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Morning 9: DJ positive for COVID-19 | Thomas searching for speed | Koepka: Injuries are why I played poorly

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4 years ago

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1. World No. 1 positive for COVID-19
ESPN’s Bob Harig…“Johnson, according to the PGA Tour, was experiencing symptoms, prompting him to take a test. Players are tested prior to travel each week and on site as part of the PGA Tour’s coronavirus testing protocols.”
  • “Obviously, I am very disappointed,” said Johnson, a 23-time PGA Tour winner who captured the Tour Championship and thus the FedEx Cup title last month. “I was really looking forward to competing this week but will do everything I can to return as quickly as possible. I have already had a few calls with the tour’s medical team and appreciate all the support and guidance they have given me.”
2. Koepka: Injuries are the “whole reason I played like crap”
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…“Twelve months later, Koepka has fallen from No. 1 in the world to No. 11. Koepka has seesawed on the extent his injuries had on his game, but speaking to the media at Shadow Creek Tuesday, Koepka was blunt in his assessment.”
  • “It’s the whole reason I played like crap,” Koepka said.
  • “Koepka said he has spent the past two months rehabbing his hip in San Diego. Though the injury occurred at TPC Harding Park, Koepka isn’t sure it happened at the golf course.”
  • “I think it’s just-I don’t know when it actually happened,” Koepka said. “I know I felt it at the PGA, or that’s when it became the worst trying to manage it and play through it. Just one of those things where if you’re not getting any weeks off to actually treat it, it’s hard to treat it on the road and do everything you need to do.”
3. The rise of “the Jupiter of the West” 
Adam Schupak for Golfweek…”The reasons for Tour pros to set up shop in Las Vegas are many, but the most cited are access to two TPC facilities – TPC Las Vegas and TPC Summerlin, which hosted last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open – a hospitably sunny climate and no state income taxes.”
  • “Doug Ghim, a native of Chicago who played his college golf in Austin, Texas, for the Longhorns, was looking for warmer climes and followed friends to Viva in Las Vegas.”
  • “I hate humidity,” Ghim confessed. “That’s really why I chose it.”
  • ...”The Jupiter of the West,” they are calling it, and the list of residents include PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, Aaron Wise, Wyndham Clark, Norman Xiong and Maverick McNealy.”
4. Justin Thomas has a need for speed (and a plan to obtain it)
Schupak, again, this time on Justin Thomas’ pursuit of additional clubhead speed…and the (non-Brysonian) way he’s going about the endeavor…
  • “I’m not going to put on 40 pounds, I don’t have the height to do that,” Thomas said. “I’m going to look like a beach ball if I put on 40 pounds. I can get stronger in different parts of my body that can help me hit it farther and gain some distance, but I hit it plenty far enough to win tournaments and do well.”
  • “Instead, Thomas is emphasizing an exercise routine focused on his lower body while trying to maintain flexibility and mobility in his hips.”
  • “I’m not far off. It’s really about messing with some different stuff and different training and explosiveness to be able to pick up something,” he said. “There’s different ways to do it. I mean, the absolute No. 1 thing is I’m continuing to stay injury free and I’m continuing to progress in a good direction in terms of staying healthy and staying fit. But if I can do that while incorporating some more speed, then that’s big.”
GolfWRX Recommends 
 
We think a quarterly journal is the best complement to a website that publishes dozens of articles daily. And while that might not make sense to you now, it certainly will once you subscribe to The Golfer’s Journal and dive into some of the best golf writing and photography around. 
 
5. “The course more exclusive than Augusta National”
Gotta love a good teaser headline! Leonard Shapiro on the late Robert H. Smith’s backyard track…“Smith, who died in 2009 at age 81, decided at first to put in a natural grass putting green not far from the main house. Then he had three regulation holes built in 2003, “just to see how he liked it,” according to Ben Rogers, Heronwood’s long-time farm manager who still oversees the care and maintenance of the entire property.”
  • “We built six more holes in 2005, added three more in 2006 and then got final approval from the county (Fauquier) to do the last six holes and make it 18,” Rogers said. “When Mr. Smith first said he was thinking about a golf course, I thought he was joking. One day he looked at me and said, ‘I think I’m going to do it. What do you know about building a golf course?’ I told him absolutely nothing. Then he said, ‘That’s okay, we’ll learn it together.'”
  • “The entire course was completed in 2007, laid out over a 130-acre swath of land that had once served as cornfields and pastures for the estate’s considerable horse and cattle population. Now, 13 years later, it remains one of the most private golf courses in America, if not the world.”
6. Shadow Creek: A secret golfing wonderland
Ben Everill of PGATour.com profiles the famed Vegas course…”In the early days, the course was completely exclusive, tee times beyond rare. Not needing or wanting publicity, Shadow Creek is said to have turned down a spread in Sports Illustrated.  Things have opened up a little since 2000, when the property was acquired by MGM.”
  • “You can play there at charity events like Tiger Woods’ annual Tiger Jam, if you are so inclined. But it still remains pretty exclusive on weekends. Stay at an MGM property and you can try to play during the week. It will cost you around $600, but you’ll feel every bit like celebrity.”
7. Wunder: Loving this, concerned about that
Our Johnny Wunder…
I LOVE that it’s launch season for the OEMs. Like kids at Christmas, the writing, looking at, testing, and learning part of this gig is a true blessing. I will say that it IS a time of mass chaos. Embargos, soft launches, retail and the like all seem to hit roughly in the same general time frame, so this year I will remind myself to go slowly through it and appreciate this awesome industry.
This Golf Channel thing is concerning. I’m not 100% sure of what the future holds for TGC, but as a lifelong watcher, I will say that the content flow seems to solely rely on tour coverage. I’d love to see a reboot with new golf content creators getting the opportunity and resources to show the world what they can do. How about a WRX equipment junkie show? I’d watch.
8. 100 Years of Latrobe Country Club
The King’s logtime personal assistant, Doc Giffin, reflects on Latrobe at 100 for Kingdom magazine…“The touches of the caring hands of three generations of the Palmer family permeate the history of Latrobe Country Club as it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020.”
  • “It began a century ago when a teenager named Milfred Jerome Palmer-better known by his nicknames Deacon or Deke-joined the crew that was starting to build a nine-hole golf course on the edge of Latrobe, a small industrial and mining town some 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania.”
  • “It continued through the next 50 years as Deke Palmer served the club’s membership as grounds superintendent from 1926 and, six years later, as the golf professional. Over those years he raised a family that included his first-born, Arnold, who was destined to become one of the most famous and popular athletes in history.”
9. CJ Cup photos
Our photo sampling this week includes four general galleries packed with imagery, in-hand looks at the new Ping G425 driver and woods, drool-worthy putters and more.

 

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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3 hours ago

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May 7, 2024

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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1 day ago

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May 6, 2024

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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1 day ago

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May 6, 2024

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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