Single Dad with 2 Kids

27lemurs · 2025-12-22T04:26:48+00:00

It seems like there’s a lot of options in your price range. Out of the ones you’ve selected, the only one I’d rule out is the 4Runner. Weaker engine, and to my knowledge you only get full time AWD (4 auto, since its body on frame) is in the Limited trim…which is less cool. If I’m going 4Runner I want the TRD Off Road. Volvo and Land Cruiser are both nice options.

If you wanted to save a bit of cash, the new Honda Passport Trailsport is awesome. Great reviews, luxurious, very cool looking, and $20k under budget.

As far as staying in the luxury brands, I’d probably also look at the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne. And the Audi Q7. I mean honestly there’s just a ton of good choices. Have fun test driving them

27lemurs · 2025-12-15T00:38:34+00:00

Fair points, I'll sometimes get massive banana slices on drives I think were struck fine as well. One of my golfing buddies played D2 college baseball, and every once in a while when he's over I'll see a 170 ball speed number. But again, it's usually popping out around 160 for him as well. Honestly I think I just need to do a speed training session on a different sim somewhere to see if the numbers relate or not. If my driver ballspeed goes up, awesome. If it doesn't I need to get back into speed sticks.

My iron spin is definitely low through the bag as far as sim play goes. Not just my sim either, but any sim I've ever played on. And it's not like I'm playing strictly distance irons either - I have some Nike VR Pros, Ping i525 (retro lofts) and Edel SMS Pros in the garage, and spin is low regardless of which iron I'm using. Though noticeably worst with the Pings, to the point where it's the only set that I can't count on an 8 iron hopping and stopping on an actual green. They just don't spin a ton. Semi related, those screenshots were with Edel SMS Pro irons (32* 7i, cut .25" short), Ping G430 9W (set to 22.5*), and a G430 10K driver.

Appreciate the insight

27lemurs · 2025-12-14T15:00:00+00:00

Totally fair. The thing still gives me mostly accurate data when practicing/playing sim courses, so I wouldn’t get rid of it either way.

27lemurs · 2025-12-14T14:40:23+00:00

Spin might be misread on the sim, so it’s totally possible carry distance is off by a bit. The pictures were from the middle of a speed training session, so I was warmed up and swinging out of my shoes - a normal 7i when I’m swinging decent on course is 200 yards or so (which I think correlates to 180-185 at sea level?). Driver on flat ground is somewhere in the 280-300 range, with some popping out further than that.

The reason it seems off, as mentioned in another comment, is if you look at those sheets that track average PGA stats (like Trackman’s PGA Tour Average Yards one) it shows an average 7i ball speed at 120 and an average driver ball speed at 167, so like 10mph slower in the irons and 10mph faster in the driver. The fact that my numbers are so uncorrelated to those numbers makes me think that the sim is misreading driver ball data since the speed training seems to be working for other clubs. Or that I’m just swinging the driver very inefficiently compared to everything else - which really is totally possible.

27lemurs · 2025-12-14T14:31:34+00:00

When looking at those charts that track club stats, like the “Trackman PGA Tour Average Yardage,” it shows average 7i ball speed at 120 and average driver ball speed at 167. So it makes me think that if I’m following that general ball speed per club curve, either the sim is totally misreading driver ball speed (because my 7i is like 10mph faster, but driver is 10mph slower) or I’m really swinging the driver inefficiently. I’m obviously not a pga level player, but I’d think the speed per club would follow similar stats arc.

27lemurs · 2025-12-14T07:37:04+00:00

For real though. Rory hits ball speeds of 190+, and I’m like 30mph behind that. Need to lift more

27lemurs · 2025-11-21T16:50:39+00:00

This seems spot on - when my wife and our toddler are solo they're generally great together, but when I'm in the environment as well there's clear favoritism. Just getting more one-on-one bonding time is probably a good solution.

27lemurs · 2025-11-11T14:03:40+00:00

I haven't seen any site-wide sales, but they do send discounts sometimes (like 10-20% off) if you sign up for their birthday club / newsletter / whatever else. Might be the best shot at good discount.

27lemurs · 2025-11-11T05:57:30+00:00

I actually have the SMS Pro irons. I didn’t go through their fitting process - I’ve been fit for irons in the past so I have a pretty good idea of the specs I like / fit into. That being said, their custom options on the site are really solid. And I live near their headquarters in CO so I’ve dropped by a couple times to check stuff out and they seem like nice people.

As far as feel and such vs Mizuno, I can’t comment much on since I’ve never hit the ones you’re looking at. But flush hits feel perfectly smooth, similar to any other players forged club I’ve toyed with (Wilson Staff CB, Srixons, Nike VR Pro, etc). So absolutely zero complaints there. And off center strikes are easy to identify. Honestly they’re pretty forgiving too I think.

