Opinion & Analysis

Hot Metal: The Risks and Rewards of Custom Putter Design

Published

9 years ago

Jan 9, 2015

Let’s start off with a basic admission, a dirty little secret most golfers are unwilling to admit to. The putter you’re currently playing with day in and day out is no better or worse than any other.

Grab any putter, new or old, priced dirt cheap or sky-high and see if you can’t get the ball to drop into the bottom of the cup. Between reading the slope of the green, identifying the fault line, analyzing the grain of the grass, judging the pace and making a steady-handed stroke, the putting apparatus in your hands, while certainly not inconsequential to the result, is but a single factor that determines the number of strokes you take to hole out.

So imagine the kind of audacity I had arguing my point of view with Dave Billings, the President of Dogleg Right, better known as the inventor and designer of Machine Golf, one of the most highly respected boutique putter manufacturers in the industry. The conversation could’ve gone sideways in a hurry, but Billings let me off the hook; he’s got a Southern charm that makes you feel at ease. Plus, he’s been around long enough to have heard it all.

Billings has been tinkering with golf equipment since he was a teenager. The self-professed club junkie has been making significant contributions in putter design for the better part of two decades. His innovations have been awarded a dozen patents so far and his Machine putters have been coveted and purchased by die-hard enthusiasts at every conceivable level of the game. So while Billings didn’t agree with my claim that “any old putter will do,” he acknowledged that putters, more so than any other piece of equipment in golf, are judged primarily based on how they look and how they feel in the hands of a golfer standing over his or her ball.

“We’re finally seeing technologies that have come into play that allow us to get into more of the performance than in any time in the past,” says Billings. “It’s a little counterintuitive like a lot of things in golf. People say things like, ‘putting should be simple,’ or ‘I can putt with anything.’ But what we really know now is that a putter has a real impact on how you swing it. We see really remarkable results when we do it right — when we take the time to really get to know the golfer and figure out how to appeal to both the performance aspect and the visual aspect of their wants and needs.”

Machine Golf, while certainly not the only independent company specializing in custom milled putters, has perhaps more than anyone, come to embody the concept of made-to-order, or bespoke design. The company went into business in 1994 with very little seed money, a lot of big dreams and a successful product launch focused around an experimental putter that took the hands out of the equation.

“It started with something that was very innovative, something out of the box, namely the HOG putter,” says Billings. “The first ones were radical in their design. The head was oversized, almost as big as the MacGregor Response [ZT 615] was. The shaft and the grip were equally oversized. That innovative product looked like no other product, performed like no other product and got attention wherever we showed it. We started selling them very quickly in our first year, all around the world in fact.”

Machine putters, if you’re not familiar with them, are anything but run-of-the-mill. Imagine if someone had asked the surrealist painter H.R. Giger to submit a design, the end result might look like something that belongs in the Machine portfolio. A typical Machine putter is modular; the sheer number of customizable options is unmatched. Most Machine putters will incorporate at least some level of innovation, whether it’s adjustable weight and convertible flange technologies, unusual hosel and/or head designs, proprietary milling patterns and grip technologies. In some cases, the innovations lie exposed like a mechanical chassis, in other cases a more refined approach is used.

“We make a broad array of designs from the very classic-looking to those that can be described as being very technology-driven,” says Billings. “With one model we can say it’s more art because it’s Damascus (steel) and it’s a real traditional head. But when you look at the interchangeable flanges and weights, and the internal milling — that’s more about the science. I try to have a balance between those things and it’s a push and pull in different directions for different customers.”

Machine putters aren’t for everyone; perhaps that’s true of customizable putters in general. The sheer number of options that can be adjusted can be overwhelming to comprehend. What Billings, as well as other putter designers were able to impress upon me is that even the slightest change, say for instance the type of hosel used or its offset, can have significant impact on how a putter will swing. So while anything can be used for the purposes of putting, not every putter (certainly not the kind that are randomly chosen off the rack) are a good match for their respective owners, says Billings.

