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GolfWRX Morning 9: International Crown | No recourse for blinded spectator? | Ted Bishop speaks

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6 years ago

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1. Likely little legal recourse for spectator hit by Koepka
USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio reports on what’s likely to be the unfortunate reality for Corine Remande.
  • “The reason it is so hard to even get this in front of a jury is because in most states, there’s an assumption of risk defense in these types of cases,” said Marc Diller, a Boston-based lawyer who sued the Boston Red Sox on behalf of a fan injured by a foul ball. “Any patron who goes to a golf match or a baseball game assumes the risks of those hazards. Those known risks, for baseball, would be foul balls. At a professional golf tournament, it’s errant golf balls.”
  • “Legal experts told USA TODAY Sports had such an incident happened in the U.S., Remande would be hard pressed to even get the case to trial — let alone win a verdict. Each state has its own laws that govern personal injury and in some jurisdictions merely warning fans of danger – including in the small print on tickets – is enough to thwart litigation.”
  • “In the U.S., the law is pretty clear,” Chicago-based attorney Robert Clifford said. “Being on a golf course – either as a player or spectator – there’s an obvious danger.”
Any legal experts on the French justice system care to weigh in? I assume the guillotine is no longer in vogue?
2. “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
Our Gianni Magliocco with a final word on the Ryder Cup: a reminder of the significance of the competition for Europeans.
“Europe continuously considering themselves as underdogs has no doubt helped to banish any sense of complacency. From the dominance of both U.S. politics and culture on the rest of the world, there has always been a special pride and sense of achievement for those outside of the U.S. in downing the sporting superstars from the land of milk and honey. This motivation only heightens when it’s at a sport where the U.S. has been so dominant throughout history, such as they have in golf. It’s an embedded mindset that both the European team and supporters possess year on year, while it seems likely that the U.S. Ryder Cup side is more susceptible to complacency, and perhaps, motivated more by defeat.”
“The attention for the twelve members of the defeated U.S. side will now turn to the new PGA Tour season, where they will be hoping for major championship triumphs, FedEx Cup success and even qualification for the Presidents Cup. It may be two years away, but much of the motivation for the European players will be to make the next Ryder Cup side and to keep that trophy in Europe until 2022 at the very least.”
“Francesco Molinari won the Open Championship earlier this year, which was his first ever taste of major championship glory. Years of sweat and perseverance culminating in the most memorable moment of his career, right? Not according to Francesco, who described this year’s Ryder Cup victory with his teammates as a far more significant achievement than his Open Championship success…”It means so much. So much more than majors, more than anything… It’s been an incredible week. It’s about the group. It’s incredible. It is the best feeling I have ever had in golf.”
3. Speaketh the Toski
The great Bob Toski, 92, chatted with Golf Digest.
  • The stamina!…”Today I woke up and felt like I was 27 again,” he said from his South Florida home….This after a long day by anyone’s standard, much less a nonagenarian. A legendary teaching pro and the PGA Tour’s leading money winner in 1954, Toski was at Atlantic National Golf Club in Lake Worth, Fla., on Tuesday, playing a nine-hole scramble, then teaching the rest of the day. He was on the lesson tee about 10 a.m., he said, and finished around four.”
  • Beating death!…”I was halfway to heaven,” he said. “But He sent me back. Said ‘I’ll call you later.’ They put two stents in my heart. They were delivering me to ICU and my heart stopped. It stopped five times. They had to regenerate my heart. The answer they gave me when they put the two stents in, the heart flow became so great that blood was rushing too fast. It was like the heart was drowning. They were able to control that so that my heart beat consistently.”
May he live forever. Full article.
4. Mixed start for Americans at International Crown
AP Report…”The United States had a mixed start on the opening day of the UL International Crown team golf tournament on Thursday, splitting the fourballs against Sweden, while favorite South Korea collected a maximum four points with two wins over Taiwan.”
  • “Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson gave the U.S. a winning start in the eight-nation, 32-player tournament against Pernilla Lindberg and Madelene Sagstrom to win 2-up.”
