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1. Power of the hoodie?
AP report…”Tyrrell Hatton felt grumpy from not getting much sleep, and then he felt he was in a dream when he was 5 under through the opening five holes of THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK.”
- “The reality of Thursday was that even coming off an emotional win at Wentworth and a long trip from London across eight time zones, Hatton hasn’t lost his touch. He tied the course record of 7-under 65 for a one-shot lead.”
- “It’s fair to say I’m pretty tired at the moment,” Hatton said. “Still struggling a little bit with jet lag. As you can tell by my voice, picked up a little bit of a sore throat on the way over. Today was a long day. Very happy with my score, and I just need to try and get back to the hotel, have a good rest and hopefully sleep better than I did last night.”
2. Xander refreshed after busy stretch, golf-less respite
PGATour.com’s Ben Everill…“The grueling stretch of championship golf that had consisted of two majors, a World Golf Championships and the FedExCup Playoffs inside seven weeks had finally taken a toll. The 25-year old was second in the FedExCup and hasn’t had a result worse than 25th since mid-June.”
- “So he left his clubs tucked away for 10 days and figured he might have a little rust returning at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. Not so much.”
- “Five birdies in his opening seven holes catapulted him up the leaderboard and helped him on his way to a 6-under 66 that left him tied for second and just one shot off Tyrrell Hatton’s lead.”
- “I got home from the U.S. Open and for some odd reason I didn’t want to play golf. It was just one of those things,” Schauffele admitted. “It was probably one of the first U.S. Opens that really took a chunk out of me. Took about 10 days off… started practicing shortly after that. Didn’t feel too rusty. A few chips and a couple mental mistakes I did…, but definitely happy with the 6 under.”
3. Match 3 coming together
Golfweek’s Julie Williams…“This year will go down as the year of the pandemic, but in the golf world, it will also be the year of the exhibition. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods revived their original friendly rivalry this spring to play a second version of “The Match.” They brought in Tom Brady (Mickelson) and Peyton Manning (Woods) as partners.”
- “Next up? Charles Barkley and Stephen Curry. According to an article in Sportico, those two will join the next version of The Match, to be played Friday Nov. 27 (in other words, on Thanksgiving weekend). The major professional tours will be off that week.”
4. Tyrrell’s take on Hoodiegate
Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner…“Was Hatton surprised by the semi-controversy?”
- “A little bit, mainly because I’m not the first person to wear a hoodie; there’s been so many guys that have worn hoodies,” he said Thursday at the CJ Cup, where he took the lead with a 7-under 65. “It’s crazy the amount of people that obviously don’t agree with it. If it looks smart and you’re comfortable to play in it, then I really don’t see what the issue is.”
- “And it’s funny, I reckon half the guys, if they put that hoodie on and swung a golf club, they’d love it. They’re realize how nice it is and how easy it is to swing in it. It’s not like your standard casual fashion hoodie – they’re the ones that are really soft, very stretchy, so movement is not an issue.”
5. Tour pro shot 59 and didn’t even know it
Golf Digest’s Tod Leonard…“Fifty-nine watches don’t happen on mini tours. They exist in a Golf Twitter vacuum except for a tiny legion of hard-core enthusiasts. There are no scoreboards. Guys turn in their scorecards at the end of a round and a calligraphist puts pen to cardboard and then everyone knows what they shot. Sometimes, even the players themselves don’t exactly know their score when they walk off the final hole, even if they’ve reached golf’s magic number.”
- “Former Georgia Tech standout Luke Schniederjans made 11 birdies and shot 59 on Wednesday in the second round of the GPro Tour’s Mimosa Challenge in Morganton, N.C. But he apparently wasn’t aware of the sub-60 score, thinking that Mimosa Hills Country Club played to a par of 71. It is a 70.”
6. Down with golf attire snobbery!
That’s the position of John Craven for IrishGolfer.ie…Inspired by Hatton’s now-infamous hoodie, he writes…
- “Winning Europe’s blue riband event by day, loitering outside a chicken shop by night, the exposure that this modest garment received at the hands of social media over the weekend was nothing short of extraordinary, and sadly highlighted an attitude still rife within golf circles to this day; one of elitist snobbery that has plagued the sport for as long as I can remember.”
- “Of course, some will disagree, pointing to a rise in memberships and packed tee sheets as proof enough that golf, as it presents itself today, is onto a winner. But it’s taken a global pandemic to increase golf’s popularity, not the initiative of a bunch of blazers no doubt happy to accept the credit for the upturn. When life goes back to normal and other sports return to full playing schedules, it will be little things like relaxing dress codes that could make a big difference when it comes to retaining the new faces we’ve attracted by accident in 2020.”
7. Average driving distance of male golfers by age range
Something, hopefully tasty, for you to chew on via our Gianni Magliocco…“Earlier this week we took a look at the average driving distance for male amateur golfers in each handicap range, and it got many of our members curious as to how the average driving distance would look if it were broken down by age.”
“Well, thanks to Arccos Golf, we can take a look at that.”
- “Arccos Golf conducted an annual study culminating in the company’s distance report published in February, which included the average driving distance of amateur golfers in different age categories.”
- “The data is based on the average taken from over 26 million shots hit from golfers from scratch level to a 25 index. Here are the findings for 2019:”
- Average Driving Distance By Age in 2019:
- 10-19: 234.2 yards
- 20-29: 239.7 yards
- 30-39: 233.7 yards
- 40-49: 225.9 yards
- 50-59: 215.4 yards
- 60-69: 204.5 yards
- 70+: 190.4 yards
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19th Hole2 weeks ago
19th Hole1 week ago
