Tour News

7 storylines to follow during the 2015 Masters

Published

9 years ago

Apr 8, 2015

Several big names are receiving grand attention going into the event, and no players are being more scrutinized than the two standard bearers of the sport.

But we already know those story lines, and we want this Masters week to be fun and fresh. What are some alternate plot points to ponder?

Below are the seven other story lines I am keeping track of this week.

Will Tiger keep smiling and hugging everyone?

So Woods’ game isn’t only looking good this week, according to reports, but he’s joking around, hugging people and receiving friendly nip grabs?

As Golf.com’s Alan Bastable astutely asked: Who is this guy? And what did he do with Tiger Woods? Apparently, a period away from the game and more time with the children has Woods more jovial and in a looser mood than anyone has seen from him in a long time. He’s even playing in the Par-3 Contest!!!

It’ll be intriguing to see if Tiger’s good mood is a short term facade or will continue as we get into the tournament and beyond. Yes, he’s happy now, but will this “new Tiger” still be present if he flubs a few chips or hits a few loose shots? We’ll be watching closely.

What will happen if Bubba does get in a fight in a parking lot?

We finally have a source of Bubba controversy not caused by the lefty bomber himself, and that would be the ESPN player survey which revealed that among his peers, Watson doesn’t appear very well liked (granted, not a huge surprise).

More specifically, when the polled golfers were asked which competitor they would not help in a fight in a parking lot, Bubba Watson was the No. 1 answer.

I’m curious, though. If Bubba did get in a fight on the Masters grounds this week, would his peers be as reticent to help as they say? Which players would be most likely to step in and aid Bubba and who would be especially predisposed to bystand?

In all seriousness, though, I’m still wondering if we’ll hear anything more throughout the week on this topic of players not liking Bubba. Something to note, especially if Watson gets into contention or wins a third Green Jacket.

How much better will Adam Scott putt with a long putter?

Much has been written about Scott’s success with an anchored stroke, and after one solid week and two difficult ones with the short flatstick, the Aussie has switched back to the long broom for the Masters.

Scott is certainly not the only anchorer struggling to adjust to the short putter ahead of the Jan. 1, 2016 anchoring ban. Whatever Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson say, in 2015 they’ve suddenly turned from quality putters to below average ones in switching away from the long putter.

The Aussie’s performance on the Augusta greens will certainly be something to look into, with the backlash using the anchored stroke can still produce. But, more importantly, if Scott’s long broom flatstick performs well this week, he could be tempted to revert to it the rest of the year. And Scott’s success there might lead other former anchors to start exploring that possibility as well.

Do we see Good Sergio or Bad Sergio this week?

Even for Sergio, the Spaniard has a peculiar history at this tournament.

He publicly bashed the course in 2009, stated that he wasn’t good enough to win a major after his Masters performance in 2012 and relayed some pretty pessimistic thoughts on his prospects after sharing the Masters first round lead the very next year.

All of that is Bad Sergio and he has seemed to surface a lot at Augusta in the past. But in recent times, he has been happier in his life and he stated last week that he had come to peace with the chase for his first major.

So maybe we will finally see Good Sergio — the relaxed, happy Spaniard near the top of the leaderboard — this week? Whatever the case, Good Sergio and Bad Sergio are both entertaining and add color to the event. And guessing which one will come out is always a big part of the fun.

El Nino’s game isn’t perfect for Augusta, as he doesn’t hit it particularly high, and as Rich Hunt noted, his mid- to long-iron play has been really off this year. But, as I said, Good Sergio/Bad Sergio is unpredictable and will be humorous to follow.

Can Fred Couples finally cure his weekend woes at Augusta?

Before anyone calls me a Freddie hater, what he has done at the Masters recently is absolutely remarkable. In his past five appearances at the tournament, all in his 50s, he has yet to place outside the top-20 and seems to be at the top of the leaderboard at some point every year. It’s been extremely compelling.

That being said, Couples, despite his early high place on these Masters leaderboards over the last five years, was not a factor on the back nine on Sunday in any of those attempts. Wouldn’t it be so much better if Freddie could be in the mix over the tournament’s final holes?

Couples backslide down the leaderboard in this stretch has almost always originated on the weekend, with his zero subpar rounds and three scores of 75 or worse on Saturday and Sunday since 2011. The 55-year-old still needs to perform well in the early days, but I’m never going to doubt him there. If he can keep it up on the weekend, though, we might be in for something special.

Which players are most desperate for a Masters win?

It’s always intriguing to see players who are frantically searching for a high place at the majors, and we have a few main candidates this week. The names that stick out are Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson.

Westwood is still trying to find that first major and he has finished 7th or better at Augusta four of the last five years. The course fits him, and with time running low to get the monkey off his back, he’ll be striving hard for the Green Jacket. Donald’s record at the Masters is not quite as robust but he shares the pain of not winning a major, and he faces the same battle against father time.

Mickelson may have five major championship wins but his game has sunk in recent years and he needs to be dialed in on his limited opportunities to accrue more majors and become an even bigger name in golf history before his play really deteriorates.

Will Rickie Fowler’s major success continue?

If you haven’t heard, Rickie Fowler did pretty well in the majors last year. It started at Augusta with a T5, and continued with subsequent T2, T2 and T3 showings.

