Tour News
Travelers Championship: Let the birdie barrage begin
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fredrik-jacobson-golf_t640.jpg)
By Andrew Tursky
GolfWRX Contributor
The carnage of missed 8-footers for par at the U.S. Open last week will be replaced by red numbers this week at the Travelers Championship.
With the dust settling in San Francisco at The Olympic Club, the PGA Tour moves 3,060 miles away to Cromwell, Conn., to play the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. The 6,841-yard, par 70 layout this week will yield more sub-par rounds in the first day than we saw all last week at the U.S. Open.
Webb Simpson, now the No.5-ranked golfer in the world, is in the field for the Travelers Championship despite winning his first major just three days ago. He was able to endure the rigors of a U.S. Open and emerge victorious with a 1-over par 281-stroke total last week. This week, however, will be more about low numbers than mental endurance. Birdies will be a must.
Last year’s winner at the Travelers Championship, Fredrik Jacobson, made 21 birdies and only one bogey to finish at 20-under par for the event. Jacobson’s four-day total fell two shots shy of tournament record 258 strokes (22-under) set in 2009 by Kenny Perry. Jacobson will be back in the field this year to defend his title after finishing T-15th at the U.S. Open.
The players won’t be complaining about a course that’s too firm, too fast or and too hard — this is not The Olympic Club. The course is short in length and forgiving around the greens, allowing players to attack the flagstick.
Rounds in the low 60’s are not uncommon, even for the amateurs in the field.
Patrick Cantlay made headlines last year at the Travelers Championship, firing a 60 (10-under par) in Friday’s second round at TPC River Highlands, the lowest round ever on the PGA Tour by an amateur.
Cantlay is in the headlines again this year at the Travelers, announcing on Tuesday his decision to turn professional for this week’s event. The long-awaited move by the world’s top ranked amateur comes after completing his sophomore year at UCLA. It’s time for the Bruin to start cashing in on his success and earning full-time status on the PGA Tour. Had he turned pro at the beginning of the 2012 season, Cantlay would have earned $61, 376 in two events.
Past champions Bubba Watson and Hunter Mahan will also be in the field this week, looking to redeem themselves after under-performing at the U.S. Open.
Watson, the 2010 Travelers champion, will look to regain his focus after missing the cut last week at the U.S .Open. He was vocal about his displeasure of the set-up at The Olympic Club. The more forgiving layout of TPC River Highlands should better suit his liking.
Mahan, the 2007 Travelers Champion, will be looking to win his third PGA Tour event of the season. He was on the highlight reel last week more for his chunked chip shots than his stellar play, finishing T-38.
Matt Kuchar will be in the Travelers Championship field for the first time since 2008, when he finished T-52. Kuchar returns as the No. 7-ranked golfer in the world and playing consistently well. He holds the longest active streak of made-cuts on tour with 20, and has made the cut in all of his 13 events played this year. He will look to continue his steady play of 2012, which included a win at The PLAYERS Championship in May.
The players will fly cross-country, through a couple different time zones in search of birdies at TPC River Highlands. The massacre of last week has concluded. Now let the birdie barrage begin.
Click here for more discussion in the “Tour Talk” forum.
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Equipment
Spotted: Putter roundup from the 2024 3M Open
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/putter-roundup-2024-3m.png)
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
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-24-at-11.33.52-AM.png)
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
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #2
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Tobias Jonsson – WITB – 3M Open
- Keith Mitchell – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tony Finau – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Maverick McNealy – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tom Hoge – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Mac Meissner – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Robert Streb – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sahith Theegala – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Santiago de la Fuente – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Billy Horschel – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Chris Gotterup – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Roger Sloan – WITB – 2024 3M Open
Pullout Albums
- Ping putters – #1 – 3M Open
- Ping Putters – #2 – 3M Open
- TaylorMade Spider Tour S broomstick putter – 3M Open
- Odyssey Broomstick #7 putter – 3M Open
- Bettinardi putters – 2024 3M Open
- New EyeLine training aid – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Ryder’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Odyssey putters – 2024 3M Open
- L.A.B. Golf putters – 2024 3M Open
- Tyler Duncan’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Zac Blair’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Paul Barjon – PXG putter – 2024 3M Open
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Equipment
Collin Morikawa’s pre-Open equipment adjustments
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MorikawaP790-1.jpg)
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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Janice Simone
Jun 23, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Great Job A.J.
E Gibney
Jun 21, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Great article, Andrew!