News
Two for one: Presidents Cup and the Viking Classic
We get a two for one special this week on the PGA Tour as there are two events, one The Presidents Cup, and two the Viking Classic. Each event is special and important in its own right. The President’s Cup is important not from a monetary standpoint, but from a country pride, and team standpoint. The Viking Classic is important from a monetary and where you are standing in relation to the top 125, and a potential job for next season standpoint. This weekend should bode well for the golf fan as he has a smorgasbord of golf to choose from and watch.
The Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is back for another installment and this year’s version should be just as exciting as the previous versions. Held at The Royal Montreal Golf Club’s Blue course, in Montreal, Canada, the reconfigured layout will play 7,171 yards, par 70, nearly 300 yards longer than in it played in 2001. The captain for the American team is Jack Nicklaus, and the Captain for the International team is Gary Player. This event’s brief history has been an exciting one, and the American team has seen the better results with a record of 4-1-1.
Since this is not a stroke play event, the format is slightly different than we are used to. On Thursday we will see foursomes, and then on Friday we will see four-ball. On the weekend we will bear witness to foursomes and four-ball on Saturday, and finally the singles matches on Sunday. The main difference between foursome matches and four-ball matches is best ball of the team for four-ball, and alternate shot for the foursome matches.
This is a huge week for Mike Weir as he is the basically the poster boy for Canadian golf. "Here, he brings a massive atmosphere,” said Geoff Ogilvy. "I’ve played in the Canadian Open when Mike’s been in contention and there’s something special about it.” There is also some buzz about the home-grown superstar playing against the world’s number one, Tiger Woods, as this has been commonplace in the last two Presidents Cups. "It might be icing on the cake for me to get a chance to get in there and possibly beat him. You know, I know come Sunday in singles, we just want to pair up who is going to match up the best. As I said, this is my fourth time. I haven’t been on a winning team yet; we tied once and lost twice. Gary wants to make sure that we do the right thing, not just for myself to put me against Tiger, but for everybody. We’re trying to win this.”
No matter what the tournament is, these guys still want to win. That should be evident this week as the only prize in country pride, and that can be a larger motivator than money. Be on the look out for some amazing golf and an amazing competition.
Television Times
- Thursday 1-6pm TNT
- Friday 1-6pm TNT
- Saturday 8-6pm NBC
- Sunday 12-6pm NBC
Viking Classic
Running at the same time as the Presidents Cup, the Viking Classic will be some more PGA Tour golf for your appetite. Being held at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi, the Viking Classic boasts a purse of 3.5 million dollars, and the winner getting $630,000 dollars for his efforts this week. Playing at a par of 72 and a yardage of 7,199 yards, look for the scoring to be great.
There are several interesting stories developing this week, with the return of David Duval being the most talked about. Duval will return to the PGA Tour after last appearing at the Nissan Open in February, where he missed the cut in his fifth event of the year. He has been home in Colorado taking care of his family as his wife, Susie, has suffered through a difficult pregnancy.
Davis Love III has pulled out of the event with an ankle injury, and that is a major blow to the event as he was the biggest name player in the field. Love, has not officially withdrawn from the tournament but he won’t play because of an ankle injury, said Randy Watkins, the tournament director. "He busted up his ankle at a horse show with his kids," Watkins said of Love. "He called me today and said he tried to play today but had to quit after three holes. He just couldn’t play.”
This event is a great chance for some of the “bubble boys” to make a strong move toward securing their PGA Tour cards for next year. This is typically the time of the year where you start hearing more about the top 125, 50, and 30, as each plateau means different things to different people. But most important is the top 125, as if you are within that number you will have a place to play next year. Outside of that number and you will be back to Q-school to attempt to gain full status back.
We should be in store for some more great golf, and it will be a nice change to take a rest from the Presidents Cup and flip it back and forth between the two events. Enjoy it, because it does not happen that often.
Television Times
- · Thursday 6:30-9:30pm Golf
- · Friday 6:30-9:30pm Golf
- · Saturday 6:30-9:30pm Golf
- · Sunday 6:30-9:30pm Golf
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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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andar909
Aug 10, 2008 at 11:30 pm
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
Andy Brown
Sep 26, 2007 at 12:24 pm
One does hope that there will be scintillating golf this year at the presidents cup but for the sake of the game the International team should win, pretty much like my hoping that the European team wins the Ryder Cup. This I say purely because I believe for the game of Golf to evolve and continue to grow internationally it is essential that International golfers put up a show of strength.
What is the point in pitting golfers from one nation against players from the rest of the world? It definitely reflects poorly on the quality of international golf. While Europe has maintained a strong grip on the Ryder Cup that has not been the case in the Presidents Cup with the international team winning only once. This time around though they stand a good chance with a really strong field with the likes of Els, Vijay.Goosen and K.J. Choi who would be hoping to continue his great run in 2007. The matchup if it happens that would get a lot of tongues wagging would be one between Rory Sabbatini and Tiger Woods. Let’s just hope for some good golf and for the sake of the game a victory for the international team.
Andy Brown