It’s the second trip of the THP Event series called Shaft Up with UST Mamiya in 2023. For those that have missed the previous years, Shaft Up is a series of 3 events on the THP Forum where lucky forum members win a full fitting, golf at amazing course, new equipment and oh yeah, it is all 100% free including airfare. This year trip 2 is being held at the beautiful ArborLinks Golf Club and it is going to be an amazing follow.
Shaft Up #2 is coming next week and just because you will not be at ArborLinks with Danny Le from UST Mamiya, and myself, does not mean you cannot win an amazing prize.
How to Enter
Two THP Forum Members are heading to Texas to get fit by into the new Callaway Paradym driver along with a premium UST Mamiya Shaft. Then they will be playing as a twosome against Danny and myself. Those forum members are @coloradomrg and @mson
Step 1: Post below and include the following information.
Who will win the match? To make things even, we will be giving up 14 strokes in match play.
What is your current driver?
What shaft is in your current driver?
What is your favorite UST Mamiya driver shaft?
Step 2: Follow along with this Live Update Thread and see if you were right and if you are the lucky winner. The updates will kick off below beginning with travel.
The Prize
We have a killer THP Prize Pack filled with amazing goodies going out to the lucky winner of the contest!
If you like our weekly contests, make sure you share them across the social media platforms below and check back each day for more new exclusive THP content.
Entries must be submitted by Wednesday June 7th at 11:59pm ET. The winner will be chosen randomly from those that guessed right. Please remember only one entry per person.
Haha! Great little jab! 66.3%.
Have you been able to get out to a course yet? If not, post-experience blues are a thing. Other people go through it. It’s completely normal to look at an otherwise decent course and want to go back to the experience even more. I thought it was overblown but it hit harder than I thought. Random memories kinda makes up for it. Almost.
I have not and might not get out for another week or two unfortunately. A lot of range time with the new driver/shaft will have to suffice in the short term. I’m 100% certain I’ll be very disappointed that first time back to playing my normal courses.
BTW, we both ended up with putter covers – but I think @mson was able to get a slightly cooler one than I did
Using a center shafted putter means I am lucky to find anything that works, or looks good. I got one that does both!
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That’s a good looking cover!
Thanks again everyone for following along!
Appreciate you guys!! Thank you!
Same to you man! Congrats! Great gesture from @Coloradomrg and @mson ! Looking forward to seeing the swag!?
Day 1
) before heading back to the cottage and turning in for the night.
I was coming from the west coast so I had a 9am flight that connected in Denver, where I’d meet @Coloradomrg / Merg. While I was meeting Dave for the first time, it certainly didn’t feel that way as the conversation just flowed as it would between two good friends. Just a very down to earth, genuine guy and happy to have shared this experience with him. After catching up over a quick airport lunch and beer, we both hopped on the short flight to Omaha, where we grabbed our clubs, met the driver and were quickly on our way to ArborLinks. About an hour of driving later, we turned onto the long gravel road where the anticipation grew even more and we finally pulled up to ArborLinks. I knew from all of the THP experiences that Dormie Network service was incredible, but to experience it first hand was something else. As soon as we arrived and exited the car, we were greeted by the staff, who took our bags, gave us a cart and showed us to the cottage. Let me tell you no little detail was left out by the staff at ArborLinks, from all of our names listed outside the cottage, individual names on each room door, stocked fridge, bathroom amenities, charging cables (which I had actually forgot) and more. Once in the cottage, I got to meet @JB and @DannyLe, who quickly made us feel at home. I got my bags situated in my room, where I found all the amazing swag Danny had laid out on the bed – headcover, towel, hats, ball marker, divot tool, tees, putter shaft. After we all chatted for a bit and got a quick rundown of the next couple of days, we got a tour of the facility, did our first pro shop damage, and sat down for dinner. We’ve all seen it, but the drinks and food are top notch. We all started off with a smoked old fashioned in true THP fashion, and had great conversation over amazing food (the ribeye and truffle parmesan fries I had were fantastic). After dinner, we headed downstairs for some ping pong and pool before heading back to the cottage and grabbing our putters. The putting green isn’t nearly as big as some of the other courses, but it gave us a nice preview for what was in store for the next day. Danny gave us a few pointers (which helped me out quite a bit in the competition round
Day 2 to come…
What an awesome prize pack. I have been eyeballing that mini Mizuno bag every week on WGP. Gonna go right on my desk at work. Awesome hat, towel and shoe inserts too. Thanks @JB
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What was inside?
