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Bad Ball Costs Hayes His Tour Card

J.P. Hayes called foul on himself, and lost his full time job in the process. During first round play at the PGA Tour qualifying school his caddie flipped him a new ball on the par 3 12th hole. After missing the green, chipping onto the green, and marking his ball Mr. Hayes realized this was not the same model Titleist he’d started the round with that day.

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J.P. Hayes called foul on himself, and lost his full time job in the process.  During first round play at the PGA Tour qualifying school his caddie flipped him a new ball on the par 3 12th hole. 

After missing the green, chipping onto the green, and marking his ball Mr. Hayes realized this was not the same model Titleist he’d started the round with that day.  He called over an official and took a two shot penalty.  The round ended with him shooting a 74, the next day he shot a 71 leaving himself with a good chance of reaching the final round of Q school and an opportunity to regain his playing privileges for 2009. 

Back in the hotel that evening Mr. Hayes noticed that the ball he had used on the 12th hole of day one was a prototype Titleist not on the conforming ball list as approved for tournament play.  Gulp.  Swear.  Smack forehead. Repeat Roberto deVicenzo’s famous "What a stupid I am".  Call tour officials and hang self out to dry.  "I pretty much knew at that point I was done."  Which sums it up nicely.

 

 

What one does when no one is watching, when the opportunity to either do the right thing (or avoid doing the right thing) presents itself, is the truest test of character.  Mr. Hayes stood up and did the right thing, something seldom seen in the world of professional sports, outside golf anyway.  In fact it’s seldom seen in the world.  Whether because it doesn’t happen much or because in the real non insular world nobody comments on the good things folks do regularly.  I could be jaded as well.  No, I am jaded as well, but that tangent is not one to follow at this time. 

Mr. Hayes wants, nor will he get, any sympathy for his predicament.  After all he did finish 178th on the money list this year, thus earning the trip to Q school in the first place.  He’s won over $7 million in his career so losing a guaranteed spot on the PGA tour and having to play mostly Nationwide Tour events is not a hardship compared to me losing my job.  Still, I find the honesty refreshing.  "We don’t have refs on the course, so we have to call penalties on ourselves. I’ve done it before, dozens of guys have," Hayes said. "Just about everybody out there does, but usually we move on and nobody hears about it."  Ah but we do hear about it.  Can you see a defensive back in pro football calling interference on himself?  Didn’t think so. 

Mr. Hayes still figures to get a dozen or so starts on the PGA Tour next year so if he plays well he won’t be destitute.  But still, the idea of opening the closed door and letting the truth out is a rare enough occurrence that applause seems necessary. 

I salute J.P. Hayes.  An honest man.

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5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Juansky

    Nov 24, 2008 at 11:51 am

    It’s all about doing the right thing and not doing your own thing. Bless his heart, J.P. is a man with character.

  2. Ben

    Nov 23, 2008 at 1:33 am

    I just hope that this serves as a positive example to all those who play the game. It sucks when you’re stuck playing with people who would opt to cheat just to say the shot a lower score than you. It’s great to see the people that we look up too and that play the at the pinnacle of the game also adhere to the highest of standards to set the example and lead the way.

    Thanks!

  3. Adam

    Nov 22, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    What a class move by J.P. He has his local support here in El Paso no matter what. Even though this is not a high point, it just goes to show what kind of game we all play and how great golf truly is. I know he will bounce back and get his card.

  4. Mark

    Nov 22, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    This is one of the reason I love golf, the character of the game. Given all the garbage outside of golf, it is fitting for me to be involved in sport with so much integrity.

  5. Ian Tessier

    Nov 22, 2008 at 10:05 am

    Wow, quite a story.
    Is his caddy still employed? I would think he would check every aspect of his players bag prior to every round.
    Congratulations to J.P. and thanks for making it cool to be honest.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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