News
Cam Smith headlines 6 players officially announced as new LIV Golf signings
On Tuesday, LIV Golf announced the signings of six new players after weeks of speculation.
Cam Smith is the marquee name of the six new players who have left the PGA Tour to join LIV, with the 2022 Open Champion joined by Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III, Cameron Tringale, Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri.
The six men will make their debut with the breakaway tour this week in Boston in a field that includes 12 major champs.
Welcome to @LIVGolfInv mate ??? https://t.co/V7UMKauHlF
— Greg Norman (@SharkGregNorman) August 30, 2022
Per the Telegraph, who broke the news weeks ago that Cam Smith would be defecting to LIV, the Aussie’s sign on-fee is in the region of $140 million, while Niemann has fetched $100.
Rumors had been circulating that there would be seven players announced this week, with multiple sources claiming that Cameron Young would also be joining LIV. However, despite being “very interested” in the new Tour, the 25-year-old announced over the weekend that he would be staying on the PGA Tour.
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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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Super Male Fatality
Aug 31, 2022 at 9:25 am
Plain and simple: Jay Monahan(and whoever is advising him) really screwed up. They weren’t prepared for this and it seems as though they we’re overconfident that top/popular players would just stay. The PGA Tour must figure out a way to work with LIV.
DB
Aug 31, 2022 at 8:55 am
LIV has quite a few of my favorite golfers now. I’ll be watching. And I can watch for free on their website. I’m sure they will be on TV soon the way it’s going, hope they keep the free streaming too.
Mine Stinks
Aug 30, 2022 at 4:43 pm
Christ time to wake up and give the LIV Tour the world ranking points, and a television contract. Like it or not, they’re building a solid stable of players. Besides there is a percentage who don’t like watching Speith, Cantlay, Thomas, McIlroy. They’re some of the most annoying players on television. Walking around with silver spoons in they’re mouths and taking dumps that don’t stink.
DaveyD
Aug 30, 2022 at 2:24 pm
Nieman only got $100 while Smith got $140 million???
Kevin Ricciardelli
Aug 30, 2022 at 12:57 pm
What will happen to the other players? There are more than 48 LIV golfers.
Pirate
Aug 30, 2022 at 5:14 pm
Wake up man.
Jed
Aug 30, 2022 at 5:21 pm
Play in Vietnam or something like that
geohogan
Sep 2, 2022 at 10:57 pm
19 LIV players are no more.
MBS gets rid of golfers, as easily as, Jamal Khashoggi
and still no one cares.