I don’t know yet! I was leaving as we saw it was delivered lol
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Glad it got there in one piece! Thanks for following along!
Enjoy! Thanks for following along!
Didn’t get to sleep until pretty late night before due to all the excitement and probably time zone difference, but the day started off early at 6:45. Got our clubs loaded onto the carts and we were off to breakfast. Another testament to the great service here – at some point while we were in the cabin overnight, carts were switched out for fresh ones and they laid out a towel on the seat so they weren’t wet in the morning. In the dining room, they had a coffee station set up right in the middle so we were able to grab coffee first thing on the way to our table. Each day, they had a nice breakfast buffet set up with the usual eggs, bacon, sausage and home fries, as well as a breakfast burrito which hadn’t made its way out yet. I went light on everything in anticipation of the breakfast burrito, but unfortunately it came a little later than anticipated and after taking it to go, I never got a chance to eat it and had to throw it away after 12 or so holes of sitting in the cart
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After a quick breakfast, we made our way to the range around 7:30am, where I got to experience one of the most pristine ranges I’ve ever seen. Grass like carpet, Titleist range balls with Dormie logos, Dormie tees and alignment sticks set up at each stall. Wow! I never get to hit off of grass at the ranges back home, so this was a real treat for me. Went through my usual pre-round warm up – wedge, mid iron, hybrid, driver – before heading to the putting green to roll a few putts. Before I knew it, it was 8am and we were on the first tee box. First tee shot in my first THP experience ever…first tee jitters were hitting a bit. I picked my line and hit a solid drive down the fairway, which helped the jitters fade away pretty quickly. This was only my fourth round of the year, so I wasn’t sure how everything was going to go, but I played some of my best golf for a decent portion of the round – good drives, approach shots and putter was working. @Coloradomrg and I found our groove early to build up some cushion on the front 9, because we all know what typically happens on the back 9 when playing against Jewamese. Good thing we did because they started chasing us down on the back 9 and around hole 13 or 14, I started losing my swing. While I had a good putt here and there to save a hole or two, the rest of my game was fading. Luckily, as I was falling apart, @Coloradomrg was gaining momentum and carried us home with some fantastic holes and a clutch finish on 18. The course overall was just incredible and this is easily the nicest course I’ve played and probably will play for a while. Better than I could have imagined even after getting a preview during the Goat Cup.
After the round, it was lunch, fitting and more golf. I couldn’t resist order the brisket grilled cheese after seeing it during the Goat Cup. It was as delicious as it sounds and a must try if you’re there. After lunch, we headed out to the range for the fitting. My gamer was the Ping G425 9* w/ Ping Tour 65 shaft. I’ve always hit that driver well, but knew I was sacrificing distance, so I was excited for this fitting. After taking a few swings to get my baseline, I started off with the Paradym X 9* and LIN-Q M40X White 6F4. Took the first swing and all I could think was "Wow!" The shaft felt smooth through the swing, I could feel it load much better and I could feel the club head throughout my swing. Haven’t always felt these things when swinging prior drivers. Pair that with the Paradym X head and I was seeing much faster ball speed and a lot more carry. I had a pretty quick fitting and I think I was pretty much done after this first combo. I did swing one of the prototypes and one other shaft (don’t actually recall which), but only took maybe 4-5 swings total between the two other shafts. The feel and numbers with my first combo were so good, the Paradym X and M40X White was the winning combo right off the bat.
