19th Hole
Hot & Cold: Where strokes were won and lost at the Tour Championship
In “Hot & Cold,” we’ll be focusing each week on what specific areas of the game players excelled and disappointed in throughout the previous tournament. Last Sunday, Rory McIlroy captured the Tour finale, and here’s a look at where some of the most notable players gained and lost strokes over the four days of action at the Tour Championship.
Hot
When Rory McIlroy gains strokes in every significant strokes gained category over four days of an event, then he may be the hardest man in golf to stop. Tee to green the Ulsterman dominated at East Lake, gaining 11 strokes over the field in this area. Check out the clubs McIlroy used to victory at last week’s Tour finale in our WITB piece here.
Xander Schauffele’s love affair with East Lake continued last week, and the 25-year-old showed blistering form with his irons for the four days in Atalanta. Schauffele led the field in strokes gained: approaching the green, gaining 8.1 strokes over the field in this area. That number represents Schauffele’s best performance of his career with his irons.
Brooks Koepka may have faded on Sunday in Atlanta, but last week, the American produced his best performance with his irons since his runner-up finish at the U.S. Open earlier this year. Koepka gained 4.7 strokes over the field for his approach play at East Lake and was only let down by a surprisingly poor performance off the tee where he lost almost two strokes to the field.
Cold
If we thought Dustin Johnson’s form hit rock bottom at the BMW where he lost over six strokes for his approach play, then we were sorely mistaken. Johnson ended his season at East Lake losing a mammoth nine strokes to the field with his irons, and he also lost another five on the greens.
Justin Rose was another big name to disappoint at East Lake, and the Englishman suffered on the greens where he lost 5.7 strokes to the field.
Rickie Fowler was being held up by his putter at the Tour finale, with the American losing 5.1 strokes to the field for his approach play at East Lake. That’s Fowler’s worst performance with his irons since 2014.
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19th Hole
Butch Harmon reveals what he worked on with Rory McIlroy during visit earlier this year
While speaking on the “Son of a Butch” Podcast, legendary swing coach Butch Harmon revealed what he worked on with Rory McIlroy when the four-time major champion went to visit him after the Players Championship this season.
Butch Harmon on what he worked on with Rory:
“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make…
— Matt Vincenzi (@MattVincenziPGA) May 15, 2024
“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make more 3 quarter swings and chop the follow through off a little. He’s a very high ball hitter, but with short irons high balls aren’t good, it’s hard to control, we wanted to bring the ball flight down.”
The work certainly seemed to help McIlroy, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in back-to-back starts.
Rory will now tee it up at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, which is the site of his most recent major victory in 2014.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Brandel Chamblee says this technological development was key to Phil Mickelson winning major championships
While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee shared that he believes the solid core golf ball helped Phil Mickelson win major championships.
“One of the consequences of the solid core golf ball coming around was it put the straightest of hitters in the rough.
“Phil started winning majors in 2004, I don’t think that’s any coincidence. I think he started winning majors after the solid core golf ball came along and put everybody in the rough.
“And so [Phil] is like ‘I got you in the rough, I’m going to kick your a**. This is my game. I’ve been in the rough my whole career. I can go over trees, through trees, around trees.’
“Because he’s got that amazing creativity and Phil is an underrated iron player, phenomenal iron player. Great, great great out of the trouble. If you put the top-40 players on a list and ranked them in terms of accuracy, he would be 40th.
“So, I think that was one of the consequences of the solid core golf balls was it allowed Phil to win major championships.”
Mickelson went on to win the Masters in 2004 as well as five additional majors from 2004-2021 including three total Masters, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship.
Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Former Augusta National employee pleads guilty to transporting stolen Masters memorabilia; Arnold Palmer’s green jacket among stolen items
The document was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Since then, more details have emerged about the case.
According to Darren Rovell of Cllct, one of the items that was stolen was Arnold Palmer’s green jacket.
The Chicago Tribune also reported that Globensky was able to steal the merchandise due to his role as a former warehouse coordinator at Augusta National who oversaw the Masters merchandise that was sold.
Rovell states that “A source with intimate knowledge of the case said an Augusta National member, who knew the jacket was missing, contacted a well-known collector who had gained a reputation for tracking down rare items. The member’s goal was to return the jacket to Augusta under the guise of purchasing it in a private sale.”
The plan worked, and the man agreed to sell the jacket for an agreed upon price of $3.6 million. After the sale was complete, the FBI swarmed the house of the thief.
Cllct also reported that Globensky pled guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Wednesday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.
The Chicago Tribune adds that Globensky’s plea deal includes an agreement to provide the government a cashier’s check for $1.5 million in the next few days.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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