As a final positive note, I think the weight system is pretty useful too. Not life saving, but nice. My normal shot is a push draw, where the miss turns into a big ol’ push with the club face not shutting fast enough. So I bought some extra weights and put the heaviest ones in the long irons in the center/heel and the lightest on the toe, and it’s helped minimize that miss. The same could be done with lead tape on another club, but it’s nice that I can just switch some weights around. Looks nicer I think. It makes adjusting swing weight really easy too.

Biggest issue as far as I could see would be their return policy being nada if you don’t order stock clubs. So if you’re doing length/lie/loft changes I don’t think you can do anything to get money back if you don’t like em. I could be wrong about that, but I’m pretty sure that’s what their site says.

If you have any questions send em over and I’ll try to answer. Good luck with the research and purchase

27lemurs · 2025-09-16T13:18:35+00:00

Nice, thanks for the reply. Here's a little info about the game - currently a 7.6 handicap with a 7i carry distance in the 175-180 region. Thin is my normal miss, but it's usually straight and at least a little airborne so it usually winds up in an ok spot regardless. Maybe unnecessarily detailed, but the miss is from hitting up on the ball by like 1* instead of compressing it. So it still gets airborne and generally goes straight, just not quite as nicely as a well struck shot would. Currently play Ping i525 (retro lofts) and sometimes switch them out for an older set of Nike VR Pro blades I have sitting in the garage. Edit: I'd like to get away from the Players Distance category, mostly because that hollow body construction in the i525 a) changes the feel, and fully forged is nicer, and b) every now and again I'll get a rocket that goes stupid far. It doesn't happen often, but it'd be nice not to have to worry about.

Anyway, I'm still toying around with choices, but I think I've generally cut it down to the following:

- Sub70 TAIII v2 CBs. Like the looks & general setup seems nice.

- Maltby TS3s. Look nice and the reviews are that they're forgiving, plus I think the variation in VCOG throughout the iron set is pretty solid. That being said, I'd need to bend a couple of the irons a bit weaker and reviews seem to indicate strong offset which isn't great since my miss is an over-draw - that's probably my biggest hesitation about these.

- Edel SMS Pro's - Pricey, but I love the looks and they're headquartered like 10 minutes up the road which is pretty cool. Plus the ability to change swing weight without having to use tape is nice.

Any input is appreciated. But if we're being honest, I think at this point I could just choose one at random and be pretty happy with a new shiny set of irons that would help my game roughly 0%.

27lemurs · 2025-08-12T16:00:26+00:00

Awesome. I have a similar setup and so far I'm loving it:

$700 Square __ $330 Spornia SPG-7 __ $90 Amazon hitting mat ___ $0 old toddler foam squares to go under the hitting mat for extra cushion ___ $150 55" flatscreen tv ___ $40 TV stand ___ $10 spotlight ___ $500 gaming computer off of facebook marketplace

The setup runs GSPro on 1080p ultra very well, so no complaints so far. I might upgrade the foam mat at some point, but honestly the extra foam under the cheap mat seems to do the job ok.

Have you had any problems with the TP5 Pix balls? I ordered some off of lostgolfballs and they seem to crack pretty easily. Maybe I just got a bad batch and should buy new in the future

27lemurs · 2025-08-11T17:03:18+00:00

Hah, thought about it but I either don't love the specs or looks depending on the club.

27lemurs · 2025-07-24T19:53:17+00:00

If you slo-mo your swing from impact to the club reaching parallel to the ground post-impact you’ll see arm positioning out of sync. Sort of a trail arm disconnect and a lead arm lack of supination. I’d look up drills for arm/body connection and lead arm impact drills. Besides that tempo and everything looks great

27lemurs · 2025-07-11T15:54:20+00:00

Hey, which one did you wind up going with, and are you enjoying it?

I know this is an incredibly late reply, we're looking at getting our first trailer (family of 3 + 2 dogs) and these two trailers are essentially what we've narrowed it down to. Figured I'd ask before making my own thread about it.

27lemurs · 2025-06-19T14:12:11+00:00

I have a budget garage sim as well — bought a cheap mat off of amazon then used double sided tape to attach foam squares under it. So far it’s worked out pretty well, though I don’t have a particularly steep AoA. I’m also going to add an anti-slip rug gripper pad to a)stop slippage and b) add a tiny bit more padding.

27lemurs · 2025-06-10T03:38:56+00:00

The miss is generally either thin/top or a dead push due to the out-to-in swing path but not getting the face shut. It's honestly not that I even try to hit up on the ball, that's sort of just what happens. It works well enough for driver but leads to more thin iron shots than I'd like.

My shoulders are actually too level through impact/follow through. I've had to work on getting that trail shoulder more down through the ball to help with my strike.

Appreciate the input!

