| By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco and Matthew Vincenzi.
For comments: [email protected] |
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| February 16, 2023
Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as Tiger Woods returns to action at Riviera! |
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1. Details: Tiger’s pro-am
Paolo Uggetti for Golf Digest…”Woods, who will play with Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy in the first two rounds of the tournament starting Thursday, arrived at Riviera Country Club Wednesday before sunrise and practiced at the range with lights before his 6:30 a.m. tee time. At the time Woods teed off, the sun was just peeking out over the horizon and the temperature was in the low 40s. It remained there throughout the front nine holes while the wind picked up significantly. Woods, wearing what appeared to be several layers, looked cold but comfortable swinging.”
- “During the first part of his round Wednesday, Woods’ gait looked more normal than it has in the past, with no noticeable limp, though he did appear to take his time and care walking up and down steep slopes. By the back nine, he did look to be walking more gingerly, avoiding putting too much weight on his ankle. After picking up his ball on the 16th hole, Woods did not play the rest of the way and took his time walking back up the clubhouse. He did not take a cart.”
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2. Enter the Dahmen
Josh Weinfuss for ESPN…”Except, there are parts of their lives that make them quite different. Dahmen is in his seventh PGA Tour season, has made more than $10 million in career earnings and, starting Wednesday, will have his pre-baby life shared on “Full Swing” to Netflix’s 231 million subscribers.”
- “It doesn’t make any sense,” the 35-year-old told ESPN.
- “Armed with the bravado of a sleep-deprived dad, Dahmen is going to try to take advantage of his 15 minutes — or 44, if you watch the entirety of Episode 4, which is Dahmen’s, titled “Imposter Syndrome” — of fame.”
- “I wonder if Netflix will give me a free subscription now instead of me paying whatever it is, $6 a month for it?” he said. “I’m going to take that one and go see if they’ll give me a free month, at least.”
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3. LIVing on a Pereira
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach…”Mito Pereira, who last year squandered a chance to become the first man from Chile to win a major championship and the first PGA Tour rookie to win one in 11 years, has officially joined the LIV Golf League.”
- “Pereira, 27, and Sebastian Munoz, another PGA Tour member, were among four players on the Torque GC roster that was unveiled by LIV Golf on Wednesday. Captain Joaquin Niemann, who is from Chile, and former Arizona State star David Puig also are back.”
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4. Looking forward to a dinner he’s not really looking forward to
Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…”The Champions Dinner is the most mannered moment at golf’s most genteel event, a place where Woods has been honored five times as the returning champion. He understands the intent of the evening. “We as a whole need to honor Scottie, Scottie’s the winner, it’s his dinner,” he insisted. But he clearly grasps that the broader context in which the dinner is being held cannot and will not be ignored.”
- “There may be LIV players present on that Tuesday in Augusta with whom Woods (and other outspoken Masters champs, like Fred Couples) can be civil. Like Dustin Johnson, who took the money, resigned his Tour membership and walked away without friction. It will be tougher to keep his food down while seated across from former colleagues — as distinct from peers — who have accused him in court filings of conspiring illegally with the PGA Tour and dispatched subpoena servers in his direction.”
- “Realizing the nature of what has transpired and the people that have left, just where our situations are either legally, emotionally, there’s a lot there,” he said, leaving a distinct impression that if asked he might decline to pass the salt to Sergio or the silverware to Reed.
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5. “Good but not great”
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…
- “Here’s my one-sentence review of Netflix’s golf documentary “Full Swing:” It’s good, not great…That probably isn’t going to make a billboard, but especially if you consider yourself a hardcore golf fan you might come away underwhelmed. The fact is, the golf fan isn’t the target audience; it’s geared toward welcoming a new audience to the game and I sincerely hope it succeeds to do for golf what “Drive to Survive” has done for Formula One.”
- “Although I have my doubts…”
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6. No laying up at 10!
Via the Golf Channel Digital team…“But the numbers have changed drastically in recent years. Just 49.5% of players went for the green at No. 10 in the 2014 Genesis. Since then, the percentages have steadily increased – to the point where nearly everyone is playing aggressively.”
- …”But does going for the green lead to lower scores? The data is clear: yes, it does.”
- “Here’s a look at scoring averages for those who went for the green and those who laid up, from 2015-20 at the Genesis (2021 and ’22 were excluded because the sample size of layups is too small). As you can see, players who went for the green, on average, score a quarter-stroke lower than those who didn’t.”
- “These numbers hit across the entire field, from the top to the bottom. And, unsurprisingly, the top players in this week’s field have employed the aggressive go-for-it strategy at No. 10.”
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7. On Brooksy
From the Golf Digest staff’s Netflix Full Swing breakdown. Shane Ryan writes…”We have to talk about Brooksy. I don’t know if people are going to like him more after this—I suspect not—and I don’t even know if this presents an accurate picture of what his life is like on a day-to-day basis. But man, it was certainly a warts-and-all performance! You can tell he’s hooked on the idea of being a Jordan-esque (or Tiger-esque) badass, but the problem in golf is that nobody but Tiger ever stays on top for very long, and he simply can’t handle life in the middle. There’s a certain entitlement here, a certain neuroses, and a certain lack of perspective. You see a scene like the empty trophy case spots, and while it’s clear the vacancies are supposed to be inspiring, now the whole thing is just sad; not to get too ham-handed here, but it’s a pretty damn good metaphor for the emptiness he seems to feel at his core.”
- “The great irony is that all his swashbuckling attitude works against him now that his prime is over. His decision to go to LIV is depicted here as an act of submission, like a dog showing its belly; he can’t go toe-to-toe with the Scottie Schefflers of the world anymore, so he’s surrendering. It’s not very Jordan-like, and Koepka may come looking at times like a bit of a whiner, but I also think he deserves credit for that level of openness with the cameras. I certainly didn’t expect him to admit that he was on a downward trajectory in his career, for one thing. This is one of those situations where I can’t wait to see what the general public says when the episode is released.”
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8. Tiger Woods WITB
Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (9 degrees @7.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (15 degrees @14.25)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade M3 (19 degrees @18.25)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
Irons: 2023 TaylorMade P770 (3-iron), TaylorMade P7TW (4-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: TaylorMade MG3 Raw (56-12TW), TaylorMade MG3 Raw (60-11TW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS prototype
Grip: Ping PP58
Ball: Bridgestone Tour B X
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R |
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9. Photos from Riv
- Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event!
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19th Hole2 weeks ago
19th Hole1 week ago
