Golfing News & Blog Articles

Adam Schupak caught up with Adam Scott following his COVID-19 positive test and symptoms. The Australian was scheduled to play the ZOZO Championship as a key Masters tuneup but tested positive and road out a brief fever at a hotel and then rental house.

The Genesis Invitational winner earlier this year—seemingly a decade ago—is now entered at this week’s Vivant Houston Open Benefitting the Cheating Astros Foundation and admits to a pre-Masters preparation setback.

“Not only not getting Zozo in, not getting any practice in for those 10 days either is a little setback, but I’ve actually come out swinging good this week and at least feel fresh,” he said. “Hopefully that works in my favor…What I had planned in preparation was to kind of peak at the Masters and Houston’s a big part of that. It’s even more important since I tested positive and had to kind of not play in Zozo and not really get practice in and make sure I got healthy again. So, this is an important week for me. There’s a lot to take out of it.”

This was an interesting and typically thoughtful admission from one of the game’s more cerebral players:

“It just becomes harder for guys getting well into their 40s to be consistently competitive. It just takes a bit more. They’ve got to find their right weeks and take advantage of that,” Scott said. “Hopefully there’s room for a couple of older folk to hang in there like me for those next five or 10 years.”

Tod Leonard reports on World No. 1 Dustin Johnson returning to the PGA Tour after a positive COVID-19 test and brief bout with the coronavirus.

A Masters favorite, Johnson will prep at this week’s Houston Open and remain pleased about one thing and one thing only.

“The first day I didn’t hit balls for very long because I got kind of tired,” he said. “Then kind of practiced a little bit more each day. My health is good. The state of my game is undetermined.”

While Johnson said he isn’t sure how he got coronavirus—everyone around him, including his fiancee Paulina Gretzky and two kids, River and Tatum, tested negative, he said—there is at least one positive he is happy about.

“The only good thing that came out of this,” Johnson said, “is I know I'm playing next week at the Masters.”

Evan Priest talks to looping legend Steve Williams about his favorite Masters memories for Golf.com. Eventually the topic returned to his old boss, the defending champion Tiger Woods—and how he might handle next week’s fall Masters.

I do wonder if Tiger’s lackluster showings in the COVID-19 era are impacted by an intangible we cannot ever measure…

Williams himself has reservations about Woods at a November Masters. Cooler temps will make the course play longer, and they won’t be ideal for Tiger’s iffy back. More concerning is that Woods will be in unchartered territory at a gallery-less Augusta. He uses every fiber of the Masters experience — including the tournament’s unrivaled stresses — to his advantage. Without the thousands of patrons and their piercing, adrenaline-pumping and equally nerve-rattling roars, will players feel the pressure?

“It could be really difficult to get the competitive juices flowing,” Williams admits. “When you turn up to a major, they have a different feel from regular PGA Tour events; there is a buzz and an excitement about them. With that element missing, for someone like Tiger who hasn’t played a lot of tournament golf this year, it’ll be hard to get that spark you need. But Tiger is going to give it 110 percent.”

One of the stranger recent Traditions Unlike Any Other: Masters amateurs doing an obligatory night in the Crow’s Nest around Monday’s Amateur Dinner, then moving to a rental house with their “team” (because you know, amateurs need to be with their agents).

With COVID-19 making the sharing of a living space possibly problematic—it’d still be nice to hear that one amateur stayed all week in what most normal human being-Americans would call one-off lodging opportunity-of-a-lifetime: the Crow’s Nest during Masters week.

Well, the rest of us can dream next week to the club providing a little bit of access to golf’s ultimate lodging spot:

Have you ever noticed how your friends can hit amazing clean shots and then they fall apart on the next shot? Could it be a change in their psyche or a physical change in their body? I’m convinced that I have a combination of both problems and you may have the same.

I really started thinking about this when I saw an article about the ups and downs in Brooks Koepka’s game. He ended 2018 as the number 1 player in golf but a knee injury and a stem cell operation to repair his knee have really made it difficult for him to return to his winning form. As it turned out the repair of his knee caused him to lose his rhythm.

Fortunately he spent some training time with Claude Harmon III and discovered that his weight shift at impact was not moving to his left side. During his peak performance his weight shift was 70% on his left side at the point of impact. He learned that he was not swinging well because he had lost his rhythm and his point of impact was with 70% of his weight still on his trailing side.

