The official qualifying tour of the LPGA will now be named the Epson Tour, after a five-year agreement between the LPGA Tour and Epson America, Inc. was announced on Wednesday.
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There are tough jobs and then there is the task of dressing up this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, deserted by a number of stars and former champions given waivers to pursue PIFSIPSIA riches.
Certainly it’s not all bad, with great adds to the Pro-Am field in Mia Hamm and Mookie Betts. Otherwise, I’m not sure Der Bingle would know what to do with this…
MONTEREY, Calif., Jan. 25, 2022 – The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is poised to welcome back its unique vibe at this year’s tournament as spectators return to line the courses to watch the world’s top players join with celebrities, several making their debuts, in the popular pro-am format. The four-day tournament tees off Thursday, Feb. 3 with play on Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore course.
United States Ryder Cup teammates Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger, set to defend his AT&T title from a year ago, headline the professional field. Cantlay and Spieth finished tied for third place behind Berger who dramatically eagled the 72nd hole on Sunday to punctuate his victory. Other top professionals appearing are Matt Fitzpatrick, Kevin Kisner, Justin Rose and Maverick McNealy, the Stanford graduate who was runner-up to Berger in 2021.
Celebrities making their tournament debut include:
Patrick Reed says his win at Torrey Pines last January should be remembered as a victory -- and not for the controversy that came when he declared an embedded ball despite replays showing it bouncing into the rough.
After a fan's phone recorded Jon Rahm venting about the course last week at The American Express -- a clip that went viral -- the world's No. 1 player said Tuesday "I was just thinking out loud and letting some frustration out because that's what I felt."
I forgot where it happened but in the middle of a round which I was regarding with the usual distaste, a small voice within me said, you know, you don’t have to do this and I thought, No, by God, I don’t. A great wave of relief came over me and on D-Day 1968, I put the clubs up in the loft with the water tanks, closed the hatch, removed the steps and walked away. Nor have I for one second regretted it.
HENRY LONGHURST
Annika Sorenstam, who came out of retirement to earn a spot in the 2022 U.S. Women's Open after winning the U.S. Senior Women's Open last year, said there's a "big possibility" that she will compete but "not be so competitive."
The PGA Tour heads to Torrey Pines on Wednesday this week for the Farmers Insurance Open. Here are our best bets for the event.
Cleveland Black Satin RTX Full-Face Wedges – Key Takeaways
New black satin PVD finish for Cleveland’s full-face RTX wedges$159.99 in steelAvailable starting todayThe story of the new Cleveland Black Satin RTX full-face wedges is right there in the headline. Read it carefully because there will be a quiz later.
Ready? Here we go.
It’s a new finish option for Cleveland’s RTX ZipCore full-face wedges. That finish is black satin. It’s on the wedge. The ZipCores. With the full-face grooves.
OK, OK. There’s a little more to tell but you’ve got the gist of it. If you want to skip to the bottom, it won’t hurt my feelings.
Cleveland Black Satin RTX Full-Face Wedges: Why Now?
All kidding aside, the RTX ZipCore family is likely in the final six to nine months of its life’s journey. Cleveland introduced ZipCore in July of 2020. And its two-year cadence says we should be seeing new models this summer.
I forgot where it happened but in the middle of a round which I was regarding with the usual distaste, a small voice within me said, you know, you don’t have to do this and I thought, No, by God, I don’t. A great wave of relief came over me and on D-Day 1968, I put the clubs up in the loft with the water tanks, closed the hatch, removed the steps and walked away. Nor have I for one second regretted it.
HENRY LONGHURST
Bridgestone has announced new versions of its TOUR B Series golf balls.Each of the four models features a unique application of Bridgestone’s REACTIV IQ technology.Retail price is $49.99. Available Feb. 18.
With the 2022 TOUR B line, Bridgestone introduced us to the concepts of contact science and impact modifiers. The quick version of the story is that by adding different materials to its urethane cover formulation, the Bridgestone TOUR B golf balls would react differently when struck with a driver than they would during lower-speed wedge shots. According to Bridgestone, impact modifiers made the cover of TOUR B golf balls play firmer and faster off the driver for more distance and softer off wedges, creating more spin.
It was a classic “best of both worlds” situation.
The foray into contact science continued with the e12 Contact golf ball. More specifically, the Contact Force Dimple pattern which provides 38 percent more contact area at impact. Bridgestone says that gets you greater energy transfer off the driver and more friction (more spin) off wedges. It also looks kind of cool.
It was a similar story to the TOUR B impact modifiers, with a little bit different way of getting there.
COBRA’s AIR-X family includes metalwoods, hybrids and irons.Target market: golfers with low to moderate swing speedsContinuing innovation by focusing on weight savings and forgivenessAvailable as individual clubs or sets
INTRODUCING AIR-X
Last week, COBRA’s flagship LTDx lineup took center stage. Today, their other franchise makes an appearance: COBRA AIR-X.
For me, the beginning of the year is an extension of Christmas. Products are pouring into our facility for Most Wanted testing. Some are kept tight-lipped. Others, well, the whole world knows about. In January, it feels like not a single day goes by without a new product announcement.
Today is no different.
AIR-X follows F-Max, one of COBRA’s signature franchises. Needless to say, big shoes to fill. However, with constant focus on innovation, COBRA believes with AIR-X, the sky is the limit – at least for golfers within the AIR-X demographic.
