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Morning 9: Do top players feel cheated? | Phil on Distance Report | Ogilvy: More men & women tourneys, please

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4 years ago

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1. Discontent at the top 
Geoff Shackelford pulled this juicy morsel from Bob Harig’s breakdown of the PGR and offered his own take…”Said an agent who wished not to be identified: “How can an organization negotiate hundreds of millions of dollars of TV contracts and someone like Tiger or Rory goes out and has the same chance of making the same money as some guy who has come off the Korn Ferry Tour? There is no arbitration panel. And no judge would say that is a fair economic model.”
  • [Shackelford] “Right or wrong, that has always been a successful model of the PGA Tour. Golf fans have enjoyed the democratic nature of the sport, including the occasional unknown taking down a star. In return, the star has benefited from the opportunity to play via endorsement income that the Tour does not see one penny of after giving them a platform.”
  • “But in recent years a few things have changed. The schedule is now year-round and the stars are increasingly asked to tee it up more, including “playoffs” after major season when they would like to be recharging their batteries. The top players are called up every year to play a Cup event. In return? A small donation to their pet cause and free merch they’ll never wear again.”
2. Phil on Distance Report
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…”Phil Mickelson read the USGA and R&A’s distance report that was released Tuesday and took his share of jabs at golf’s governing bodies during his pre-tournament press conference on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.”
“Mickelson’s biggest beef with the report, which expressed concern for distance gains becoming “unsustainable,” was his opposition to what he perceives as punishing athletes for getting better.”
“I don’t think that we have had massive equipment changes. We have just had athletes that have been able to take advantage of the equipment more so than in the past. And I hate to see that discouraged,” Mickelson said. “You look at what Bryson (DeChambeau) has done getting in the gym, getting after it, lifting weights, and hitting bombs, and now he’s – now you’re talking about trying to roll it back because he’s made himself a better athlete. So, I don’t know if I agree with that. But I also don’t really understand the whole scope of how it affects the game and how it affects agronomy and golf courses and so forth, so I’m not sure I’m the best one to really comment on it. I just know from the small little bubble of the PGA Tour, I hate seeing the athletes be punished or discouraged from continuing to work and get better.”
3. Billy blames developers
The text of an interesting pair of tweets from Billy Horschel…
  • “I was presented with a vast research a few years that showed in the 90s courses that started being built were being built dramatically longer that before. Developers wanted championship courses. It was believed to be a championship course you had to have length. Also, developers.”
  • “…wanted more room for houses. The course designers who built these courses went along with the developer because they were being paid a nice sum. So courses were being built longer so OEM had to figure a better way to increase distance quickly. Driver improves. ProV1 is produced.”
4. Why the Pro-Am matters
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”While the pro-am format isn’t a favorite for some PGA Tour pros who choose to bypass the event, Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell explained this week why they enjoy it so much, and why pros who skip it are missing out.”
  • “Early in my career, I did miss it a few times, but as I got older I realized what an important event this is in developing relationships with a lot of the decision makers and key players in the game of golf, and developing these kind of emotional connections that lead to better decisions as far as supporting the game,” said Mickelson, a five-time winner at Pebble Beach. “It gets companies and CEOs more inclined to support the game of golf.”
  • “Now, it’s not for everybody,” Mickelson says of the pro-am experience. “So, I understand when guys don’t want to do it . . . But for me, I’ve always enjoyed it and actually have played some of my best golf when I’m partnered with very interesting players.”
5. Ogilvy calls for more mixed gender tournaments
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…”However, while there are a handful of mixed-gender events-most notably, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam are set to host the Scandinavian Mixed this June-the approach has yet to receive global acceptance. According to former U.S. Open champ Geoff Ogilvy, it is time golf’s governing bodies get with the program.”
  • “There’s more than just guys, you know. It just makes sense,” Ogilvy said at the Vic Open. “We should do this more often. The fact that this happens only once in a year is just nonsense.”
  • “Ogilvy, known as one of the premier player-scholars in the game, spoke of experience at last year’s event and how it spurred admiration for his female counterparts.”
  • “All I wanted to do was watch the women and how they went about it,” Ogilvy explained. “Some of them are just machines, they don’t hit bad shots and they hit hybrids on to the green to 10 feet all day.
6. DJ poised
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell on Dustin Johnson gearing up for 2020…”Johnson’s painful finish to 2019 wasn’t so funny. He missed the final three months while recovering from arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. After a second-place finish at the PGA Championship in May, he didn’t have another top-10 finish the rest of the year.”
  • “I blame it on my knee hurting,” Johnson said.
  • “Johnson said the knee no longer hurts, but he can feel the repair when his left leg braces hard, as it does when he’s hitting a shot off an uphill lie. He said even though there’s no pain, his brain tells him to ease off.”
7. Mickelson won’t accept U.S. Open exemption
AP report…”The U.S. Open occasionally awards a special exemption to the game’s best players when they are not eligible. Ernie Els has received such an exemption each of the last two years. Jack Nicklaus received eight of them.”
  • “Mickelson, who has won five majors, is certain to receive at least one if he needs it…But he made clear Tuesday he doesn’t want one.”
  • “I won’t accept it,” Mickelson said at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he won last year for his 44th career PGA Tour victory. “So I am either going to get in the field on my own or I’ll have to try to qualify. I’m not going to take a special exemption.”
8. The Dame is 2 back!
AP report…”English veteran Laura Davies played her first competitive round in six months, because of her mother’s illness, and shot a 6-under 67 to be two shots off the lead at the LPGA-sanctioned Vic Open.”
  • “The tournament features male and female pros teeing off in alternate groups on two courses….The 56-year-old Davies played the Creek course at the 13th Beach Golf Links. She birdied five of seven holes on her final nine – the front nine – but bogeyed her second-last to fall behind the leaders.”
9. Why was it great?
Wanted to point y’all in the direction of an excellent video by our Ryan Barath discussing the popularity of one of my favorite clubs of all time: the Titleist PT fairway wood.
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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Ryan

    Feb 9, 2020 at 11:12 am

    Disconnected at the top?! Come on man, these guys live a life of luxury. Their stardom can earn them money from sponsorships, but the PGA in no way should be put in a position to have to pay them to show up. Its a sport, you want to make money, show up and play the game

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

6 hours ago

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May 9, 2024

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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.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

Published

1 day ago

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May 8, 2024

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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

Published

1 day ago

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May 8, 2024

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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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