Golf Tips Magazine came up with the idea to think 1,2,3 as you step forward into your swing. It’s a minimized “Caddyshack” swing.

Brooks had to retrain his swing because his knee recovery made a huge impact on his swing. ARE YOU RUSHING YOUR SWING?

If you are favoring an injury or you are frustrated with your results, your psyche may be out of whack. Your brain may be rushing your transition so that you never start your weight transfer at the top of your swing. DISAPPOINTMENT and ANGER may be limiting your golf results.

Dustin Johnson is back after missing two tournaments due to testing positive for COVID-19.

STITCH Golf, is known for designing handcrafted premium golf bags, headcovers and apparel. Stitch is pleased to launch the limited edition Welcome to Georgia Collection in honor of the year’s last Major.

Take A Peak

The post Stitch Golf – Welcome to Georgia Collection appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

It's one week before the Masters, and the PGA Tour heads to Texas for the Vivint Houston Open. Our experts offer their best bets.

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 Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash. 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.

Let’s start with an admission: the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash is perhaps an odd choice for our ninth Ball Lab. I’d wager some of you have never heard of the ball. That’s not particularly surprising given that Titleist says it’s for less than 10 percent of the market and, because of that, Titleist doesn’t’ say much about the ball.

And, sure, in situations like these it’s reasonable to defer to the manufacturer’s assessment but given how Left Dash’s performance characteristics align with what golfers want (more distance throughout the bag with enough spin for most around the green), I’d suggest the company is somewhat stubbornly missing the plot.

It’s also reasonable to wonder if part of Titleist’s positioning is about not infringing on sales of the mainline Pro V1 lineup.

The Ladies European Tour postponed two tournaments on Tuesday which were due to be held in Australia in February, 2021 due to the ongoing travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Golf.com’s Alan Bastable was able to access the first-ever Masters patron-only shop. He reviews some new and surprising items, and also explains the setup:

How long the inventory will last is anyone’s guess. God willing, we’re unlikely to see another November Masters anytime soon, which means this year’s gear will have a special one-off cachet for collectors. The tournament has leaned into the timing with fall-themed course prints and holiday decorations, including tree ornaments and a Santa garden gnome.

Buyers are limited to two check-outs, but given the ease of online shopping (and the fact that fans won’t have to lug their merchandise home with them from the course), it’s not hard to imagine Masters-happy customers’ buying more than they would have if they’d been shopping in the brick-and-mortar shop at the tournament.

Which, makes the future of this approach something plenty will watch.

But back to those surprising items. The most bizarre of all has to be the Masters food spread.

Even with a Masters invitation (somehow) on the line and of course, the all important FedExCup points, Brian Gay’s Bermuda Championship win still had fewer Golf Channel viewers than the Timbertech Championship.

That event featured Darren Clarke holding of Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer for his first PGA Tour Champions win.

Saturday’s third round of the Timbertech “won” the weekend and averaged 43,000 in the coveted none-Villages demo.

The Bermuda Championship’s Thursday and Friday telecasts draw enough of an audience to crack the top 150 cable shows.

ShowBuzzDaily with all the numbers.

Harry Higgs has withdrawn from this week's Vivint Houston Open after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Looking to add distance, Phil Mickelson is planning to use a driver with a 47.5-inch shaft at the Masters.

The post 3 New Vessel Bag Options For 2021 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

30 Year Olds versus 60 Year Olds. What’s Changed in Your Game?

Key Takeaways

Golfers, on average, lose 30 yards of driver distance from age 30 to age 60.Older golfers have a better putts-per-round average than younger golfers.

Improved Performance Through Data

Big data is a powerful tool. Not only does it allow golfers to assess individual parts of their game but it provides an opportunity to examine performance from a variety of perspectives.

Golf stat tracking and performance management companies like Shot Scope help golfers better understand their on-course performance. However, by aggregating data from golfers around the world, we get a more complete picture of the realities of amateur performance.

So, as we delve into a relatively straightforward topic, think about where you find the most difficulty on the course. Does age matter when it comes to handicap?

Driving Performance Average Distance By Age

Observations

You lose nearly 30 yards of driving distance if you’re in your 60s compared to when you were in your 30s.Handicaps from age 30 to age 60 are nearly identical despite an ever-increasing distance gap.

While there is close to a 30-yard gap in driving distance, that difference doesn’t always equate to a lower handicap. The phrase “drive for show and putt for dough” may still have some merit at the amateur level.

