News

Watching a Tour event

Published

19 years ago

Aug 20, 2007

So what is it about a professional golfer that you notice first? Is it their smooth swings that launch the ball effortlessly down the centre of the fairway? Is it the phenomenal clubhead speed they generate when they do decide to hit the ball hard, leaving less a divot as a scorch mark? Is it the touch and soft hands they show executing escape shots that we wouldn’t dare to? Or are they just good golfers that got a lucky break?

The truth is, watching a professional competition close up and in the flesh is a humbling experience. These guys are just like you and me in every way (except probably in better shape and annoyingly better looking) and yet they regularly play the sort of golf shots that would have us screaming ‘Did you see that! DID YOU SEE THAT!’ at our playing partners. From the booming drive to the chip knocked stiff, this is bread and butter to the professional golfer.

Standing at the practise tee you can see players warming up, trying new or different equipment and practising the shots that they might need on the course. Warm ups are a series of perfect half and three-quarter irons, clipping the (brand new premium quality) ball off the turf. Not quite the machine-gunning of range rocks off astroturf that you see every day at your local range. Full shots suddenly show you why they are the best of the best. The trajectory a properly struck ball takes is an eye opener. The ball fires off the club face with a startling low trajectory but with so much spin it seems to fly like a small spherical frisbee, boring through the air into the distance.

The distance control is just as impressive. I watched someone that plays on both the US and European tours and is known for the accuracy of his iron play. Taking aim at a practise green 150 yards away, of the 10 shots he hit the furthest went 151 yards, the shortest went 147. Most were bang on the money and I would have taken every one if I had been playing.

While they stretch their limbs and send these shots lancing down the range, equipment reps try to tempt them with the very latest and greatest equipment. Lovingly built to their own exacting specifications, these clubs are of the sort that you and I will either never see in our local proshops or could never afford. To the equipment junkies among us, this may be the most heartbreaking things a grown man can witness – ‘You’d like this driver tipped? Why certainly. Just give me one moment to rip out and throw away this 1000 dollar shaft and put in a new one’. After all this effort, the pro might give it a couple of swishes and then turn it down! Frankly, I admire anybody that has the self-discipline to turn down a free pen let alone a free golf club. I’m fairly sure that if I were a in their (ergonomic and highly branded) shoes, I would be living in a house where clambering over golf clubs would be the only way to move from room to room and opening cupboards would be done at your own peril.

Out on the course, the difference between us and them is only more obvious. All of us know guys who can smash the ball 300+ yards from the tee box, but how many of them can do that into a landing area 15 yards wide with trouble either side. The iron shots are either low fizzers avoiding the wind or high floating shots that land softly and cuddle up to the hole, wafting left or right through the air. Pitches and chips are almost always knocked inside the leather. Not so much par saves as genuine attempts to get the ball in the hole from a distance that you and I would regard as ridiculous.

Then there’s the putting. Putting is a great leveller in golf. Providing you can grip a putter, there are no other physical attributes (apart from having at least one eye) that will help you get the ball into the hole. Looking at the sort of greens the pros have to putt on would give most of us the heebie-jeebies. The flat expanses that we are used to are replaced with tiered and sloping greens that would give anyone pause for thought. Then there’s the speed of the greens. Putts that would have barely travelled halfway on normal courses skate past the hole.

To give you an idea of how fast they are, I have to tell you a story of one of my friends who moonlights as an equipment rep for a putter company. He got a little carried away the first time he was on the practise green. Attempting to impress the surrounding pros with a cheeky little 6 footer he promptly managed to putt the ball 15 yards, clean off the practise green and much to the amusement of all. ‘Like putting on lino’ was how he described it.

Of course there’s also you and I and all our friends in the gallery. It can be nerve racking teeing up for the monthly medal when the only audience is the fourball due off after you and the starter. How much more nerve racking must it be to tee off in front of a gallery of hundreds, with television cameras (who may be broadcasting to millions) everywhere just in case you do top/shank/fat/thin/whiff it, when you are playing for your livelihood?

