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GolfWRX Morning 9: The eternal allure of Tiger Woods | Lincicome vs. the guys | A pair of passings

Published

8 years ago

Jul 18, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

July 18, 2018

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.

1. “Box office” Woods

As he prepares for his return to the British Open, all eyes are on Tiger Woods. Sure, there are Woods’ usual detractors, and those who wish the media would focus more on other players, so it may be more accurate to say–many eyes at Carnoustie are on Tiger physically.

The BBC’s Tom English had this to say about merely getting to Woods’ press conference.

“When Woods is on his way to the interview room, media folk grow extra legs. They exit their seat like a greyhound from the traps and whizz past you in a blur. Lesson one about covering a major championship: don’t get in the way of a man on his way to a Tiger press conference. Dawdle and you’re dead. Roadkill.”

“Woods had a captive audience. We were literally queuing out the door. For reigning Open champion Jordan Spieth on Monday – a healthy attendance at his press conference, but not full. For Masters champion Patrick Reed – a decent turnout. For US Open champion Brooks Koepka – a respectable crowd. For Woods, a stampede.”

He said this of the endless scribe and fan interest in Woods…”Put simply, we will never get over Tiger. For good and bad, he is imbedded in our hearts and minds. People wonder whether he can pull off a miracle and win this week – or any week when there’s a major on the line. The miracle isn’t exclusively about him winning, it’s about us wanting him to win. That’s a miraculous event in itself. Despite everything that he has done, we’re still rooting for him ahead of most, if not, all of the field?”

2. Lincicome vs. the guys

Helen Ross checks on Brittany Lincicome as she prepares to tee it up at the Barbasol.

“Ten years, to be exact. When Lincicome steps to the 10th tee at 9:59 a.m. ET on Thursday, she’ll become the sixth woman to play in a TOUR event, joining Wie, who was the last, Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley, Shirley Spork and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.”

“And Lincicome, who is playing with Sam Ryder and Conrad Shindler, plans to soak it all in. “To be playing in the practice round today, hitting on the driving range, it’s kind of surreal,” Lincicome said. “I just can’t stop smiling. … I can’t wait until Thursday.”

“Lincicome has won eight times on the LPGA Tour and played in six Solheim Cups. She narrowly missed getting her ninth victory on Sunday, too, when a birdie putt did a 340-degree spin out of the hole and Lincicome ended up losing on the first hole of sudden death.”

“Lincicome’s average driving distance, measured on two holes each week, is 269.520 yards, which ranks her 10th on the LPGA. That’s just 6 yards out of No. 1 – but outside the top 200 on the PGA TOUR.”

3. A pair of passings: Marcia Chambers and Mark Hayes

The golf world lost a fine pair: Marcia Chambers and Mark Hayes.

John Strege writes of Chambers: “Marcia Chambers, a Golf Digest contributor who was on the leading edge of writing about gender and race discrimination in golf, died last Friday at Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Conn. She was 78.

“Chambers, a Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School, received the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for her series of Golf Digest articles dealing with gender and race discrimination in golf.

“She initially was asked to address discrimination against women in private clubs, but that was tabled when Shoal Creek and its founder Hall Thompson brought race to the fore in the runup to the PGA Championship in 1990.”

Jim McCabe on Mark Hayes…“Hayes, whose win at the 1977 PLAYERS was the last of three PGA TOUR wins in a solid 19-year career, died Monday at the age of 69 in Edmond, Oklahoma. Hayes’ death was confirmed by his oldest brother, Larry Hayes, the General Manager at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. He was 69 and had been ill for more than a year.”

4. Fun with skins

An unbylined AP report on some practice round antics at Carnoustie and more from the SB2K crew…in this case a Michael Greller-Justin Thomas bet that he could make par on a hole using just an 8-iron.

“The challenge was for Thomas to make par using only an 8-iron…Once he got it in the fairway, Spieth came over to advise him how to navigate the pot bunkers more than 200 yards away. The ball stopped rolling, finally, about a yard short of a bunker to the left of the green. Getting it over the bunker with that club was going to be a problem.”

‘”Where’s my caddie?” Thomas said in mock panic…Spieth was preparing to hit a bunker shot on the other side of the fairway when he looked over and said, “Sorry,” then ran to Thomas for more consultation. He told Thomas to open the face of the 8-iron and slide it under the firm turf. Spieth pointed to a spot on the slope beyond the bunker. Greller watched nervously as Thomas pulled it off to perfection, the ball rolling out to 3 feet…With the leading edge of the 8-iron, he knocked it in for a 4. And then, as usual, they all debated the size of the bet.”

Worth a read: the full story.

5. The Golf Engine predicts…

Pat Ross and his Golf Engine predict the top 25 finishers at The Open.

