Poland's Adrian Meronk will go into the final round of the European Tour's Alfred Dunhill Championship with a slender one-shot lead.

Follow along as Charles Barkley and Phil Mickelson go up against Steph Curry and Peyton Manning in a charity golf match.

We knew the sides were talking months ago. Then news on a mega-tour merger went silent as the focus turned to merely getting 2020 golf tournaments off the ground.

Then we got the Friday-after-Thanksgiving news.

Belaboring the cynical timing of Friday’s “landmark strategic alliance” announcement could grow tiresome, but it’s also hard to filter much of anything out of the detail-light European Tour-PGA Tour release without returning to the odd rush to share so little detail.

This much is apparent: Jay Monahan joins the European Tour Board of Directors and with it, he brings a check of an undetermined amount to own a stake in their impressive television production operation. Less apparent: how much of that is an investment in a media operation versus a quick way to help the European Tour’s finances?

In a call with UK writers, ET Chief Keith Pelley refuted the idea that this was about finances:

Poland's Adrian Meronk carded six birdies and an eagle in a scintillating round of 66 to take a three-shot lead after day two of the European Tour's Alfred Dunhill Championship on Friday.

The PGA Tour has acquired a minority stake in the European Tour's media production company as part of an alliance that could be the start of a global golf schedule.

The Best Black Friday Golf Deals 2020

Just like everything else in 2020, Black Friday has adapted. Even though most sales are taking place online, it doesn’t mean you can’t score a killer deal. We’ve compiled the best Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals from across the web with your golf needs in mind. It’s a great time to buy holiday gifts for the family, stock up on golf balls, or upgrade your closet. We’ve divided the deals by category for your convenience.

Golf Clubs:

Taylormade: 20% off MyProducts

MyProducts allows you to personalize color, sightline, weights, and more.

MyMG2 WedgeMyHi-Toe WedgeMySpider X PutterMySpider Tour Putter

Callaway Golf Preowned: 30-50% off used clubs 

At Callaway Golf Preowned you can find pretty much every used Callaway product available at a discount.

Poland's Adrian Meronk and Frenchman Robin Roussel hit seven under par 65s to share the lead by one stroke after the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Country Club on Thursday.

The limited-run PING PLD Prime Tyne 4 is the first PLD putter PING has released since 2018.The PLD Prime Tyne 4 is a compact version of the Sigma 2 Tyne 4.The production run of the PLD Prime Tyne 4 is very limited.

With stealthy panache, PING recently released the limited-edition PLD Prime Tyne 4 putter, a cloaked-in-shadows version of their Tyne 4 putter.

Everything about this putter is shrouded in mystery. So much so that you can’t even find it on PING’s own website. The PLD Prime Tyne 4 putter launch may be the most covert release I have observed in my tenure as a putter collector.

Now that you know it exists, you probably have some questions about the Prime Tyne 4. What does PLD stand for? How does it compare to a normal Tyne 4? Where can I get one? Don’t worry. I’ve got the answers you need to bring this dark beauty into the light.

PING PLD: Putting Lab Design

PLD stands for Putting Lab Design. PLD putter lines are characterized by limited production runs and unique design ideas the PING engineers are experimenting with. The first time PING released a putter under the PLD moniker was back in 2017. The PLD1 program allowed golfers to design a custom Anser 2 using an online interface. That program was available for a very short time and has yet to be repeated. Again, PLD putters are essentially prototypes that release to the public.

It's a new, made-for-television golf match featuring some big names, with Steph Curry, Peyton Manning and Phil Mickelson. But all eyes will be on one man: Charles Barkley.

The Saudi International in its third year is shaping up as one of the strongest fields on the European Tour with commitments from Masters champion Dustin Johnson, U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and a curious one from Paul Casey.

Yocha Dehe GC
November 13, 2020

Results

 

The second annual NCGA Senior Series Championship took place Friday at Yocha Dehe GC and crowned two Players of the Year for the Senior and Super Senior divisions.

 

How are event organizers able to pull off LPGA Tour stops and MMA fights during the pandemic? It's an incredibly complex dance.

 

 

There’s a new golf book recently out and it has received great acclaim. “One for the Memory Banks” by Luke Reese explores the people, the courses, and the stories of the game we love from across the pond. Read our interview with the author and buy the book for yourself or as a gift! NCGA Travel Insiders receive $10 off the cover price.

To purchase, use code ‘NCGA’ at www.thememorybanks.com for $10 off the cover price. Enjoy!

 

I write these blogs based on interesting golf insights that may affect your game as well as mine. This week I watched a training clip by Quintin on Top Speed Golf that reminded me of a match that I played where all of my iron shots were in perfect control for direction and distance. Why did this happen? I took a divot after impact with the ball on most of my shots.

