News
Report: Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka almost fought after Ryder Cup
Update 10/3: Koepka denied the report. Speaking with reporters ahead of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, he said: “This Dustin thing, I just don’t get. There was no fight, no argument. He’s one of my best friends. I love the kid to death. We talked on the phone Monday and yesterday, so you tell me how we fought. People like to make a story and run with it. It’s not the first time there’s been a news story that isn’t true that’s gone out.”
It sounds like Jupiter, Fla.’s most famous golf workout buddies were anything but chummy following U.S. side’s Ryder Cup beatdown. In fact, according to a report by The Telegraph’s James Corrigan, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka nearly gave one another a beating.
Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte confirmed the pair had to be separated after an incident in the European team room Sunday night following the loss.
There’s no word on the substance of the dispute. Johnson’s fiance, Paulina Gretzky was close by, as was Koepka’s girlfriend, Jena Sims, according to reports, but there’s no evidence she was involved in the dispute.
According to European player’s wife quoted in The Telegraph, Gretzky was “clearly shocked and upset by the nastiness, which was very threatening.”
What isn’t clear is what could bring to pair of long-time friends, both of whom are eminently easygoing, to the verge of a physical conflict.
Koepka and Johnson lost to Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose in their Saturday afternoon foursomes match.
Adding further intrigue, as Luke Kerr Dineen spotted, a report by Ben Cadiou in Le Equipe said the pair were involved in a dispute on the flight over to France.
Johnson has not commented on the alleged dust-up. Koepka’s agent, Blake Smith, told Golf Digest the story is “made up.”
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Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
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 timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?
Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.
When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.
To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.
Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.
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Equipment
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter
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.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
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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Dave
Oct 4, 2018 at 7:57 am
I’ve lost count of the number of fights as a kid and bust ups later in life I’ve had with my best mate of 50 years!Mostly over sporting rivalries and failures. It means nothing.
Your President Trump
Oct 4, 2018 at 3:12 am
Fake news
Lovejoy
Oct 3, 2018 at 3:29 am
Is Alberstadt now the Golfwrx boxing and gossip correspondent?
Tom
Oct 3, 2018 at 1:27 am
Remember the old jingle, “things go better with coke.” might apply here?
Joeg Voll
Oct 5, 2018 at 4:32 pm
Can I quote you on that?
shawn
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:14 am
Where is grandpa Wayne Gretzky in all of this Dallas-esque intrigue..???
Jack
Oct 2, 2018 at 10:15 pm
Real story is that Paulina was still next to DJ.
They should have just fought before the cup to sort things out rather than have bad chemistry throughout.
shawn
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:13 am
ex-Playboy bunnies tend to be gregarious and promiscuous … ya think?!!
Brooks
Oct 2, 2018 at 8:21 pm
Will McKenzie, and Jason Dufner, use to be good friends with DJ too. Both are now divorced from their wives…..DJ cant be trusted… bet the truth all comes out real soon
shawn
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:06 am
OoOoOoOooh… hanky panky… in flagrante delicto too …?!!
toyzrx
Oct 2, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Well, good friends fight sometimes and I hope they went at each other and worked it all out.
shawn
Oct 2, 2018 at 5:29 pm
Low IQ athletes will resort to physical confrontation to resolve their differences… because they don’t have the intelligence to do it peacefully and logically. They are brutes and not to be idolized … plain & simple….!
s
Oct 2, 2018 at 4:17 pm
Wives and girlfriends….. *sigh*
shawn
Oct 2, 2018 at 5:31 pm
Wives and long suffering girlfriends with children born out of wedlock…!!
Tim Armington
Oct 2, 2018 at 8:34 pm
How old are you? 108???? Child born out of wedlock??? You are showing your low iq.
oppie
Oct 2, 2018 at 9:01 pm
It’s not “iq”…. it’s “IQ” or Intelligence Quotient…. “iq” is dopey…
None of your business
Jul 8, 2023 at 11:43 pm
It is still a valid term even now, and if it some how hurts your feelings, how about women with baby daddy’s , is that something that doesn’t hurt your delicate sensibilities.
roger
Oct 2, 2018 at 3:06 pm
Ain’t teamwork grrrreeeeaaaat … 😛
shawn
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:04 am
U.S. Ryder Cup players in near physical conflict…. U.S. democracy in political turmoil… Trump hammers out new deal with Mexico and Canada…. stock market soaring … only in the good ol’ US of A … 😮
Tom
Oct 2, 2018 at 2:29 pm
Gotta believe Brooks vs. DJ fight as a pay-for-view would outsell Tiger vs. Phil golf at Thanksgiving.
Bob
Oct 2, 2018 at 1:16 pm
Adds fuel to the rumor DJs fall at Augusta was a Koeoka push… Some people never learn to respect OPP
Zac
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:45 pm
Pretty sure brooks would destroy dj
~j~
Oct 3, 2018 at 1:57 pm
I’d go with DJ. Brookes has the look of someone who’ll get popped in the face and immediately walks away or concedes, hence why Jena runs his show.
ORRRR Better question, Jena or Paulina???
Scott
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:30 pm
I like the old days when American pros focused their aggression on Brits. Dave Hill threatening to wrap his 1-iron around Gallacher’s head, now that’s boss.
James
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:58 pm
What is a 1-iron???
Nolan
Oct 2, 2018 at 1:01 pm
Your 4 iron lol
big jones
Oct 3, 2018 at 1:08 pm
lol!
Ciaran
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:24 pm
Apparently the loser has to play with Patrick Reed in 2020, some say they’re still fighting….
big jones
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:06 pm
Who cares?
shawn
Oct 2, 2018 at 5:32 pm
Hero worshiping gearheads and wannabes…
Ardbegger
Oct 2, 2018 at 12:01 pm
…”and these are The Days of Our Lives”
JP
Oct 2, 2018 at 10:58 am
The story is not made up.
Brooks dropped some Tiger news to his friend giving him a heads up. Paulina told DJ that Brooks was telling him a lie. And that is where this whole thing started. Whether DJ & Paulina want to stay together for the kids sake is up to them. Paulina knew about DJ’s other fling and this was a way to get back at him. It’s all screwed up. Good luck to them.
C
Oct 2, 2018 at 11:49 am
Source?
Nolan
Oct 2, 2018 at 1:03 pm
I could believe the scorned woman part. Dangerous combo right there.
the dude
Oct 2, 2018 at 2:40 pm
what did you just say??????
Kevin
Oct 2, 2018 at 6:02 pm
R u saying tiger flurted w dj’s children’ mum?
Johnny Penso
Oct 2, 2018 at 7:22 pm
Why so cryptic? Just say what you have to say without all the riddles.
CrashTestDummy
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:11 am
Haha. Exactly. I didn’t understand a word of that. Some sort of code. Lol.
shawn
Oct 3, 2018 at 12:10 am
Tiger and Paulina ….??!!!! 😮 😮 😮
big jones
Oct 3, 2018 at 1:09 pm
The team did more than swap golf partners maybe?
oppie
Oct 3, 2018 at 1:59 pm
… one big happy family… doin’ it …. 😮