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Morning 9: Tiger talks injury rehab | Spieth, Sergio surge at Colonial | COVID-19 vaccines at Muirfield Village

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Good Friday morning, golf fans.
1. Woods: Injury rehab “more painful than anything I have ever experienced”
Our Gianni Magliocco… “in an exclusive interview with Golf Digest, Woods went into detail on his injury and recovery, as well as the outpouring of support he has received in the wake of his accident.”
  • “Speaking on his post-accident injuries, Woods told the publication”
  • “This has been an entirely different animal. I understand more of the rehab processes because of my past injuries, but this was more painful than anything I have ever experienced.
  • “My physical therapy has been keeping me busy. I do my routines every day and am focused on my No.1 goal right now: walking on my own. Taking it one step at a time.”
2. Spieth recalibrates putting stroke
Sean Martin for PGATour.com…”Few could find fault with Jordan Spieth’s putting stroke, but the former FedExCup champion said a “somewhat significant” change was needed before this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.”
  • “It worked. Spieth was impeccable with the putter en route to a bogey-free 63 that gave him a two-shot lead after Thursday’s morning wave at Colonial Country Club.”
  • “I just needed to do a bit of adjustment in my stroke feel on some bad tendencies I got into,” Spieth said. “Cameron (McCormick, Spieth’s instructor) … was able to really pinpoint a way to get a stroke feel that left me just a little more comfortable over it.”
3. …and is tied for the lead
Golf Channel’s Mercer Baggs…“Jordan Spieth is making his ninth appearance in the Charles Schwab Challenge. He’s won once (2016), never missed the cut and only three times in 32 previous rounds shot over par.”
  • “Meanwhile, he’s shot 65 on seven occasions and 64 once. And, now, he has a 63 to his credit.”
  • “Spieth made seven birdies and no bogeys on Thursday at par-70 Colonial Country Club to take the early lead in Ft. Worth, Texas.”
4. Sergio surges
Golf Channel’s Mercer Baggs…”Garcia matched the closing 63 he had at Colonial when he got the first of his 11 PGA Tour wins 20 years ago at age 21. He was 5 under on the four-hole stretch right in the middle of the round. He birdied hole Nos. 8-10 before an eagle at the 620-yard 11th, where he blasted out of a greenside bunker on the course’s longest hole.”
  • “It was quite breezy. It was gusty, so it wasn’t easy to pull some of the clubs,” Garcia said. “There were some tough holes out there, but I was able to hit really good shots on those holes, and a couple up-and-downs when I needed them.”
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5. Memorial Tournament to offer COVID vaccines
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”As tournament officials inch closer to full capacity on the PGA Tour, the Memorial has taken the unprecedented step of offering COVID-19 vaccinations next week at Muirfield Village.”
  • “The Memorial, which plans to have somewhere between 50 and 100 percent of full capacity, will offer fans Johnson & Johnson vaccines, June 4-6, to fans on-site at Muirfield Village.”
6. NCAA
Todd Kelly for Golfweek….”Chiara Tamburlini earned her first point of the week for Ole Miss on Wednesday in the final of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship against Oklahoma State.”
  • “It opened the floodgates to a national championship, the first women’s title in school history. Tamburlini’s 6 and 5 win was the largest margin of victory in the women’s final.
7. Best friend showdown ahead
LPGA report…”With a win apiece on Thursday’s Day Two of group play at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play Hosted by Shadow Creek, best friends and Solheim Cup teammates Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas will face off on Friday for a berth in the Round of 16.”
  • “Kang never trailed en route to a 2-and-1 victory over Madelene Sagstrom, a hard-fought win that saw Kang lose a 3-up lead through 13 holes. Sagstrom birdied Nos. 14 and 16 to pull within one, but Kang finished with par on the difficult par-3 17th to win the match.”
  • “I think we were trying to minimize as much mistakes as possible. We were making a lot of mistakes out there from beginning to end,” said Kang. “She made some good birdies coming in and all I kind of tried to do was keep it steady as much as I can, but there was just so many bogeys out there for us and so many mistakes.”
8. Brooks-Bryson novelty markets
Our Gianni Magliocco…”The Brooks-Bryson rivalry looks like something you’d expect more from YouTube personalities rather than professional athletes, and one bookmaker is certainly hoping it escalates into even more.”
“BetUS.com sees the feud between the two getting even wilder and has created several novelty markets, with Brooks favored to beat Bryson if the two ended up in a ring together.”
Check out the odds for some of the wacky markets below.
WHO WINS A BOXING MATCH?
Brooks Koepka        -150
Bryson DeChambeau   +110
WHO WINS ENDURANCE RACE?
Brooks Koepka        -120
Bryson DeChambeau   -120
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Equipment

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

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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

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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

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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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