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Morning 9: Should we blame J.B.? | TW learning Chapultepec | Sponsors wanted shorts

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5 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

February 20, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.
1. Don’t blame J.B.
Steve Dimeglio, writing for Golfweek makes a valid point–while J.B. Holmes may have clearly been in violation of the spirit of slow play “rules,” he was never put on the clock at the Genesis Open. As he clearly feels it’s advantageous to play at the pace he does, and knowing there will be no negative ramifications for doing so, why would he speed up?
  • “It took the final group – Adam Scott was alongside Holmes and Thomas for the sluggish ride – 5 hours, 29 minutes to complete 18 holes.”
  • “…Holmes defended his pace of play, saying he “was never even close to being on the clock all week.”
  • “And therein lies a major problem. Until officials start weighing in with slow-play penalties, this issue will still be an issue in 2055.”
  • “Just look to the past to predict the future. The final group in L.A. on Sunday fell more than a hole behind the next-to-last group, which should have led an official to at least warn the group of its slow-play infractions. No such warning came.”
2. Tiger learning Chapultepec
ESPN’s Bob Harig…“Woods arrived Tuesday afternoon for his first look at the Club de Golf Chapultepec for the WGC-Mexico Championship, and he had his first range session and nine-hole practice round trying to figure out just how this is all will work before the tournament begins Thursday.
  • “It’s a lot of work,” Woods said during a practice round with Justin Thomas and Billy Horschel, who was also playing the course for the first time. “The ball doesn’t peak. It spins basically the same but there is a lot to figure out.”

Full piece.

Harig reports Woods hasn’t played at altitude since 1999.
3. JT on the adjustments
Golf Channel quoting Thomas...”A 6-iron at home, I think [he hits it] about 200 yards,” Thomas estimated. “Last week in the mornings when we were warming up for the restarts, we were going about 180 [yards], and this week could be anywhere from 230 to 240 just depending on the height I hit it, how hard I hit it and whatnot.”
  • “When you’re 250 yards away and you look down at your ball and you look up and the pin’s that far away, and you look back down and you have a pretty decent lofted iron in your hand,” he said. “Especially a hole like 6, that par 5 where you’re hitting over water. You could have 300 yards to the hole and I just pull out a 5-wood and you can’t even see anything, you’re over water, but if you hit it right, that’s the right club.”
4. Sponsors like shorts
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard with the report…
“I knew it was coming because the players wanted it,” Horschel said of the PGA Tour’s new policy introduced this week that allows players to wear shorts during practice and pro-am rounds.
  • …According to Horschel it was input from various sponsors that ultimately convinced the Tour to allow shorts.
  • “[Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] was against it. He will tell you he wasn’t really for the shorts. But when the PGA of America did what they did and it was successful and people loved it he took notice,” Horschel said. “What pushed Jay over the edge was when he talked to the sponsors and they said they loved the shorts. They told him it brings the Tour player closer to us. That’s what Jay told me pushed him over the edge when it allowed the Tour players to become more relatable.”
5. Slumping Spieth?
AP Report on Jordan’s Spieth’s failure to contend in golf tournaments and how he feels about the matter.
  • “Perhaps most startling is how infrequently he’s even had a chance to win. In the last year, Spieth has only had three tournaments where he started the final round within five shots of the lead or closer. The most recent was at the TPC Boston, where he shot 70 and tied for 12th.”
  • “It has proven to be a long road back from a year in which he struggled with his putter, and when that came around, his swing got out of sorts. Riviera was his 11th straight time out of the top 10, his longest such streak since he started in 2013.”
  • “Is his patience being tested?”…“I don’t think so,” he said. “It’s something that comes with what I’m working on.”
6. Perspective on his 17
Greg Hardwig of the Naples Daily News, presented in Golfweek. Hardwig caught up with Ben DeArmond, the club pro who ingloriously carded a 17 in a Web.com Tour event last week.
  • “DeArmond said he thought of his 9-month-old son, his family, friends and members over the remaining 16 holes of what turned out to be a 91 – he made 10 pars and a bogey over his last 11 holes.”
  • “I had time to realize that this is a pretty awesome experience,” he said. “I’ve got a 9-month-old son who would look back on it, and realize I made history in a bad way, but also realize that I didn’t quit.
  • “I’ve told my assistants and everyone else. It’s the reality of it. Everybody has a bad day. Don’t quit. No matter what. Have the integrity to complete everything you do.”
7. Lincicome expecting
Brittany Lincicome announced via Instagram yesterday that she and husband Dewald Gouws are expecting.
“I can’t even tell you how excited we are,” Lincicome wrote in the post. “Lots of tears of joy.”
8. Farewell, Karsten Golf Course
Jeff Metcalfe of The Arizona Republic with the grim news now official
  • “Arizona State’s long-planned closing of Karsten Golf Course will occur in early May with the first development on the property to be multi-purpose fields for student and athletic use.”
  • “The 18-hole course, designed by Pete Dye, opened in September 1989, and sits about seven miles east of Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, just east of ASU’s Tempe campus.”
  • “The golf course is part of the 330-acre ASU athletic facilities district, created in 2010 by the Arizona Legislature, that is now called the Novus Innovation Corridor and being master planned by ASU and Catellus Development Corporation.”

Full piece

9. Slow play changes…in Kentucky High School Golf
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine on the effective reduction in competitive team size
  • …”the Kentucky High School Athletic Association passed a new rule, which will go into effect this fall, that reduces the number of players a team can bring to the state championship from five to four.”
  • “There is strong feeling on the board that these changes will strengthen the competition pool at the state championship event and give more students from throughout the state an opportunity to qualify, while at the same time addressing longstanding concerns over the pace of play,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said in a release.
  • “Teams will still play a five-count-four format in regional play, but if a team advances it must decided which four players it will bring with it to the state championship. No. 5 players can still qualify as individuals, but many teams will now be faced with the difficult decision of telling a contributing member of the team that he or she can’t compete in the biggest event of the year.”
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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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14 hours ago

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May 7, 2024

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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2 days ago

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May 6, 2024

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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

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2 days ago

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May 6, 2024

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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