Connect with us

News

Illinois For The Win: Points and Murray On Top at AT&T

Published

on

 

By Scott MacLeod, via Flagstick Golf Magazine (www.flagstick.com)

The Prairie State; The Land of Lincoln, whatever you choice of name for Illinois you can now also call it home to the 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Ams Champions. That’s Champions, with an “s” as not only did Pekin, Illinois native D.A. Points (63-70-71-67-271) secure his first PGA Tour win on Sunday, comedian and actor Bill Murray of Wilmette, Illinois got in on the action as well. The duo (Photo, right, by Stuart Franklin, Getty Images)  took down the Pro-Am team title, a first for Murray who has been an institution at the tournament for many years.

Although Murray is thought of by many to be an over-the-top distraction at Pebble Beach, Points reiterated all week that it was actually working in his favor to have the funnyman well known in golf for his role in the movie Caddyshack on his side. Points was effusive is his praise of Murray and how he actually helped him to the individual win.

“Yeah, everybody all week kept saying, well, you got the short end of the stick playing with Murray and he's so crazy and I never, ever felt that way and I kept thinking, you know, why does everybody get so worked up thinking he's this big distraction,” Points told the media after being presented with the crystal trophy and a check for $1.134 million. “I tried to embrace it. I was expecting him to be, you know, more of a distraction than he was, and maybe he toned it down, maybe he didn't, I didn't know, but he just seemed to have fun and he taught me to go ahead and have a little more fun and in turn, it distracted me from trying so hard. It kept me more loose and having a good time with Bill.

Whatever the case, it seemed to work for Points who jumped into the lead with an improbable shot on the par five, 14th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, more unusual in that it is a par five that averages OVER par. Points struck what would become the tournament-winning shot from 107 yards, his third stroke on the hole that found the bottom of the cup. “I knew it was going to at least be a decent shot and I saw it just barely carried the bunker and I could hear the crowd, because we could not see anything from where we were hitting but the crowd, they went nuts. It was great. Our chest pump, he was trying to do it where we would not actually hit but I went all the way so I was a little embarrassed about that part. But really, that was — it was an amazing moment and it was a pivotal shot for the outcome of the event.”

Third round leader Steve Marino (65-66-71-74- 276) still had a chance to catch Points on the 72nd hole of the tournament but needed an eagle of his own to do so. Instead, his four iron from 200 yards found a watery grave and left him with a snowman scarring his card. He earned a share of fourth place alongside Spencer Levin. (71-68-67-70-276). “We had 200 yards to the hole, and I knew I was two back so I was trying to hold my 4-iron and I just pulled it and hit it in the water and after that, it was — kind of the wind was out of my sails. I fought so hard today and felt like I played pretty good and just didn't work out for me. It was kind of, the last hole, knowing you're fighting so hard to win, doesn't happen, it's kind of a bummer,” explained Marino who was also chasing his first win on the PGA Tour. 

Hunter Mahan (70-67-70-66-273) made the charge of the day, a final round 66 with an opening nine of 31, but his failure to convert fairly easy birdie opportunities on the final two holes left him in second place alone by the end of the day. Tom Gillis (67-68-70-70-275) took third place by himself.

This report provided to GolfWRX.com by Canada's Flagstick Golf Magazine (www.flagstick.com)

Your Reaction?
  • 0
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

on

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.

Your Reaction?
  • 10
  • LEGIT2
  • WOW2
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

Published

on

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. 

Your Reaction?
  • 29
  • LEGIT8
  • WOW3
  • LOL4
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP2
  • OB0
  • SHANK5

Continue Reading

Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

Published

on

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. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

Your Reaction?
  • 19
  • LEGIT1
  • WOW1
  • LOL2
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK8

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending