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Rating the Zurich Classic walk-up songs

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On Saturday at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, for the second year, teammates are choosing walk-up songs for their first tee ball.

There is some good, some bad, and some painfully predictable. The teams are dynamic enough, but seeing their song selection really brings a new level of personal insight. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the hits.

The Good

Steve Stricker/Jerry Kelly: As Good as I Once Was – Toby Keith

This is, perfect. All I see is an Italian chef kissing their hands to this selection, sheer perfection. Self deprecation, confidence and an overall great song. I have to imagine Jerry Kelly came up with this and Stricker tried to argue he’s still in his prime.

Tommy Fleetwood/Sergio Garcia: Radio Gaga – Queen

Queen, so hot right now. Winner of nearly every Oscar, these Ryder Cup teammates kept it current with Queen while selecting a deeper cut. Somewhere, Francesco Molinari is looking at Instagram posts of this pairing and wondering what went wrong.

The Local:

Stephen Jaeger/J.T. Poston: Callin’ Baton Bouge – Garth Brooks

Roberto Castro/Cameron Tringale – Born on the Bayou – Creedence Clearwater Revival

As long as nobody googled, “songs about New Orleans” prior to selection, these are fair game and a sure fan favorite on number one.  What are the real chances any of these guys have ever heard these songs prior to Saturday? 10%? I have to assume smooth, hotel elevator jazz not available?

Bubba Watson/JB Holes – When the Saints Go Marching In – Louis Armstrong

Now we’re talking. This is my favorite of the locals group. Perfectly awkward yet funny Bubba. Can’t you just picture Bubba dancing like the WB frog with a top hat on while teeing up? “You’re welcome.”

The On-Brand

Henrik Stenson/Graeme McDowell: Wake Me Up – Avicii

Swedish, check. Banger, check. Sentimental value, check (Avicii passed tragically just over a year ago). Potential to turn the bleachers into a full rave, check. My money is on the rhythmic three-wood of Henrik Stenson all weekend and my personal favorite song of the lot.

Brooks Koepka/Chase Koepka: Bad Boys for Life – P. Diddy

This is somehow hilarious and terrifying at the exact same time. Something about brotherhood makes this song hit even more. If Brooks and Chase are not wearing black sunglasses strutting to the tee in Nike schmediums, just call the whole thing off. (Would have liked to see Brooks choose “Centerfield” by John Fogerty, because you know, he really likes baseball better).

Adam Scott/Jason Day: Suicide Blonde – INXS

The Aussies stick together, and stick with their bands. That is truly all I know about this song so I’ll move on.

Padraig Harrington/Shane Lowry: I’m Shipping Up to Boston – Dropkick Murphy’s

Not sure if this leads to good golf or a good round of irish car bomb’s, or just one followed by the other. Either way, a near certainty that this is the first time this song was selected by a sober person, for a sober group.

The Bizzare

Carlos Ortiz/Sebastian Munoz: Ground Theme – Super Mario Bros.

While this should be funny, I can’t help but assume they couldn’t think of any good songs, or have vastly different tastes in music. Great in theory but imagine following Bad Boys for Life with Mario sound effects., and then being outdriven by 30 yards.

The Hazards to Spectators

John Rahm/Ryan Palmer: Enter Sandman – Metallica

Exactly what John Rahm needs on the first tee. Metallica.

The Biased

Kenny Perry/Josh Teater – Renegade – Styx

As a die-hard Steelers fan, I’m unfit to judge this. (The Steelers play Renegade as a pump-up in the fourth quarter and it works against players not named Tom Brady). With that being said, if Kenny Perry is able to time up contact with the hard-hitting drums in this song, he might blast it a country mile.

The Off the Grid

Pat Perez/Jason Dufner: Bazanji – 2019

I had very high expectations for these two. Personality for days. I could see Perez with an entire room for his music collection, and Jordan’s. To be transparent, I had to google the song. It is however, as expected, a jam. Only these two could be cooler than the entire song selection process.

