News
Morning 9: DJ wins again | COVID-19: Champ negative, Frittelli postive, J. Day scare | W for Fassi
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1. DJ returns…now a winner in 13 straight seasons
…and owner of a new blue blazer for the wardrobe! AP report…”Dustin Johnson won the Travelers Championship on Sunday to end a long drought and extend his career-long season victory streak to 13.”
2. You may have missed: Day’s situation…further protocol changes
Nick Pietruszkiewicz for ESPN.com…”On Saturday morning, Jason Day asked to be tested again. He had an 8:19 a.m. tee time. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get a result in time. So his tee time was pushed back. He didn’t play with Rafa Cabrera Bello and Rogan Sloan, as scheduled. Instead, as the tournament leader Mickelson teed off on the first hole with Will Gordon and MacKenzie Hughes, a few hundred yards away at the 10th tee, at the exact same time, Day was started his round all by himself, not knowing whether he was positive or negative.”
3. Cam Champ tests negative for COVID-19 3X
Adam Woodard for Golfweek…“After three tests over the last 72 hours all came back negative, the 25-year-old took to Twitter to announce the good news on Saturday afternoon.”
4. Dylan Frittelli tests positive
Golf Digest’s Brian Wacker…“Dylan Frittelli has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the fourth player to do so since the PGA Tour resumed its season three weeks ago.”
5. McIlroy on T12 finish: Decision making “terrible”
PGATour.com’s Mike McAllister…“he will definitely take next week off in Detroit at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and may not return to action until the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, the second of two consecutive TOUR events at Muirfield Village.”
6. For Phil: Progress-despite weekend fade (and joggers)
…kidding, I’m bullish on joggers! Always! Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”It wasn’t the weekend finish he envisioned, but Phil Mickelson still viewed his stint at the Travelers Championship as a step in the right direction.”
7. Meanwhile, on the KFT…
Trevor Allen at KSL Sports…“Baylor alum golfer Kyle Jones knocked off two others in a playoff round to win the Korn Ferry Tour Utah Championship on Sunday.”
8. Fassi wins first pro title
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…“Two eagles in the span of three holes vaulted Maria Fassi to her first professional title. The former Arkansas standout went wire-to-wire at the Cooper Communities NWA Classic on the Women’s All Pro Tour in Bella Vista, Arkansas, about 30 minutes from the Razorbacks’ home course, the Blessings Golf Club. Fassi won the individual NCAA Championship there last spring.”
9. Two birdie bombs = $210K
Golf Channel’s Nick Menta..”Playing in the afternoon’s second-to-last group alongside runner-up Kevin Streelman, Mac Hughes poured in a pair of birdie bombs late Sunday to vault himself into a backdoor tie for third at the Travelers Championship with a final-round 67.”
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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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Dr Williams
Jun 29, 2020 at 9:42 am
This is why covid is joke. What is the test looking for? Medical tests are designed to look for instances of the virus, thus they cannot have false positives. They can have false negatives if there is not enough of the virus to detect, but they should never have false positives.