News
Morning 9: Tiger sets schedule | Olesen insanity | R.I.P. to a Euro Ryder Cupper
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By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected]; @benalberstadt on Instagram)
August 1, 2019 Good Thursday morning, golf fans.
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1. Royal Porthcawl
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell...”The 2021 AIG Women’s British Open will be played at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, the R&A announced Wednesday.”
2. TW returneth
“After missing the cut, Woods explained why he wasn’t heading to Memphis for the cash-grab WGC immediately after Portrush.
3. Negreanu’s big (golf) bets
One of Negreanu’s bets required him to play 12 hours of golf a day just for a chance at a major payout. Negreanu said he bet $550,000 that he could shoot a score of 80 from the back tees at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, a PGA Tour-level course that hosts the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Negreanu only had one year to transform his game, and he won the bet with just a few days to spare.
Via the No Laying Up podcast:
4. Lowest Junior PGA score ever!
AP report…”Jake Beber-Frankel, the 17-year-old son of Academy Award-winning director David Frankel, shot a 10-under 60 on Wednesday for the lowest score in the history of the Boys Junior PGA Championship.”
“Beber-Frankel, from Miami, closed with a par on the ninth hole at Keney Park Golf Course, missing a chance to shoot 59.”
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5. Thorbjorn Olesen: What the hell?
Our Gianni Magliocco…”According to a report from The Sun, European Tour star Thorbjorn Olesen was arrested before being released this week on suspicion of sexual assault during a transatlantic flight.”
6. Downsides of golf gambling?
Brian Wacker at Golf Digest…”During the opening round of last week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, a fan yelled “Get in the bunker!” as Ian Poulter’s ball was in the air on approach to the 18th green at TPC Southwind. Poulter took exception, pointed out the fan to security and had the spectator removed from the course.”
7. Infomercials!
Superb work by Jeff Ritter for Golf.com…
“Thanks to the miracle of YouTube many of those awkwardly awesome golf infomercials live quietly in the archives for posterity. Like panning for gold, all you have to do is go searching. Or, you can just read on and watch this round-up of the greatest 1990s golf infomercials. (Or at least, those that we could dig up.) Also included: each ad’s best line and whether I’d buy the item today if it were available. Operators are standing by!”
8. R.I.P. Gordon Brand, Jr.
Golf Channel staff…”Gordon Brand, Jr., a two-time European Ryder Cup player, has died at age 60.”
9. All hockey numbers!
Golf Digest’s Christopher Powers…”Sometimes you’ve got to spice things up, which is just what Canadian tour pro Jared du Toit is doing this week at the 1932byBateman Open on the Mackenzie Tour (no, I didn’t make up that name).”
“du Toit, a former Arizona State standout, plans to not use any numbers for his yardages, instead coming up with a genius alternative with caddie Nolan Renwick. Rather than telling du Toit he’s got 99 yards left to the pin, Renwick will just say “Gretzky.” But The Great One isn’t the only name he’ll be dropping.”
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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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