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Morning 9: Berger prevails | Tour’s triumphant return | Morikawa | Schauffele | McIlroy | Varner

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4 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at [email protected]
June 15, 2020
Good Monday morning, golf fans.

 
1. Berger prevails in golf’s return
Rough stuff for Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, whose each found themselves felled by brutal lipouts. Not to take anything away from Berger, who burst forth from a pack few really realized he was in, honestly, before the back-nine action at Colonial heated up.
  • AP report…”Berger saved par from behind the 17th green on the first playoff hole and won when Collin Morikawa missed a 3-foot par putt.”
  • “Berger closed with a 4-under 66, his 28th consecutive round at par or better dating to Oct. 11 at the Houston Open.”
  • “Even over the final hour, a half-dozen players were still in the mix. All that was missing was the sound and energy of a gallery, with the PGA TOUR not allowing spectators for the opening five events in its return.”
  • “Berger won for the third time — all victories during this week on the calendar, just not in circumstances like this. It was the first PGA TOUR event since March 12 when the spread of the new coronavirus shut down golf and other sports.”
2. “Triumphant return” 
Steve DiMeglio for Golfweek…”After a 13-week break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGA Tour resumed action with the Charles Schwab Challenge at revered Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Its reward after more than 90 intense days of discussion that produced safety protocols and a detailed plan to produce a “bubble” of protection aimed to reduce the risk of the coronavirus was a stacked leaderboard and a Sunday stampede unfortunately played out in front of no spectators.”
  • “…Not a single player or caddie tested positive for the coronavirus. All quickly adapted to having their temperature taken daily and answering a questionnaire every day. All were conscious of adhering to social distancing protocols at Colonial and limiting their off-course activity.”
3. Luke List!
Meanwhile, on the PGA Tour’s feeder circuit…Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner…“Three months ago he was here, in the shadow of the PGA Tour’s headquarters, at the Tour’s flagship event, on the Tour’s crown jewel, competing for a purse that awarded $2.7 million to the winner. (This week’s haul: $106,000.) He shot 70 that day, and by the time he returned to his rental house and flipped on the news, he had a feeling golf was about to be shut down indefinitely. List drove back to Augusta, Georgia, and didn’t touch a club for three weeks. He played “Mr. Mom” to his young daughter before returning his attention to his golf game.”
  • “He worked his ass off,” said his caddie, Dykes Harbin. Sweating it out in the gym. Continuing to go through the system he built with swing coach Jamie Mulligan. Grinding on the practice green with putting guru Marcus Potter.”
  • “We’ve been working on making him more complete,” Mulligan said. “He’s always been known as a basher, and he’s so polished now where winning on a course like this is indicative of that.”
4. The tyranny of the 17th
A cruel cup, indeed…Our Ron Montesano writes, “For at least four days, until they tee off at the Sea Pines course for the Heritage Championship, the topic of discussion at Zoom water coolers will focus on the 17th green at Colonial. “Bad location,” some will say. “Poor cut of the hole,” others will lament. In the final 45 minutes of Sunday’s play, we saw Xander Schauffele 360-degree a short putt out of the hole in regulation, followed by Collin Morikawa do a hard lip-out in the playoff. No doubt, something was amiss, but in the end, a winner emerged. Daniel Berger was the only challenger to make three at the last, and he carried his good fortune into extra holes. The victory was his third on tour, and first since rehabilitating from wrist injuries”
5. Successful week, but…
Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…”The myriad challenges of resuming professional golf won’t ease anytime soon. Twenty-one states saw increases in new coronavirus cases this week. One is Texas. Another is South Carolina, where numbers spiked 60 percent just as the RBC Heritage gets underway in Hilton Head Island. Such statistics illustrate the daunting task facing the Tour has it endeavors to Frogger its way across the country while avoiding getting hit by the runaway COVID juggernaut.”
  • “The Schwab Challenge established a baseline for what is needed to stage Tour events. Much of that is dependent on the particular circumstances in each host city. Those circumstances are in turn shaped by public behavior to mitigate the spread. The PGA Tour season, like our own efforts to return to some kind of normalcy, is effectively hostage to the dumbest guy in town who thinks wearing a mask is a sign of weakness but wearing body armor makes him a hero. Against that backdrop, week one went as well as could be hoped. It won’t get easier next week, or the week after.”
6. Plenty of positives 
ESPN’s Todd Archer…”From a health standpoint, no players, caddies or staff tested positive for COVID-19. From a golf standpoint, the strong field with the top five ranked players in the world and 16 of the top 20 did not disappoint. The tour dove into the issues of social injustice and systemic racism with a daily moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. for the memory of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white police officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, sparking worldwide outrage. In a nod to the front-line workers from the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the pandemic, the tour matched their names to the players on the caddie bibs.”
  • “At the start of the week, 487 players, caddies, officials and other personnel were tested without a negative result. Signs were posted around almost every common area at the course to be mindful of social distancing. Hand sanitizer stations were prevalent. As the week wore on, players and caddies were more mindful of the guidelines they were asked to follow. Players tried to remember to pull and replace their own clubs. Caddies wiped down rakes and flagsticks.”
7. McIlroy fades
Gareth Hanna at the Belfast Telegraph…”the Holywood star found himself six over at the turn and eventually carded a four over par 74 to finish six under for the week, nine behind eventual winner Daniel Berger.”
  • “The result ends McIlroy’s run of seven consecutive top five finishes as he came in tied 32nd.”
  • “I got off to a really bad start,” he confessed.
  • “The wind was up today. You didn’t have to be that much off for it to show. I missed a couple of greens in the wrong spots and made bogeys.”
  • “I played all the way to the end and shot a decent back nine but on the front, I just got into a rut and played a bad run of holes. Obviously that put me out of the tournament.”
8. Varner won the week
Joel Beall for Golf Digest, with this praise for HV3’s work inside the ropes…“the most remarkable thing happened. Varner, at a juncture where the lines of sport and society are blurred, turned in a seven-under 63, taking the opening round co-lead at Colonial. He proved it was not a one-day wonder, hovering near the top of the board on Friday and Saturday and setting the stage for a scene reserved for movies.”
  • “Varner did his best to downplay the spectacle, acknowledging the spotlight while not jumping in it. “When I get on the golf course, it’s been very businesslike,” he said Saturday. “I just kind of handle what I can do … If I’m worried about something else, then I’m probably not going to have a good outcome I don’t think.” The Hollywood ending didn’t come to pass, his only birdie coming at the opening hole. But an ending that didn’t diminish the story.”
  • “Yes, it’s just a tournament, unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But in chaotic times, sports are mistakenly devalued, overlooking the fact that they are one of the few mechanisms with the power to unite. With his words and resolve, with a performance that can only be measured against the pain and uncertainty and fear we all face, Harold Varner showed us the best that golf can be.”
9. Another near-miss for Morikawa at Colonial
PGATour.com’s Ben Everill on Morikawa’s rough history at Hogan’s Alley…“Collin Morikawa has been runner-up at Colonial Country Club before. Twice before in fact. But this one stung a little more.”
  • “Prior to watching in horror as his 3-foot par putt lipped out on the opening hole of a sudden death playoff with Daniel Berger, the 23-year-old had a history of close calls at this historic venue.”
  • “The PGA TOUR young star was a finalist in the prestigious Ben Hogan award in 2018 and 2019 during his amateur days. He was invited to a lavish ceremony to declare the winner at the iconic course that hosts the Charles Schwab Challenge and was home to Hogan himself.”
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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

2 days ago

on

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

on

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

By

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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