News
Tweets of the week: #CalebTheLegend, Keegan pays up, Jimmy Walker on
Two weeks after nearly winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Bubba Watson overpowered Riviera Country Club for his first win since his 2012 Masters triumph.
The prolific tweeter didn’t have a ton to say about his victory. He did, however, tweet a video of the star of his trophy presentation (his son Caleb) the morning after the win at Riviera.
Also included in this edition: a happy Valentine’s Day couple, a cat on a leash and the 2014 version of a classic golf photo of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
On to the tweets.
First, the aforementioned Mr. Watson. After the victory, Watson tweeted simply, “Wow!!! What a weekend, bogey free 64 – 64. Blessed to get another WIN!!” The next morning, however, the left-hander tweeted something that’s likely to be much more popular on the interwebz.
Back to practicing this morning at home!! Caleb wants to be like his favorite golfer @RickieFowlerPGA#CalebTheLegendhttp://t.co/Y1B5nJNrvb
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) February 17, 2014
[youtube id=”qnRo6AHmXZ8″ width=”620″ height=”360″]
Winning, of course is good. And as the winner of last year’s Tampa Bay Championship, Kevin Streelman knows this. Indeed, it’s likely on his “Top 7 List of All Things Awesome,” as is Cinnabon cinnamon bread. No arguments here.
By the way, this is like top 7 list of all things awesome pic.twitter.com/e86ovHLlKD
— Kevin Streelman (@Streels54) February 17, 2014
If you spend time on the Twitter, you probably saw this Jimmy Walker-inspired meme making the rounds. Walker himself retweeted this instance by Golf Digest‘s Luke Kerr-Dineen.
— Luke Kerr-Dineen (@LukeKerrDineen) February 14, 2014
There hasn’t been a ton of Olympic fervor among the Tour’s finest on Twitter. However, Stuart Appleby tweeted the following photo of his son testing out a summer version of a winter sport.
My boys caught the skeleton bug. pic.twitter.com/xrYPQ88NMO
— Stuart Appleby (@StuartAppleby) February 17, 2014
Here’s Keegan Bradley finally settling a bet with Lee Westwood; it’s Palmer and Nicklaus’ “The Lost Bet” for the web 2.0 world.
Breaking news! Keegan has finally paid up! I should charge interest ! pic.twitter.com/5j8lVvgHUI
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) February 11, 2014
Dicky Pride shot 72-80 to miss the cut at the Web.com Tour’s Pacific Rubiales Columbia Championship. He did, however, spot an owner walking his cat and tweeted a photo, so there’s that.
Leaving Colombia today and I saw this man walking his cat. #impressive pic.twitter.com/Wr5OwhfFH8
— Dicky Pride (@DickyPride) February 16, 2014
Jason Dufner’s wife Amanda posted this photo to Instagram of the couple celebrating Valentine’s Day. Predictably, it inspired the usual range of gentlemanly comments.
- LIKE0
- LEGIT0
- WOW0
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK0
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.
- LIKE3
- LEGIT0
- WOW0
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
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
- LIKE25
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL1
- IDHT1
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK0
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.
- LIKE45
- LEGIT11
- WOW3
- LOL4
- IDHT2
- FLOP2
- OB0
- SHANK7
-
19th Hole3 weeks ago
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole3 weeks ago
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
LET pro gives detailed financial breakdown of first week on tour…and the net result may shock you
-
19th Hole4 days ago
Report: LIV star turns down PGA Championship invite due to ‘personal commitments’
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Gary Player claims this is what ‘completely ruined’ Tiger Woods’ career
-
Equipment4 days ago
Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship
-
Whats in the Bag2 weeks ago
Team McIlowry (Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry) winning WITBs: 2024 Zurich Classic
-
Whats in the Bag4 days ago
Keegan Bradley WITB 2024 (May)
Rich
Feb 18, 2014 at 3:15 pm
Dufner punching above his weight is an understatement! Damn she’s gorgeous!