I’m not sure there is much to analyze in the dreadful golf ratings last weekend given the confluence of MLB playoffs, NBA finals, college football and NFL.
Showbuzzdaily.com has the 2020 Shriner’s and KPMG LPGA numbers, with golf easily the lowest on their list of weekly sports ratings.
Dustin Johnson becomes the highest-profile golfer to test positive for COVID-19 after reportedly asking for a follow-up test at the CJ Cup upon feeling virus symptoms.
The world No. 1’s WD from the event at Shadow Creek was announced by the PGA Tour.
From Joel Beall’s GolfDigest.com report:
“Obviously, I am very disappointed,” Johnson said in a statement. “I was really looking forward to competing this week, but will do everything I can to return as quickly as possible. I have already had a few calls with the TOUR’s medical team and appreciate all the support and guidance they have given me.”
Tony Finau, who tested positive for the virus had intimated he was hopeful of a return this week at Shadow Creek, but the world No. 17 withdrew from the event late Tuesday afternoon.
Content with his game, Bryson DeChambeau is taking a month off from tournament play leading into the Masters. DeChambeau said he will focus on increasing his swing speed, at least with the 48-inch driver he plans to use, to 200 mph.
Dustin Johnson becomes the 15th player on the PGA Tour to announce they tested positive for COVID-19.
While cargo shorts are no longer the scourge they once were in the eyes of stylistas, they are a staple of certain rallies where cut-off sleeve shirts and bald eagle-adorned golf shirts dominate.
I’ve never fully grasped the offense taken by golf clubs toward cargos. Maybe it’s the overall “working class” vibe that makes Thurston uncomfortable. Perhaps those extra pockets are just too convenient of a place to hide stolen silverware or, gasp, a mobile phone!
The offensiveness of hoodies also confounds as much as the perceived functional benefit of golfing in one. They are the millennial’s quarter-zip. If wearing one makes them more comfortable playing golf, then have at them. Or, apparently not.
After Tyrrell Hatton’s BMW PGA win in an Adidas hoodie, we have evidence of clubs taking a cargo-like stance against this sinister fashion trend. From The Club:
Sunday : One of the world's best golfers won a big tournament wearing a hoodie. Maybe golf will progress and trust people to dress themselves?
Tuesday : pic.twitter.com/5xpMX2qOtE
South African golfer Jbe Kruger has withdrawn from the field in this week's Scottish Championship on the European Tour after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Spain will stage the Solheim Cup for the first time in 2023 and it will be played at the Finca Cortesin course in Andalucia.
At the most basic level, Callaway’s objective for the new X Forged CB iron (and X Forged UT utility) was to bring a little bit of innovation to a category where we typically don’t find it. To do it without sacrificing consistency, control or feel … all the better, I suppose.
That’s not to say Callaway is alone in this endeavor. The case can easily be made that options like the Mizuno MP20 HMB and the TaylorMade P770 represent the same sort of irons.
Callaway puts the X Forged CB in the (better) player’s iron category and, by any reasonable measure, it’s a legitimate TOUR iron. It doesn’t get much better player’s than that but there’s enough technology to suggest the design straddles the player’s side of the player’s distance category.
You don’t usually associate Callaway with three-year product cycles, do you? Well, today’s updated Callaway Apex MB is an on-schedule third-year refresh of the previous Apex MB, introduced in October of 2017.
And that, friends, was an on-schedule third-year refresh of the original Callaway Apex MB, which debuted in August of 2014.
Does that make you happy? It should make you happy. But then again, the muscle back blade technology parade marches to its own very slow tune. Yeah, blades are blades, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing new to check out. Specifically, the updates to the new Callaway Apex MB are primarily aimed at simplifying Tour-level fitting.
So, even if you can’t stomach the Apex name on anything other than a Hogan, let’s take a peek under the hood.
To paraphrase the old proverb: blades maketh the OEM. That applies less to Callaway (and the rest of the Big Five, for that matter), but a nice set of sex-on-a-stick blades is an iron maker’s bona fides.
Apparently this whole athlete thing also entails weight, diet and equipment work leading into a major, not exactly a boost to the PGA Tour that loves the jock narrative and who pulled off a miraculous salvation of the lucrative CJ Cup and ZOZO Championships. Irony can be inconvenient.
From Steve DiMeglio’s post-Shriner’s wrap of U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau’s pre-November Masters plans.
“I’m going to be working out like crazy. The first week back home, I’m not really going to touch a club too much and going to be training pretty hard and getting myself up to hopefully around 245, something like that, in weight. Be the first time I’ve ever done that, so I’m going to be consuming a lot and see and working out a lot and see what we can do from there.”
Gotta be ready to go twelve rounds.
Now, as for the whole skill vs. equipment debate, DeChambeau eed up the governing bodies to take action. At least, in a world of governing bodies that like to govern. That’s because the other focus of DeChambeau’s preparation involves equipment testing.
This week's broadcast from the CJ Cup will feature live betting odds for the first time, the PGA Tour announced.
South Korea's Sei Young Kim won her first major at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship on Sunday, becoming the ninth first-time major winner from the last 10 majors. First-time champions are no surprise, but rather a signifier of talent on the LPGA.
