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Morning 9: Spieth on injury | Scheffler hungry | Phil on major prep

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12 months ago

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By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.

For comments: [email protected]

Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Charles Schwab Challenge gets underway.

1. Spieth on wrist injury

Blame the kid! Golfweek’s Tim Schmitt…”Spieth told the media at the Charles Schwab Challenge that the cause of his injury wasn’t anything thrilling, but rather a strange tweak while playing with his 18-month-old son, Sammy.”

  • “I was just playing with my son. I wasn’t even holding him or anything. I was just pushing myself off the ground while he was like laughing and going side to side. Something just popped and jammed, and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t move it and got on it right away,” Spieth said. “Ended up with an MRI the next morning and went through a few specialists and tried to figure out the right plan for it.
  • “I was pretty surprised I was able to play last week. … So I thought, if I could get through four rounds and I was not going to make anything worse or jeopardize anything going forward, then I thought it would be worth it and you just never know. Turns out you can’t really kind of fake it into a major. You kind of really need to be as prepared as possible.”
Full piece.

2. Two captains, two different situation

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”For Donald, his “clarity” is the byproduct of the DP World Tour’s decision to essentially fine players off the tour and off this year’s Ryder Cup team. The European circuit hasn’t handed down broad suspensions for players who violated its conflicting-event release policies when they joined LIV Golf, but in the wake of a favorable ruling from an arbiter in the United Kingdom, it has doled out heavy fines that make maintaining membership, at the least, difficult to justify.”

  • “According to various sources, LIV Golf has agreed to pay those fines, but in one case, a player who joined the breakaway circuit last year is on the hook for nearly £500,000 and counting. Last week, Henrik Stenson resigned his DP World Tour membership, which is required to play on the European Ryder Cup team, and others are sure to follow.”
  • “It’s that clarity, for better or worse, that’s made Donald’s job easier.”
  • “Johnson’s gig, however, only became more complicated Sunday thanks to Brooks Koepka’s commanding victory at the PGA Championship. Although the U.S. captain would never admit it, the best scenario is for Koepka to perform equally brilliantly at the U.S. Open and Open Championship to lock up his spot in the team room in Rome.”
Full piece.

3. Scheffler “hungry” at Colonial

Golfweek’s Riley Hamel…”The vibes should be high in Fort Worth, Texas, at the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge for Scheffler, who lost in a playoff to his best bud Sam Burns at Colonial Country Club last season and comes into the week in great form.”

  • “But is the hunger there a few days after a major championship?”
  • “I’m typically pretty hungry to win whatever event it is,” he said Wednesday after his nine-hole pro-am. “I show up expecting to come here and play well and do my best. Yeah, I’m hoping for a good finish this week, but I try not to look too far ahead.”
Full piece.

4. Mickelson: LIV provides the best path to major prep

5. What Waugh said to Koepka

6. Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, more to invest in TMRW Sports

Dean Straka for CBS…”TMRW Sports, the sports and entertainment venture co-founded Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy alongside former golf television executive Mike McCarley, announced Wednesday that it has added recording artists Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, Macklemore, Jake Owen and Darius Rucker to its investor group. The lineup of musicians were selected based on their mutual passion for golf, according to a release, with the goal of growing the sport’s interest through their reach.”

  • “Golf is thriving from a surge in cultural relevance that spans generations and demographic groups,” McCarley said in a statement from TMRW Sports. “These entertainers come from different walks of life and have different fanbases, but all share a real passion for golf and, in their own ways, can introduce golf to new fans.
Full piece.

7. Cornwell: Chamblee a “bully”

Our Jason Daniels…”Cornwell told viewers that Chamblee had tried to have her removed from her post several times and that, “When you cross the line you become a chapter in the book, possibly. That’s what happens when cross line on several locations, one of which was actively trying to get me fired for absolutely no reason.”

  • “She then commented on the somewhat heated argument between Chamblee and Brad Faxon, centered on whether newly crowned PGA Championship winner, Brooks Koepka, should play at the Ryder Cup in September.”
  • “He’s [Chamblee] a bully, plain and simple. I mean those of us who have worked closely with him and dealt with his tirades understand it. I mean, I watched it too.”
  • “Cornwell believes that there was an argument for both sides, but indicated that she wasn’t surprised at the manner of Chamblee’s stance.”
Full piece.

8. Bryson wants LIV exemption category at majors

Ben Parsons for Bunkered…”Bryson DeChambeau has called for majors to implement an “exemption category” that ensures LIV golfers can take part in the biggest events.”

  • Speaking ahead of LIV’s Washington DC event, DeChambeau said:
  • “There’s been numerous ideas brought up. One that we’re all looking at right now, at least from my perspective and what I’ve heard so far is just creating an exemption category for LIV players based on how they play during the course of the year.
  • “That would be the most fair and opportune thing for LIV golfers considering the fields that we have, the major champions we have, and the elite level of play that we have each and every week.
  • “If they’re able to do that, I think everything is good. The OWGR points, we’ve gone so far down the list now that it’s really difficult to make us even relevant.
Full piece.

9. Photos from Colonial

  • Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event!
Full Piece.
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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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17 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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2 days 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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2 days 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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