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Morning 9: U.S. Women’s Open loses big money? | Brandon Matthews | Piercy apologizes

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4 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at [email protected] and find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram and golfwrxEIC on Twitter.
March 4, 2020
Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.
1. USWO a big money loser? 
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols with the grim news about the U.S. Women’s Open’s profitability…or lack thereof…”During its annual meeting at Pinehurst, the USGA revealed that of the $165 million in revenue that’s generated by the U.S. Open, the organization takes in $70 million in profits. All of that money goes directly back into the game, officials said, with $22 million of it going toward women’s championships and participation.”
  • “To help understand the U.S. Women’s Open purse of $5.5 million, the USGA broke it down even further for Golfweek. The USWO purse is the highest among the LPGA’s five majors but is still $7 million behind the men. While there’s a national conversation around equal pay for women, some in golf have also questioned the wide gap.”
  • “According to the USGA, it costs $19 million to conduct the U.S. Women’s Open (including qualifiers), which most consider to be the crown jewel of women’s golf. The USGA sees about $9 million comes back by way of ticket sales, corporate hospitality and partner support.”
  • “The bottom line: The USGA loses about $10.4 million on the Women’s Open.”

Full piece.

2. A special exemption
PGATour.com’s Sean Martin on Brandon Matthews, whose name you might not remember, but whose kind act you surely do, getting a spot in the AP Invitational field this week.
  • “…Matthews made headlines at last year’s Argentina Open when he hugged a fan with Down Syndrome who inadvertently yelled in his stroke during a playoff. A startled Matthews missed the 8-foot putt that he needed to make to extend the playoff.”
  • “At first, Matthews was frustrated by the distraction. Then he learned that the man had Down Syndrome. Matthews sought him out to give him a signed glove and a big hug.”
  • …”The people at the Arnold Palmer Invitational noticed, and rewarded Matthews with a sponsor exemption. The event’s Twitter feed said Matthews responded “just as Mr. Palmer would have – with kindness, humility and grace.”
3. Piercy apologizes 
Golf Channel’s Digital Team…”Scott Piercy on Tuesday posted an apology to his Instagram story for content he shared on Monday that reportedly included an anti-gay slur and a reference to a right-wing conspiracy theory.”
  • “Whenever i (sic) post my intent is NEVER to offend. I want to apologize if any of my recents (sic) story posts have been offensive,” he wrote. “I will do better!”
  • “Per Golf Digest, Piercy “shared a homophobic meme … directed at former South Bend mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg. … [He] also posted a message about QAnon, which is a far-right conspiracy theory involving a secret plot by a ‘deep state’ against the government, one that accuses its critics of child sex trafficking.”
4. Brotherhood of the scar
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”Tour golf is a game of old wounds, really.”
“It’s a kind of brotherhood that way…For every Sungjae Im who wins, there’s a Tommy Fleetwood and Brendan Steele rinsing a shot at the last.”
  • “Harold Varner III is at Bay Hill preparing for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. He remembers not feeling so alone when Tiger Woods reached out to show him some empathy after Varner struggled through the final round of the Genesis Invitational with an early chance to win.”
  • “Well, it wasn’t really empathy, but it was the best attempt the greatest closer in the history of the game could muster.”
5. When Goydos knew TW was back 
Interesting anecdote here, related by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…”He’s walking away and I say, ‘Tiger, you know what’s great about playing this Tour?’ Tiger stops and looks at me and I say, ‘Where I drive the ball there are no divots.’
  • “Now, it’s a reasonably funny self-deprecating joke. Tiger smirked, but then he said, ‘How many woods do you carry now?’ So, I make a joke about myself and Tiger has to immediately annihilate me with a joke about me and my game. Tiger’s needle is long, sharp and he uses it a lot. He just needled a Champions Tour player on Tuesday at Bay Hill. I’m so far down the threat level to Tiger’s game. I’m non-existent in his world.”
  • “I thought, ‘Holy crap, this guy is back. He’s a killer. That’s a killer attitude. He doesn’t care who you are.’ If you’re one of the 144-man field he is going to stomp you if he has to. I walked away and went over to my caddie and said, ‘Oh, Jesus, these guys have no idea what’s coming. They’re not ready for this.’ These guys that say, they’d love to compete against Tiger? They have no idea. Tiger is back to being a killer. When I told him that joke, that’s when I knew.”
6. PGA Tour Champions qualifier evacuated due to fire
Golf Digest’s Daniel Rapaport…“Tuesday’s PGA Tour Champions qualifier for the Hoag Classic has been delayed due to a fire near the Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma, Calif., the Tour confirmed to Golf Digest. Players have been taken off the course and there has not yet been a decision on how, or if, to proceed with the qualifier.”
7. Bamberger on Palm Beach Par-3
The venerable Michael Bamberger at Golf.com writes this about what he suspects might be “the best public par-3 course in the world.”
  • “If you got in a boat on the beach at Seminole and sailed south about 20 nautical miles-past Lost Tree Village, the gated community where Jack Nicklaus lives, past Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private club-you would eventually see another true oceanfront course, designed by Raymundo himself, which he did at no charge. It’s a muni! It’s owned and operated by the town of Palm Beach.”
  • “There’s no other course quite like it. It comprises 18 par-3 holes, representing all the popular wind directions, on 39 acres smack-dab between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. It would be impossible to put a price tag on the property-a half billion? Probably far more, but the town’s not selling, not now, not ever. That would be like Honolulu selling Waikiki Beach.”
  • “About 12 years ago, Floyd inherited a 1961 18-hole Dick Wilson course that had become a financial drain on the town. “I took a course that was losing money, changed the routing and everything about it, and now it makes so much money it carries everything the town’s rec department does,” Floyd said in a telephone interview while the fourth round of the Honda Classic was underway. Floyd lives a couple miles south, at a golf development called Old Palm, where there’s a course he designed.”

