By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco and Matthew Vincenzi.
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November 22, 2022
Good Tuesday morning, golf fans, on what is a rare off-week on the PGA Tour. |
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1. PGA Tour stories of the fall
PGATour.com’s Sean Martin gathers some notable narratives.
- “The rise of Tom Kim…The celebrations were entertaining. The performances were historic.”
- “Even though his team lost to the U.S., Tom Kim’s exuberant displays produced many of the highlights from this year’s Presidents Cup. The pinnacle was his putter-slamming celebration after he sank a 10-foot birdie putt to win a tight Saturday afternoon Four-ball match. He set up the winning birdie by striping a 2-iron approach from some 240 yards.”
- “I was already thinking in the back of my mind, ‘If this goes in, what am I going to do? How am I going to celebrate?'” Kim said.
- “What did he do for an encore? Win the Shriners Children’s Open in his next start, beating former FedExCup champ Patrick Cantlay in the final round at TPC Summerlin. Kim was just the third player since 1974 to win on TOUR without making a score of bogey or worse, and he’s the first since Tiger Woods to win twice before turning 21. This came after his win in August in the Wyndham Championship, where he became the first player since 1983 (when the TOUR began keeping hole-by-hole records) to win after recording a quadruple-bogey or worse on the opening hole of a tournament.”
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2. Steve Williams coming out of retirement, briefly
Evin Priest for Golf Digest…”Steve Williams is coming out of retirement to caddie for Adam Scott in Australia, with the intention of helping the 42-year-old chase an elusive second major championship next year.”
- “Williams, 58, is most famous for carrying Tiger Woods’ bag from 1999 to 2011, but the New Zealander also looped for Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd and Ian Baker-Finch during his career. Following his split with Woods in 2011 after a partnership that yielded 13 major victories, Williams joined Scott’s team and helped him secure a breakthrough major win at the 2013 Masters.”
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3. Rahm doubles down on OWGR comments
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Told Sunday afternoon that he was projected to stay the same, Rahm, who began the year at No. 1, again shrugged. He got around 21.8 points for beating 49 other players, including six of the world’s top 25, in Dubai while Adam Svensson received just over 37 points for his victory at the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, a full field but with no top-25 players.”
- “I mean, I beat amazing players today,” Rahm said. “I don’t know if I can add any more to what I said [earlier in the week about the OWGR]. Maybe I was too far back, I don’t know. I’ve gone second, first, fourth, first … and I have not changed my world ranking. I don’t know if that explains what I meant the other day but it should. I feel like it gets to a point where your play should start to be rewarded. … I understand why they did the changes they made where it would be a perfect system and every single field is 150 – I’ll say one more time, we don’t get the same points for our win here, it’s a bit of a joke.”
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4. Tom Watson has shoulder replacement surgery following go-kart accident
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…“World Golf Hall of Fame member Tom Watson will be sidelined for the foreseeable future, wiping out his planned appearance next month in the PNC Championship with son Michael and putting in jeopardy his role as one the first tee starters at the Masters in April.”
- “The 73-year-old Watson was involved in an accident Monday while riding a go-kart on his Kansas farm. The vehicle rolled over and required left shoulder replacement surgery, which was conducted Friday at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans.”
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5. Leishman accepts Masters days may be over
Mike Hall for Golf Monthly…“Marc Leishman has admitted that his days playing in The Masters could be behind him, but says he accepts it.”
- “Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age(opens in new tab), Leishman explained that though he would like to compete in the tournament, he can accept the prospect of sitting it out. He said: “That was one of the things I had to weigh up when I did make the move. I’ve played at pretty much all the Majors for the last 12 or 13 years. I’ve had my chances. Obviously, I want to play them, but I’m fine not playing them.”
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6. More on the dinner disaster
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7. Bale getting around a golf ban
Adam Woodard for Golfweek…”That doesn’t mean Bale’s golf swing is getting stale in the gulf. A golf simulator has reportedly been installed at the team’s luxury hotel.”
- “We’ve just been in the swimming pool, playing table tennis, pool and golf,” said Bale’s teammate Mark Harris. “Team spirit is great anyway but games like that help you. Gareth’s very good at the golf. I think most of us have had a swing and we had a go after training as we had some spare time.”
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8. Svensson’s self reflection
Kevin Prise for PGATour.com…”Adam Svensson lost his PGA TOUR card after the 2019 season, largely tied to struggles on the greens. It might have been the best thing for his career.”
- “Svensson didn’t expect to finish 167th on the 2019 FedExCup, nor did those around him. Longtime mentor and Golf Canada national team coach Derek Ingram described Svensson as “Canada’s Rory McIlroy possibility” as a junior player. Svensson won nine times in 14 collegiate starts at Division II Barry University and has long been regarded as one of the game’s premier ball-strikers.”
- “What was holding him back? Svensson earned his first TOUR card on talent alone. In order to return and deliver on his potential, he needed to dig it out of the proverbial dirt.
- “I’d like to give you a lot sexier of an answer,” said Ingram, “but I think it’s just a complete, utter commitment to seeing how good he could get.”
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9. Meanwhile, in the PGA Tour Champions equipment world
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Our Andrew Tursky…”Bernhard Langer doesn’t use iron “sets,” per se, because he mostly crafts his bag setup by selecting individual clubs that are tasked with specific jobs and yardages to hit. As such, most of his irons are custom built exactly to his preferences. He uses Adams Idea Pro hybrids, Tour Edge Exotics CBX Forged long irons, Artisan Golf 8-9 irons, and a custom Tour Edge Exotics BL Proto pitching wedge. It’s seriously fascinating to analyze his clubs.” |
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