“There’s a lot of pride in being able to buy something that’s handmade as opposed to mass-produced,” he adds. “I think there’s a big draw for that, especially when [a golfer] can become part creator and contribute to what at the very least is a customized product.”

What I’ve come to recognize about the custom milled putter business from speaking to Billings is that it’s a fellowship of gear heads who risk everything in a pursuit to transform metal into art.

“For anyone who goes into the boutique putter business,” says Billings, “it’s a labor of love. You have to put in the hours, the blood, sweat and tears. There’s not necessarily a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

The kind of hand-crafted putter design that Billings and his contemporaries are engaged in is a fringe business within the putter market, which in itself vies for a tiny fraction of the total dollars spent every year on golf equipment.

So how big, or rather, how small is the pie?

The two largest golf markets in the world, the United States and Japan, netted a combined $8.8 billion in equipment and apparel sales in 2013 according to a World Golf Market Report released jointly by Golf Datatech and Yano Research Institute.
Out of the total cited above, only 3.3 percent came from putter sales in the U.S. ($173 million) and 2.6 percent in Japan ($98 million) respectfully.
If that isn’t sobering enough, putter sales declined by 8 percent in the U.S. in 2013 and 18 percent in Japan. That’s no hiccup. Since 1997, unit sales of putters at big box stores and green grass shops have declined by nearly 42 percent.

Market conditions would appear to suggest that the custom-milled putter is an endangered species. But that hasn’t stopped craftsmen like Machine, Bettinardi, Byron Morgan, Edel and Bobby Grace from competing with the larger OEMs, many of which are producing less expensive cast molded putters.

Joining them within the last few years are a vast number of independent designers; companies such as Low Tide, Piretti, Nead, Bellum Winmore, Carnahan, Carbon, Buzelli and BPutters.

So what convinces these golf enthusiasts to sacrifice time, money and occasionally their common sense to pursue an expensive hobby with no guarantees of success? I looked to Italy for the answers.

Born For The Big Shot

It takes a certain leap of faith to order a putter over the Internet, from a designer overseas, someone just getting started in the golf industry. Sure, I had seen some sample photos online and I had a few terse conversations (over email) with the owner of BPutters, Antonio Biagioli. My hopes were high. Luckily, the model that arrived from Cesena, a town near the eastern coast of Italy and a two-hour drive from Florence, was a real beauty; or as they in Italian, molto bella.

My model, coined the Coyote by Biagioli, was almost too delicate to wield. That is to say, I didn’t want to leave a smudge on the reflective black pearl finish or wrap my hands clumsily around the refined leather pistol grip with raised stitching running across the spine. Biagioli designed the putter to closely match the specs of my Scotty Cameron Del Mar. Four degrees of loft, 34 inches in length and 350 grams of weight in the head. For what it’s worth, the Coyote felt much heavier. Something about it was quintessentially Italian; perhaps it was the clean lines, the feminine-like curves or simply the handcrafted feel.

Italy, as you might imagine, doesn’t have a strong golfing tradition. Biagioli estimates that there might be 80,000 golfers in his country, a number that is actually contracting. Like many Italians, Biagioli grew up playing football and knew nothing about the game until he was dragged to a golf course in Ireland on a business trip almost 20 years ago. He fell in love with golf immediately but his subsequent adventure as a putter designer took a long time to plan and execute.

Biagioli has been working in the automotive industry for most of his life, primarily as an executive manager where he coordinates between suppliers and producers — a boring job as he chooses to put it. Boring though it may have been, the job gave Biagioli a chance to study engineering first hand.

“I started to work closely with the engineers and see the production happen on a daily basis,” says Biagioli. “We work on transmissions and power steering, both hydraulic and mechanical, so we have a lot of work with metals. From that I started to take little pieces at a time and began learning about how suppliers finish metals, how they actually mill metal. It became kind of a second job for me.”

While continuing to work in the automotive industry, Biagioli launched BPutters about year and half ago, combining his love of art, engineering and of course golf.

“I’ve always been intrigued by putters because of the intimacy of their use,” says Biagioli. “I’ve always felt that putters are something so personal compared to a driver or an iron that you carry in your bag.”

