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Morning 9: McIlroy questions Euro pros who stayed home | Tour tests COVID-19 free again | Diversity in golf | Does Rory have a “Sunday problem?”

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4 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at [email protected]
June 18, 2020
Good Thursday morning, golf fans.
 
I’m thrilled to announce GolfWRX’s partnership with Golf Avenue. A great place for new equipment with top-trade in value, I particularly love the best-in-the-business selection of pre-owned equipment-some deep cuts from the past and great values. Check out the partnership details here. 
1. McIlroy: Players who care about their careers should be here
BBC report…”Rory McIlroy says the European players who opted not to travel to the United States for the PGA Tour’s restart last week should not complain about losing out on world ranking points.”
  • …”I mean if you really care about your career and care about moving forward you should be here,” said McIlroy.
  • …”Look, personally, if I were in their shoes and I was asked to come over to the States and shelter in place or quarantine for two weeks before these tournaments, I would have done that,” said McIlroy, 31.”
  • “I get there’s different variables and families and stuff involved, but we all have the means to rent a very nice house in a gated community in Florida and… you know, it’s not a hardship for two weeks to come over and quarantine.”
2. No positive tests on PGA Tour
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”The Tour administered 369 on-site tests this week at the RBC Heritage and 98 tests following the third round of the Charles Schwab Challenge for players and caddies scheduled to travel to this week’s event on the circuit’s charter flight.”
  • “Also for the second consecutive week there were positive tests on the Korn Ferry Tour. There were 408 on-site tests issued this week at the event in St. Augustine, Fla., with two positives from caddies. Last week there were four positive tests, three caddies and a player, at TPC Sawgrass.”
3. DL3 on captains picks: “Let’s just take the top 12 and be done with it”
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Stricker seemed to embrace the chance to pick half his team, the move isn’t for everyone.”
  • “No. I was in the Jack Nicklaus category. Let’s just take the top 12 and be done with it,” said two-time captain Davis Love III, when asked if he would have wanted six picks.
  • “Love explained that the captain’s picks are the toughest part of the job and adding two more selections to the process will only intensify the decision.”
  • …”It’s the guys you don’t pick. You have to call them, and I’ve seen Bubba Watson, talked to him three times already this week, about this year’s Ryder Cup,” Love said. “It’s still awkward with guys that you didn’t pick or that you did pick and felt like they didn’t help. So it’s terrible.”
4. How to speed up diversity? 
Cameron Morfit at PGATour.com talking with former PGA Tour pro, Adrian Stills…”From my perspective there has been some progress,” says Stills, who is now is the General Manager and teaching pro at Osceola. “The unfortunate part of it all is it’s just been so slow.”
  • …”Stills hopes we’re moving beyond the era when he was mysteriously denied entry into an elite junior tournament that still exists. Later, his almost entirely black golf team at South Carolina State was denied entry at certain hotels. Still, the struggle continues.”
  • “I’ve stopped using the word change,” Stills says, “but I’m emphasizing the word grow. People have to learn to grow. You may not change, but you should never stop growing. You should be able to process and come to different conclusions. And even if you don’t, you should at least have some opportunity to interact with people you don’t know. Golf is a good catalyst for that.”
5. APGA’s seven-tournament schedule
PGATour.com staff report…”The Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA), professional golf’s newly-prominent tour promoting diversity in the sport, will launch a seven-tournament schedule in June highlighted by events in the major markets of Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles.”
  • “The APGA burst into the pro sports spotlight in January when the Farmers Insurance Open hosted a tournament during the annual PGA TOUR stop at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, including the APGA Tour players and officials in operations, hospitality, and media operations throughout the week.”
  • “The 27-hole APGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open competition, organized in collaboration with the PGA TOUR, Farmers and The Century Club of San Diego, took place on the Torrey Pines North golf course while the best players in the world were competing in the third round of the Open on Torrey Pines South. The exposure resulted in major print, digital, and TV media coverage about the 11-year-old tour and its mission of bringing diversity to the highest levels of professional golf in conjunction with the PGA TOUR, Farmers Insurance, Lexus and other supporting organizations.”
6. McIlroy on Bryson’s distance: “Holy sh*t”
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”The 31-year-old has always ranked among the Tour’s longest players off the tee, but even he was impressed with Bryson DeChambeau’s performance last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.”
  • “He hit a couple drives on Sunday that [caddie Harry Diamond] and I just looked at each other, and we’re like, holy sh*t, that was unbelievable,” said McIlroy, who was paired with DeChambeau on Sunday at Colonial. “He hit one into the wind on 11. I hit a really good one and probably hit it like 315, 320. He must have flew my ball by 40 yards. He hit it like 370, 375 into the wind. It was crazy. It was nuts. It’s unbelievable.”
7. U.S. Am adjustments
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…“The field for the U.S. Amateur, usually 312 competitors deep, will be reduced to 264 for the Aug. 10-16 championship at Bandon Dunes, which will still utilize two courses for stroke play, Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails. The U.S. Women’s Amateur, set for Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, will now have a 132-player field instead of 156 players.”
  • …”For the U.S. Amateur, all match-play qualifiers from the 2019 championship at Pinehurst will be eligible to compete, as will winners/runner(s)-up of this summer’s Western Amateur, North and South Amateur, Sunnehanna Amateur and Southern Amateur. The field will also include several top performers from the U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur: last four champions, last two runners-up and, for all but the senior event, last year’s quarterfinalists…The top 225 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of June 24 will also be exempt.”
  • …As for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, the exemption changes are similar, though it will only exempt the Round of 32 qualifiers from last year’s championship while taking fewer exempt players via the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. While the past four winners and past two runners-up from all three events are eligible, only last year’s Girls’ Junior Round of 16 qualifiers and last year’s Mid-Amateur semifinalists will also be extended invites.”
8. How tour life has changed
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard polled the pros for the most substantial changes to their workdays in the COVID-19 era…
  • …The absence of fans has been the most-talked-about difference since the Tour returned from a 91-day hiatus, and those who found themselves in quiet contention last week certainly felt the difference.
  • …For many players, it’s the simple things that have changed because of the COVID-19 restrictions, like how you interact with your caddie.
  • …For most players, traveling from city to city has become second nature and routines have been refined over the years – what hotel to stay at, where to eat, what airport to fly into. There are now designated and “highly suggested” places to stay and attend.
9. Rory’s “Sunday problem” 
The NY Post’s Mark Cannizzaro…”when Rory McIlroy, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, is at or near the top of a leaderboard in the final round of a golf tournament, there are expectations. And those expectations are that he should win the tournament.”
  • “…McIlroy entered the final round of last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge three shots out of the lead held by Xander Schauffele at Colonial Country Club.”
  • “And on Sunday, while most of the players around him either made a charge up the leaderboard or at least kept within touch of the lead, McIlroy went backward, shooting an eye-opening 6-over-par 41 on the front nine and finishing with a 74 that left him in a tie for 32nd.”

 

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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16 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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2 days 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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2 days 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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