Tour News

A scramble for status in the Tour’s season finale

Published

12 years ago

Nov 7, 2012

This week’s Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic at Disney Resort offers a variety of newsworthy topics, for interests both short and long term.

Many players hovering around No. 125 on the money list are rightfully focused on securing their 2013 PGA Tour card. Others, whose place to play in 2013 is already assured, may be looking to break into the top-80 or top-70 on the money list, rankings earn golfers invitations to heralded PGA Tour events next season. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the 2012 PGA Tour season marks the end of the Fall Series as well.

Since 2007, and the emersion of the FedEx Cup, the Fall Series and Children’s Miracle Network event have closed out the PGA Tour’s season, shining a spotlight on the bubble players who must perform to continue playing at the game’s highest level. But when the Tour embarks upon its new schedule in 2013, the end of the FedExCup Series will mark the end of the PGA Tour’s season, meaning the Fall Series will become part of the Tour’s 2014 schedule.

That fact poses a challenge for Disney’s event, which has been played since 1971 and is one of the longest standing PGA Tour events. Children’s Miracle Network’s sponsorship concludes come Sunday, and the event’s exodus as the Tour’s finale could make finding a new sponsor a tall order. Nonetheless, the 128 players in the field this week will put everything forward to become the 2012 CMNH Classic victor.

Last year, then World No. 1 Luke Donald shot a final-round 64 to earn the come-from-behind victory and seal the PGA Tour money title over Webb Simpson. Six birdies to begin his back nine on the Magnolia Course fueled the low round as he claimed the two-stroke victory over third round co-leader Justin Leonard.

The players will once again take on the Palm and Magnolia Courses at Disney, with three rounds taking place on the 7,516 yard Magnolia track. The Palm may be the shorter course at 6,957, but it still provides challenges. Nine holes feature water while fairways are known for being tight and tree-lined. Accuracy on the course will prove key.

For the three other days, players will face even more water and a load of bunkers, but fairways are quite inviting off the tee. The Magnolia has water on 11 holes, while 97 bunkers are plotted around the course. Payne Stewart’s mark of 61 on the course in 1990 may stand the test of time as the course has grown over the years.

2012 Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III is looking to close out the Fall Series on a perfect note having made each of the previous three cuts, and perhaps lock up another win at Disney. Love’s last win on Tour came at Disney in 2008. More notably, Love is currently No. 98 on the money list and is looking to stay inside the top 100 for the 27^th straight season.

Tommy Gainey is no doubt still riding the high of his victory at the McGladrey Classic on St. Simons Island, Ga., but he is a golfer to keep an eye on this week. Gainey’s previous career-best finish was at this event, when he finished second to Love in 2008.

Meanwhile, Tour veteran Justin Leonard returns to Disney looking for a better end result than in 2011. Leonard’s tournament stalled in the final round as the 40-year-old only managed to shoot 1-under to fall two shots short of a playoff. Leonard’s five previous trips to Disney have been impressive as well, highlighted by three finishes of sixth place or better. Brendon de Jonge hopes to continue his hot streak in Orlando this week, riding three-straight top-five finishes. In those three events, de Jonge is a combined 54-under-par and Disney is another event which is birdie prone.

Finally, most year-end awards are practically foregone conclusions, but Jonas Blixt can try to throw a corkscrew into the equation if he takes his second title in his last three tournaments. Many consider John Huh the top contender for Rookie of the Year, as he was one of three rookies to win on Tour and made it the farthest of all rookies in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Blixt is coming off a disappointing T-84 at the McGladrey Classic, but still has the momentum of his strong play in the first two Fall Series events.

Click here for more discussion in the “Tour Talk” forum.

Your Reaction?

LIKE0
LEGIT0
WOW0
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP0
OB0
SHANK0

Equipment

Spotted: Putter roundup from the 2024 3M Open

Published

2 days 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

Your Reaction?

LIKE40
LEGIT10
WOW7
LOL4
IDHT0
FLOP1
OB1
SHANK7

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2024 3M Open

Published

4 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.

Your Reaction?

LIKE10
LEGIT1
WOW0
LOL1
IDHT1
FLOP0
OB1
SHANK0

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.

Your Reaction?