Mr Hahn

If he goes back to writing about independence in the way he did in 2014 I'll certainly go back to reading his stuff. It was excellent and for anyone who didn't really have a significant social media presence and got handed his Wee Blue Book, his writing was incredibly persuasive. As it happens, to enjoy his writing, you really have to disconnect it a little bit from the personality who is writing it. He's clearly not a very nice person. As it stands at the moment, all he writes about is this incredibly toxic trans debate which I have next to zero interest in. My twitter feed was full of this gutter debate and I realised his accounts were the root of 90% of it, so I had to unfollow. If Wings goes back to being a site about independence with the kind of articles it had in 2014, you can count me as a supporter. For now though, and I suspect there's a fair few in my position, my support definitely has "evaporated".

I've now watched it all, I enjoyed it. Self indulgent? Yeh, that's probably fair but I thought it was a very well put together piece. My respect for the boy was pretty much maxed out anyway but was nice to get an insight into his recovery.

Hmmm I'll take a photo and stick it up. It's no bigger than a golf ball it it's entirety but there is potentially a spot at the deepest part of the dent where the paint has come off (talking a couple of millimetres diameter). I suppose the scratches may also need paint but from my experience they can usually buff them out quite effectively. That looks considerably worse than mine, did that need paint? I know the roundabout you mean, doesn't it have lights on it? Would hope that would usually reduce accidents. It was Inverness I was in for work the week my car got the ding in question and found the Raigmore roundabout to feel far more dangerous.

This car is so covered in marks and scratches that it's impossible to tell what could be mine. I was away for work at the time but my girlfriend thinks she walked out the front door around the time it happened. Apparently the woman's kids were running riot, opening and slamming doors. She didn't think anything of it until she got back and saw there was this dent in my car. Thanks for the input @MP_MFC, @killiepiemuncher and @Empty It. Would appear my suspicions that it was ridiculous are indeed true and I'll get a quote from somewhere else.

Apologies if this has been discussed before on the thread. A neighbour recently dinged my car (we're 99% sure who it is but no way to prove it) leaving a small dent in the rear driver side door, close to where it meets the driver door with a small accompanying scratch. It's a Volvo V40 and, having taken it to the local Volvo approved bodyshop to get a quote, they've come back with over £1000. This includes removal of both doors, paint etc. Now, I'm really not a car guy but there's no sign to me that it needs paint and removing both doors seems excessive. Can anyone confirm or deny that this is as ludicrous as it first read to me?

Any idea how that strength of field thing is measured? Glad Riley dismissed Azinger's comment for the ignorant pish that it is.

That is disgraceful. I don't even know how players concentrate on their shots in America knowing that as soon as they make contact with the ball there's going to be a few hundred morons shouting "get in the hole", let alone doing it in the middle of their backswing. At one point this shouting "get in the hole" felt like a phase that these idiots would soon get tired of but they still do it at every event without fail.

Just tuned in to see the finale, what did he say? I always enjoy Riley's work, think he's a great guy on the Sky team.

It's a shame about Turnberry. Obviously the owner isn't everyone's cup of tea to put it diplomatically but it's such an incredible layout so it's a bit sad not to see it hosting the Open. Tbh, I actually know relatively little about Muirfield. I watched Mickelson's victory there in 2013 and remember that but have very little recollection of any of the holes. Also once got an invite to play there, one of my uncle's old friends is a member but unfortunately I was right in the middle of exams at uni at the time and couldn't justify clearing off to Edinburgh for a day. Don't think I'm the only one who worries a little about St Andrew's Old Course on the rotation as well. The history of the place means it's always going to be on the rota but, with the distance players are hitting it now, can it actually stand up to the test of hosting a tournament of that magnitude? I just hope to f**k the wind is blowing something fierce while it's there, then of course it's a totally different proposition.

I recently unfollowed Wings and Campbell's twitter accounts, got a bit fed up of the gender stuff and he barely seems to write at all about independence anymore. He's spot on on this occasion though. Bring gay people into schools to talk about that, if one of their teachers happened to be gay and comfortable talking about it, all the better. The more that children can see it's normal to be gay the better. But bringing this particular individual in to do this has been a major mistake and Black is embarrassing herself with her response.

Hope you guys play on courses that drain well! We've really not been bad at all up here with the recent weather fortunately. My course doesn't drain well though so it was still pretty muddy at the weekend. Really don't know how it would cope if it got the kind of rain you lads are talking about.

