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GolfWRX Morning 9: Trouble ahead for PGA Championship? | Rory: Tiger needs to re-learn how to win

Published

6 years ago

Aug 8, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

August 8, 2018

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans. Yesterday, in an inexplicably but not totally unexpected mental malfunction, I said the 2001 PGA Championship was cancelled due to the events of 9/11. It was, in fact, a WGC event, not a major, at Bellerive that was wiped from the schedule, as several readers have alerted me. My apologies.

1. PGA Championship challenges

Steve DiMeglio outlines the weather-related difficulties the PGA Championship could face this week.

“Only four players got on the golf course Tuesday at Bellerive Country Club as the first weather delay disrupted the 100th playing of the PGA Championship.”

“Play was suspended and players and spectators were told to seek shelter as a string of thunderstorms starting hitting the area just past 7 a.m. CT. Lightning lit up the skies, thunder cracked the silence and a deluge of rain left rivers, ponds and small lakes on the already soft golf course.”

“The putting surfaces are already the talk of the tournament as they are on the rough side and extremely soft, so they didn’t need the water.”

“A sign in the players’ locker room has already warned the players what to expect: “Due to the expected high temperatures and high humidity over the next couple of days, greens speeds will remain slower than they are planned for Championship Rounds.”

“If more foul weather moves through the area – and chances are it will the rest of Tuesday and into Wednesday – another challenge could pop up when play begins Thursday. The fairways are pure but soft, which likely will deliver mud balls.”

More.

2. “We want him on that team”

Ryder Cup bubble boy, Bryson DeChambeau, has a significant lobbyist in his corner.

“Bryson is very analytical, as we all know, but what most of the guys don’t know is how competitive he is,” Woods said. “He is very fiery, very competitive, and that’s the type of person we want on the teams. We want someone who is fiery, who will bleed red, white and blue. We want those type of players on the team.”

3. Perspectives on major failures

Jordan Spieth has fallen short of major glory on multiple occasions (of course, he has also won majors, which helps).

Nick Menta writes…”In six years on Tour, Jordan Spieth has enjoyed a career’s worth of major triumphs and heartbreaks. There was the runaway at the 2015 Masters; the birdie-double bogey-birdie finish at the 2015 U.S. Open; the 12th-hole meltdown at the 2016 Masters; the driving-range theatrics at the 2017 Open; and the failure to convert a 54-hole lead last month at Carnoustie.”

Spieth: “Yeah, just goes back to if you put yourself in the position enough times, you’re going to have some go your way and some that don’t go your way,” Spieth said Tuesday at Bellerive, where he’ll take his second crack at completing the career Grand Slam.

“I’ve had instances where, like Chambers Bay, where I didn’t think I won when I finished, and then I ended up winning the golf tournament. So it goes both ways. Look at Jack Nicklaus’ career. There’s a perfect example of it, with 19 seconds and 18 majors and, I don’t know, probably 40 top-5s. I don’t know the exact numbers, but the point is you put yourself in position enough, it will go your way sometimes, and sometimes it won’t. And it’s easier to accept if that’s the way you look at it.”

4. Quothe the TIger

One of the best bon mots from Tiger’s pre-PGA Championship press conference.

“Well, just the fact that I’m playing the Tour again, it’s been – just for me to be able to have this opportunity again is – it’s a dream come true,” he answered. “I said this many times this year, I didn’t know if I could do this again, and lo and behold, here I am. So just coming back and being able to play at this level and compete – I’ve had my share of chances to win this year as well, and hopefully I’ll get it done this week.

5. Molinari revisited

With the arrival of the fourth major of the year, scribes are champing at the bit to spill more ink about the winner of the third major of the year.