He came out with four models initially. One of them, the Hammer, looks like a traditional blade-style putter, the others are adaptations of a mallet design. To come up with these designs, Biagioli says he began sketching on paper.

“I go through at least three or four phases before I can prototype a 3D model of the putter,” he says. “I use a very simple 3D printer to get an initial perspective of the putter itself. It’s a plastic model that ends up becoming a steel prototype.

“That is probably the longest process because you have to program a CNC machine,” he adds. “It’s not that easy and I do have a professional CNC programmer working with me on this project. Once we have a prototype, we test it many times. We make adjustments to the weight distribution, adjust the shape and try to decide which finish can be applied to that model. It’s another three weeks just to test finishes. If we’re talking about carbon steel, it takes more than a month.”

Aside from his role in designing putters and managing the production line, Biagioli spends his remaining time promoting his brand. If you think it’s difficult for an American putter craftsman to breakthrough in the U.S., try doing it from a far-flung town in Italy. Undaunted, Biagioli has learned how to leverage social media. Many of his posts are tagged with his signature motto — born for the big shot. They feature plenty of product shots of course, but Biagioli has also posted many candid shots of himself, his home in Italy and has made some genuine friendships with golfers over the Internet.

His social media strategy (if you want to call it that) complements the sincere approach he takes to running his small business.

“I don’t want to sell putters in bulk,” Biagioli says. “I just want to sell the right putter to the right person. To establish that sort of a relationship with a customer — I see it as a privilege.”

It’s unclear whether BPutters will have the staying power to succeed. Biagioli tells me that the response from the golf community has been overwhelmingly positive so far. He’s made some in-roads selling to the Asian and Western European markets. Orders from America have also starting trickling in.

“I still have a lot of things to learn,” says Biagioli. “But at the same time I very much enjoy it. Otherwise it would be absolutely impossible for me to do both my job and what will hopefully become my full time activity in the future. I know the entire golf industry is not doing well over the last few years. But I’m taking this as an opportunity to do something that I feel is really important.”

The Scotty Cameron Effect

Unfortunately I can’t take credit for the phrase. That distinction belongs to Golf Digest Equipment Editor, Mike Stachura, who used it to describe how a single putter designer was both able to hold significant market share, while enabling other designers to raise their prices exponentially to keep up in a sort of arms race.

First and foremost, Scotty Cameron deserves his due — he makes fine putters. But it would be hard to deny, even for a casual observer, that Cameron benefited greatly from the many relationships he’s had with PGA Tour superstars over the years, including Tiger Woods who used a Newport 2 prototype for most of his career. Concerning the price of his putters, even Cameron at one time admitted to Golf Digest, “The price points on my putters are relatively high, but you aren’t just buying performance. You’re buying confidence. It’s human nature to have greater faith in something you’ve paid a premium for.”

Tim Shaughnessy, co-owner of Bellum Winmore, a tiny start-up that launched only a year ago, says “Certain manufacturers have pushed that increase. Scotty Cameron has a kind of rockstar status. And at some level Bettinardi has kind of the same thing. I think the more press individual manufacturers receive and as their status increases, it ends up driving the overall cost in the market for putters.”

Shaughnessy and his partner Zac Nicholls, who live on opposite ends of the coast and are lifelong friends and golfers, went into business together with a simple idea: release a quality milled putter at a price everyone can afford.

“We tried not to be in the same realm as say a Byron Morgan who is doing a lot of stamping, Damascus and exotic stuff,” says Shaughnessy. “We weren’t going to be able to compete if we were out there for $350. We don’t have the brand recognition.”

Shaughnessy’s company focuses on three basic things: design, material and process. All Bellum Winmore putters are precision milled from a single block of 303 stainless steel and then bead blasted to a matte finish. There isn’t much variance from model to model, but Bellum Winmore does provide limited finish options, and a wide range of grip weights (10 grams to 100 grams), offering what Shaughnessy feels are the most custom back weighted options of any company out there.