And not just the first tee either. For a player how is having a good round, word gets out and his gallery suddenly swells. Rather than playing in front of merely several dozen people, hundreds now stand watch over every move. This all comes to a climax at the 18^th where huge grandstands of yet more hundreds watch those all important final shots that change a good round to a great one. What sort of mental strength is required to shut out the watching gallery, the millions that might be watching at home, the expectations of sponsors and your family and friends when you stand over a breaking 5 footer that if holed, wins you a championship or even possibly a major.

All this in competition with your fellow professionals, fighting to get the best score possible for the victory, the money, the ranking points. They are a breed apart.

‘Could I ever be a professional golfer?’ is a question that everyone who has ever picked up a golf club has asked themselves. The answer, unfortunately for all but a tiny minority, is no.

Would I want to be one?

Yes please.

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open

Published

1 day ago

Jun 3, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX Tour Photographer made the trip from the Memorial Tournament across the country to the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera. Check out links to all the photos below!

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 Memorial Tournament

Published

3 days ago

Jun 1, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site this week at the Memorial Tournament, with both Alistair Cameron and Tour Photographer Greg Moore on the ground in Dublin, Ohio, where a strong field is assembled to pay homage to the Golden Bear.

In addition to WITB galleries, we’ve already been treated to an in-hand look at Tommy Fleetwood’s new TaylorMade Spider putters.

Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

News

Tour Tech Rundown: Heroic Henley

Published

4 days ago

Jun 1, 2026

Ronald Montesano

Around the world, the golf wheel spun this final week in May of 2026. From New Jersey to Austria, with stops in Korea, Texas, and North Carolina (don’t let me route your next trip) the world’s finest put their golf games on display. There were three playoffs, some known commodities and some new talent. It was the sort of week that we hope to have at this point in the seasons. June and July afford double-digit major events, and perhaps, one of this week’s champions will use this success as a springboard to new heights. Time to run it all down, tech style, in this week’s Tour Tech Rundown.

Thanks to WITBHub, Today’s Golfer, GolfWRX, and Inside Tour Golf for initial research into equipment.

PGA Tour @ Charles Schwab Challenge: Heroic Henley denies Cole

Eric Cole did nearly everything that a fellow can do, to secure a first PGA Tour title. He stayed one shot clear of Ryder Cup player Ben Griffin. He kept US Open champion Gary Woodland and wunderkind Michael Brennan two shots distant. He posted 70 on day four to reach twelve under par. And then, Russell Henley revealed his Dr. Strange cloak. Henley made 47 feet of birdie putts on holes 16, 17, and 18, to jump from minus-nine to twelve-deep, and secured a spot in a playoff with Cole. The duo returned to the final tee, and put on a stripe show.

Both golfers found the fairway off the tee, and Henley improved on his regulation play with an approach to four feet. Cole did himself proud, tucking an iron to a dozen feet, but he was unable to convert the putt for three. Henley is one of the best putters on tour, and he proved it once more by draining a putt for a fourth consecutive birdie, and a sixth PGA Tour title. For Eric Cole, that first victory should come, and soon. He has done everything necessary to earn the chalice lift.

Henley’s Suitcase

Driver: Titleist TSi3 at 10 degrees. Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70g 6.5 TX
Metal: Titleist TS3 at 16.5 degrees. Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 80 TX
Hybrid: Titleist TSi2 at 21 degrees. Shaft: Mitsubishi MMT hybrid 100 TX
Iron: Titleist T250 4-iron. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf AMT Tour White X100
Irons: Titleist T100 5-6 irons. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf AMT Tour White X100
Irons: Titleist T100 7-9 irons. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 at 48 and 50 degrees. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 at 54 and 60 degrees. Shaft: rue Temper Dynamic Golf Tour Issue S400
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron T5 Tour Prototype

LPGA @ Shoprite LPGA: Welcome back, Celine!

Soo Bin Joo had her eyes on a maiden LPGA title. She held the lead after two rounds, then hit a red light at the intersection of can-I and how-To. Joo posted plus-two on day three in New Jersey, and dropped to a T4 finish, which was still a career-best for the young Korean golfer. Instead of a new face, a familiar face returned to the top of the podium.