An AP Report…

“Francesco Molinari made his major championship debut 12 years ago at the Masters alongside Tiger Woods and didn’t make it to the weekend…That wasn’t devastating. All he was doing was carrying his brother’s bag….”I remember the bag being very heavy because my brother likes to carry around a lot of stuff that is not needed on the golf course, really,” Molinari said Tuesday. “And just the feeling of not liking being on the other side of the bag, having someone hitting the shots. Obviously, I would have much rather been playing that week, but it was an amazing experience walking two rounds alongside Tiger and just being at the Masters.”‘

Tim Rosaforte goes back even further….”Older by 21 months, Edoardo was a total opposite to Francesco in personality, body types and playing traits.”

“It was funny how growing up we had different games,” the 35-year-old Francesco explained when we caught up before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I was much more accurate and straight in tee shots and shots to the greens. He was a bit wild, but his short game was incredible. I don’t know how that happened growing up in the same environment with the same teacher. Maybe it was the way we saw the game.”

“Paolo, a dentist, and Micaela, an architect, set up golf lessons with Sergio Bertaina, the revered pro at Circolo Golf Torino. But they never saw their sons as golf pros; not when they were just as passionate competing against one another in football, swimming, track and field, skiing and table tennis. “Loads and loads of sports,” Francesco says today.”

6. CBS loads up the technology for PGA Champ coverage

Toptracer! Putt predictor! Oh my! CBS is rolling out all the technology for the final major of the year.

Martin Kaufman writes …”CBS Sports plans to use the PGA Championship to make its biggest technology push to date in golf. That will include adapting one technology better known to basketball fans and reintroducing green-reading tools that were tested earlier this year in Los Angeles.”

“At the PGA Championship, CBS will introduce 4D Replay on the 15th tee. The video can pan 270 degrees, zoom in and slow down, creating what should be an interesting tool to study players’ swings.”

“CBS also will bring back the Putt Predictor, which illustrates the firm and lag putting lines, to give viewers an idea of the range in which putts must roll to have a chance of going in. This tool is used occasionally in coverage of the European Tour. CBS also will use an Undulation Grid, a graphical overlay to show the contours of the greens.”

“Toptracer will be available on all 18 holes, and as we saw on Fox Sports’ coverage of the U.S. Open, CBS also will use wireless, mounted cameras to trace approach shots from the fairways. That’s not as simple as tracing tee shots.”

7. Reading between the Bjorns

John Huggan breaks down remarks from European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn after the Dane spoke with reporters ahead of the PGA Championship.

“Sergio has been brought up to me a couple of times over the last couple of weeks,” he said with a smile. “Sergio is a world-class player, and he’s got some weeks ahead of him where he can go out and achieve things. But we also know that Sergio is the type of player who can turn it around in a week or two and then all of a sudden go on a great run of form. World-class players all have ups and downs. And the last few weeks he hasn’t played his best. But he’s still bobbling around. There are still some good signs here and there. He can turn it around very quickly.”

Translation: Expect Sergio to get a pick if he needs one, which he almost certainly will.

Inevitably, the subject of Tiger Woods came up in conversation. Did Bjorn, who played all four rounds of the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic alongside Woods and beat him by two shots, think any of his players might be intimidated competing against the great man head-to-head?

Not surprisingly, Bjorn played a straight bat to that particular query.

“I’m glad that this generation of players get to experience Tiger Woods, because that’s what they need,” he said. “They need to experience what he brings to the game. And they need to experience all that comes with the world of Tiger Woods.”

More.

8. Rory: Tiger needs to re-learn how to win

McIlroy said this at his pre-PGA Champ presser…

“There’s a lot of different layers to what Tiger has to go through to win again. He’s learned how to make a swing work for him again. He’s learning how to compete again. He’s learning what you have to do on the back nine of a major on Sunday. He’s building up all that, because even though he’s won 14 of these things, if you haven’t done it for a while, you still have to re-learn a few things, and I think he’s going through that stage.”

9. Keg bag

Al Czervik, rejoice! Michelob Ultra is debuting a prototype Ultra Caddie Bag at the PGA Championship this week. Unfortunately, it won’t be on any caddie’s shoulder, but it will be on display.