Whether you are pro-betting or not, the prospect of live odds integration into telecasts should provide stellar entertainment. After all, announcers today are dancing around criticism of much of anything, so it should make for spectacular listening as they dance around the live odds.
“Rossi, did you see Collin Morikawa just move to 10-1 on that birdie? Mighty attractive price with just 31 holes to go and only six players in front of him, all imminently beatable, right?”
“Yes Jim, I’m opening up my BETMGM app as we speak to put down a hundon, AND jump on his head-to-head with Pat Reed who had a terribly long call with his wife on the range. That’s value you just can’t get at the dog track. At least, so I hear.”
Should be fun. And better than hearing about FedExCup projections.
For Immediate Release:
October 12, 2020
The post NCGA Mourns the Loss of Past President Gordon Scott appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.
With the alleged names of next years drivers in hand, we try to predict which one will be the #1 seller of 2021.
0:47 – The (alleged) names of 2021 drivers.4:57 – HOT SEAT: We predict the #1 selling driver in 20219:15 – What’s a SPIF, and are they bad for your game?14:52 – Salted Smart Soles: The coolest product this year?20:23 – If you could name your own driver, what would you call it?and all major podcast apps.
The post The Best-Selling Driver in 2021? | NPG 61 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.
Salted Smart Insoles are force plates that fit inside your golf shoes. If you’re unfamiliar with force plate technology, imagine a mat or platform loaded with sensors that, for golf purposes, measures how your weight shifts during a swing.
Force plates aren’t exclusive to golf. In fact, they have a variety of uses in health care and orthopedics. Force plates measure and map the ground-reaction forces during movement. Understanding your weight distribution and swing pattern can be an invaluable tool to help you gain yardage and improve your game.
In simple terms, during your swing, your body weight can shift from one foot to the other. These changes in weight can be measured in percentages and, when used in the right way, can teach you how to use the ground and transfer weight correctly.
Salted has taken force-plate technology and made it accessible to golfers as they play in game-time scenarios.
So much about this Masters will be different -- the course, the conditions, the lack of daylight, the absence of the roars. Oh, and it will have been 19 months since Tiger Woods walked off with the green jacket. The countdown is officially on.
Cobbs Creek may be the best public course in America just waiting to be restored. Now, after years of efforts by locals and financial contributors, this gem may once again recapture its unlimited potential.
Thanks to reader AF for Julie Coleman’s Philadelphia Inquirer story on Cobbs closing this fall to undergo a $20 million renovation of Hugh Wilson’s design.
The renovations, which will be funded by the nonprofit Cobbs Creek Restoration & Community Foundation, aim to replace the clubhouse, fix the floodplains, and create wetlands around the creek to prevent flooding, according to Chris Maguire, who chairs the foundation’s board of directors. The revamp will also add an educational program for young golfers.
But for Philadelphians who love the public course’s tight-knit community, affordability, and convenient location, the renovation is a double-edged sword.
“It is kind of a rarity to have a challenging public golf course like [Cobbs Creek] that is close enough to the city to be able to be used by people in Philadelphia,” said Paul Nowyj, who has been playing there for five years and made friends with many of the older players.
It can be scary to lean on Gary Player’s views as he’s been known to advocate for some unusual ideas, but while visiting the KPMG LPGA he offered this on the golf ball:
However, he added: “What perturbs me is the golf manufacturers, particularly the golf balls, they're reluctant to change. All golf balls go the same distance now. No one golf ball goes further than the other. I've tried them all. They're not allowed to go further.”
Farther, but we know what you meant. Go on…
“So if we cut the balls back further, 50 yards, it's not going to affect their sales. Whoever is No.1 now will be No.1 then because the reason you're No.1 is because of your advertising and your marketing. That's the only reason you spend more money and you have more players using it and endorsing it. That's the reason. Not because it's a better ball.
“So we must cut the ball back, and it will happen. As sure as I'm standing here, it will happen, otherwise they're going to make a mockery of these golf courses, and we cannot make them longer because we're running out of water.”
I’m not certain an across-the-board rollback can be sold on the public, but as Player notes, ball supremacy has mostly been nullified and the major differences are slight. So why dance around the perceived differences at the expense of the game? Oh, right, the governing bodies favor the needs of a few capitalists over the game. Silly me.
Tyrrell Hatton secured a signature European Tour career win at the 2020 BMW PGA Championship, as Ewan Murray reports for The Guardian.
But as Golf.com’s Nick Piastowski notes, Hatton did so sporting a hooded shirt, aka a “hoodie”, making this easily the most significant win for an article of clothing oddly attractive to the coveted demo (for now).
Tyrrell Hatton shot a 5-under 67 on Sunday to win the BMW PGA Championship, one of the premier events on the European Tour. WHILE HE WORE A HOODIE. Midway through the round, he dropped into a tie for the lead, then peeled off four birdies on the back nine to pull away. WHILE HE WORE A HOODIE. The victory came on a Wentworth Golf Club course that he visited as a kid. WHILE HE WORE A HOODIE.
Piastowski goes on to share the lively social media views on Hatton’s optional head covering.
Hatton lifted the “hood” for his trophy ceremony photos.
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