News
Morning 9: Captain Els makes his picks | What makes a great captain’s pick? | Brutal DQ
|
|
By Ben Alberstadt
November 7, 2019 Good Thursday morning, golf fans.
**Just a reminder we’re looking for advertisers for 2020. Drop me a line if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership.**
|
|
|
1. Els’ picks
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard on the International Team captain choosing age over experience…”Els named Joaquin Niemann and Sungjae Im – 20 and 21 years old, respectively – along with Jason Day and Adam Hadwin, 32, his four captain’s picks for this year’s International Presidents Cup team.”
“I didn’t go looking for Joaquin who is 20, or Sungjae who is 21, but they made themselves a lock on this team,” Els said. “I definitely wasn’t that good at 20, 21, but these guys are world-class players and they’ve proven themselves. I’m excited by the new blood that’s coming in.” 2. The essential qualities of good captain’s picks
Shane Ryan, international team competition aficionado that he is, catalogs the crucial attributes of great captain’s picks.
Here are two…”Form…As strange as it might sound, a player’s form entering a match-play exhibition doesn’t matter as much as logic says it should. Yes, you can find examples of bad form persisting, as we famously saw with Webb Simpson in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, but more often the cauldron of a Cup renders recent results less critical than many believe. The heightened pressure, along with the format change to match play and the addition of a team, tends to stop individual momentum.”
“Ferocity…Fear is a killer. We see it over and over again, and of the Ryder Cups I’ve covered, one of the most memorable one-offs came in 2014 at Gleneagles. Paul McGinley, in an otherwise perfect captaincy, made his lone “mistake” when he selected native Scotsman Stephen Gallacher as a captain’s pick and never played him after the first session when it became clear that the stage was too big for him. (I put “mistake” in quotes because from a diplomacy angle, McGinley had to pick a Scotsman to play on a team competing in Scotland.) But it was most prominent in 2016, when Darren Clarke’s English rookies-Chris Wood, Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan, and Matthew Fitzpatrick-looked like they wanted to dig a hole in the Minnesota earth and bury themselves. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Thomas Pieters dealt with the hostile environment by decimating almost every American who stood in his way, including another fairly tough rookie named Brooks Koepka. Why? Because Pieters is a badass, and his English teammates were not. It doesn’t mean he’ll have a better career than the English four, or even that he’s a better player-it means that when faced with high pressure and a mano-a-mano duel, he’s up for it. He even enjoys it.”
3. Brutal DQ
Alex Myers with the horror story…“At the second stage of Q school, Luis Gagne put himself in decent shape after an opening round 70 in Plantation, Fla. Or so he thought. Turns out, Gagne left the course without signing his scorecard and was disqualified. Thanks to Ryan French (Monday Q Info) for first noticing this unfortunate occurrence.”
4. European Tour ROY race
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”The Race to Dubai isn’t the only sprint to the finish over the remaining three tournaments of the 2019 European Tour season. There’s a pretty good contest to see who’ll become the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, too.”
|
|
5. Lucy Li turns pro
Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”The San Francisco Chronicle’s Ron Kroichick first reported the news on Wednesday after getting confirmation from Li’s mom. But it’s a move that surprised no one following Li’s T-72 at Stage 2 of LPGA Q School last month. Following that performance, which didn’t advance her to the final stage, but did earn her Symetra Tour status for next season, Li said the following”
“I’m excited to be playing here and really looking forward to the Symetra Tour next year, then hopefully take that jump to the next level.”
6. AJGA POY
Meet Max Moldovan, match play maestro and AJGA POY
Golfweek’s Julie Williams…“Maxwell Moldovan isn’t someone you’d want to meet on the other side of a match-play bracket. On his way to winning the Polo Golf Junior Classic at Liberty National this summer then helping the East Team win the Wyndham Cup, the 17-year-old Uniontown, Ohio, native compiled a 9-0-1 match-play record. For such strong play, Moldovan earned the American Junior Golf Association’s highest honor: Rolex Player of the Year.”
Full piece for the rundown of first and second-teamers. 7. Colin Montgomerie: course designer
Simon Cambers of the New York Times talked with Monty, designer of this week’s European Tour venue in Turkey…”What does it mean to you, and to the club itself, for the Montgomerie Maxx Royal to be holding the Turkish Open again this year? It is a fantastic honor, having designed a course that I am very proud of and one that is hosting its fourth Rolex event, one of a number of premier European Tour events.”
8. Ever wondered what’s in Tiger Woods’ pockets on the golf course?
…no, this isn’t the start to a lewd joke, but rather…
Peter Morrice at Golf Digest...”In the final episode of “My Game: Tiger Woods,” you’ll go behind the scenes at the shoots and hear some of the small things that go into Tiger’s game. Here’s a fun one: What does Tiger carry on him when he plays?”
“In my right-front pocket, there’s always a quarter, a divot tool and at least three tees. In my left-front pocket, there’s my Chapstick,” Tiger says. “If it’s cool and damp, my glove is always in my front-left pocket. If it’s hot out, I’ll air it out in my back-left pocket. Other than that, I really don’t have any quirks [smiles].”
9. A most interesting morsel
From the Twitterverse…Interesting excavation of a mention of “advice seeking” in the form of peeking into another player’s bag in a 1953 newspaper article on Ben Hogan’s U.S. Open victory, pointed out by Jeff Martin on Twitter.
See it in the image below.
|
|
- LIKE2
- LEGIT2
- WOW0
- LOL0
- IDHT1
- FLOP1
- OB0
- SHANK1
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 timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?
Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.
When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.
To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.
Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.
- LIKE4
- LEGIT1
- WOW0
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
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
- LIKE30
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL1
- IDHT1
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK0
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.
- LIKE45
- LEGIT11
- WOW4
- LOL4
- IDHT2
- FLOP2
- OB0
- SHANK7
Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
Things got heated at the Houston Open between Tony Finau and Alejandro Tosti. Here’s why
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
Report: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
Neal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
What we know about Bryson DeChambeau’s 3D-printed Avoda irons
Rory McIlroy’s winning WITB: 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @8.25) Buy here. Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) Buy here. Shaft:...
Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)
Kevin Tway what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver:...
Matthieu Pavon WITB 2024 (May)
Pavon’s WITB accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Ping G430 Max (9...
WITB Time Machine: Rory McIlroy’s winning WITB, 2015 Wells Fargo Championship
Then-No. 1 player in the world Rory McIlroy began the week at the Wells Fargo Championship at 3-1 odds, if...
-
19th Hole3 weeks agoJustin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole3 weeks ago‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoLET pro gives detailed financial breakdown of first week on tour…and the net result may shock you
-
19th Hole5 days agoReport: LIV star turns down PGA Championship invite due to ‘personal commitments’
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoGary Player claims this is what ‘completely ruined’ Tiger Woods’ career
-
Equipment5 days agoDetails on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship
-
Whats in the Bag2 weeks agoTeam McIlowry (Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry) winning WITBs: 2024 Zurich Classic
-
Whats in the Bag5 days agoKeegan Bradley WITB 2024 (May)
