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Despite ‘slow player’ tag, Patrick Cantlay offers his solution to pace of play on Tour

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This week, Tiger Woods’ longtime caddie, Joe LaCava, made a permanent switch to the bag of PGA Tour star Patrick Cantlay. LaCava, who’s been fiercely loyal to the 15-time major champion, received Tiger’s blessing to move on.

The move speaks to how Woods may view his future in golf, but it also shines a light on Cantlay as well. The 31-year-old has become one of the best players in the world but has yet to truly be a factor in major championships. He believes the experienced LaCava will provide a “steady hand on the steering wheel.” He spoke about the change in his pre-tournament press conference at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.

“He’s just a steady hand on the steering wheel. I know he’s been in every moment a caddie could be in and he’s just a good guy. So, I’ve enjoyed the limited time that I’ve spent with him and feel confident that we’ll be a good team out there,” said Cantlay. “When I reached out to Joe, he said it was possible and ended up working out and I’m really happy about it.”

Cantlay had worked with his previous caddie, Matt Minister, since 2011. Minister was on Cantlay’s bag for his ascension toward the top of the world rankings and his FedEx Cup Championship in 2021.

“Yeah, we accomplished a lot together and I’m really proud of all we accomplished,” said Cantlay. “He’s a great friend of mine and we had a lot of good finishes together and a lot of wins. So, I’m incredibly grateful to him, just needed a change.”

Cantlay also spoke about the pace of play backlash he’s received since his weekend at the Masters made him the apparent poster child for slow play on the PGA Tour, while offering a solution:

“If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour.

“When you get really tricky days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it’s going to take a longer time to play.”

“But like I’ve said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don’t think they’re going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds, you know, go a lot faster.”

For what it’s worth, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that Cantlay and his teammate Xander Schauffele finished 24 minutes ahead of schedule at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

“He said no one was complaining that they finished too early.”

Cantlay also touched on the proposed “golf ball rollback.”

“I don’t think that it would help the game. I think bifurcation’s really bad for the game,” he explained. “I think one of the best things about our game is that all the people that play at my home club can play the exact same equipment that I do and that’s different than pretty much any other sport.”

“I imagine that the best players are still going to be the best players. If anything, it probably gives more advantage to the guys that hit it far,” said Cantlay. “If they dialed it back how they’re talking about, there’s a lot of guys that would no longer get to a number of par 5s out here, but the guys that can get to those par 5s are still — the guys that get there now with long irons are going to be able to get there with 5-woods or 3-woods. So, I think if anything, if they roll it back, the guys that hit it far will get an increased advantage.”

The fourth-ranked player in the world will tee it up Thursday for this week’s “designated” Wells Fargo Championship with LaCava on the bag.

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Butch Harmon reveals what he worked on with Rory McIlroy during visit earlier this year

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While speaking on the “Son of a Butch” Podcast, legendary swing coach Butch Harmon revealed what he worked on with Rory McIlroy when the four-time major champion went to visit him after the Players Championship this season.

“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make more 3 quarter swings and chop the follow through off a little. He’s a very high ball hitter, but with short irons high balls aren’t good, it’s hard to control, we wanted to bring the ball flight down.”

The work certainly seemed to help McIlroy, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in back-to-back starts.

Rory will now tee it up at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, which is the site of his most recent major victory in 2014.

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Brandel Chamblee says this technological development was key to Phil Mickelson winning major championships

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While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee shared that he believes the solid core golf ball helped Phil Mickelson win major championships.

“One of the consequences of the solid core golf ball coming around was it put the straightest of hitters in the rough.

“Phil started winning majors in 2004, I don’t think that’s any coincidence. I think he started winning majors after the solid core golf ball came along and put everybody in the rough.

“And so [Phil] is like ‘I got you in the rough, I’m going to kick your a**. This is my game. I’ve been in the rough my whole career. I can go over trees, through trees, around trees.’

“Because he’s got that amazing creativity and Phil is an underrated iron player, phenomenal iron player. Great, great great out of the trouble. If you put the top-40 players on a list and ranked them in terms of accuracy, he would be 40th.

“So, I think that was one of the consequences of the solid core golf balls was it allowed Phil to win major championships.”

Mickelson went on to win the Masters in 2004 as well as five additional majors from 2004-2021 including three total Masters, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship.

Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:

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Former Augusta National employee pleads guilty to transporting stolen Masters memorabilia; Arnold Palmer’s green jacket among stolen items

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According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, a man was charged in Chicago with stealing millions of dollars’ worth of memorabilia from Augusta National last month.

The man, Robert Globensky, was charged with transporting the memorabilia across state lines.

The report states that between 2009 and 2022, Globensky allegedly transported “millions of dollars’ worth of Masters golf tournament merchandise and historical memorabilia” from Augusta National “and transported to Tampa, Florida, knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud.”

The document was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Since then, more details have emerged about the case.

According to Darren Rovell of Cllct, one of the items that was stolen was Arnold Palmer’s green jacket.

The Chicago Tribune also reported that Globensky was able to steal the merchandise due to his role as a former warehouse coordinator at Augusta National who oversaw the Masters merchandise that was sold.

Rovell states that “A source with intimate knowledge of the case said an Augusta National member, who knew the jacket was missing, contacted a well-known collector who had gained a reputation for tracking down rare items. The member’s goal was to return the jacket to Augusta under the guise of purchasing it in a private sale.”

The plan worked, and the man agreed to sell the jacket for an agreed upon price of $3.6 million. After the sale was complete, the FBI swarmed the house of the thief.

Cllct also reported that Globensky pled guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Wednesday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Chicago Tribune adds that Globensky’s plea deal includes an agreement to provide the government a cashier’s check for $1.5 million in the next few days.

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