How does it work? “In this model, we use machine learning to evaluate 1,500 different statistics for every golfer on the PGA Tour over each tournament since 2004. The analysis of this massive dataset allows gives us an opportunity to predict players that are sitting on low round scores.”

A taste…”The field for the 147th British Open is set at the historic Carnoustie Golf Links. The Golf Engine modeled over 1,500 statistics tracked by the PGA Tour for every tournament dating back to 2004. We looked at how each stat contributes to what we can expect from players on this stage, at this tournament. It’s a complex web of information that can only be properly analyzed by a machine, yet yields some objectively surprising results.”

“This year’s British Open is no exception as the model is calling for Webb Simpson (125/1 odds) to make a run into the top 10 at least.”

Some surprises…Back-to-back U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka (22/1) inside the top 5…Webb Simpson (125/1) and Phil Mickelson (66/1) inside the top 10….Emiliano Grillo (100/1) inside the top 15…Kevin Na (175/1), Luke List (125/1), and Ryan Moore (150/1) inside top the 25.”:

“Perhaps just as surprising are the golfers that may under-perform this week. Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood don’t make the top 10 cutoff. Alex Noren, Francesco Molinari who finished T2 at TPC Deere Run last week, and Sergio Garcia are all projected outside of our top 25.”

See the picks.

6. Confessions of Yipper

More specifically, a confession from Kevin Na that he contracted a strain of the yips.

“I went through the yips. The whole world saw that. I told people, ‘I can’t take the club back,'” Na said on Tuesday at Carnoustie. “People talked about it, ‘He’s a slow player. Look at his routine.’ I was admitting to the yips. I didn’t use the word ‘yip’ at the time. Nobody wants to use that word, but I’m over it now so I can use it. The whole world saw it.”

“It took time,” he said. “I forced myself a lot. I tried breathing. I tried a trigger. Some guys will have a forward press or the kick of the right knee. That was hard and the crap I got for it was not easy.”

7. Hello again, John Peterson

He’s back! (Sort of). Golfweek’s Kevin Casey (former GolfWRX writer!) with the details.

“It was less than two weeks ago that John Peterson seemed to say farewell after he just missed out on conditional status following the end of his major medical extension…The 29-year-old had for months stated that if he did lose his PGA Tour status by the end of the medical, he would retire and go into real estate development. After his lost status came to fruition, Peterson seemed to indicate he was indeed going through with this plan.”

“But now – at least for one week – he’s back…Despite having no status, Peterson was on the alternate list for the Barbasol Championship – the opposite-field event being played during Open Championship week…He quickly moved up the alternates, too, due to field changes and has now earned a spot in the event!”

“How did he get in this field? Peterson apparently earned his spot via being in the “50 finishers beyond 150 on prior season’s money list through Wyndham Championship” category.”

8. BioMech and the future of putting analysis

Michael Williams chatted with the CEO of BioMech Golf among others. BioMech Golf is, well, I’ll let Michael tell you…

“A couple of years ago, Dr. Frank Fornari and BioMech created a stir with the BioMech Acculock ACE putter, a radical new putter design that integrated the principles of biometrics, the science of motion. The putter was designed to be used with a specific type of putting stroke that would be proven by the BioMech team to be the ideal method for putting. The putter developed a cult following, but the BioMech team is back with a tool that just might break into the mainstream.”

“Fornari’s team has developed the BioMech putting sensor and app. The sensor attaches to any putter and transmits data about each putt to an app that can run on any iPhone or iPad. It provides key data on what the player is doing, when they are doing it and why they are doing it, making the BioMech sensor effective whether you are a player, an instructor or even a manufacturer. With the golf industry driven more than ever by technology, the BioMech sensor could become as essential to putting and the short game as Trackman is to the full swing.”

If this sounds interesting, you’ll love Michael’s full chat. .

9. Phil’s phantastic flop

Do yourself a favor if you haven’t checked out Phil Mickelson’s insane full-swing flop from a tight lie over the head of a man two yards in front of him. Imagine trying this shot? Heck, fluff up the grass and place the ball perfectly, and you’re still killing the guy or robbing him of his ability to father children. Mickelson’s short game is a trope that gets more discussion than it should, but this is just crazy.

Watch it here.

Popular Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge

Published

18 hours ago

May 25, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

The famed Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, is the scene this week for the Charles Schwab Challenge, where Ludvig Aberg enters the week as the tournament favorite.

Tour Photographer Greg Moore and our traveling equipment insider, Alistair Cameron, are both on site this week in the Lone Star State. Thus far, we’ve been treated to an in-hand look at TaylorMade’s new ZT Max putter, as well as a bounty of WITBs.

Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums

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Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.

News

Tour Tech Rundown: A fair Wyndham blows

Published

1 day ago

May 25, 2026

Ronald Montesano

On this Memorial Day, and on days of commemoration all year long, all around the planet, we remember and thank those that made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and liberty. The tours are in a few weeks of non-major mode as May seeps into June. The LPGA is up next with its Women’s Open in early June, followed by the Men’s Open on Father’s Day. The Tour Champions runs three majors together in July, and before you know it, summer is on the wane and the majors are behind us.

We celebrate all professional outcomes on Tour Tech Rundown, and we appreciate each event for its intrinsic worth and value. A TPC Craig Ranch doesn’t have to be Aronimink, and let’s face it, after last week’s grueling PGA Championship set-up, it shouldn’t be. Imagine for a moment your most exhausting, energy-sapping day in the office or wherever. Should every week, every day, be identical? Of course not.

In a week when the ruling golf associations announced the two-fold implementation of rolled-back golf balls, focus is on the little white (in most cases) orb that we whack across the Elysian Fields. All current balls are legal for amateurs until 2030, and the pros will receive new spheres in January of 2028. For me, it means that our team shagbag will probably be OK to use until we lose all the balls, down the road. For the pros, given their levels of fitness and the science behind every aspect of golf technology, I expect their distances to change not one bit. Sorry, not sorry. That’s evolution.

On that note, enough with the Op-Ed section and on to the facts. Five winners on five tours gives us plenty of Tour and plenty of Tech to run down. Let’s take a crack at understanding what made the winning engines purr and roar this week. Thanks to GolfWRX, Inside Tour Golf, and Today’s Golfer for initial research efforts.

PGA Tour @ CJ Cup Byron Nelson: A fair Wyndham blows through Texas

Unlike the Charles Schwab Challenge, which has a forever home at Hogan’s Alley (Colonial Country Club) the Nelson has moved around the Dallas-Fort Worth area with regularity. TPC Craig Ranch was toughened up by Lanny Wadkins and company, in anticipation of this year’s tournament. Two things need to be stated: Tour Pros don’t like tough golf courses every week, and they expect a chance to show off their skills (aka birdie fests) with some regularity. No one likes missed shots, missed field goals, missed catches, except for the defensive specialists, and the average sports viewer is not a defensive specialist. We come to July 4th in anticipation of bigger, louder, brighter, better, and we like birdies and eagles from time to time.

This week in Dallasland, we had plenty of fireworks. We had 60s and 61s, and we had a 30-under par tally from our winner. Wyndham Clark blaxed through the inward nine at TPCCR in 28 strokes. He made up five shots on the day, on Si Woo Kim and company. Clark’s five birdies and one eagle over the closing half brought the week’s second 60 (Kim had the first) and a three-shot margin of victory.

Si Woo Kim appeared destined to claim the win, but a bogey at the eighth slowed his role. He came home in minus-three, a decent showing on most days. On Sunday, it meant that he gave four shots back over the final stretch, and that is never good. Kim placed second at 27-under par, while Scottie Scheffler came third at 25-deep. The tour moves down the interstate a bit, to Colonial this week.

Clark’s Collection

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D at 9 degrees with Project X Titan Black 70 TX Shaft
Metal: Ping G440 Max at 21 degreews with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 80 TX shaft
Irons: Titleist T200 4-5 with True Temper Dynamic Golf X-Seven shaft
Irons: Titleist T100 6-9 with True Temper Dynamic Golf X-Seven shaft
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 @ 46, 53, 56, 60 degrees with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft
Putter: Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset
Ball: Titleist ProV1x

DP World Tour @ Soudal Open: Sterne finish leads to triumph

In 2013, over a dozen years back, Richard Sterne won his sixth DP World Tour title. Thanks to a stellar week in Belgium, Sterne now has his seventh tour title, after a bit of a wait. The South African veteran golfer held off a half-dozen of the circuit’s finest and hungriest, to reach 18-under par and win at Rinkven International.

A United Nations sub-committee pursued Sterne to the final green. England, Spain, Sweden, France, Japan, and Denmark all sent representatives to the stretch run, but none could track down the 44-year old from Pretoria. Sterne started well (three birdies in five holes) and finished well (birdie-eagle near the end) on Sunday, and held the pack at distance. In truth, the two that gave the most away were countryment Zander Lombard (74) and MJ Daffue (71) who both closed with less than their best, finishing three shots back at minus-15. On to Austria and the Alpine Open in Kitzbuhel.