Celine Boutier was the It Girl in 2023. She collected four victories, including a major title at Evian. Boutier reached world number one status, then simply faded into the background. No wins came her way over the next 30 months. On Sunday, she collected LPGA victory number seven, at the same trace as LPGA victory number two.

Day three saw Boutier manage the windswept Seaview Bay course with six birdies and a bogey. She was challenged in the end by Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol, who signed for a 66 of her own. Yubol came up one shot shy of the top ladder rung. Finishing in third place at -7, two back of the winner, was Ireland’s Lauren Walsh.

Celine’s Suitcase

Driver: PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 at 9 degrees. Shaft: Graphite Design AD IZ-5
Hybrid: PXG 0311 Black Ops at 19 and 22 degrees. Shaft: KBS Hybrid Prototype
Hybrid: PXG 0311 Gen5.
Iron: PXG 0311 P Gen 4 5-9 irons
Wedge: PXG 0311 T Gen 4 PW
Wedges: PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy II at 50, 54, 58 degrees
Putter: Bettinardi Studio Stock 3 DASS

DP World Tour @ Austrian Alpine: KK? KK!

Kota Kaneko has a rhythmic name. It has strong vowels and a run of voiceless stops in its crunchy K sounds. On Sunday in Austria, Kaneko put a stop to a challenge from Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia and everyone else, and claimed a first-ever title on the DP World Tour. Gouveia did well to reach 16-under par over four days, but Kaneko held firm, two shots in the clear.

Davis Bryant of the USA also forged a strong challenge for the win. He ended in a tie with Gouveia for second place. Kaneko began and finished his final round in a bit of a malaise, but he caught fire midway through. Birdies at 10, 12, and 13 provided the necessary cushion to cruise to the finish line without breaking a serious sweat.

Kaneko’s Suitcase

Driver: Ping Max G440
Metals: TaylorMade Qi4D at 15, 16.5, 21, and 24 degrees
Irons: TaylorMade P760 5 and 6 irons
Irons: TaylorMade P7TW 7-9 irons
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design at 46, 52, 56, and 60 degrees
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Arm Lock #7

Korn Ferry Tour @ UNC Health Championship: Improbably Alvaro

Alvaro Ortiz may have had a bit of scare on the outward nine on Sunday, but he came through in clutch fashion in the end. Ortiz began the day bogey-double, and added another double bogey at the 11th hole. He was mired in a downward trend, spiraling away from the top of the leader’s board. Ortiz found hope at the 14th, where his first birdie of the day tumbled home. Inspired, he closed with birdies and 17 and 18 to catch Ross Steelman at 10-under par, and the duo returned to the 18th deck for overtime.

The extra session concluded in brief time. Ortiz, buoyed by his newly-retrieved confidence, hit the fairway with driver, then approached to six feet and drained the putt. Gobsmacked, Steelman could do little more than smile and applaud, as his run at the top came to a close. The victory was the first for Ortiz on the KFT, and will implant him squarely in the chase for a PGA Tour promotion.

Alvaro’s Suitcase

Driver: Ping G430 MAX driver at 9 degrees loft
Metal: Ping G430 MAX 3W
Iron: Ping iDi Driving Iron
Irons: Ping Blueprint S irons
Wedges
Putter: Scottsdale TR Piper C

A party on the green!

Alvaro’s time comes in Raleigh with his first win @UNCHealthChamp ? pic.twitter.com/2dmtZdbSzk

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) May 31, 2026

LIV @ Korea: Me llamo Joaquin

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann had been away from the LIV winner’s circle throughout all of 2026. This week in Korea, he reminded us that he is still a force to consider. Niemann chased down Taylor Gooch over the closing holes at Asiad Country Club, then claimed victory with a hole-one birdie in extra time. Bryson DeChambeau claimed solo third, one shot in arrears at minus-eleven. Dustin Johnson finished on fourth, one putt farther back.

Niemann’s Suitcase