  • “The defending champion’s other pairing, Michelle Wie and Jessica Korda, had a disastrous start, however, and was 4 down after five holes against Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall. The American pair rallied to become all square by the 13th hole, only to lose 2-up.”
5. Does climate matter for young golfers?  
Our Brendan Ryan crunches the numbers on where top golfers come from.
A few of his conclusions…
  • “Ideal Climates: While you have the best opportunity based on the weather and course conditions to shoot a good score, it is important to invest in developing different shot shapes and trajectories, as well as learning to play in the rain / wind when it comes; next time it’s raining in Southern California run to the first tee and get in 9 holes. When the weather is idea, consider playing different games to sharpen your skills. For example, play with just irons, or ever other iron, or the rough out of bounds or play where your competitor names the shot shape you need to hit each shot.”
  • “Less than Ideal Climates: While you have less opportunity to shoot low scores in perfect weather and conditions, you have great opportunities to invest in skills that will serve you in the long run. In my experience the best players from these climates use cold months very carefully to refine technical skills through lots of block practice. They are also diligent about the time they have on the course, keeping careful stats and making sure nice days are spent at the course engaged in competition. When the weather is not ideal, don’t be afraid to play from a much shorter yardage to ensure you can still shoot good scores.”
6. The International Crown’s moment?
Keeley Levins writes…”On the heels of the Ryder Cup, the LPGA hosts a team event of its own: the UL International Crown. In the third edition of the biennial event, four women from the eight top-ranked countries will play four days of team play in Incheon, South Korea-the first time the event is being held outside the United States.”
  • “Women’s golf has seen success already in team competitions; the Solheim Cup draws large crowds-more than 120,000 in Des Moines in 2017 and solid TV ratings (2017 numbers in the U.S. surpassed those seen for majors). Add in the fact that it will be held in one of the global hotbeds for women’s golf, and the potential for the International Crown to develop an identity of its own appears high.”
  • “We built this event with one goal, let’s build something that’s never been done before,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said in a Golf Channel interview. “We knew when we launched it there’d be some critics along the way, but it’s proven it’s different and fun.”
7. But where were the crowds?
Randall Mell…”The Korean fans didn’t live up to the hype in Thursday’s opening round. The Korean players did, though.”
  • “With the bleachers around the first tee nearly empty when England and Australia were introduced as the opening match, the UL International Crown got off to a decidedly underwhelming start.”
  • “There wasn’t a hint of electricity in the air in a surprisingly low voltage opening, with none of the new energy promised for this event’s first staging overseas. But the late-arriving Korean fans picked things up when their team teed off, 90 minutes after the first ball was struck.”
Odd.
8. Not exactly reaffirming your faith in humanity…
The woman blinded by Brooks Koepka‘s tee shot spoke with the media for the first time since the incident.
  • While she discussed her plans to take legal action and her grim prognosis, this remark was particularly disturbing.
  • “What shocked me too was that the spectators were taking pictures of me, but no one was calling for help.”
Unreal.
9. For your listening pleasure…
  • Former PGA of America CEO, Ted Bishop, joined Michael Williams on his 19th Hole podcast to talk about what went wrong for the U.S. side at the Ryder Cup and more.

 

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Stixman

    Oct 4, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    I don’t believe for one moment the Euros regarded themselves as ‘underdogs’. I think they, and we, all take with a very liberal pinch of salt the overblown BS about ‘the Best Players in the World’ from ‘the Best Tour in th World’.It all depends who your audience is when you’re delivered the BS, fine if it’s domestic, but outwith that arena it doesn’t actually carry much weight.

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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

2 days ago

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May 10, 2024

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

3 days ago

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May 9, 2024

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

Published

4 days ago

on

May 8, 2024

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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