News
Morning 9: Winners roundup | Stacy Lewis calls out slow play | Strafaci wins U.S. Am
1. Stacy Lewis wins the Scottish Open…
AP report…”Stacy Lewis won the Ladies Scottish Open with a 23-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff Sunday, giving the American her first title in nearly three years and a confidence boost ahead of the Women’s British Open.”
2. …and rightly calls out pace of play
Martin Dempster at the Scotsman reporting on absolutely glacial pace …”Having played with the same two players on Saturday, it was a tough two days for Lewis, but she prevailed in the end. A 24-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole did the trick in a sudden-death shoot-out with Munoz, American Cheyenne Knight and Dane Emily Pederson after they had all finished with five-under-par 279 totals – 15 shots fewer than the winning aggregate posted by Korea’s MJ Hur at the same venue last year.”
3. Sizzling Sunday = Victory for Hermie
AP report…”Jim Herman rallied to win the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his third PGA TOUR title and a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs, shooting a 7-under 63 for a one-stroke victory over Billy Horschel.”
4. Beware Sam Horsfield
This guy looks like the real deal following his second win in three tournaments…EuropeanTour.com report…”After two hours were lost at The Celtic Manor Resort due to thunderstorms in the afternoon, it was close to darkness when Horsfield sank the putt that made him the 2020 Race to Dubai’s first multiple winner.”
5. Kelly takes Senior Players
Straight from the PGA Tour Champions newswire…“Jerry Kelly won the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship by carding his first ace on PGA TOUR Champions on the 12th hole and recording a 3-under 69 Sunday to win by two strokes over Scott Parel. With the victory, Kelly will compete in the 2021 PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.”
6. U.S. Am: Strafaci wins
David Shefter of the USGA…’Eighty-five years after Frank Strafaci Sr. won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links, his grandson, Tyler Strafaci, 22, of Davie, Fla., captured the U.S. Amateur Championship in dramatic fashion at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. The fifth-year Georgia Tech senior rallied from an early 5-down deficit to defeat Southern Methodist University rising junior Charles “Ollie” Osborne, 20, of Reno, Nev., 1 up, in the 36-hole championship match.’
7. Bomb blasting, former high school hockey goalie wins of Symetra Tour
8. Patron-less Masters a big blow to Augusta economy
Damon Cline, Augusta Chronicle….“Augusta National Golf Club’s decision to hold a patron-free Masters Tournament means tens of thousands of visitors will collectively cross the city off their 2020 to-do list.”
9. Five for Jaeger
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard...”The 31-year-old won his fifth career Korn Ferry Tour title on Sunday at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco. Jaeger’s final-round 3-under 68 was just enough to earn a two-shot victory at 22 under at Hillcrest Country Club.”
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Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
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
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
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Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
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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2putttom
Aug 17, 2020 at 3:02 pm
wonderful USGA am, championship tourney @ Bandon this last week. Congrats to Tyler Strafaci for hangin’ tough and executing a brilliant approach on 18