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Thomas Bjorn sides with experience in his Ryder Cup captain’s picks

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Thomas Bjorn today announced his four wildcard picks for the Ryder Cup, with the Dane gambling heavily on experience. Ryder Cup stalwarts Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, and Sergio Garcia got the nod from Bjorn, as well as Paul Casey, who last featured in this event in 2008.

The four men join a side which contains five first-timers, and Bjorn made it clear today just how valuable the addition of experience was to his European team:

“These four all bring so much to the Ryder Cup. They bring loads of experience, and they know what it feels to win and lose.”

Stenson, Poulter, and Casey were all expected to be named on the European side by Thomas Bjorn; however, there had been serious doubt over whether or not the Dane would spend a wildcard pick on Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard has been woefully out of form for the majority of 2018, missing seven of his last ten cuts on the PGA Tour. Bjorn, however, was in no doubt regarding the selection of Garcia, stating on Wednesday that if team Europe would not have had the Spaniard on their team that it would be like “a football team without their captain.”

Garcia’s Ryder Cup record is up there with the best. The 38-year-old is the most experienced Ryder Cup player on the European side, and the Spaniard boasts a brilliant 19-11-7 record in the event. Garcia’s ability to inspire both on the course and in the dressing room were no doubt factors in the decision to opt for the out-of-form veteran.

Garcia, speaking today stressed that he was ready to give everything he had to repay the faith that his captain has shown in him.

“Obviously it feels amazing, and I’m very thankful to Thomas for believing in me. I’m going to give everything I have on the course and in the team room with some of the rookies, to make them more comfortable.”

Thomas Pieters, Matt Wallace, and Rafa Cabrera Bello are just some of the golfers sure to be disappointed with their omission, with the latter perhaps feeling the hardest hit to miss out. Cabrera Bello collected 2.5 points out of a possible three on his Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine in 2016, and he has an excellent record at this year’s host course, Le Golf National, where he has claimed two top-five finishes in the past. It is Cabrera Bello’s fellow countryman however whose previous Ryder Cup prowess gave him the edge over all of his competitors for a place on Bjorn’s European side.

The Ryder Cup begins on the 28th of September, and Thomas Bjorn will be hoping the experience of his four wildcard picks can inspire Team Europe to a famous victory over a powerful United States side.

Full Europe team: Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. reggie

    Sep 6, 2018 at 2:09 am

    Le Golf National… in France? Watch out so they don’t spike the wine…..

  2. Caroline

    Sep 6, 2018 at 12:15 am

    Got to bring in the fans to pay for the event….Pro Golf is first and foremost an entertainment and just like any entertainment it is the name actors/player that bring in the fans both on course and on TV.

  3. Craig Stanton

    Sep 5, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    Wow, no Cabrera Bello or Pieters, big big call.

  4. Nolan

    Sep 5, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    Sergio?!?!?!

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Equipment

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

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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.

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

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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. 

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

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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. 

 

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