The bag features

128 oz. refillable beer keg with a tap handle and pint glasses
BOSE Bluetooth speaker
LED lighting
Built-in tablet for streaming all your favorite media

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

Published

4 hours ago

May 6, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

Published

5 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Ronald Montesano

Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

360° and in!

A nervy par save by @TaylorPendrith to remain one back as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory @CJByronNelson. pic.twitter.com/LVFXUSidSg

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2024

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

.@adrianotaegui birdies the 16th to tie the lead at -17 ?#VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/p4tfE5DRJa

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 5, 2024

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

.@TBalla21 eagles 17, shoots 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the KIA Open. pic.twitter.com/TTOL2LxSdh

— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) May 4, 2024

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

Off the green? No worries for @ScottDu12500063

8-under solo leader @InsperityInvtnl pic.twitter.com/hoj5OujL5C

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2024

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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious

Published

6 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.

For comments: [email protected]

Good Monday morning, golf fans, as the PGA Tour gives us yet another breakthrough winner.

1. Pendrith wins first PGA Tour title

AP Report…”Taylor Pendrith took advantage of Ben Kohles’ final-hole meltdown to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title.”

“Kohles overtook Pendrith with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 for a one-shot lead then bogeyed the 18th after hitting his second shot into greenside rough. After having to chip twice from the rough and already looking stunned, Kohles missed a 6-foot putt that would have forced a playoff.”

“Pendrith two-putted for birdie on the 18th, holing a 3-footer for a 4-under 67 and 23-under 261 total at the TPC Craig Ranch. The 32-year-old Canadian won in his 74th career PGA Tour start.”

Full piece.

2. Koepka takes LIV title in Singapore

S.I.’s Bob Harig…”Brooks Koepka became the first player to win four times as part of the LIV Golf League, shooting a final-round 68 at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore on Sunday to beat Cam Smith and Marc Leishman by two strokes.”

“His timing wasn’t bad, either.”

“A few days after offering concern about his game in light of a poor Masters performance, Koepka stepped up and won the LIV Golf Singapore even to give himself a boost heading into the defense of his PGA Championship title in two weeks.”

“The year’s second major begins on May 16.”

Full piece.

3. Otaegui wins Volvo China

AP report…”Adrian Otaegui overturned a five-shot deficit to win the Volvo China Open on Sunday, the Spaniard’s fifth tour title.”

“Otaegui had been trailing the in-form Sebastian Söderberg after Friday’s round – Saturday’s was cancelled because of thunder and lightning – and he shot 7-under 65 in his final round to win by one shot from Guido Migliozzi, who finished runner up with a 67.”

Full piece.

4. ICYMI: Teen Kim makes the cut

Guardian report…”English teenager Kris Kim became the youngest player to make the cut on the PGA Tour in 11 years after a birdie at the last saw him get through to the weekend of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas with a shot to spare.”

“Amateur Kim, the son of former LPGA player Ji-Hyun Suh, made a second-round four-under-par 67, which included a run of five birdies and one bogey over his front nine.”

“At 16 years and seven months he became the youngest player to make the cut on tour since 14-year-old Guan Tianlang at the 2013 Masters, and, according to the PGA Tour, the fifth youngest in history.”

Full piece.

5. Winner in a rainout

AP report…”Scott Dunlap was declared the 36-hole winner of the Insperity Invitational when rain washed the final round Sunday, giving Dunlap his first PGA Tour Champions title in nearly 10 years.”

“Devastating rain in the Houston area previously washed out the opening round Friday. Players managed to play 36 holes on Saturday, and Dunlap posted a 2-under 70 to take a one-shot lead over Joe Durant and Stuart Appleby.”

“That proved to be the winning score when rain soaked The Woodlands Country Club. It was the second 36-hole event in the last three weeks on the PGA Tour Champions because of weather. The other was in the Dallas area.”