“Our overhead is negligible — almost nothing,” says Shaughnessy, when asked about keeping his price points so low. “I handle everything from a design standpoint to the assemblies, the painting, customer service and anything else from New York. Zac focuses on machining and prototyping [in California] and we have an overseas facility that does the production.”

The one common denominator for companies like Bellum Winmore and BPutters is the Internet. While I’m not suggesting that the Web, more specifically social media, has allowed individual putter designers to take on Scotty Cameron and companies of that size directly, it has at least allowed them to co-exist in the industry. Billings, who launched Machine Golf back when dial-up was considered high-tech, believes that entering the marketplace is easier now, but it’s far from a cakewalk.

“The Internet has definitely lowered the barrier,” says Billings. “You don’t have to have sales reps to take your putters to the local golf shops. On the other hand, most people still want to look, feel and try before they buy. So making that switch from over the Internet to traditional retail is a bigger barrier now because there are less golf shops that want to pioneer a new brand.

“Twenty years ago you had great guys like Edwin Watts who always liked to bring in something new and put it in their catalog or over the Internet before any of the smaller companies even knew how to make a good website,” he continues. “We had great guys like that who would get your brand distributed across the country or even around the world. You don’t see much of that anymore; the big companies just don’t want to gamble on smaller brands for a lot of the obvious reasons. It’s kind of sad that it’s gone away because it can be a great shot in the arm for a small company to be able to partner with them and receive a lot of exposure.”

The one thing everyone I spoke to tended to agree upon is that differentiation is the key to survival when operating in a niche market. If your product fails to connect with a core audience, you won’t be in business for very long. And when it comes to golf equipment, putting attracts the most diverse, passionate and opinionated connoisseurs in all of golf.

“On one end of the spectrum, you’ve got the guy who’s so proud to have found a putter out of a barrel that he paid five bucks for and makes everything with it,” says Billings. “On the other end you have someone like Arnold Palmer who’s had 5,000 putters. Let’s just say it — it’s a chase for the next magical wand. It’s part of the fun and adventure of getting a new club and discovering what it might mean to your game.”

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Wells Fargo Championship betting preview: Tommy Fleetwood ready to finally land maiden PGA Tour title

Published

1 day ago

May 6, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA Tour season ramps back up this week for another “signature event,” as golf fans look forward to the year’s second major championship next week.

After two weaker-field events in the Zurich Classic and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, most of the best players in the world will head to historic Quail Hollow for one of the best non-major tournaments of the year.

Last season, Wyndham Clark won the event by four shots.

Quail Hollow is a par-71 measuring 7,521 yards that features Bermudagrass greens. The tree-lined, parkland style course can play quite difficult and features one of the most difficult three-hole stretches in golf known as “The Green Mile,” which makes up holes 16-18: two mammoth par 4s and a 221-yard par 3. All three holes have an average score over par, and water is in play in each of the last five holes on the course.

The field is excellent this week with 68 golfers teeing it up without a cut. All of the golfers who’ve qualified are set to tee it up, with the exception of Scottie Scheffler, who is expecting the birth of his first child.

Past Winners at Quail Hollow

2023: Wyndham Clark (-19)
2022: Max Homa (-8)
2021: Rory McIlroy (-10)
2019: Max Homa (-15)
2018: Jason Day (-12)
2017: Justin Thomas (-8) (PGA Championship)
2016: James Hahn (-9)
2015: Rory McIlroy (-21)

Key Stats For Quail Hollow

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes gained: Approach will be extremely important this week as second shots at Quail Hollow can be very difficult.

Total SG: Approach Over Past 24 Rounds

Akshay Bhatia (+1.16)
Tom Hoge (+1.12)
Corey Conners (+1.01)
Shane Lowry (+0.93)
Austin Eckroat (+0.82)

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

Quail Hollow is a long course on which it is important to play from the fairway. Both distance and accuracy are important, as shorter tee shots will result in approach shots from 200 or more yards. With most of the holes heavily tree lined, errant drives will create some real trouble for the players.

