News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Why this is the Tiger we’ve missed | Why Poulter is peeved | Phil in his “moves”

Published

8 years ago

Aug 3, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

August 3, 2018

Good Friday morning, golf fans. May your weekends be more fun than a Phil Mickelson dance party.

1 Angry Ian

PGATour.com’s Ben Everill penned this bit on the WGC-Bridgestone’s first-round leader.

“Everyone knows Ian Poulter plays better when he’s angry….And it came to pass again when he opened the World Golf Championships – Bridgestone Invitational with a bogey-free 8-under 62 to lead by one.”

“Usually the Englishman finds a villain, or deliberately becomes one, to help fire him up into his best golf.”

“Fast forward to the lead up this week at Firestone Country Club and Poulter was feeling decent heading into the tournament….Then he looked at his past results. In 13 prior starts his best finish is a tie for 13th in 2001 and 2006….His mood changed.”

“It fires me up. I mean, it’s frustrating to look at,” he said….”I actually thought I had a better finish than that, so it really annoyed me….”For some reason I thought I finished second, but I didn’t know how mistaken I was when I looked at all the numbers.

“I wrote them all down, they were that bad. I was like seriously, how can you play a good golf course this many times and not really have a result. Not to even finish in the top-10 is pretty poor.”

2. Mickelson on his dance moves

“Obviously, it’s not the thing I’m most comfortable doing…But then Amy [Mickelson’s wife] said, ‘You should just tell them that you know how to do The Worm.’ After she said that, it was over, we were doing it.”

“I think it’s fun to laugh at yourself, and certainly that’s what I’m doing in this commercial because it was a lot of work just to get those moves out of me”

If somehow you haven’t seen Phil’s inglorious boogie, check it out here.

3. Tiger grinds out 66

Rex Hoggard with the perspective piece on Tiger’s opening-round 66…

“In a strange way this was the Tiger Woods we all missed….This wasn’t the guy who made the game look so effortless for the better part of two decades, the guy whose play could demoralize a field with a rare combination of power on command and unrivaled creativity.”

“This was the player, who on his bad days – and Tiger had bad days even when he was at his best – found a way to turn a 71 into a 66. The kind of player who missed right and left with equal abandon and yet signed a scorecard that left him squarely in the hunt.”

“Tiger began his day at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational well enough, going 6-for-6 in fairways hit on his opening loop (Firestone’s back nine) and facing birdie putts on each of his first eight holes. The first crack came on the 18th hole, his ninth of the day, when he missed his drive left. He’d hit just one more fairway on his way to the clubhouse and yet still signed for a 4-under 66 that left him just three strokes off the lead.”

“I just kept either hitting a pull or hitting a cut. I just couldn’t quite get a feel for it,” Woods said. “Even with my irons I wasn’t very sharp on the back nine. But I was just kind of hanging in there with it. Wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do today, but as I said, I ground out a score today, which was good.”

4. The lowdown on graphite vs. iron shafts

We all know the difference, right? But hearing from a pro only deepens our understanding.

Fujikura Tour fitter Marshall Thompson details the difference between graphite and steel iron shafts for GolfWRX, and why one may be better than the other for your game, in a video you’ll want to watch now or bookmark for later.

5. Hopes for Mickelson vs Woods?

Now that it’s presumably a done deal, Golf Digest put together a list of things they’d like to see at the match.

Tiger’s yacht, parked in the middle of the Strip

Bones grabs Tiger’s bag; Stevie on the sticks for Phil

We love us some Jim Nantz and Dan Hicks, but this is heavyweight bout in Sin City, so…Gus Johnson and Jim Lampley on the call

And yes, Michael Buffer will handle the introduction.

The $10 million is put into a briefcase, handcuffed to Steve Stricker

Still holding a grudge, Tiger decides to play with his “inferior Nike equipment” circa 2003 just to prove a point

The way he’s swinging right now, the man could break par with a set of mid-80s PowerBilt blades and persimmon woods.

Phil, ever the showman, faces a shot from off the green, pulls Carrot Top out of the gallery and flops it over his head

With Celine Dion singing in the background and a portable “Fountains of Bellagio” show following execution.

Stephen Ames attempts to follow group, but is promptly kicked off the property after the 10th hole

A drawn-out, highly esoteric rules dispute that alienates casual golf fans across the country

The Tiger-Phil match proves to be a front for the new “Ocean’s 14” heist

6. Wie injury

Michelle Wie has battled arthritis in both wrists this year, and the pain forced her to WD from the Women’s British Open.

She posted to Instagram..”I have been doing everything humanly possible (besides giving it proper rest) this past couple of weeks to get my hand healthy enough to play this event, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough,” Wie wrote in an Instagram post. “I gave it my all today, but I just couldn’t handle the pain any longer.”

