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Morning 9: Noren fires 61 | Henderson hits every green | Homa starts fast at Nedbank

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6 months ago

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By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.

For comments: [email protected]

Good Friday morning, golf fans, as day two of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship gets underway.

1. Noren fires blistering 61

ESPN report…”Alex Noren worked hard on his wedge game and it paid off Thursday in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship with a 10-under 61, giving him a two-shot lead over four players on a calm day at Port Royal.”

  • “With barely any breeze, Noren was dialed in. He set a tournament record with 11 birdies, and his 61 broke by two shots his lowest score on the PGA Tour.”
  • “Vince Whaley, Dylan Wu, Robert Garrigus and D.J. Trahan were at 63.”
Full piece.

2. Els opens 2-shot lead in Phoenix

AP report…”Ernie Els opened with four birdies in five holes and never really slowed until he finished with an 8-under 63 for a two-shot lead Thursday in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.”

  • “The 35-man field at Phoenix Country Club effectively is playing for second place in Schwab Cup points race. Steve Stricker, who won six times this year, clinched it before the postseason even began and then had to withdraw from the PGA Tour Champions finale.”
  • “Stricker said his father was admitted to the hospital in Wisconsin on Monday afternoon and he felt it was best to stay with his family.”
Full piece.

3. Homa starts fast in South Africa

ESPN report…”After his longest break from golf and time spent on safari, Max Homa felt anxious about the state of his game heading into the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa.”

  • “He needn’t have worried.”
  • “Homa holed a 16-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to shoot a 6-under 66 on Thursday and join Nicolai Hojgaard, Dan Bradbury and Vincent Norrman in a share of the first-round lead in Sun City in the next-to-last event of the European tour season.”
Full piece.

4. Henderson putts for birdie on every hole

AP report…” Brooke Henderson was bothered by seeing so many low scores before she even teed off Thursday on the LPGA Tour. She just went out and putted for birdie on every hole, opening with an 8-under 62 for a 1-shot lead in The Annika.”

  • “Henderson made a long birdie putt on her final hole, the par-3 ninth, for a 29 on the front nine to move past a group that included Jin Young Ko and Patty Tavatanakit.”
  • “Up until this year, ball-striking has definitely been a strength of mine, and hasn’t been as sharp as I would like the last couple months,” said Henderson, who switched irons recently and felt she was headed in the right direction.”
Full piece.

5. 31-year-old PGA Tour record broken

Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”It had been nearly a month since Adam Long missed the short grass off the tee when he finally hit an errant drive on the 15th hole of Thursday’s opening round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. By then, however, the 36-year-old had already shattered a 31-year-old PGA Tour record—albeit a pretty obscure one.”

  • “Long arrived in Bermuda with an amazing streak of accuracy having hit 58 consecutive fairways. And when he found another one on the par-5 second hole at Port Royal Golf Course, he broke the record of 59 set by Brian Claar back in 1992.”
  • “Had everyone not come up and said something to me the last 24 hours, I probably wouldn’t think about it as much as I did,” Long told reporters after his round. “But it was in my mind, for sure, to start. Hit a hybrid on the first and then the second fairway’s really hard to hit. Luckily it was kind of into the wind so I hit a driver and hung in the fairway somehow and perfectly in the middle, so after that I was just kind of coasting.”
Full piece.

6. $1 million…and she’s not even playing this week

Kent Paisley for Golf Digest…”The largest payday being claimed on the LPGA Tour this week is likely to go to someone who isn’t even playing at the Annika driven by Gainbridge, the penultimate event on the 2023 calendar. Angel Yin, the leader of the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge, stayed away from Belleair, Fla., in part due to being in position to win the $1 million prize awarded to the LPGA player who has the lowest scoring average on a designated hole from tournaments played throughout the 2023 season (and identical competition takes place on the PGA Tour, Tyrrell Hatton winning this year).”

  • “With the Annika event the last one counting toward the prize, Yin (-.933 for the year) can only be pass by Atthaya Thitikul (-.889), but it would require Thitikul to make two eagles at Pelican Golf Club’s par-5 14th over the four days. For the season, the Thai native has made just seven.”
  • “I really didn’t think I had a chance, because to me, Aon is a lottery,” Yin said last week with the knowledge she was all but certain to be the 2023 winner. “It’s really difficult to maintain under par consistently throughout the entire year and not mess up.”
Full piece.

7. Lexi resurgent

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…”This week, Thompson tees it up in the newly renamed Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, where she’s been runner-up to Nelly Korda the past two seasons. It’s her first start since that inspired run at making the cut on the PGA Tour.”

  • “Thompson said Pelican Golf Club, an exclusive club in Belleair, Florida, is in the best shape she’s ever seen it. She appreciates that she can play aggressively here and hit driver more than most tour shops. Her familiarity with Bermudagrass helps massively.”
  • “Ruggiero has worked with a number of male touring pros over the years. Former students include Lucas Glover and Robby Shelton. Thompson appreciates his straightforward approach.”
  • “Tony will tell you how it is and that’s great for me,” she said. “That’s how I respond. We laugh together and it’s not super uptight.”
Full Piece.

8. Why Vijay Singh has red numbers written all over his irons

Our Andrew Tursky…”On Tuesday at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club, I noticed that Singh had big red numbers ­written all over his Srixon irons.”

  • “After a closer look, it became clear that the numbers were each one digit higher than the “actual number” that’s stamped into the sole of the irons by the manufacturer.”
  • “So…what’s the deal? Why the mismatching red numbers?”
  • “As confirmed by Brian Rhattigan, who builds Singh’s clubs on the traveling Champions/PGA Tour equipment truck, Singh doesn’t like the look of offset on his irons. In case you don’t know, “offset” refers to the distance between the leading edge of the iron face, and the hosel of the iron. If there’s a large gap between the hosel and the leading edge, then the club is said to have a lot of offset.”
  • “Again, Singh does not like offset. He prefers the leading edge and the hosel to match, or even have “onset,” which is when the leading edge is actually in front of the hosel.”
Full Piece.

9. Photos from the Champions Tour: Charles Schwab Cup Championship

  • Check out our photos from Phoenix!
Full Piece.
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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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7 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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