Jim's bag

[JimW]

Trying to get back into playing more lately after playing seldom for quite a while. Doing so I had to remind myself, again, that P-PDs are far and away the best disc for long distance/max D shots and I really shouldn't mess so much with S-PDs or Flows. I max out around 330ish most of the time, occasionally will really rip one well out to about 350', and at that distance the P just plain does the job best and gives me more birdies/pars and less mistakes.

Also ditched the Swan and went back to the Pure for putting which I'm feeling is a good thing; the Swan really was my putter for a while just because the first ever putt I used it on was a long turning birdie on a hole I had never birdied before. It never really justified itself beyond that when the Pure gives me a little better release.

My biggest issue right now is deciding whether I want the Mercy or Opto Pure as my putter driver, I really like the Mercy but bought my first Opto Pure today and that's quite nice too. The Star Gazelle I also just bought today, it's domey for a Gazelle but has a high PLH and is very stable, probably a tick moreso than my glow champs started out as.

Zero Pure - Freshish, for putting
Zero Pure - Beat to hell, for approaches
Opto Pure or Zero Mercy, for driving and stable approaches

X Buzzz - fairly beat
Z Buzzz SS
Z Hornet

Neutron Amp
Star Gazelle

P-PD - freshish
P-PD - seasoned
C-PD

Fairway driver situation is a little weird right now because I just picked up the Star Gazelle and it's quite stable. Too much so for some shots so I really need either one of my seasoned glow champs or a DX in there right now but when I'm using my Squirrel Monkey I don't have the space.

[JimW]

Trying something out now that I have a Shock. My initial impression using the Volt and Amp was that despite the rim width they were more suited to my Gazelle shots than challenging PD distance. While I still feel quite comfortable using them at that shorter range I've also had good success with getting them out there reasonably close to PD distance; I haven't had a chance to do a real comparison yet after re-bagging the Volt today (due to windy conditions and the field I normally practice at being closed for an event) so I can't yet tell how much of the power loss is due to them being shorter and how much is related to my weird lack of power the last week that I felt I mostly, but maybe not completely, recovered today.

The end result of all this is that I'm going to go for now with just the MVP trio for drivers, replacing both the PDs and Gazelles. How will that will work in the end remains to be seen but for now I'm highly interested in seeing how it goes and it also helps in my constant struggle against stuffing too many discs in my Squirrel Monkey (or using my Fade Tourney instead). Maybe it will work, maybe not, though one of the more likely outcomes is something like adding a single FD/JLS/Gazelle and a single PD for max distance. I also might end up getting another C-TD instead as that gave me some of my longest throws ever.

2x Zero Pure
1x Zero Mercy

X Buzzz
Z Buzzz SS
Glo Z Buzzz

Amp
Volt
Shock

XXX

[discmonkey42]

Jim, would love to see an update on your findings with the MVP drivers when you have it. I'm doing almost the identical thing in keeping a 150 Solf and a lighter Sols for distance lines (the solf and the pd are interchangeable for me) to complement the MVP driver lineup. Looks like our distances are about the same too so I'm very interested in your experiences. If this setup works as well as I think it might, I'll have almost zero overlap in my bag and the strongest lineup of accurate fairway drivers I've ever had.

[JimW]

Jim, would love to see an update on your findings with the MVP drivers when you have it. I'm doing almost the identical thing in keeping a 150 Solf and a lighter Sols for distance lines (the solf and the pd are interchangeable for me) to complement the MVP driver lineup. Looks like our distances are about the same too so I'm very interested in your experiences. If this setup works as well as I think it might, I'll have almost zero overlap in my bag and the strongest lineup of accurate fairway drivers I've ever had.

I haven't quite had the full amount of evaluation I'd like yet but I do feel like I'm getting a good idea of how I feel about this.

Short answer? I'm happy, not feeling limited, and want to continue on this path.

Longer answer? My last four rounds have been two-discers, a Pure and first the Amp at a pitch and putt (8 of 9 holes are 265' or less), then the Amp at my home course, then the Volt at a shorter, easier course, and then the Volt again at my home course (mix of shorter and longer holes, plenty of trees, and holes finishing both left and right). All four times I threw the driver on every hole even if it would normally be a putter drive. I've never been very good at throwing discs powered down (and really have never done much of it at all), especially not powered down enough to throw 50' or more shorter, but despite some kinks I generally had quality results. Even the Volt holds an anhyzer line at low power well enough to remain effective. I'm really impressed with the discs performance even at much lower speeds than I would normally through them at, the versatility is great.

Regarding the two sets of discs I'm trying to replace here. I love PDs, always will, and I think that individually the PD is a better disc than any of the MVP drivers. Not by a lot, but it is. The thing is though I'd rather throw the three different MVP drivers than three different PDs. If all I was testing out was the Volt is would be an easy decision and one the Volt certainly would not win. For a standard straight to a tad understable driver the P-PD is superb and as great as the Volt is it's just not the same. So far though I like the Shock better than my overstable S-PDs or the C-PDs I have, maybe the meaty CFR C-PDs would fulfill what I want but the regular productions don't quite do it. I've run into trouble on drives where the fact that the PD is just a damn straight disc shows even with the C's and it ends up going straighter for longer than I expect/want. The Shock isn't a super meathook or anything, far from it, but the overstability is a bit more reliable for me and I don't have trouble with it going overstraight. As for the Amp versus a beat PD for the understable slot it's not even worth discussing, the Amp whips the shit out of it. I also feel like the MVP drivers fly more closely to differently stable versions of each other than pairing a freshish P-PD with the Amp and Shock would so I'd rather stick with the Volt in that slot because it's less likely to throw me off. Finally, the Volt and Amp power down better and more reliably than PDs do; again, the PDs aren't bad for that by any means, but I don't find them as natural to throw on shorter distances as I do the MVP drivers.

As for replacing Gazelles/other fairway drivers it's simpler than with the PDs. Despite the fact that I'm now getting MVP drivers out about as far as I do PDs (in fact I feel like the Amp is longer for me than a PD, probably due to the ease with which it can be thrown on a beautiful flexing flight path) I'm still not having issues with overthrowing holes in the 285-300ish range that I basically always would throw a Gazelle on. I don't know that the MVP drivers are necessarily better for me at that distance range but they aren't worse and unless I decide I have to go back to a separate driver class for longer distances then that's all that matters.

Talking to Discspeed a few weeks ago I learned that they haven't run more stable Volts yet (or at least hadn't at that time) so the one I have is one of the non-stabilized ones. The disc that will actually fit what I'm looking for is one of the stable Amps so if I can get one of those I'll be set, though I think it's possible that if I have that I may end up preferring to let the less stable Volt go and instead using a stabilized one when they become available. We'll see.