“I’m devastated that I had to withdraw mid-round, but I felt that if I kept pushing through the pain, I would have injured my hand further,” she wrote. “I have been trying to manage/push through the pain almost all year, but my team and I think it’s finally time to take some time off to get my hand back to being healthy. I am confident that with the right treatment, I will be back stronger than ever. Will keep you guys posted on my prognosis/recovery. Thank you for all your kind messages and support. It’s been really tough, but your unwavering support always puts a smile on my face.”

7. Gal at peace

Minjee Lee leads the Women’s British Open, but Sandra Gal is just three strokes back. Beth Ann Nichols files a quality piece on Gal’s peace of mind.

“Gal’s fine form can be traced back, at least in part, to recent work with instructor Cameron McCormick. The pair began working together toward the end of April after Gal had finished no better than a share of 42nd in her first six starts. Since then she has recorded four top-15 finishes, including a share of third at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.”

“When she made the trip up to Ponte Vedra, Fla., during The Players to see McCormick, she also committed to a left-hand-low putting grip. She had tinkered with it before, but knowing that McCormick felt it was a good move gave her the confidence needed to stick with it.”

“While they haven’t gotten into too many deep conversations just yet, McCormick did give Gal a book to read on stoicism, “The Daily Stoic.” McCormick stressed to Gal that she’s in control of what she thinks and how she feels.”

“Meditation to me was always kind of just observing your thoughts and not really changing them,” said Gal. “I think with that input, I learned to maybe create my thoughts in a better way that’s more healthy for me and more beneficial to my life and career.”

8. $2 million in hat sales at the PGA Championship?

Geoff Shackelford writes.…”To say the good folks of greater St. Louis are excited about the PGA Championship may be an understatement given that the PGA’s director of merchandise has hat makers on speed dial in anticipation of second and third orders.”

“Stu Durandoin the Post-Dispatch talks toMike Quirk about expectations for sales at Bellerive and shares some eye-opening numbers about hat sales.”

“There are 64,000 in stock, waiting to replace those that are sold. And the expectation is that more may need to be ordered before the event ends Aug. 12. Mike Quirk, the senior director of merchandising and licensing for the PGA, believes hat sales could hit 100,000 over 10 days.”

“Quirk has an idea of how much is expected to be spent, but he’s not saying. But to get an idea, the hats, which average $28, will generate more than $2 million in sales based on Quirk’s projections.”

9. Meming Mickelson

Golf.com’s Sean Zak tweeted the image below with the caption, “if we’ve learned anything today, it’s this.”

News

Charles Schwab Challenge Tour Report: MacIntyre, Åberg and Spaun all switch putters, TaylorMade launches new Spider

Published

2 days ago

May 29, 2026

Alistair Cameron

There must be something in the water. Or potentially on the greens. A whole host of big-time players decided that the Charles Schwab Challenge was the perfect place to test out new putters.

With the 2026 U.S. Open just around the corner, defending champion J.J. Spaun made a surprising switch away from his center-shafted Df3 and into L.A.B. Golf’s OZ.1i HS – the heel-shafted mallet putter.

“Just something I kind of wanted to change the way the putter was looking, just a completely different look than the DF3 that I’ve been using for the last year and a half,” Spaun told GolfWRX about the swap. “So it’s just easier to line up for me with less onset looking design, and it’s just something I felt like switching it up and seeing how it goes.”

You can find more about the putter and the reasoning behind Spaun’s change here.

Robert MacIntyre also decided to change the flatstick at Colonial Country Club. He’s using a custom Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R. The Scotty team created a specially-milled face featuring horizontal grooves and shortened the plumber’s neck to increase toe hang.

Another custom feature of the build is the welded wings added to the rear of the putter, similar to those found on the Phantom 11 head.

It’s potentially part of a major overhaul to his bag. The Scot has recently switched from the Titleist Pro V1 to the Pro V1x golf ball, added the new GTS2 driver, and is currently testing a GTS 3-wood that could replace his ancient TaylorMade AeroBurner 3-wood.

Ludvig Åberg joined the trio of superstars making alterations on the greens. He’s added a Scotty Cameron Phantom 3.2.

It’s not Åberg’s first putter switch of the season. He had been using different versions of his usual Odyssey Versa #1 head to try to get better speed control on the greens.

? Ludvig Åberg is using a new putter! He’s playing a @ScottyCameron Phantom 3 head. First major putter switch, although he has been changing loft and heads in the Odyssey #1 style this season.
Here’s a Phantom 3 built for him earlier in the season https://t.co/oGrNk6p0hz pic.twitter.com/edRbpk22m4

— Alistair Cameron (@ACameronWRX) May 28, 2026

Currently, a Tour-only offering, the Phantom 3 head is a half-moon mallet shape. Like the previous version that GolfWRX captured at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which Åberg never put in play, the current version appears to feature the Studio Carbon Steel face insert and chain-link face milling. Instead of the all-black version one, Åberg’s current flatstick is in the metal finish.

