YankeeJim:What was out in 2013 took 4 years in the making so you had to deal with inferior equipment that made GIRS and putting a serious challenge.
jayw4862: I can find 10, 20, 30 or more folks who were around 7-8 years ago, and didn't have the equipment available to them at the time, yet they excel at this game...big time...and they have superb putting skills
BTW..When I started, I used starter gear until Legend. I did buy the WGT cheap balls (10 credits, I think). The newest course was Merion, and I think it was the Open and I played that course countless times (using starter equipment), trying to figure how to reach the fairways, much less get to the greens.
When I found the stats page/pop-up, I started keeping track of them (Jan or Feb of 2014). My GIR was below 30%, one putt was below 30% (even though my approaches were mostly chips and pitches), FIR was 60%. I had over 1,000 RR's at the time, too. I played this game for hours and hours when I first started.
That's also when I bought some irons and a driver. 1st set was G10's.
I learned real quick that the forum was the worst place for game-play advice. The best players avoid the forums like the plague. Run down the top 10-20-50 money leaders on any given month/year...how many main forum posts, concerning game-play-not bugs, have they made during that month/year? Probably count 'em on one hand.
So, with that in mind, I befriended a few top players, and asked my questions directly. I got good answers and advice.
I had sent you a friend request. Life's too short for petty sh*t. Figured if you accepted, I'd shoot a message, and squash this petty sh!t. I still stand by my original 1st post (like I said, it was a direct copy/paste from one of the very elite, top players, from a question I asked about forgiveness in the putters just 3 days prior to the OP's post).
Glad you didn't get the request, or turned it down. I don't feel so bad, now.
OK...now "I'm done", maybe.