Sterne’s Collection

Driver: Ping G440 LST at 10 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
Metal: Ping G440 Max at 15 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
Metal: Ping G440 Max at 19 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
Metal: Ping G440 Max at 21 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
Irons: Srixon ZXiU 2-4 irons
Irons: TaylorMade P7MC 5-9 irons
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11Ball 46, 50, 54, 60 degrees
Putter: L.A.B. DF3i
Ball: Titleist ProV1x

Korn Ferry Tour @ Visit Knoxville Open: What a minute, Doc!

Doc Redman joined Ian Holt as double dippers in 2026, with a playoff win in Tennessee. Redman won in Chile during the tour’s tour of the Americas this winter, then repeated his fortune in Knoxville. Redman and Hunter Eichorn finished on 25-under par, two shots clear of third place. The pair played but one hole in overtime. Redman buried a monster putt for eagle at the par-five finisher, and Eichorn was unable to match.

Cooper Dossey held the 54-hole lead, but an outward, plus-one 37 opened the barn door to all the predators. Dossey dropped into a tie for third position with John Marshall Butler and Bryce Lewis. Eichorn was flawless on Sunday, posting ten birdies on his way to 61, Redman stumbled for bogey at the penultimate hole, before rebounding with birdie at the last, to enter the playoff. The tour shifts to Raleigh Country Club this week for the UNC Health Championship.

Redman’s Collection

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke at 8.5 degrees with Fujikura Ventus TR 6-X shaft
Metal: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond at 15 degrees w/ Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X
Metal: Ping G430 at 21 degrees with Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX shaft
Irons: Ping Blueprint S 4 and 5 with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft
Irons:Ping Blueprint T 6 – 9 with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 at 46, 50, 54 degrees w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedge: Titleist Wedgeworks Proto at 58 degrees w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron T 5.5
Ball: Titleist ProV1x

SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT ?

Doc Redman won the Visit Knoxville Open with a cliffhanger eagle on the first playoff hole! pic.twitter.com/6uAcP2hwMk

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) May 24, 2026

PGA Tour Americas @ Open de Ecuador: Earth’s waistline is good to Joey

Canada’s Joey Savoie thought that he only had to consider the USA’s Thomas Ponder, until Jack Lundin made a stretch run at the overnight leader. Savoie posted 69 on Sunday, featuring a clumsy birdie-bogey-bogey-birdie finish. Meanwhile, Lundin applied the icing to a delicious 64 cake, featuring a 32 on the closing nine. His only mistake was bogey at the tenth, but he made up for it with three birdies and an eagle over the final eight holes.

Savoie and Lundin finished one shot clear of Ponder, who followd a 71st-hole eagle with a 72nd-hole bogey, to miss the playoff by one. The top pair returned to the 18th hole twice with pars, before moving to the 10th hole, where Savoie had posted 3, and Lundin 5, in regulation. There, Savoie repeated his birdie with another tre, while Lundin was unable to match. The PGAT moves to Mexico in June, after a weeklong break.

Savoie’s Collection

Driver: TaylorMade Qi35 LS at 9 degrees
Metal: TaylorMade Qi35 Tour at 15 degrees
Hybrid: TaylorMade Qi35 Rescue
Irons: TaylorMade 7CB
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 4
Putter: TaylorMade Spider GTX Black
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

PGA Tour Champions @ Trophy Hassan II: Give him a Hend, ladies and gentlemen

Many senior golfers travel to America to fulfill their post-PGA Tour dreams. Scott Hend journeyed to … Morocco? A bit disingenuous, I’ll admit. The PGA Tour Champions made a stop in Morocco, at the Royal Dar Es Salaam golf club. Long before the Indianaplis Motor Speedway conceived of the idea of having a golf course within the race course. RDES was built inside the Rabat royal palace. Nifty if you can afford it, I suppose!

Hend opened with 66, for a one-shot margin over Tommy Gainey, the second-most famous wearer of two gloves, after Aaron Rai’s PGA Championship win. Gainey followed with a second 67, to assume the lead by one over Hend. On Day three, Two-Gloves Gainey stumbled to a 75 and tie for second spot with Steven Alker. Hend was unflappable under pressure, posting 69 for the second-consecutive day, to earn an inaugural Champions Tour title.

Hend’s Collection

It’s safe to say that a 2020 WITB is not current, so we won’t list that Scott Hend equipment set for you. Rest assured that we will update this column if new information comes to our attention.

2 up with 3 to play ?

Scott Hend is looking to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR Champions at Trophy Hassan II.

? Golf Channel pic.twitter.com/avWjgpFXig

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 23, 2026

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

With the second major of 2026 now behind us, the PGA Tour arrives in Texas for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

GolfWRX Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, is on site at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, and he’s already captured several WITBs and a look at some new colorways of just-spotted L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i putters.

Check out links to all our photos below.