I think personality-wise Reed obviously rubs a lot of people up the wrong way but there's no doubting he's got a lovely swing and it's actually fun to watch him play. DeChambeau by contrast takes about 10 minutes to hit every shot and his technique is awkward as f**k to watch. I'd rather neither of them won but if I had to choose, like you, it's Reed by a country mile. I also realise the irony of an duffing, shanking amateur like myself commenting on someone who looks like they might win a WGC event today's swing. Speaking of which, I had my first round of the season today on the course. It was baltic, blowing a 3-4 club gale and the whole course was on winter greens. I hit some nice shots, I also had two shanks. Welcome back golf season, I've missed you.

Rahm's hole-in-one yesterday was a joy to behold, what a round. Good to see Bob making some inroads into the leaderboard after a poor first round. My money would be Thomas but wouldn't really mind anyone up at the top of the leaderboard winning except DeChambeau. Aside from his unpopularity because of slow play, I cannot seem to watch him without feeling discomfort for some reason. I find his putting technique particularly painful to watch.

They're Titleist T100s and they are magnificent! They're very different from my previous irons so will take a bit of getting used to but I think they will be better for me. I'd totally outgrown my previous irons both physically (I'm taller now) and ball striking. I've never listened to their podcast but their multiple "Tourist Sauce" series on Youtube I've found a very easy and pleasant watch during my lunch at work.

Got my new irons today and they are beautiful. Let me tell you, nothing makes the afternoon at work go slower than getting a phone call at 11am to tell you you're new irons have been delivered and are ready to collect.

Tait on for Hartley? At least we're identifying the issues, shame all we can do is take the bombscares off to be replaced with someone who doesn't play in that position.

Watched that on my phone initially but would encourage fellow posters to view on a monitor for the full experience. Superb.

Big putt from Scott there. I know it's hardly an original comment but jeezo that's a weird putter he uses.

I must have watched this hundreds of times since it happened to make myself feel better.

Had my iron fitting this morning which was very enjoyable, hit the ball pretty well apart from a couple of stupid thins at the start before I got warmed up. Was a hell of a wind to be getting fitted for new clubs in! My set up will thus look as follows for 2020: Driver: Cobra F9 Speedback 9°, Hazardous Smoke stiff shaft 3 Wood: Callaway Epic Flash 15°, Hazardous Smoke stiff shaft UT Iron: Callaway X Forged 18° (2 iron), Project X 6.0 shaft Irons: Titleist T100 3-PW, AMT White X-100 X-Stiff shafts +1 inch, 1° upright Wedges: Titleist SM7 52° (F grind) and 58° (M grind) Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom X 7.5 Fella at the driving range is going to lengthen my wedges too so they're also an inch longer than standard. Getting fairly common Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips on the new irons too. Going to get the rest of my clubs re-gripped to match that, finally getting rid of the Tour Velvet "Align" grips I've been playing with this season. To this day, I don't get the point of the red line. Was totally coaxed into getting them by the club pro and felt like a mug ever since.

Absolutely. Great that they've been so helpful for you, can totally see the benefits of them. Saw those benefits in my friend's games when I was a junior and got bloody frustrated watching their long games improve immensely and I just couldn't hit them. They just weren't the solution for me. My solution came through lessons to improve my ball striking and hours and hours of practice with long irons. Thankfully I'm pretty good with them now because the course I play on is very narrow and I hit them off pretty much every tee!

I can't stand hybrids. I had a 2H in my bag for years but pretty much always hated it. Something about it really didn't suit my eye, always felt like I was going to hook it. Replaced it with a Callaway X forged UT 2 iron and haven't look back since.

I'm one of those players that's never really thought about their ball. Generally use whatever someone gives me for Christmas until I run out and then buy something that's probably totally unsuitable. Will give it some thought ahead of this season. I hoping to get fitted for some new irons in the next couple of weeks. Mine are ok but I believe they are too short for me having been fitted for new wedges and woods this time last year. Mine are over 10 years old now and tbh I'd just like an upgrade, something with a slimmer profile ideally. My current Mizuno MX200s have been terrific but they're quite chunky because I wasn't very good at golf when I got them. I'm better now and the target is to get my handicap <5 this year. I'm currently thinking either the Callaway Apex Pro or the TItleist T100. Have demo'd both and really like them, especially the appearance of the Titleist. Will post a WITB once this process reaches its conclusion!

Saw this this morning as well. Something definitely needs to be done. My fear for this would be that getting players, broadcasters and manufacturers on board will be almost impossible. Particularly in America with massive wide fairways and shorter rough, a lot of courses just seem to be reduced to whacking a 320+ yard drive wherever you want followed by a lob wedge into the green. I think broadcasters argue that big drives are part of the spectacle of the sport (I don't really agree, drive and wedge golf is boring), manufacturers big selling point with each new rendition of a driver is more distance so I just can't imagine that conversation bringing wide ranging solutions any time soon. I think a degree of the solution is making hazards like rough and bunkers more penal and narrowing fairways for tournament play but at some point the issue of the equipment is going to need to be addressed.