After Dave got his fitting, we made a quick pit stop at the cottage before gearing up for bonus golf with the new drivers. I was definitely seeing great ball flight and more distance on both good strikes and mishits, which was awesome to see on the course, though I think fatigue was setting in. I’ve never played more than 18 in a day or even two consecutive days, so I wasn’t playing too great in the afternoon, but hey, I was in a THP experience at a fantastic course with good company so this couldn’t be any better. Throughout this round, @DannyLe gave us some on course pointers, showcased his putting prowess with the bunker rake and took our money on a closest to the pin. Had an absolute blast just enjoying a carefree round of golf with good company.
After the round, we enjoyed some post round beers and made our second pit stop at the pro shop before showing up before dinner. Dinner this time around for me was the brie and fig gnocchi, paired with hatch chili mac and cheese (no way I could go wrong with pasta and pasta). Both were delicious and that hatch chili mac and cheese had spice to it in the best way possible. After dinner, you guessed it, pool and ping pong. We eventually made it back to the cottage where I sadly packed everything up for our last half day at the property since we had another early morning start.
Day 3 to come…
Day 3
Bags were packed the night before because we had another early start to the day at 6:45am. As I mentioned in my Day 2 recap, I’ve never played more than 18 in a day or even in two consecutive days. My body was definitely feeling it so I pre-emptively took some Advil…just in case. Since it was checkout day, we just had to leave our bags in the living room near the front door and everything would be taken care of and waiting for us at departure. Pretty awesome and again, just unmatched Dormie level service. The morning started off the same with coffee in the dining room and the breakfast buffet. The buffet was the same – eggs, sausage, bacon, home fries – but this morning, the breakfast burrito was all ready to go and I actually got to eat it rather than take it for a leisurely ride around the course. It was filled with eggs, sausage, home fries and so good that I took a picture of the outside and completely forgot to take one of the inside before inhaling it.
After breakfast, we again made our way to the range and putting green for a little warmup before the last round of the experience. I definitely was not swinging too well during my warm up and knew I was in for a tough round. This last round was a struggle for me from start to finish. It felt like I completely lost my swing, but I’m sure a lot of it had to do with fatigue. @Coloradomrg and I got absolutely destroyed by Jewamese and they made quick work of us, though I’m told this could have gone 8&7 so I guess 6&4 ain’t too bad ?. I also may or may not have lost two straight balls on the #18 tee (that’s how bad my swing was) before bowing out, but still had an absolute blast (how could I not?). The third time out at ArborLinks was just as amazing as the first. Each time we went out, I loved the course even more and it never got old. I found myself many times just admiring the course and thinking I should take a picture, only to realize I had already taken that exact pictures in a prior round. That’s how awesome it was. After the round, we had our final meal at ArborLinks. There was a lunch buffet set up with burgers, brats, crispy chicken wraps, chips and a caesar salad with prosciutto. All the food was just fantastic, which is a common theme here. After lunch, had a quick shower and did my best to avoid doing any more damage at the pro shop. By the way, they not only have stuff jam packed in the pro shop, but also racks of clothes outside of the pro shop that you have to pass by every time you walk into the dining room, so its hard not to look at something or want to buy something every time you walk by. Before we knew it, car arrived to take us to the airport, which meant the experience was coming to an end. One short delay on the way home due to some weather, but otherwise smooth travels.
I’ve run out of ways to describe this whole experience, but Shaft Up was just incredible. I’ve told so many people about it since I’ve been back…pretty much anyone who will listen to me whether they golf or not ?. I was even playing the other weekend and one of the guys I was paired up with asked me what kind of ball marker I was using, which happened to be the Shaft Up one. Got to relieve the whole experience a little bit when I was telling him all about the forum, the experience, the LINQ white shaft / Paradym X combo I was playing, the fitting, etc. Thanks again @JB and @DannyLe for such an awesome experience and thanks @Coloradomrg for being an awesome partner on this one.