MB19

This is a good question for sure. ...and this looks like a great answer. I do wonder where the tipping point is between Mid-major D1 and top D2 is. While I don't pretend to be this ambitious, a cool project would be a tree hierarchy chart for the layers of D1/D2/D3 with plug-in variables to suit players like handicap, JGS rank/class rank, and academic profile. I have to think for-pay recruiting coordinators use something like this for clients.

Summer '25 update After about four months of running GS Pro on the Mevo+, the kids have used the hitting bay much more than they ever have. While they spend most of their time at the range (Playground), they have also played several of the courses I downloaded. Seminole Legacy, being that it is the only course on there they have played in real life, is their go-to--but they have also played many of the old US Open courses. Here are a few observations of GS Pro so far on Mevo+: --Driver carries are more consistent with their real world carries. --The graphics are so much better than the E6 software that came with the machine. --The ability to use the range/practice area at some of the famous courses is a welcome novelty. --Short game is improved. --Putting is still not good. --The ability to play famous holes like 12 at Augusta, 17 at TPC Sawgrass and even 16 at the WMPO (complete with a rowdy crowd with cheers/jeers) My son had a birthday party at our place with his golfer buddies, and they spent half of their time doing par 3 challenges on these holes. Even my daughter, who is about 19 months older than my son, was out there competing with them and she used to really dislike hitting out there pre-GS Pro. Maybe a good bit of that seems like a party trick or too much novelty, but the software has helped keep a club in their hand when we've been unable to get out and practice due to weather or time restraints. I have to pull my son off of it several times per week to get him to do other things or go to bed. The direct result of getting GS Pro has meant they practice more, and are shedding strokes. My son has dropped 4.7 points off his handicap since the software install, and has broken par for the first time in tournament play--doing both days of a two-day event, and then in the very next one-day event. My daughter, who probably puts in about 40% the effort and time he does, has dropped 2 points off her handicap. She had never broken 80 in consecutive rounds before the install, and she has done it twice this summer. I'm not doing anything I haven't done in the past. They still get lessons once or twice per month, I'm still tinkering with their club lineup, and I'm still trying to make it work with a son under 5 with me most of the time. The one thing I have done, now that they are 13 and 12, is that I've made a concerted effort to enter them into two-day events rather than a larger volume of one-day events. But part of the reason I've done this is also because they improved to the point where I could justify taking everyone a few hours away and cramming them into a Town Place Suites for a few days. At any rate, even if your opinion on Mevo+ may be that it is complete rubbish--GS Pro for $250/yr is a great garage solution for a junior who needs to get more swings. If I were doing it all over again, I would probably get the Square. With GS Pro, and considering how decent the putting is on the Square, I have no doubt this is the best budget solution around right now. For about $1K out the door, the Square/GS Pro combo is unreal. There's one caveat--my son's best friend is a lefty, and he's over at our place often using the hitting bay. The Mevo+ doesn't have to move to accommodate him, and that's a nice touch.

That Titleist is a cool find and would be a great collector's item for the right golfer for sure. There are some great lightweight FW and HY options out there, and at his size, it's likely what would suit him the best. If you could find a deal on a used Ping Prodi g FW (22*) and HY (26*) it would be a great fit until he cracked 75mph swing with his driver. If he's swinging a little faster, consider these used in probably in this order: -Ping GLe (first generation, blue and turquoise) with the 230 series shafts. -Callaway Epic Star Max series with ATS shafts. -Cobra AirX or FLyZ series.

5* name showdown

Looks like he's won three Nationwide events, three Golden Bear events and has a T-55 at the US Open to his credit. Dude could definitely play, and probably still can.

GC is legit. The best of FL's deep '29 class. Not a very big girl, but enough pop to compete at college distances. Wedges are her superpower.

I'm glad to help you not repeat some of my gear mistakes. Funny you say that about the 3W. A forum member challenged me years back when my son was about 9 to have my son hit three shots with his driver, and then hit three shots with his 17* fw. He told me that the FW would be just as long as my son's driver that was set to 12*. Turned out he was right. At that age, they don't have enough power to really show a huge gain with a driver, but of course the driver has potential to be much more consistent off the tee with the bigger sweet spot/enhanced launch capability. When I called him to tell him he was right, he said--"Did you think I was full of *#Y&?" Good times. But yeah, that TS1 should be great for your son. No need to create bad habits with clubs that are too heavy at that age, or make them work any harder than they need to in order to generate much needed speed.

I liked the TS1 for my kids so much that I held onto it for when my 4 yo is big enough to swing it in another four years or so. In the meantime, I loaned it out to my son's good friend (but with an LA Golf Silver 40L shaft) who is a very small 12 yo.

That's a great price, congrats.

There was a similar thread here to this one about four years ago, and even though I know better than to place feelings into large corporations, I couldn't help but feel betrayed that OEM companies would brand a driver as "junior" while making it as heavy as an adult version.

IMO the best solution, once you've decided you don't want to stick with USKG or Flynn drivers, is a TItleist 12* TS1/TSi1/TSR1 with an Air Speeder R3 shaft. This is about a 170g head/40g shaft combo that is forgiving and launches well. The Prodi G is set at 15*, but is forgiving I guess. Neither of my kids really took to it, though there are some who love it. The Cobra junior models are about as heavy of heads (around 195g if I recall) as the adult models and the shaft is like 47g I think. The USKG drivers are just OK, and certainly not worth it new.

The girls lineup at Benjamin should be pretty tough this year--IJS.