INNOVATION and DESIGN
While not as flashy as others, the AIR-X line deserves its share of attention in the lightweight golf club category. Through a concentrated effort to maximize weight savings, COBRA’s new design saves eight grams of weight in their men’s and women’s drivers and fairway woods. Additionally, COBRA is able to save two grams of weight in their new AIR-X Irons. By saving weight, COBRA achieves their goal to provide a lightweight golf club that offers forgiveness and potentially more speed.
The PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open shifts to a Wednesday-Saturday schedule this week. Here's how to watch on ESPN+.
Dustin Johnson is trying to find his game. Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy want to elevate theirs in 2022. How will each fare as a busy part of the year begins?
TaylorMade is overhauling their classic Spider putter design with the new Spider GT.
Such a design deviation is not a new thing for TaylorMade. We’ve seen their putter designers upset the Spider apple cart a couple of times in recent years. Take the Spider FCG and its forward center of gravity design as one example. Although the Spider FCG did deviate from the classic Spider weight plan, it maintained the overall Spider design. Add to that the Spider Mallet, the Spider Blade, the Daddy Long Legs, the Spider Mini and so on. Lots of variation on the design but the overall Spider plan remained mostly intact.
The new TaylorMade Spider GT putters kick that design standard to the curb.
The funny thing is that this radical design change is not a total surprise. Those of you paying close attention over the past few release cycles may have seen the change coming. The TaylorMade Spider S was an outlier when it launched in 2020 but now can be viewed retroactively as a harbinger of the Spider GT design.
What has changed?
I forgot where it happened but in the middle of a round which I was regarding with the usual distaste, a small voice within me said, you know, you don’t have to do this and I thought, No, by God, I don’t. A great wave of relief came over me and on D-Day 1968, I put the clubs up in the loft with the water tanks, closed the hatch, removed the steps and walked away. Nor have I for one second regretted it.
HENRY LONGHURST
The World Golf Foundation’s lobbying and educating efforts have a new name: American Golf Industry Coalition.
Clean. Tough. No grey area! We don’t need no stinking badges!
Let’s face it, the seemingly neverending threats to the municipal sport always seem to forget golf’s economic impact and it appears the group highlighting the $84 billion economy, 2 million jobs and $4 billion charitable impact decided it was time to send politicians a more pointed message with its name.
Acronym-wise it’s not ideal but neither was We Are Golf. But highlighting that there is a real industry with jobs and livelihoods on the line seems shrewd.
OTTO: Bridgestone’s Autonomous Ball-Fitting Machine: Key Takeaways
OTTO is Bridgestone’s new ball-fitter on wheels.OTTO leverages 15 years of Bridgestone ball-fitting data and a proprietary algorithm.Walk-up use at a driving range or indoor facilityFree to useSay hello to OTTO, Bridgestone’s autonomous ball-fitting machine. He’s new, he’s unique, he needs no operator and is completely self-contained. Think of it as the R2D2 of ball fitting.
And may The Force be with you.
If nothing else, OTTO is unique. It’s a self-contained, operator-less machine that will watch you hit three driver shots. And then, according to Bridgestone, it’ll automatically process your swing data and fit you into a golf ball quickly, easily and with no human interaction whatsoever.
The tech that makes OTTO possible presents an interesting story and is the result of 15 years’ worth of Bridgestone ball-fitting data. Just how accurate it is, however, remains an open question. Let’s get down to some answers.
OTTO: The Autonomous Ball Fitting Machine
Bridgestone says OTTO can fit you into a Bridgestone golf ball after just three swings. And you won’t need a person there to watch you or even run the machine.
Titleist has announced the Vokey SM9 wedge lineup.The new models feature higher centers of gravity to deliver a flatter trajectory with increased spin.Retail price is $179.99. Available March 11
No matter where you are in the world … U.S. or Canada or Tokyo, Seoul … Vokey wedges are ubiquitous. One out of every two wedges on the PGA TOUR is a Vokey and 60 percent of Tour winners last season had at least one Vokey wedge in the bag. With the release of the Vokey SM9, you should expect more of the same.
Success, of course, isn’t without its challenges. Innovative opportunities within the wedge category aren’t nearly what they are in the driver space. Folks, this is not the era of the Carbonwedge. Advancement, improvement—whatever you want to call it—within the category is methodical by nature. For Vokey, that challenge is further complicated by a roster of Tour pros who would be more than happy with the status quo.
If nothing else, kudos to the entire Vokey team for continually pushing to improve a product for which simply not screwing it up would be plenty good enough.
With that said, let’s focus on what Titleist believes are three big-picture benefits of the Vokey SM9 line.
ShotScope H4, ProLX and ProLX+ – Key Takeaways
H4: ShotScope shot tracking for the non-watch wearerProLX+ combines H4 with an updated laser rangefinderH4: $149.99; ProLX+: $349.99; ProLX (rangefinder only): $249.99Available March 31The new-for-2022 ShotScope H4 and ProLX+ should be music to the ears of non-watch-wearing golfers everywhere.
Ever since appearing on the scene in 2017, ShotScope’s wrist-mounted devices have been the choice of stat-tracking golfers who didn’t want to lug their phones with them. But it had no answer for golfers who hate wearing watches.
Other than to say, “Here’s ARCCOS’s number.”
The new H4 unit and the unique combo that is the ProLX+ laser rangefinder aren’t groundbreaking technology. But for the Scotland-based ShotScope, both products represent creative ways to get into, or onto, more golfers’ bags.
