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2007 U.S. Women’s Open Preview

Story lines abound as the LPGA prepares for their third major of the year, the U. S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Golf Club in North Carolina. Will Ochoa win her first major? Can Annika bounce back from injury to defend her title? Can Wie make the cut?

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The 2007 U.S. Women’s Open Championship returns to Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, June 28-July 1, this the third time in 11 years. Pine Needles has been recently renovated and now packs 300 more yards for this year’s competitors, tipping out at 6,664 yards and par 71.

There are a myriad of intriguing stories at this year’s Women’s U.S. Open including a 12 year old qualifier, a wrist injury, an emerging superstar, a defending champion looking to return to form, and the new number one coming to Pine Needles fresh off of her first playoff victory.

The biggest story thus far has to be the 12 year old qualifier, Alexis Thompson. Thompson who hails from Coral Springs, Florida will not graduate high school until 2013, yet this week she will be competing on the grandest golf stage in the world. She became the youngest qualifier for the open ever, edging out Morgan Pressel, by 7 months and 20 days. There will definitely be a buzz around this young potential superstar this week; the only question will be whether she is ready for the test?

Morgan Pressel who was the youngest player to ever qualify for a Women’s Open, before Thompson, comes to Pine Needles looking for major number two, after winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship earlier this year.  She returns to Pine Needles, six years removed from when she was the story of the week, and the young phenom. Now established as one of the favorites and emerging stars on the LPGA Tour, Pressel can reflect on what she did 6 years ago. "I remember looking down the fairway and thinking, ‘Wow, this is wild,’" Pressel said. "I was so nervous, but excited. It’s so beautiful there," Pressel said. "It’s a special place." Maybe Pine Needles is ready to let her complete the journey that she started here 6 years ago.

Michelle Wie enters this year’s Open coming off of one of her poorest performances as a professional, and amidst a firestorm of controversy, stemming from an early withdrawal at The Ginn Tribute, an early exit that some saw as an escaping of the “88 Rule”. The wrist injury also hampered her the following week at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship where she finished dead last at 21 over par. She has been working in Orlando with swing coach David Leadbetter, and assuming that her wrist is healed, should be in better form here this week at Pine Needles. She still does have her sense of humor though, when asked about what she heard about Pine Needles, Wie replied “That there are a lot of pine trees.” Let’s hope that her golf game is back on par with her sense of humor.

Annika Sorenstam goes to Pine Needles as not only a previous winner there, but as the defending champion of the U.S. Women’s Open, winning in a playoff at Newport Country Club, by seven strokes, against Pat Hurst.  Sorenstam has been a little off form this year, due primarily to a bulging disk in her back and ruptured disk in her neck; injuries that have kept her sidelined since April. "Pine Needles has a special place in my heart for several reasons," Sorenstam told reporters yesterday. "I love that whole area … and I love coming back." The US Women’s Open would not be the same without her. Let’s just hope that her back and neck allow her to compete the way that she has for her entire hall of fame career.

The world’s number one player, Lorena Ochoa comes into this week’s major red hot, winning last week at the Wegmans LPGA, beating South Korean rookie In-Kyung Kim in a playoff. Ochoa was quite positive after the win saying, "This is really a good turning point winning a playoff," adding that "I like my chances for next week [at the U.S. Women’s Open]." Despite her struggles in the final round of majors in recent  years, Ochoa remains the favorite this week, entering the tournament fresh off of a win and as the number one ranked player in the world. Ochoa has 3 wins this season and also 9 top ten finishes, including three second place finishes.

 

Television Coverage

Date                Network        Broadcast Hours
June 27            ESPN2           5:30-6 p.m. (Preview Show)
June 28            ESPN             2-6 p.m.
June 29            ESPN             2-6 p.m.
June 30            NBC               3-6 p.m.
July 1               NBC               3-6 p.m. 

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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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