5. Na’s sabbatical
Helen Ross on the birth of Kevin Na’s son, Leo LeeWoo Na, and dad’s time off.
- “I tried to push the name Kevin for the middle name, but it didn’t work,” Na said, laughing. “My wife, she shut me down. … I thought I had more pull in the house, but no.”
- “Na said the decision not to play wasn’t an easy one but in the long run, family is the most important thing. And as it turned out, he enters his title defense at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier more rested than he might otherwise have been.”
- “It was weird having that much time off,” Na said. “… It’s rare you get four weeks off in August. Like I said, I feel fresh. I’m ready to go and excited about this new season. Not only am I excited, the first tournament of the year I’m defending so there is more excitement.”
Full piece.
6. Get ready to hear even more about Viktor Hovland
Steve DiMeglio with a few words on Viktor Hovland…
- “Put it all together and yes, he could be the next big thing on the PGA Tour. Just consider this: Hovland, who turns 22 next week, is making his first start as a full member of the PGA Tour at this week’s Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and is one of the favorites. It’s the opening event of the 2019-20 season.”
- “I would say I was a little anxious going into my professional career, even though I played really well in college,” Hovland said Wednesday. “I played well this summer, but I wasn’t really happy with the way I was hitting it.
- “But where I got way better this year was with figuring out how to just shoot a score regardless of how I was hitting it. But I realized over time this summer when you just play every single week, your mind just switches off a little bit and you just get into golf mode. Suddenly, the more weeks I played in a row my shots kind of started coming back again, and then the confidence came.”
Full piece.
7. Michelle Wie joining Golf Channel…temporarily
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…“Wie will join Golf Central on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 13-15) following live competition. She will debut at 1:30 p.m. ET following Friday’s action alongside former LPGA pro Paige Mackenzie in the Orlando, Florida, studio.”
- “Wie will also contribute to Golf Channel’s digital and social media platforms, including Instagram story takeovers.”
- “I’m excited to join the Golf Channel crew to give my views and inputs on a great event that means so much to me,” Wie said in a release.
Full piece.
8. Kang wants to “crush” Europe
Derek Lawrenson writes…”American Danielle Kang has stirred the pot nicely with some provocative remarks about wanting to ‘crush’ the Europeans and make the home supporters cry when the Solheim Cup begins at Gleneagles on Friday.”
- “…Kang said: ‘You’re going out there to make people cry at this point, and crush the other team.”
- ‘You’re trying to take souls, you know. That’s the fun of it. I loved my first Solheim in Des Moines, it was amazing hearing all the “USA, USA” chants.
Full piece.
9. Dufner’s custom shaft
One for the gear junkies! Our Ryan Barath…”This week, on the range at the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, the inaugural event of the 2019 – 2020 PGA Tour season, we spotted Jason Dufner with a very custom LA Golf Shafts long iron shaft.”
“We reached out to LA Golf Shafts Chief Product Officer John Oldenburg to get the inside info, and John did not disappoint in the details and the story behind the switch by Jason.”
“Duff reached out to me shortly after he put our new OLYSS 65 Tour X prototype in play in his driver last season. He was looking for something for his 4-iron that would get the ball up in the air a bit easier, but maintain (or increase) distance, and keep the spin close to where it was with his existing shaft which was a TT Dynamic Gold AMT S400. What I worked on providing him was a shaft that had an overall stiffness/frequency and weight that were comparable to his current set up, but with a softer tip section. And to improve accuracy (decrease dispersion), I wanted to get him something with lower torque than the TT AMT shaft. So, in a nutshell, that’s what I designed for him. It’s a 125 gram shaft with a frequency close to the AMT S400, but with a tip that is pretty significantly softer and has 0.3 degrees lower torque. The combo of a softer tip with lower torque will help him to launch the ball higher but maintain his accuracy. The “Duff 4-iron”, also has a higher balance point than the AMT S440. That way Duff can use a heavier head, get the same swingweight he is comfortable with, and put a little more mass behind the ball at impact to get an increase in ball speed and thus distance.”
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I Hate Maverick McNealy
Sep 13, 2019 at 11:12 am
See what I mean? Pettersen/Van Dam are 6up over Kang/Salas…Danielle, I love you but you shouldn’t have said what you said.
I Hate Maverick McNealy
Sep 13, 2019 at 11:14 am
Sorry…4up
I Hate Maverick McNealy
Sep 12, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Oh, DK…why you gotta do that? Don’t poke the bear.
A. Commoner
Sep 12, 2019 at 3:02 pm
Fulbright or Pulitzer candidates not what we is talkin about here.