Rico Hoey’s make-shift Jailbird

Some of the best builds on Tour have a certain Frankenstein theme to them.

Odyssey decided to do this when breeding a turtle and a bird together. The result, Rico Hoey’s latest broomstick.

The custom Jailbird S2S Tri-Hot head includes an aluminium-milled insert from the unreleased TRTL head, which the team machined down to fit the face of the Jailbird after removing the usual Ai-Dual insert.

The team also filled the wings of the putter with epoxy to redistribute mass away from the face, with the metal insert weighing more than the original.

Hoey was also spotted with a custom Damascus Milled Jailbird Mini broomstick. Check out the full gallery here.

Brant Snedeker’s full WITB

Arguably, the PGA Tour’s feel-good story of the year so far was 45-year-old Brandt Snedeker returning to the winner’s circle for the first time in nearly 8 years.

His victory didn’t come without some equipment updates, either. The Presidents Cup Captain added the 2016 M2 driver equipped with a Fujikura Speeder Evolution 661. It’s a shaft that’s even older than the driver.

The historic driver setup might have been added because Snedeker was missing some antique vibes. He recently switched out his 2-decade-old Odyssey Rossie White Hot XG for a TaylorMade Spider Tour X.

He first put the Spider in play at the Cognizant Classic. Still, at the Valspar Championship, he tested TaylorMade’s True Path Alignment versus without, and preferred the added aim benefits he was getting. In previous testing, the biggest thing Snedeker noticed was the launch and how quickly the ball got to true roll from the Spider and its Pure Roll insert compared to anything else he had tried.

Check out Snedeker’s full what’s in the bag during this week’s episode of “Inside the Ropes” from Colonial.

Everything’s bigger in Texas

TaylorMade Golf chose the second stop of a Texas two-step in Dallas as the spot to launch the tour’s latest Spider putter.

On-site Monday at Colonial Country Club, GolfWRX’s Tour Photographer Greg Moore captured the new Spider ZT Max putter ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge.

The Max version of TaylorMade’s zero-torque putter style has a larger footprint than the original ZT, which will likely lead to a higher MOI thanks to wider perimeter weighting.

The original ZT is made of high-density 303 stainless steel at the front, and then a lower-density 6061 aerospace aluminum on the back to create a high-MOI foundation, with a center shaft featuring slight forward shaft lean and 25mm onset behind the leading edge.

The Spider ZT Max also appears to use the ZT cambered sole, which is also seen on the recently Tour-launched Spider Tour, Tour X, F and V models, which were first spotted at the RBC Heritage.

Brian Harman gamed the original Spider ZT for his victory last year at the 2025 Valero Texas Open, and the putter also saw victory on the DP World Tour in the hands of Michael Kim for his FedEx Open de France win.

Check out the full gallery here.

Odds and Ends

Project X officially Tour launched the Titan Yellow shaft, just a few days after Wyndham Clark played it for the first time and won The CJ Cup Byron Nelson. The shaft features a smoother feel in the handle compared to past Project X wood shafts, along with a firm midsection and firm tip. The Synex Technology allows a player to feel more load in transition without losing the feel of the clubhead. Titleist launched the GTS300 back at Quail Hollow, and just a few weeks later, it’s in the bag of Justin Thomas. Could this be a test run for Shinnecock?

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the ShopRite LPGA

Published

3 days ago

May 28, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX Tour Photographer Greg Moore was on site in Galloway, New Jersey, ahead of the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern to snap some WITB photos and more.

Check out links to all the photos below!

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Odyssey putters – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)

News

Club Junkie WITB, week 18: Driver still needs a grip!

Published

3 days ago

May 27, 2026

Brian Knudson

Back again for week 18 with another new bag for this week’s league night! Last week I played well but lost so hoping to get back on the winning side of things. I am pretty excited to get this driver out on the course as I think it is a legit sleeper in the category. It is also time to break out some newly built irons from JP Golf that look awesome and hopefully play just as good! Here is what is in the bag this week.

Driver: PXG Lighting Tour-Mid (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Red 6s

4-wood: Wilson Dynapwr Carbon (16.5 degrees @ 16)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Red 7s

Hybrid: Callaway Apex Ti Super Hybrid (21 degrees @ 20)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus HB Red 9x

Utility: Mizuno JPX One (22 degrees @ 23)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Black 85s

Irons: JP Prime (5-PW)
Shafts: UST Mamiya Dart V 105 F5

Wedge: Cleveland RTZ (50-10 MID)
Shafts: KBS C-Taper Lite 110 s

Wedge: Cleveland RTZ (56-10 MID)
Shafts: KBS C-Taper Lite 110 s

Wedge: Cleveland RTZ (50-8 ADAPT)
Shafts: KBS C-Taper Lite 110 s

Putter: Mizuno M.Craft City Osaka
Shaft: TPT Pulse 50

Ball: PXG Xtreme Tour

Bag: Ghost Anyday Black Ops Stand Bag