Full piece.

8. Bomb & Gouge on trackable balls
On Golf Digest: “Are any major ball manufacturers realistically working on developing a way to track location (for finding stray shots or logging-rounds purposes)?…-@HogansBookLied”
  • “The key word in your question is “realistically.” The answer, however, is yes. A few years ago, OnCore Golf made a presentation during PGA Show week about its GENiUS ball-a ball with a chip in the core that could track things such as location, distance and backspin in real time on a smartphone. The company had previously made a ball with a hollow metal core, so the idea of putting a chip inside the ball and being able to protect it from damage didn’t seem far off.”
  • “The product has yet to make it to market, but the company is still pursuing the idea. That said, we have our doubts about the viability or, quite frankly, the need. While producing a golf ball that you can find certainly seems like a boffo idea, it’s difficult to see how such a ball wouldn’t be compromised in some manner performance-wise. You’re taking out performance technology and replacing it with golf-ball-finding technology. That doesn’t seem like a trade worth making.
  • “The cost also is likely to be prohibitive and if you sink it in the water on the 15th at PGA National no ball retriever is gonna reach that sucker.”
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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Joey5Picks

    Mar 4, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    “I want to apologize if any of my recents (sic) story posts have been offensive” is such a non-apology. “IF” anyone was offended. That’s basically the equivalent of signing a waiver. “IF” anyone was offended, I apologize. If you weren’t, I don’t apologize. Reminds me of the Astros; only apologizing because he got caught.

    Reply Report comment

  2. Feel The Bern

    Mar 4, 2020 at 11:08 am

    It doesn’t matter that it loses a ton of money, the women’s open should pay the same as the men’s. I’m Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message.

    Reply Report comment

    • Rascal

      Mar 4, 2020 at 2:25 pm

      I fully agree with this.

      I’m serious.

      So long as the shortfall comes straight from Bernie’s pocket!!

      Reply Report comment

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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

9 hours ago

on

May 10, 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 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.

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Equipment

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

Published

1 day ago

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May 9, 2024

By

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

2 days ago

on

May 8, 2024

By

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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