 3am and now back to real life and work and such.

But all is good as I got to go on a great experience. I was just trying to read through all the thread and look at all the pictures we took and its all smiles.

Thank you to the forum, @JB @DannyLe @fuffle master and @JDSPGA you guys are awesome.
Fantastic recap! Enjoy those new sticks!
 
T
Sounds like @DannyLe was on a mission this weekend. Birdie bombs followed by birdie bombs!

Great matches guys. Danny and JB are a formidable pairing!
They definitely were it was a great time.
 
The course was an experience, that is for sure.
Yes course and company were great, next time I will be more vocal in the thread. I will train like crazy to get my fat fingers to type
 
I am a uber competitor and love trash-talking, but the company, course, equipment, and experience were so amazing I don't care at all I didn't play all that well the second day. At the time I did, but thinking back not so much.

Some notes to make for those selected for future Shaft Up and other THP Events.

Take more pictures of the people in non-golf scenarios. You are going to go crazy taking pictures of the course you are playing and many pictures of shots being made, but looking back at my pictures I wish I had more shots of the other fun stuff. @rlefig and I joking in the cart, getting the others on those good and not so good moments playing and just hamming it up, at dinner, and all in all the experience part.

Take way more videos. You may not be able to update the THP threads with videos easily, but you are going to want them after the event is over to remember things by. Take videos.

You need to have a phone block with a cable in your cart or make sure the cart has a phone charger handy. Your phone will die otherwise.

Just sit back and enjoy, smell the roses more so to say. The experience moves so fast, that in a blink of an eye it was over and I look back just to think of the fun times had.
 
Last edited:
Really enjoyed the couple days guys! You all were awesome and it was my pleasure hosting the event. Events like this are a nice reminder of how lucky I am to be at a facility like Bellerive. What JB and Danny Do in putting these events together is really special!

Someone asked for a little WITB for me. It's nothing too special, but here goes!

I'm on Callaway's National Fitters Board so all clubs are Callaway except for my putter which I just can't get out of the bag. I also am not exactly sure what some of these shafts are exactly as Danny sends me some to test and if I like them I put them into play, so not all of them are available retail.

Epic Max LS 9 Degree - Helium 5F4
Epic Max 13.5 Degree 3 wood - Some sort of sweet looking linq that is very stiff. 6F4 Low/low launch but it gets overtaken by the high launching nature of the Max head. This 3 wood is an animal for me I love it.
Epic Speed 5 Wood - I think it's a tour version of Lin-q Blue? 7F4 and Callaway bent the head a couple degrees flat for me
Apex 4 Hybrid - Standard retail Recoil Dart 75
Apex Pro 5-PW - An unannounced Recoil Dart that I'm not supposed to talk about ;) - But these are SWEEEET
MD5 RAW 50S,54X, 60X - Recoil Wedge Proto 110 - Love these wedges
L.A.B. Golf Directed Force 2.1 - Blue finish - The most stable putter I've ever rolled. I just can't get rid of it.
Chrome Soft X Yellow Triple Track

That pretty much does it! I do have a 17 degree Super Hybrid on the way that I might toy with, and I have a 21 Degree Utility Iron that stays in the trunk rarely used.
 
Last edited:
Only Sister in law and niece today. Wait, My dad did come over for dinner and to use the hot tub. 😂
 
Told you, I think the old show Everybody Loves Raymond was copied from my family. I even have the twin boys to boot. 😂 or should that emoji really be 😭
 
I am thinking charcuterie board.
They were full cutting boards. One for THP and the other for UST Mamiya.

You could use them for all food items.

I had a student that recently graduated cut them from an Ash Tree wood we got from around Penn State University.
 
Back
Top