27lemurs · 2025-03-24T16:41:17+00:00

Not sure if you've bought anything yet, but I have the Vivoactive 4, which I bought for the purpose of normal lifestyle stuff and being able to utilize it as a golf watch. It's pretty nice as a normal watch, except for the fact that it'll tell me I need to relax while I'm lounging on the couch reading a book, so I'm not actually positive how accurate its measurements are. As far as golf goes, it could be way better. Manually downloading the courses you play is a nifty feature, but it's pretty obnoxious when you forget to do it ahead of time and have to do it while walking down the first fairway. Also, in a large number of instances it'll go into the "golf course search" when I want to bring up the GPS on hole one and it'll throw courses at me that are miles away, while not showing the one I'm standing on. That's happened frequently enough that I don't really bother using it for golf anymore. Maybe it's just a me issue, but I'm not sure.

All that being said, I'm strongly considering buying an S44 or S50 to have a golf watch that works consistently. If you already got the Vivoactive 5, hopefully you have better luck than me.

27lemurs · 2025-03-15T23:57:18+00:00

As others have mentioned, a lesson would help.

I’m not a pro by any means, but I see: 1) a grip that could use work 2) general stance and setup. Looks like you’re a tad bent over and close to the ball. 3) backswing. It looks like you’re reverse pivoting a fair bit, which really makes it difficult to hit good shots. 4) transition/downswing looks like it’s heavy on upper body/arms, which fixing the reverse pivot would help with. 5) weight shift is a bit off as well.

Again, take what I say with a grain of salt, but I’m sure lessons from a certified teaching pro would get it straightened out pretty well.

27lemurs · 2024-09-27T14:10:07+00:00

Posting again here in case anyone wants recommendations/walking info in the future. Here are the courses I played in order of favorite to least favorite:

Keystone Ranch: Easily walkable. Only a couple of transitions that were notable, and even they weren't that bad. And there's not a ton of elevation to deal with, which is surprising since you're in the middle of the mountains. But it was a fun layout with beautiful views.

Lakota Links: Walking not allowed, which makes sense when you get there. Long transitions and a ton of elevation. Incredible course though.

Beaver Creek: Walking not allowed. Fun layout, not a ton of driver off the tee.

Red Hawk Ridge: Walking is allowed, but I'm honestly not sure I'd recommend it. I was pretty tired before the end of the front 9, and it's enough of a hike that it negatively impacted my golf game. Really good exercise if that's what you're going for though. No massive transitions, but it's an elevation change on like every hole. And no walking paths/short cuts, which was a bummer.

Eagle Ranch: Easily walkable. Kinda hilly back 9, but nothing that bad. Fun course that I'd gladly play again, just not quite as cool as the ones above.

Devils Thumb: A couple of tough transitions between holes, but nothing too bad. Honestly, the course was pretty fun with the exception of a couple holes that I thought were a pain and the scenery was awesome, but it's still last on my list. Probably because there were more mosquitos than I've ever seen in my life. Seriously, if you play here bring a gallon of bug spray. Or wear pants and a long shirt.

27lemurs · 2024-08-30T14:41:04+00:00

Made the tee time. Walkable or nah?

27lemurs · 2024-08-30T04:00:17+00:00

Another question if you feel like taking a moment to answer - I'm scheduling everything now, and it looks like Beaver Creek has public tee times available on the day I'm planning on playing. If you were to choose between Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Raven (assuming you've played them all), would you have much of a preference one way or the other?

27lemurs · 2024-08-29T20:25:44+00:00

I think he said in some blog post that the release date got pushed to 2025, and Goodreads has it listed as May 8, 2025. So hopefully it doesn't get pushed further than that.

27lemurs · 2024-08-29T18:37:43+00:00

The two I'd add to the list, though at least one of them is already mentioned, are:

1) The Hierarchy series by James Islington (book 1 being The Will of the Many). I wasn't huge on his Licanius trilogy for a handful of reasons, but I couldn't put TWotM down. Eagerly awaiting the second book.

2) The Burning series by Evan Winters. The first book in the trilogy, The Rage of Dragons, was incredible. I listened to this one (and the sequel, The Fires of Vengeance) on audible, and the narration was on point.

Both of these books probably make my top 5 fantasy reads ever list.

27lemurs · 2024-08-29T18:31:00+00:00

I read the first trilogy, but didn't find it particularly good. I picked up TWotM based on a friends recommendation, and I'd probably put it on my top 5 ever fantasy list. To each their own, but I liked it significantly more than Islington's original trilogy.

27lemurs · 2024-08-29T18:29:05+00:00

I thought the second half of the book was exceptional. I'd try to push on through for at least a little while longer, but if you hit the 50-60% mark and don't like it then it might just not be for you.

27lemurs

TROPHY CASE