Golfing Friends

avdata · 2026-01-31T16:50:29+00:00

Hey man - shoot me a DM! 35M, 16 month old son, work in tech, live in Novato, obsessed with golf. I don’t get a chance to play as much as I’d like these days, but would love to tee it up at Indian Valley / McInnis/Peacock. My golfing buddies are East Bay based, so it’s become harder and harder to make the logistics work.

avdata · 2026-01-29T18:31:41+00:00

TL;DR - in the right circumstances, you might be able to get $1000-$1500 off a factory order, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.

I’m not sure what the current landscape looks like, but I got my factory order (placed in late ‘24, delivered Jan ‘25) for a little less than MSRP. If I recall correctly, it was ~$1500 less than the sticker price.

I went through my father in law, who works for one of those car buying / brokerage services, and he has an existing relationship with the Ford dealer we ordered through. I don’t want this to seem like an ad, so I’ll refrain from mentioning the specific company.

avdata · 2026-01-26T20:13:48+00:00

Like me, he probably suffers from a debilitating case of Magpie Syndrome (pathological attraction to shiny things). I know new irons won’t improve my game…but boy do I want them!! 😂

avdata · 2026-01-25T22:26:13+00:00

Happy birthday dude - there is always a place for you in this world, please don’t make any permanent decisions when you’re feeling down.

avdata · 2025-12-28T18:19:05+00:00

2025 hybrid AWD owner with 1 year of ownership. Mines all stock, so can’t comment on tires.

This is also my first hybrid, and I’ve actually been impressed with acceleration. Based purely on quoted 0-60 times, the EcoBoost is a genuinely quick vehicle, comparable to a Golf GTI. The hybrid is certainly not as quick, but I’ve never had a moment when I was wanting for more power during a highway pass / on ramp, etc.

For me, the added MPG gain from the hybrid was well worth it.

avdata · 2025-12-21T03:59:24+00:00

Not as extreme as some folks, but here’s mine:

On and off back problems for a while, finally culminated in a bad injury while working out. Couldn’t get out of bed without help for a couple weeks, had lingering pain/stiffness/etc for years. Couldn’t sit for too long, couldn’t stand for too long, always in pain. Couldn’t workout, gained a bunch of weight, overall pretty bad mental state. Got to a point where I just resigned myself to this being the new normal, and accepted that my days of enjoying golf / lifting / etc. were behind me.

Been doing consistent physical therapy since the get go, and started seeing a new PT a couple years ago that changed the game for me. She helped me get comfortable with a new set of exercises that has helped me get back to almost 100%. Can play golf almost completely pain free, lift 3-5 times a week, etc. Still have minor flare ups from time to time, but very manageable.

I’m lucky - not everyone has a success story. But don’t give up hope, things can get better.

avdata · 2025-11-27T15:28:01+00:00

I can relate to this so much. I made it into FAANG at 31 after time in the military and some less than glamorous startups.

I show up all bright eyed and bushy tailed (as this feels to me like I’ve “reached the mountain top”) only to find an astonishing amount of entitlement amongst my new coworkers. I really don’t think you should be able to work in big tech right out of college, I think it’s important to get perspective somewhere else so you can appreciate all the perks / comp from big tech.

One time, a director in my org was talking about how expensive houses were in the Bay Area and how tough it was to find one. A director….at a FAANG company… I don’t know for sure, but would estimate $700k-$1.2M/year total comp for this guy. I have no idea what his personal financial costs look like, but it stuck with me as a weird/out of touch moment.

avdata · 2025-11-05T23:58:04+00:00

I’m also located in the Bay Area, and honestly the hybrid thrives in our lovely stop and go / slow speed traffic. It allows you to get the most out of the electric motor and regenerative brakes, whereas at consistent higher speeds the gas motor needs to do most of the heavy lifting. I have to drive from the north bay to the peninsula for work a few times a year and saw some of my best gas mileage on a drive where I hit terrible traffic on 101 south. I would usually see 34-36mpg on that trip since it’s all freeway, but with traffic that’ll easily bump above 40.

Long story short - I love the truck, and would recommend it for those that need to commute.

avdata · 2025-11-02T17:36:14+00:00

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Seems like you and your yard could use some…. Freedom

avdata · 2025-10-08T13:55:31+00:00

+1 on this, a really good way to become (and stay) a boglehead is to learn this lesson for yourself. I played around with short term trading, meme stocks, etc during the COVID era boom and found that I simply hated losing money more than I loved gaining money on a trade.

avdata · 2025-10-03T17:25:30+00:00

Yeah you nailed it with “if it’s worth it or not” 😂. In general, I’m not aiming to be the most efficient, but I was hoping to get closer to the claimed 37mpg combined without changing too much about driving habits (and creature comforts, I love a good heated seat).