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee Past 24 Rounds:

Ludvig Aberg (+0.73)
Rory McIlroy (+0.69)
Xander Schauffele (+0.62)
Viktor Hovland (+0.58)
Chris Kirk (+0.52)

Proximity: 175-200

The 175-200 range is key at Quail Hollow. Players who can hit their long irons well will rise to the top of the leaderboard.

Proximity: 175-200+ over past 24 rounds:

Cameron Young (28’2″)
Akshay Bhatia (29’6″)
Ludvig Aberg (+30’6″)
Sam Burns (+30’6″)
Collin Morikawa (+30’9″)

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs

Players who thrive on Tom Fazio designs get a bump for me at Quail Hollow this week.

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs over past 36 rounds:

Patrick Cantlay (+2.10)
Rory McIlroy (+1.95)
Tommy Fleetwood (+1.68)
Austin Eckroat (+1.60)
Will Zalatoris (+1.57)

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)

Strokes Gained: Putting has historically graded out as the most important statistic at Quail Hollow. While it isn’t always predictable, I do want to have it in the model to bump up golfers who prefer to putt on Bermudagrass.

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) Over Past 24 Rounds:

Taylor Moore (+0.82)
Nick Dunlap (+.76)
Wyndham Clark (+.69)
Emiliano Grillo (+.64)
Cam Davis (+.61)

Course History

This stat will incorporate players that have played well in the past at Quail Hollow.

Course History over past 36 rounds (per round):

Rory McIlroy (+2.50)
Justin Thomas (+1.96)
Jason Day (+1.92)
Rickie Fowler (+1.83)
Viktor Hovland (+1.78)

Wells Fargo Championship Model Rankings

Below, I’ve compiled overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed — SG: Approach (27%), SG: Off the Tee (23%), SG: Total on Fazio designs (12%), Proximity: 175-200 (12%), SG: Putting Bermuda grass (12%), and Course History (14%).

Wyndham Clark
Rory McIlroy
Xander Schauffele
Shane Lowry
Hideki Matsuyama
Viktor Hovland
Cameron Young
Austin Eckroat
Byeong Hun An
Justin Thomas

2024 Wells Fargo Championship Picks

Tommy Fleetwood +2500 (DraftKings)

I know many out there have Tommy fatigue when it comes to betting, which is completely understandable given his lack of ability to win on the PGA Tour thus far in his career. However, history has shown us that players with Fleetwood’s talent eventually break though, and I believe for Tommy, it’s just a matter of time.

Fleetwood has been excellent on Tom Fazio designs. Over his past 36 rounds, he ranks 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on Fazio tracks. He’s also been incredibly reliable off the tee this season. He’s gained strokes in the category in eight of his past nine starts, including at The Masters, the PLAYERS and the three “signature events” of the season. Tommy is a golfer built for tougher courses and can grind it out in difficult conditions.

Last year, Fleetwood was the first-round leader at this event, firing a Thursday 65. He finished the event in a tie for 5th place.

For those worried about Fleetwood’s disappointing start his last time out at Harbour Town, he’s bounced back nicely after plenty of poor outings this season. His T7 at the Valero Texas Open was after a MC and T35 in his prior two starts and his win at the Dubai Invitational came after a T47 at the Sentry.

I expect Tommy to bounce back this week and contend at Quail Hollow.

Justin Thomas +3000 (DraftKings)

It’s been a rough couple of years for Justin Thomas, but I don’t believe things are quite as bad as they seem for JT. He got caught in the bad side of the draw at Augusta for last month’s Masters and has gained strokes on approach in seven of his nine starts in 2024.

Thomas may have found something in his most recent start at the RBC Heritage. He finished T5 at a course that he isn’t the best fit for on paper. He also finally got the putter working and ranked 15th in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week.

The two-time PGA champion captured the first of his two major championships at Quail Hollow back in 2017, and some good vibes from the course may be enough to get JT out of his slump.

Thomas hasn’t won an event in just about two years. However, I still believe that will change soon as he’s been one of the most prolific winners throughout his PGA Tour career. Since 2015, he has 15 PGA Tour wins.

