News
WGC Bridgestone Invitational Preview
This week the PGA tour has yet another two for one, the World Golf Championships and then the Renoe Tahoe Open. Firestone Country Club play host to this weeks World Golf Championship. Firestone, know worldwide as one of the best golf courses, has the honor of hosting this world class event for the seventh time. Located in Akron, Ohio this 54-hole private country club is a favorite of Tiger Woods, as he has won on the south course 5 times in 7 years.
Firestone has been lengthened for the 3rd time in 3 years. This Par 70, 7455 yard layout will test the best players in the world, on one of the longest par 70’s in the world. The already difficult 9th hole, infamous for the Tiger shot on the roof last year, has been augmented as well as the 18th hole. This is one of the favorite courses for the tour players and there is good reason as Woods points out, “It’s a golf course that could host a major if they ever wanted to. I think it’s one of the neat courses we play all year and it gets like a major championship feel to it." High praises from the world’s number one.
Woods is definitely the man to beat this week, despite being off form since the birth of his daughter. In World golf championships he has 13 victories and 22 top-ten performances. At Firestone he in his career he is 72 under par. Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, winner of last year’s U.S. Open, on Wood’s dominance at this event, "This is his benefit tournament. He seems to win here every year he comes." So keep an eye on Tiger to regain his form at a golf course that he is obviously quite comfortable with.
Other players to look out for this week are recent Canadian Open winner Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, and Paul Casey. These players are all playing quite well right now, with Mahan being arguably the hottest player on tour. Another interesting story will be the return of Sergio Garcia, his first event since just missing out on the Open Championship. Could be an interesting storyline whether he plays well or plays poorly. Also returning for the first time since his Open Championship victory is Padraig Harrington. There is a tremendous amount of talent in this week’s field, including 12 first time world championship players of which Mahan leads that group. It will be interesting to see if one of the hot players on tour can unseat Tiger from the thrown of champion, this week at Firestone.
The 84 player field will be competing for an 8 million dollar purse, which is the largest purse on the PGA Tour.
Television Schedule
- Thurs. 8/2 2-6 p.m. Golf Channel
- Fri. 8/3 2-6 p.m. Golf Channel
- Sat. 8/4 1-6 p.m. CBS
- Sun. 8/5 1-6 p.m. CBS
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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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