Like most recreational golfers, I typically make a perfect practice swing for my iron, pitch or chip shots. Then I proceed to put a little more oomph and power into my actual shot before my hips start to rotate. Yes, I rush my shot from the top of my swing without giving enough time for my weight transfer to my leading foot. I often that I rush my swing with my arms while my weight is still on my tailing foot.

I found this image in Golf Digest with a perfect position in the transition. Unfortunately many of us execute the downswing without transferring weigh to our leading foot.

The lesson that I watched focused on “Why we Chunk Chips“. It’s also the same reason why we mishit our iron shots.
1/ It’s easy to make a practice swing for a Chip Shot. You don’t need a lot of power so we easily swing to bottom out our swing exactly where the ball is resting or beyond that location.
2/ Then we move up our ball, take a look at our target and start to think about the last chucked chip shot that we made. The body tightens and we turn into a robot.
3/ In our backswing, we limit our hip and spine rotation as we tend to shift the trunk of our body about 2 or 3 inches sideways to create a little more power with a slightly faster backswing and downswing.
4/ Unfortunately we never recover from the side-sway in our backswing. We then bottom out the swing 3 inches before the ball or we blade it like a bullet across the green.

Solution: DON’T SHIFT YOUR BODY SIDEWAYS IN YOUR BACKSWING.
–Keep your head directly over your ball as your shoulders and hips ROTATE [Not Shift].

Your leading knee doesn’t straighten, it turns with your body rotation and points more to your trailing knee.
Stand up right now in a golfer’s stance and cross your arms over your chest and rotate (or coil) WITHOUT SHIFTING SIDEWAYS.
Do this about 20 times and then complete the same rotation while swinging your wedge. Your club face will ground-out at or just after the ball. No more chunking.

Now practice the same swing with all of your irons using your GOLFSTR+ AND A STRAIGHT LEADING ARM. Make sure that you take a slight divot after your ball. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

MyGolfSpy Ball Lab is where we quantify the quality and consistency of the golf balls on the market to help you find the best ball for your money. Today, we’re taking a look at the Wilson DUO Soft+. An overview of the equipment we use can be found here. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls and our True Price metric, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

It’s reasonable to suggest that Wilson’s DUO line represents the original modern take on the ultra-soft golf ball. Sure, Wilson made soft golf balls before DUO but DUO ultimately defined the standard for the category.

Several years after the original DUO, (super) soft challengers abound but DUO is still the ball many golfers associate with the ultimate in soft feel. It remains immensely popular among preference-driven golfers, which is exactly why we’ve put it to the test inside the MyGolfSpy Ball Lab.

About the Wilson DUO Soft+

The Wilson DUO Soft+ is an inexpensive two-piece golf ball with an ionomer cover. Current retail price is just $19.99 a dozen.

Thanks to reader T for The Economist’s look at launch angle golf as carried out by Bryson DeChambeau to impressive effect.

There is this explanation of how he’s defying trends by launching.

The model’s lessons are intuitive. To thump the ball as far as possible, maximise clubhead speed and launch angle while minimising spin (which causes the ball to soar higher, rather than racing forward). However, most players face a trade-off between these goals, explains Paul Wood of Ping, a club manufacturer. Harder impacts usually mean flatter trajectories. Although the average male player swings faster and produces less spin than in 2007, launch angles have declined since then.

One golfer, however, has escaped this constraint. Bryson DeChambeau, a physics graduate with oddly designed clubs and a voracious appetite for data, is nicknamed the “Mad Scientist”. While the PGA Tour was suspended because of covid-19, he added 18kg (40lbs) of bulk. This has allowed him to swing faster than anyone else. But he has also managed to smash the ball with a high launch angle, rather than a low one—an unprecedented combination that might owe something to his unusually stiff wrists and robotic technique.

Putting Shotlink data to good use, The Economist put together a stunning chart showing DeChambeau’s outlier (for now) status in the launch/speed world:

Cookie Jar Golf did a fine job highlighting the charm of endangered Cleeve Hill and they’ve posted another important short film on Brora Golf Club. Earlier in this grand year you may recall there were concerns about Brora’s future and the positive response to helping one of the world’s oldest and most important courses survive.

It’s all covered in this enjoyable four minutes:

Despite a very solid field and compelling finish, Golf Channel’s four-round broadcast of the 2020 RSM Classic failed to garner more than a few cataract-free eyeballs.

ShowBuzzDaily with the gruesome ratings showing an average of 346,000 watched the final round, with only 31,000 of those not Villages-eligible.

The post-fall Masters slot and wealth of viewing options made this a no-win situation even with all of the long-bombing athletes today.

 

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