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Morning 9: Match Play bracket | Nelly now No. 1 American | Bubba: cancel the Match Play!

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By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

March 25, 2019

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans.
1. Match play rules reminder
Well-intentioned gift that keeps on giving that they are, the 2019 Rules of Golf bring changes to match play (you’d be forgiven if you’ve forgotten)
Geoff Shackelford filed a reminder for Golfweek.
Among the changes…
  • “The word “halve” is out, “tying” a hole is in. This was driven by the rules attempting to employ more commonly used language.”
  • “Match “score” is now the correct terminology instead of “status” of the match. Score one for the blue collar linguists.”
  • “In the old rules what we know to be asking or requesting a ruling was called “making a claim.” But since this isn’t the insurance business, the rule-makers have adopted “request a ruling.”
2. Bracket, revealed!
The PGA Tour unveiled the Dell Match Play bracket
Here’s El Tigre’s group, with a breakdown from PGATour.com Staff,,,
  • 13. TIGER WOODS (33-10) – Match Play champion in 2003, 2004 and 2008. Last start in this event was 2013, so he’s never played at Austin CC or in this Group Play format.
  • 18. PATRICK CANTLAY (2-1-0) – Lost to Cameron Smith in his opener last year before winning his next two matches.
  • 44. BRANDT SNEDEKER (7-8-1) – Returns after a year off from the event. Has only come out of Group stage once in last three tries.
  • 61. AARON WISE (0-0) – Making first Match Play appearance.
3. Nelly No. 1 (American)
Nelly Korda is now the top-ranked American woman.
Golf Digest’s Keely Levins…”Nelly’s rise has been steady after having made her first big appearance in the U.S. Women’s Open in 2013 as an 14-year-old. She made the cut as an amateur and finished T-64. After turning pro at age 18 in 2016, she played a full season on the Symetra Tour, winning once and qualifying for the LPGA Tour for the 2017 season. She had five top-10 finishes in her rookie campaign, and then a year later claimed her first LPGA Tour win at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship last October.”
“Nelly has played five events so far in 2019, and has finished in the top 10 in each, including a win at last month’s ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open.”
4. Bubba wants to…cancel the Match Play?
Primarily, because he’s not a fan of the event…
Quotes via Joel Beall at Golf Digest…
  • “I vote every year not to have Match Play because I feel like I have a better chance in 72 holes than I do in individual (matches),” Watson said at Innisbrook. “Because we have seen every year a guy shoot in the 60s and lose, and then we see a guy shoot in the 70s and win. And it’s like, wait a second, how fair is this?”
  • “Don’t get me wrong, if I win Match Play again, it would be a miracle. But it would be awesome, I would accept it,” Watson said. “But we’re just looking forward, six months from now and see if we have improved. And if that means throwing in a win here or there, great. But we’re just trying to improve and get more consistent so we have chances on Sundays instead of last place.”
5. Leadbetter officially joins Team Reed
Brian Wacker at Golf Digest filed this…”Patrick Reed has officially hired swing coach David Leadbetter, who said Monday during an interview on Brad Faxon’s radio show on SiriusXM that Reed asked him to join the team and that he has accepted.”
  • “The reigning Masters champ and 66-year-old instructor first worked together following Reed’s opening round at last week’s Valspar Championship, where Reed’s wife Justine sent a text to Leadbetter on Thursday afternoon asking if he could do a lesson with her husband before the second round.”
6. Finau reflects on Masters ankle horror
Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…”Finau was among those playing in the fan-friendly Par 3 contest when he got to the 7th hole. Great shots and holes in one are not uncommon in this event.”
  • “But after getting his ace, Finau admitted on Golf Channel’s Feherty his reaction was over the top.”
  • “So when that thing hit the pin and disappeared, the excitement level for me was one like I don’t know if I ever experienced before,” Finau told Feherty. “At that moment, I’m kinda sprinting up the fairway and I’m thinking ‘I should check on my family. Maybe they’re celebrating with me.’ But then, what happened next was probably the most embarrassing and craziest moment of my life.” 

Indeed. Full piece.

7. No changes to Match Play format
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Players were informed last week that a proposal had been presented to the player advisory council to dramatically change the format of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.”
  • “The new format, which was requested by Dell Technologies, would double the number of players who advance out of match play group play to 32 for 36 holes of stroke-play competition on the weekend at Austin Country Club. According to the memo sent to players, the PAC “was not supportive of the proposed format change.”
8. Feherty opens up about relapse following son’s death
Andy Nesbitt of For The Win…”Feherty talked to Gumble during an interview that will air on the new episode of HBO’s Real Sports”
  • “I was at a friend’s ranch and I’d gone up there to be by myself. I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve been sober 10 years. I’m tired of it,” he said. “You know, I’m tired of being sober. I wanna feel better.’ And I convinced myself that it would make me feel better.
  • “So, there was a bottle of Irish whiskey there, which is, like, an angel cryin’ on my tongue. But oddly enough, it didn’t – tasted awful. But I made myself drink more. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got this under control. I don’t have to drink that much.’ You know, the next day I did the same thing, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got it under control.’ Before I knew it, you know, it had me under control.”
9. Mixed Open
BBC Sport Report on the Jordan Mixed Open and former Ryder Cupper Barry Lane’s contention that the format has legs.
  • “The inaugural Jordan Mixed Open could be “a blueprint for the future of the game”, says former Ryder Cup player Barry Lane.”
  • “Lane will be one of the seniors from the Staysure Tour who will compete against Challenge Tour and Ladies’ European Tour players from 4-6 April.”
  • “The 123-player field at Ayla Golf Club will compete for a £300,000 prize fund.”
  • “It’s something different, and for more people to engage in golf that’s what we need,” said the 1993 Ryder Cup player.”
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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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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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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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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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