Course history is pretty sticky at Quail Hollow, with players who like the course playing well there on a regular basis. In addition to JT’s PGA Championship win in 2017, he went 4-1 at the 2022 Presidents Cup and finished T14 at the event last year despite being in poor form. Thomas can return as one of the top players on the PGA Tour with a win at a “signature event” this week.

Cameron Young +3500 (DraftKings)

For many golf bettors, it’s been frustrating backing Cam Young this season. His talent is undeniable, and one of the best and most consistent performers on the PGA Tour. He just hasn’t broken through with a victory yet. Quail Hollow has been a great place for elite players to get their first victory. Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark all notched their first PGA Tour win at Quail.

Throughout Cam Young’s career, he has thrived at tougher courses with strong fields. This season, he finished T16 at Riviera and T9 at Augusta National, demonstrating his preference of a tough test. His ability to hit the ball long and straight off the tee make him an ideal fit for Quail Hollow, despite playing pretty poorly his first time out in 2023 (T59). Young should be comfortable playing in the region as he played his college golf at Wake Forest, which is about an hour’s drive from Quail Hollow.

The 26-year-old has played well at Tom Fazio designs in the past and ranks 8th in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on those courses in his last 36 rounds. Perhaps most importantly, this season, Young is the best player on the PGA Tour in terms of proximity from 175-200 in the fairway, which is where a plurality and many crucial shots will come from this week.

Young is an elite talent and Quail Hollow has been kind to players of his ilk who’ve yet to win on Tour.

Byeong Hun An +5000 (FanDuel)

Byeong Hun An missed some opportunities last weekend at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He finished T4 and played some outstanding golf, but a couple of missed short putts prevented him from getting to the winning score of -23. Despite not getting the win, it’s hard to view An’s performance as anything other than an overwhelming success. It was An’s fourth top-ten finish of the season.

Last week, An gained 6.5 strokes ball striking, which was 7th in the field. He also ranked 12th for Strokes Gained: Approach and 13th for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. The South Korean has been hitting the ball so well from tee to green all season long and he now heads to a golf course that should reward his precision.

An’s driver and long irons are absolute weapons. At Quail Hollow, players will see plenty of approach shots from the 175-200 range as well as some from 200+. In his past 24 rounds, Ben ranks 3rd in the field in proximity from 175-200 and 12th in proximity from 200+. Playing in an event that will not end up being a “birdie” fest should help An, who can separate from the field with his strong tee to green play. The putter may not always cooperate but getting to -15 is much easier than getting to -23 for elite ball strikers who tend to struggle on the greens.

Winning a “signature event” feels like a tall task for An this week with so many elite players in the field. However, he’s finished T16 at the Genesis Invitational, T16 at The Masters and T8 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The 32-year-old’s game has improved drastically this season and I believe he’s ready to get the biggest win of his career.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s LIV Golf Singapore betting preview: Course specialist ready to thrive once again

Published

1 week ago

Apr 30, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After another strong showing in Australia, LIV Golf will head to Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore looking to build off of what was undoubtedly their best event to date.

Sentosa Golf Club sits on the southern tip of Singapore and is one of the most beautiful courses in the world. The course is more than just incredible scenically; it was also rated 55th in Golf Digest’s top-100 courses in 2022-2023 and has been consistently regarded as one of the best courses in Asia. Prior to being part of the LIV rotation, the course hosted the Singapore Open every year since 2005.

Sentosa Golf Club is a par 71 measuring 7,406 yards. The course will require precise ball striking and some length off the tee. It’s possible to go low due to the pristine conditions, but there are also plenty of hazards and difficult spots on the course that can bring double bogey into play in a hurry. The Bermudagrass greens are perfectly manicured, and the course has spent millions on the sub-air system to keep the greens rolling fast. I spoke to Asian Tour player, Travis Smyth, who described the greens as “the best [he’s] ever played.”

Davis Love III, who competed in a Singapore Open in 2019, also gushed over the condition of the golf course.

“I love the greens. They are fabulous,” the 21-time PGA Tour winner said.

Love III also spoke about other aspects of the golf course.

“The greens are great; the fairways are perfect. It is a wonderful course, and it’s tricky off the tee.”