The Just Why

Baby Shark – Pinkfong
Joel Dahmen/Brandon Harkins
Michael Kim/C.T. Pan

I’m not going to even research it, but there’s simply no way any of these four have children. If they did, the last thing they want reminded of on the first tee is their one-year-old crying at 5:00 a.m. for Baby Shark (do doo do do do do). However, LET’S GO HUNT, is a great mindset for golf. So there’s that.

The Eye on the Prize

Andrew Putnam/Max Homa – Trophies – Drake

Speaking of a good mentality… This crew chose an underrated Drake song with a perfect vibe and first note. Homa might be the funniest and best golf follow on Twitter, and even he went for swagger over humor. When your song is literally called trophies, your odds have to improve slightly.

The Basic

Old Town Road – Lil Nas X
Troy Merrit/Robert Streb
Harold Varner III/Tom Lovelady
Colt Knost/Boo Weekly
Adam Schenk/Tyler Duncan

Hate to see it. Each one of these teams even thought for a moment, this will be great, it’s viral and ironic. Just hate to see it.

For the record, if I was any good at golf and had a partner who obliged, I’d select Mac Miller’s The Spins, because Mac is the best and the first verse is as good as Hip Hop gets.

You can take a look at the full list for yourself here 

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Former mediocre High School Golfer. Proud Penn State alum. Fluctuate between being an excellent ball striker and absolute hack. Currently living in Pittsburgh, Pa. and missing clutch 5-footers. When I’m not missing putts, I’m working to help great companies hire IT talent. Worked at Golf Galaxy growing up and never convinced them to actually carry left-handed clubs. Enjoy the lighter side of golf and making fun of myself, and the embarrassing things we all do related to this moronic/beautiful game. Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram @NotTheFakeG. Not Facebook though, that’s moving a little quick for me.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. ChipNRun

    May 4, 2019 at 12:02 am

    Post Ryders… If Patrick Reed and Jordan Speith had played as a team, they could have use:

    “Live and Let Die” by P. McCartney and Wings.

  2. N D Boondocks

    Apr 29, 2019 at 12:17 pm

    Read the full list, and seems not everybody had a song selection. So maybe that’s why Canadian players didn’t take Takin’ Care of Business (BTO)

  3. Mr. One Two

    Apr 27, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    A golf writer should know it’s Jon, not John.

  4. real recognize real

    Apr 26, 2019 at 11:16 am

    Mac Miller the spins is about as hip hop as B’rad from Malibu’s most wanted is gangster.

  5. Jj

    Apr 25, 2019 at 10:48 pm

    What a dumb event

  6. Cub Scout Juice

    Apr 25, 2019 at 9:17 pm

    Why didnt anyone use Michael Jackson?

  7. Hiphopguy

    Apr 25, 2019 at 5:35 pm

    Old town road is a great song

    Your only hating on a success story

    Also malcolm mccormick was a pathetic rapper

    Whole article is cringe

  8. Rob

    Apr 25, 2019 at 4:04 pm

    This was cool and everything until you chose to say the first verse on The Spins is as good as hip hop gets…………….

  9. real recognize real

    Apr 25, 2019 at 3:30 pm

    Kizner is the hardest mo fo alive.

  10. Spermagnatron

    Apr 25, 2019 at 3:07 pm

    Ghey

  11. Patrick

    Apr 25, 2019 at 3:03 pm

    Did you really just use the line “irish car bombs” and not realize how offensive that might be to two Irishmen?

    • Boyo

      Apr 26, 2019 at 7:20 am

      Yeah, let’s Kate Smith them..
      It’s a drink, fool.

    • Scott

      Apr 26, 2019 at 10:02 am

      Jeeze, relax. He is talking about the drink. Unless drinking and being Irish is now offensive. If so, guilty.

  12. 2putttom

    Apr 25, 2019 at 11:18 am

    Rahn/Palmer

    Stricker/Kelly

  13. Anthony

    Apr 25, 2019 at 10:32 am

    mac miller? wtf?

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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

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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 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

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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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