Most interesting... and in the end very promising, though obviously with some work to do. My second adventure with the new clubs was a random practice 9 (well, 18 but I only felt like playing 9) at Bethpage, with hard tees, slow greens and moderate winds. Things returned to the norm...sort of. I shot par, but I missed one fairway and one green. I missed 8 birdie putts, 6 of them within 18', the shortest 7'. The funny thing is that the only fairway and green I missed were the same hole, a 508 yard par 4. I first cut 30-40% my drive, then managed to hammer a 3W to the rough around the green 20-25%. Pitched out to 2' and made the putt.
Anyway, I will take that kind of accuracy off the tee and fairway every day. I had a chance to run a good -6 or -7 front 9 if I could have putted consistently. The Spider had felt comfortable but I was erratic with it at Bethpage. I was reading the putts right but off with my meters, and lipped out 4, leaving the others within 2'. I had the right read, but missed my mark with the meter. But my options are rather limited. The Anser has less forgiveness and a faster meter, but it's more precise. I can't see how that will help me if I can't hit the mark. I think my best bet for now is just to keep practicing with the Spider.
Two other things of note: I rented the Ping Rapture (247) driver. Oddly, it is almost identical to the Tour Plus for me, with 5-10 extra yards in some winds due to increased spin. The slightly faster meter was offset by what felt like more forgiveness for slight mishits. However, as I was using the Callaway s(i) ball for the first time, rather than the Tour-SD, that may be the only difference in performance in the two. It does make me excited to get to the higher Rapture, if I can get the same accuracy with a dozen or two extra yards. By then (L47), I'll have the Tour i(z), with will give me more distance as well. Also wonder if the new ball may have affected my erratic putting. I had been playing the WGT balls. THough in truth, it just felt like I was a hair or two off on my mark thus missing by a few degrees. Excellent pace, for the most part, though I did misjudge it on one downhill putt curving against the break and left a 17 footer 2.5' short..
Curious about the balls. A question: The Tour s(i) has a full ball less distance but a full ball more spin than the i(z). How does that translate distance-wise, especially considering backspin carry on tailwinds? Is the i(z) significantly longer than the s(i)?
The performance of my current set from the tees and fairways makes me very excited about my game when I move up to the Rapture irons and longer driver.
One last little note... it has been at least 27 holes since I have seen a bunker. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. At some point, since these are 'practice' rounds, should I hit some shots into the gorse, as they say... intentionally hit some bunkers to work on my sand and jungle game? As we don't have practice greens... yet. Or a driving range, all of which would be awesome.