“It’s a long golf course, and you get some long iron shots. It takes somebody hitting it great to hit every green even though they are big.”

As Love III said, the course can be difficult off the tee due to the length of the course and the trouble looming around every corner. It will take a terrific ball striking week to win at Sentosa Golf Club.

In his pre-tournament press conference last season, Phil Mickelson echoed many of the same sentiments.

“To play Sentosa effectively, you’re going to have a lot of shots from 160 to 210, a lot of full 6-, 7-, 8-iron shots, and you need to hit those really well and you need to drive the ball well.”

Golfers who excel from tee to green and can dial in their longer irons will have a massive advantage this week.

Stat Leaders at LIV Golf Adelaide:

Fairways Hit

1.) Louis Oosthuizen

2.) Anirban Lahiri

3.) Jon Rahm

4.) Brendan Steele

5.) Cameron Tringale

Greens in Regulation

1.) Brooks Koepka

2.) Brendan Steele

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Cameron Tringale

5.) Anirban Lahiri

Birdies Made

1.) Brendan Steele

2.) Dean Burmester

3.) Thomas Pieters

4.) Patrick Reed

5.) Carlos Ortiz

LIV Golf Individual Standings:

1.) Joaquin Niemann

2.) Jon Rahm

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Louis Oosthuizen

5.) Abraham Ancer

LIV Golf Team Standings:

1.) Crushers

2.) Legion XIII

3.) Torque

4.) Stinger GC

5.) Ripper GC

LIV Golf Singapore Picks

Sergio Garcia +3000 (DraftKings)

Sergio Garcia is no stranger to Sentosa Golf Club. The Spaniard won the Singapore Open in 2018 by five strokes and lost in a playoff at LIV Singapore last year to scorching hot Talor Gooch. Looking at the course setup, it’s no surprise that a player like Sergio has played incredible golf here. He’s long off the tee and is one of the better long iron players in the world when he’s in form. Garcia is also statistically a much better putter on Bermudagrass than he is on other putting surfaces. He’s putt extremely well on Sentosa’s incredibly pure green complexes.

This season, Garcia has two runner-up finishes, both of them being playoff losses. Both El Camaleon and Doral are courses he’s had success at in his career. The Spaniard is a player who plays well at his tracks, and Sentosa is one of them. I believe Sergio will get himself in the mix this week. Hopefully the third time is a charm in Singapore.

Paul Casey +3300 (FanDuel)

Paul Casey is in the midst of one of his best seasons in the five years or so. The results recently have been up and down, but he’s shown that when he’s on a golf course that suits his game, he’s amongst the contenders.

This season, Casey has finishes of T5 (LIV Las Vegas), T2 (LIV Hong Kong), and a 6th at the Singapore Classic on the DP World Tour. At his best, the Englishman is one of the best long iron players in the world, which makes him a strong fit for Sentosa. Despite being in poor form last season, he was able to fire a Sunday 63, which shows he can low here at the course.

It’s been three years since Casey has won a tournament (Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2021), but he’s been one of the top players on LIV this season and I think he can get it done at some point this season.

Mito Pereira +5000 (Bet365)

Since Mito Pereira’s unfortunate demise at the 2022 PGA Championship, he’s been extremely inconsistent. However, over the past few months, the Chilean has played well on the International Series as well as his most recent LIV start. Mito finished 8th at LIV Adelaide, which was his best LIV finish this season.

Last year, Pereira finished 5th at LIV Singapore, shooting fantastic rounds of 67-66-66. It makes sense why Mito would like Sentosa, as preeminent ball strikers tend to rise to the challenge of the golf course. He’s a great long iron player who is long and straight off the tee.

Mito has some experience playing in Asia and is one of the most talented players on LIV who’s yet to get in the winner’s circle. I have questions about whether or not he can come through once in contention, but if he gets there, I’m happy to roll the dice.

Andy Ogletree +15000 (DraftKings)

Andy Ogletree is a player I expected to have a strong 2024 but struggled early in his first full season on LIV. After failing to crack the top-25 in any LIV event this year, the former U.S. Amateur champion finally figured things out, finished in a tie for 3rd at LIV Adelaide.