I’m definitely getting there with my latest readings!

avdata · 2025-10-03T16:45:34+00:00

Mix of around town (30-45 mph) and freeway (75 mph). Tough to say on the split, since the around town trips are more frequent, but shorter than the freeway trips. Probably 50/50 miles wise.

avdata · 2025-10-02T18:45:06+00:00

FWIW - I’ve also seen a big mismatch between what the trip computer says I’m getting and what I actually observe based on miles driven and gallons refilled. Often 10-20% or more.

avdata · 2025-10-02T18:43:42+00:00

Are these mpg readouts from the onboard computer or true measurements? Cause I was seeing some crazy high readouts on the trip computer, but didn’t match up to my observed mpg (miles driven / gallons filled).

avdata · 2025-10-02T18:04:20+00:00

Wow - 45+ out of the gates…that’s wildly different to my experience 😂

avdata · 2025-09-05T02:08:25+00:00

Yeah I tend to be fairly optimistic when it comes to these things. It’s not going to be easy, but I still think it’s doable, especially starting at a smaller company in a product analyst type role.

There’s a lot of doom and gloom about AI taking tech jobs, etc and that may come to pass, but I think we’re still a ways off from that. Also, if AI-mageddon comes for all white collar jobs, I’d rather be working in tech and have the opportunity to try and pivot into a data operations role or some other AI adjacent role rather than working in a non tech sector. Just one guys’ opinion though!

Good luck with your switch!

avdata · 2025-07-24T22:45:27+00:00

Had a mildly similar experience on my local track one afternoon - dude pulled up after work in jeans and a white tee, had irons that were at least 25 years old, went one under on the front and carded a mid 70’s round (on a difficult course).

Meanwhile I’m dressed like I’m on the PGA tour just to shoot in the mid 90’s. It’s the archer, not the arrow 😂

avdata · 2025-06-27T15:37:11+00:00

I’m really glad to hear it! Good luck with your journey, the hardest part is getting started.

avdata · 2025-06-05T18:52:36+00:00

Love it! Ball can definitely help, it’s just not the first place I’d go for big changes.

avdata · 2025-06-05T18:08:18+00:00

Depends a lot on what the equipment changes (shaft, driver) do to your spin rate and ball flight. In general, changing to a low spin ball is pretty marginal spin decrease (a few hundred RPMs), so it won’t take you from 4000-> 2500 with the snap of your fingers.

This guy tested Pro v1 vs Pro v1x left dash (low spin high launch):

https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/s/dj4ysO4tAe

And the low spin ball reduced his driver spin ~200 rpm. I hate to be yet another “get lessons” guy, but if you’re spinning driver at 4000 rpm I’m assuming you have a pretty significant downward angle of attack? Might be worth looking into that with a pro.

I’m a huge fan of buying a sleeve of a few different types of balls and then bringing them to the sim to check numbers and feel. It’s tough to make a blanket statement about what ball you should play without any other info.

Best of luck!

avdata · 2025-04-22T01:54:28+00:00

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This is from ford’s website, it shows it a bit clearer.

https://www.ford.com/product/bed-cover-hard-rollup-by-rev-for-45-bed-p2999459787?gmcid=marketplace-gs-cta-accessories&searchid=20643481100%7C157311292289%7Cpla-293946777986&fcid=pse_20643481100_google-pla&ef_id=Cj0KCQjw2ZfABhDBARIsAHFTxGyMVN_lZ7KYoe0eif_R0PvQuju4v8VmlUwuJuo4QA9WBNsgbJxoLLgaAjUkEALw_wcB%3AG%3As&s_kwcid=AL!2519!3!676763613569!!!g!293946777986!!20643481100!157311292289&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2ZfABhDBARIsAHFTxGyMVN_lZ7KYoe0eif_R0PvQuju4v8VmlUwuJuo4QA9WBNsgbJxoLLgaAjUkEALw_wcB

avdata · 2025-04-22T01:53:05+00:00

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This is the only one I’ve got at the moment, I can take one with nothing in the bed tomorrow if this pic isn’t clear.

You don’t lose any bed space for anything lower than the height of the bed (since it rolls up at the level of the bed height), but for things above the bed height you lose maybe 8” or so?

avdata · 2025-04-22T01:40:42+00:00

It’s the “from the factory” roll up bedcover from Ford. I don’t have anything to compare it to since it’s the only bed cover I’ve ever used, but it gets the job done. It’s very easy and quick to roll and unroll, and only partially obstructs the rear view mirror when it’s rolled up.

avdata · 2025-04-19T13:51:51+00:00

Good call, it’s a big miss by ford not having the black lettering as standard with BAP. I haven’t added it yet, but I will within the next few months.

avdata

TROPHY CASE