However creepy adults in Fowler grab look, the 26-year-old American is a breath of fresh air for the game, and someone I’ve already argued makes no sense to antagonize.

Fowler’s form has been pretty average this year, but his long-hitting, high-ball game works well for Augusta. As I noted, all around players profile well here, and Rickie fits well there. His putting is streaky, but he can be streaky good there.

If Fowler could continue his fruitful ways in the majors, especially with a victory, his profile will continue to rise and he could start really challenging for the crown as brightest young star in the game.

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Equipment

Spotted: Putter roundup from the 2024 3M Open

Published

1 day ago

Jul 25, 2024

Brian Knudson

Every week we spot some really cool and custom putters out on the putting green and in tour players’ bags. This week is no slouch with some really interesting and beautiful putters being tested. Let’s take a look at some of the standouts we found.

Tyler Duncan: Scotty Cameron Phantom T-11.5

The Phantom 11 is a pretty wild putter by Scotty’s standards with a multi-material design that boosts MOI for more forgiveness. Duncan’s T-11.5. takes the stock model and moves the shaft to the center of the putter head. We don’t mean a center shafted version, but the shaft is installed in the center, behind the face as well. We don’t have any official details on this T-11.5 but it looks like that setup should create a putter where the face points towards the hole or target, similar to a L.A.B. putter.

Zac Blair: Scotty Cameron 009.M Cameron & Co. “Longneck”

Blair might be in possession of the largest Scotty collection on tour! It seems like every week he has something new, and flat-out gorgeous, that he is trying out. I have seen a lot of 009.M putters over the years, but never one with a long plumbers neck on it. This 009 is a Masterful that utilizes additional CNC machine work to reduce the amount of hand polishing needed to complete the putter. The long, or tall, neck on the putter usually is used to reduce the amount of toe hang and make the putter more face balanced. The face contains a very shallow milling while the sole features a tour truck, tour only, diamonds, and the rare Circle L stamp. The Circle L was made for Scotty’s close friends who lost matches or games and was meant to poke a little fun at their misfortune.

Paul Barjon: PXG Prototype

There are a lot of putters out there that become so widely used and popular that other manufacturers will borrow some of the design cues. The Spider is one of those putters and it looks like PXG has made a prototype putter for Barjon that has some similar features. This proto has a tapered mallet shape with twin wings that come out from either side of the rear. Twin movable weights sit in each wing on the sole and the sole features a plate that is bolted in place at the corners. The top contains a single siteline and the face uses PXG’s advanced pyramid face structure.

Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Broomstick #7

More and more long, counterbalanced, and alternative putters seem to be showing up recently. The long, or broomstick, putter is making a comeback and more than a few players have joined Adam Scott in using that style. Odyssey has thrown its hat in the broomstick arena with a new Ai-One Cruiser model. The head shape is the very familiar #7 model, but with the shaft going into the center of the club head. An Ai-One face is there to help keep ball speed consistent on off-center hits and three white lines are on top for framing ball and aligning the putter.

TaylorMade Spider Tour S Broomstick

Another option in the long putter is TaylorMade’s Spider Tour S broomstick that we saw around the putting green. The head looks to be a little larger than the standard Tour S and that makes sense with the broomstick-style putters demanding heads near or over 400g. A TPU Pure Roll insert is installed in the face and the shaft is a more traditional double-bend design, just much longer! There isn’t the True Path alignment on top, just a full darker grey finish with a single siteline. Two moveable weights are out in the wings of the putter to dial in the specific weight a player might want.

Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 3M Open

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2024 3M Open

Published

3 days ago

Jul 23, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site this week at TPC Twin Cities for the 2024 3M Open for the penultimate event of the PGA Tour’s regular season.

The photos are flying in from Blaine, Minnesota. We’ve already assembled general galleries and a fresh Tony Finau WITB.

Check back throughout the week for more photos!

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Chris Gotterup’s TM P-7CB irons – 2024 3M Open

See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.

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Equipment

Collin Morikawa’s pre-Open equipment adjustments

Published

1 week ago

Jul 18, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

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.

Three years later, Morikawa has once again changed his irons to deal with the unique Scottish turf.

Morikawa has been using TaylorMade P730 blade short irons (7-PW), P7MC mid irons (5-6) and a TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron with a cavity-back construction this year.

However, he switched into a new set of TaylorMade P7CB irons (5-PW) before finishing T4 at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, to go along with his familiar “Proto” 4-iron. TaylorMade’s P7CB irons are the finalized versions of the “Proto” 4-iron that Morikawa has been using, except they remain unreleased to retail.

According to TaylorMade, Morikawa switched into a full set of the new P7CB irons to aid with turf interaction, just like he did prior to his 2021 Open victory.

Morikawa is honing in on his winning formula overseas.

Morikawa also has switched from his usual TaylorMade Qi10 5-wood to a lower-launching TaylorMade P790 3-iron equipped with a Project X HZRDUS 105 Hybrid shaft. The loft of the club has been bent down to 19 degrees.

TaylorMade says that Morikawa switched into the new driving iron In order to “have an option to hit something lower that will roll out in the fairways.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.

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