Ogletree should be incredible comfortable playing in Singapore. He won the International Series Qatar last year and finished T3 at the International Series Singapore. The 26-year-old was arguably the best player on the Asian Tour in 2023 and has been fantastic in the continent over the past 18 months.

If Ogletree has indeed found form, he looks to be an amazing value at triple-digit odds.

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Opinion & Analysis

Ryan: Lessons from the worst golf instructor in America

Published

1 week ago

Apr 30, 2024

Brendan Ryan

In Tampa, there is a golf course that boasts carts that do not work, a water range, and a group of players none of which have any chance to break 80. The course is overseen by a staff of crusty men who have succeeded at nothing in life but ending up at the worst-run course in America. However, this place is no failure. With several other local courses going out of business — and boasting outstanding greens — the place is booked full.

While I came for the great greens, I stayed to watch our resident instructor; a poor-tempered, method teacher who caters to the hopeless. At first, it was simply hilarious. However, after months of listening and watching, something clicked. I realized I had a front-row seat to the worst golf instructor in America.

Here are some of my key takeaways.

Method Teacher

It is widely accepted that there are three types of golf instructors: system teachers, non-system teachers, and method teachers. Method teachers prescribe the same antidote for each student based on a preamble which teachers can learn in a couple day certification.

Method teaching allows anyone to be certified. This process caters to the lowest caliber instructor, creating the illusion of competency. This empowers these underqualified instructors with the moniker of “certified” to prey on the innocent and uninformed.

The Cult of Stack and Jilt

The Stack and Tilt website proudly boasts, “A golfer swings his hands inward in the backswing as opposed to straight back to 1) create power, similar to a field goal kicker moving his leg in an arc and 2) to promote a swing that is in-to-out, which produces a draw (and eliminates a slice).”

Now, let me tell you something, there is this law of the universe which says “energy can either be created or destroyed,” so either these guys are defying physics or they have no idea what they are taking about. Further, the idea that the first move of the backswing determines impact is conjecture with a splash of utter fantasy.

These are the pontifications of a method — a set of prescriptions applied to everyone with the hope of some success through the placebo effect. It is one thing for a naive student to believe, for a golf instructor to drink and then dispel this Kool-Aid is malpractice.

Fooled by Randomness

In flipping a coin, or even a March Madness bet, there is a 50-50 chance of success. In golf, especially for new players, results are asymmetric. Simply put: Anything can happen. The problem is that when bad instructors work with high handicappers, each and every shot gets its own diagnosis and prescription. Soon the student is overwhelmed.

Now here’s the sinister thing: The overwhelming information is by design. In this case, the coach is not trying to make you better, they are trying to make you reliant on them for information. A quasi Stockholm syndrome of codependency.

Practice

One of the most important scientists of the 20th century was Ivan Pavlov. As you might recall, he found that animals, including humans, could be conditioned into biological responses. In golf, the idea of practice has made millions of hackers salivate that they are one lesson or practice session from “the secret.”

Sunk Cost

The idea for the worst golf instructor is to create control and dependency so that clients ignore the sunk cost of not getting better. Instead, they are held hostage by the idea that they are one lesson or tip away from unlocking their potential.

Cliches

Cliches have the effect of terminating thoughts. However, they are the weapon of choice for this instructor. Add some hyperbole and students actually get no information. As a result, these players couldn’t play golf. When they did, they had no real scheme. With no idea what they are doing, they would descend into a spiral of no idea what to do, bad results, lower confidence, and running back to the lesson tee from more cliches.

The fact is that poor instruction is about conditioning players to become reliant members of your cult. To take away autonomy. To use practice as a form of control. To sell more golf lessons not by making people better but through the guise that without the teacher, the student can never reach their full potential. All under the umbrella of being “certified” (in a 2-day course!) and a melee of cliches.

This of course is not just happening at my muni but is a systemic problem around the country and around the world, the consequences of which are giving people a great reason to stop playing golf. But hey, at least it’s selling a lot of golf balls…

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