News
Morning 9: Update from the season-enders | New Tour pace-of-play policy | Revamped top 100 ranking
1. In Dubai…
Golf Channel Digital with the report on the DP World Tour Championship action/Race to Dubai scenarios…”Wiesberger leads the overall Race to Dubai, but with the way he’s played thus far this week, he could use some help from the Frenchman to finish in first place.”
2. Kim leads CME Group Tour Champ
Randall Mell…”Sei Young Kim may be the most underrated South Korean star.”
3. Meanwhile, at Sea Island…
Sean Martin at PGATour.com…”Webb Simpson was over par while his playing partners were going low in Thursday’s first round of The RSM Classic.”
4. New pace of play policy?
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”The PGA Tour confirmed Thursday that the policy board approved modifications to the circuit’s pace-of-play policy at its year-ending meeting earlier this week.”
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5. A new Top 100 ranking
Great perspective from Geoff Shackelford…”Ran Morrissett now helms the revamped Golf Magazine World Top 100 ranking, long the most respected listing of the planet’s best architecture. And while it’s a little tough to take a list covering the world seriously when there are only 80 or so voters and five panelists are said to have not voted at all, the overall statement says the list is once again about architecture.”
“Gone are more than twenty panelists, former head Joe Passov and numerous courses that appeared to have bought their way onto the list. The full 2017 list can be seen here and not surprisingly, the controversial Ayodhya Links and Oitavos Dunes are gone this time around, with Nine Bridges and Trump International Aberdeen both plummeting (53 and 54 spots respectively).”
6. Jan weighs in on the LPGA today
Stephenson had this to say regarding the $5 million Tour Championship purse…
“It’s great for women’s golf that we can say that,” Stephenson said. “We’ve always said that it’s equal. We still have so many of the same expenses (as the PGA Tour players) – the travel and the caddie and the rental car.
7. Kerr in the booth
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…”The 42-year-old mother of two kept busy this fall juggling family and her growing wine business. Kerr said her family won’t travel with her on the road next year outside of a few of the California events that are easy to drive to. She’s in the market for a new caddie and new clubs for 2020. And she’s ready for a fresh start.”
8. Garrigus on suspension
Adam Schupak talked to Robert Garrigus, who was suspended from the PGA Tour earlier this year and had plenty of interesting things to say…
9. 2020 LPGA Tour calendar
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”LPGA pros will play for a record $75.1 million next year.”
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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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Bob Areddy
Nov 22, 2019 at 11:20 am
A “new” POP policy is meaningless if you don’t enforce it. You already have a POP policy. Penalties are NEVER given out.