News
Phil lays up on par 5 tee with an iron, hooks it into the water, gets roasted on Twitter
Predictably, Phil Mickelson — who finished dead last at the 2018 Tour Championship (24 shots back of Tiger Woods) — is struggling so far at the 2018 Ryder Cup, and it’s only just begun for him.
Phil was kept on the bench for the morning fourballs, and he then teed it up with Bryson DeChambeau for the afternoon foursomes (alternate shot) against Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren. The pairing raised some eyebrows amongst critics, but hey, you never know.
Historically, Phil is not a great driver of the ball; that can be costly around Le Golf National, which has hazards in play off many tees, and penal rough. At the par-5 third hole — a three shot hole for most — Phil decided to play it safe by using an iron in order to get his playing partner Bryson a shot from the fairway.
That’s not what happened. Instead, Phil hooked it into a hazard.
View this post on Instagram
Iron off the tee on a par 5 into the drink. Is that Phil Mickelson or Tursky? #rydercup #golf #lefty
Golf Twitter had a field day. Here’s a look at some of the… feedback.
What the PHIL?! Iron layup off the tee on a par 5 and it’s in the water… #RyderCup #GoUSA pic.twitter.com/JVdOiMcCcR
— Brian Gulish (@BrianGulish) September 28, 2018
PHIL JUST LAYED UP OFF THE TEE WITH AN IRON ….. ON A PAR 5….. INTO THE WATER #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/LwHbvUbmDa
— Pappy Slap (@Go_HamBURGHlar) September 28, 2018
We’ll next see Phil out 6th during Sunday singles. #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/DFE0iYZRqY
— robmillertime (@robmillertime) September 28, 2018
Phil #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/sCdMSagziy
— JJ Gottschalk (@jjgottschalk) September 28, 2018
Phil Mickelson is a dead set liability on this golf course, where driving accuracy is at a premium. Expect him to play the minimum amount of matches this weekend #RyderCup
— Darren Murphy ???? (@MrDMurphy) September 28, 2018
This Phil & Bryson pairing might go down in history as the worst ever. #RyderCup
— Shook not Stirred (@RTM59) September 28, 2018
Classic “lay up off the tee with an iron on a par 5 and duck hook it into the water” there from Phil.
— GolfWRX (@GolfWRX) September 28, 2018
Phil and Bryson are currently 5-down through 7 holes in the afternoon Foursomes match to Noren and Garcia. Not good.
For more on the Ryder Cup, click here.
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Equipment
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter
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.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
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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Equipment
Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship
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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Dave r
Sep 28, 2018 at 6:27 pm
Turned out exactly as it should have. And tiger is not going to be very successful with captain America as his partener Two egos bigger than the lake Phil hit his ball into. Oh tiger you forgot to smile get the fron off your face and enjoy it there’s more to life than watching you stepping on your lower lip all day..
Hilton
Sep 28, 2018 at 4:25 pm
This is what happens when the American with the 2nd most Ryder Cup loses puts the American with the most loses out with a rookie who had a mental meltdown at The Open earlier in the year.
Carson Henry
Sep 28, 2018 at 1:37 pm
I mean realistically they ran into one of the best Foursome rounds in RC history … Garcia and Noren were -5 thru 9
Bob Jones
Sep 28, 2018 at 1:22 pm
This is too funny.
Brian
Sep 28, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Why is he even on the team???
Scheiss
Sep 28, 2018 at 11:29 am
I like it. A lot. lol. That was fun.
Jack Nicholas
Sep 28, 2018 at 11:18 am
????????????????????????