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Enchanted by Speed

Why are we all hung up on fast, faster, and fastest greens? Old courses were not intended to be played at twelve on the uninvented stimp meter. Bring back slower greens to allow devilish side hill pin placements to be used without turning the result into a joke. How did the architect envision tough pin placements? Could we try and slow things down and see what results? An idea worth trying I believe.

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With the US Open just concluded at venerable Oakmont and the PGA headed for Southern Hills, home of Stewart Cink’s miss of an eighteen inch tap in on the 72nd hole followed by Retief Goosens three putt from 15 feet I’d already been thinking about the USGA and it’s fascination with lightening quick greens.

I played a local course which was still set up for a major state amatuer event.  The hole on the first hole was cut on a slope, nothing really severe but definitely an incline.  One of my group had a 15 foot uphill putt that rolled a few inches beyond the hole.  As he strode towards the ball  to tap it in, the ball started back toward him eventually ending up about three feet closer to the hole than his previous stroke.  Bizarre.  Utterly frustrating.  Very very  destructive to the vocabulary.

Why are we so enamored with greens that are so slick a ball mark might slide off into the fringe? Is this how Mr. Fownes envisioned the devilishly sloped contours of Oakmont playing?  Did Donald Ross, in a precient moment, devise the inverted teacup greens of Pinehurst #2 to bedevil golfers by playing at 11 on the yet to be invented Stimp meter?  How about Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie building those Augusta greens to be played so quick Gary McCord would be reminded of bikini waxing?  Was that the plan?  I think not.  In fact lost in the discussion about equipment advances, balls that fly to far, grooves that are unfairly square is the changes made to historic designs because the speed of the greens exceeds that of the Interstate system.

I don’t know about you, but I have been curious for a while how some of those marvelous old courses would play with green speeds consistant with the era in which they were created.  Watch some film from that bygone era of persimmon and balata with an eye toward how hard those players hit the ball with their putters.  I doubt that the smack they lay on the ball is due to the fact that they hadn’t yet heard of a fitness trailer.  I shake my head at some of the real pops applied to a fifteen foot putt, and the ball doesn’t wind up twenty feet beyond the hole.  I envision some devilish pin placements that would be brought into play if the greens ran at the historic speeds you could get back in the day. (sorry I’ve always wanted put that phrase in print, childish but there you have it)  A course designed and built in the 1930’s or before was never meant to be played with the green speeds todays agronomy can attain.  I know the rest of the equipment has evolved, but putting remains putting and if the ball will sit on a sloped green as was intended by the designer lets see what kind of challenge that brings.  Make players put a hit on the ball and let’s see what happens.

Just for fun, the USGA and the Tour should take some of these old venues, grow the rough, slow down the greens and hide the pins on some slopes and ledges so more players than Woody Austin would beat themselves in the head with their putters.  In my mind, this would be a noble and worthwhile experiment.  Of course I could be wrong, but until we do it how will anyone know.

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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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