Number of Putts Per Round by Age

Observations

Ages 19 and under have the same number of putts per round compared to golfers who are 70-plus, give or take .1 of a shot.The highest number of putts per round is from golfers in their 20s with 35.3 putts per round on average.The lowest average number of putts per round comes from golfers in their 50s with 27.9.

The youngest and oldest golfers in this data set have the same putts-per-round average. It is yet to be determined why the lowest putts-per-round average comes from golfers in their 50s but it could equate to them missing the green in regulation a lot and then chipping the ball close to the hole. It could also be the opposite, whereby they hit the green in regulation more than any other age.

One key to pro golf’s athleticism canard: this marketing narrative serves as a distraction from the real reasons the distance discussion never goes away. With more and more golfers hurt when their masculinity is damaged when it’s revealed their “athleticism” is only as good as the driver they are fitted with, the debate gets sidetracked. Then we easily forget that it’s the lost strategy of this great game fueling the the rollback question.

As Mike Clayton lays out for all schools of thought, strategy should still be the soul of the game and enough people miss it.

A key question for professional golf (a version of the game increasingly separated from the version played by the masses) is, “is brilliant, interesting design and the age-old concept of what constitutes strategy compatible with, and capable of, testing the best players in the game?”

“Increasingly not” is my not unreasonable conclusion.

I also enjoyed this as Clayton and friends do not downplay Bryson DeChambeau’s accomplishment at Winged Foot, but instead use it as fuel for the discussion.

With a 2020 title in the pocket and the injection of real muni golf onto the PGA Tour schedule, I will set aside my feelings about the cheating Astros*. And this week’s host, their cheating, thoroughly remorse-free owner, Jim Crane (along with various dishonest players).

While I’ll never quite fully grasp why this murky crew pushed one of America’s elite golf associations aside to take over a storied Tour event, we at least have Tour players prepping for the one-off Fall Masters on a low priced public course. This is a long overdue victory for the Houston Open and validation for the Bethpage effect we hoped had taken a stronger hold by now.

Josh Sens gives the revitalized Memorial Park a positive review and explains how the Tom Doak-Brooks Koepka effort does not try to protect par for this week’s Vivint Houston Open.

The work that made Memorial Park Tour-worthy once more — bringing the Houston Open back from the suburbs, where it was held for decades, to within the city limits — began in earnest in late 2018.

The first phase alone cost $18.5 million, but the money didn’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets. It was furnished by the Houston Astros Foundation (a non-profit founded by Jim Crane, the owner of the baseball team), which, in consultation with the city, tapped the noted architect Tom Doak to renovate the course.

I’m not sure there is much news here beyond the obvious: top players endorsing sports better. Even then, not exactly groundbreaking at this point. More intriguing will be what happens if any of these players grows uncomfortable with bettors feasting on a negative portrayal of their game by an official, PGA Tour-sanctioned site.

For Immediate Release:

DraftKings to Make Debut at 2020 Masters with Bryson DeChambeau in Exclusive Multi-Year Deal

Collaboration with the World’s Sixth-Ranked Golfer Underscores Significance of Golf Within the Gaming Industry

BOSTON—November 2, 2020—Today, DraftKings announced an exclusive, multi-year relationship with Bryson DeChambeau, who will become the first active professional golfer to represent the digital sports entertainment and gaming company via an integrated brand, content, marketing, and VIP centric collaboration that will feature Bryson DeChambeau as the face of DraftKings golf.

November 2, 2020

Watching the Growth of a Champion

The first time Patrick Parrish, a Monterey Peninsula PGA coach at the Club at Pasadera saw 13-year-old Bryson DeChambeau, he knew there was something special in him. In 2007, Parrish scouted for junior players all over Northern California to fill his NCGA Jr. All Star Team. DeChambeau was one of the junior players Parrish handpicked for the team. The team went on to win multiple tournaments including both 2007 and 2008 Pacific Southwest Cup and the 2008 Canadian Friendship Cup.

Parrish grew up learning under the tutelage of the legendary Ben Doyle who taught the book“The Golfing Machine”. While staying with Parrish, DeChambeau would bombard him with questions about the book and other physics questions. DeChambeau had an extremely inquiring mind at a very early age. It was the beginning of the incredible journey. Parrish tells his story here: 

 

I first met Bryson in the summer of 2007 when I recruited him to be part of my NCGA Junior All-Star Team. He was a skinny 13- year-old with clean good looks that teenage girls giggle over. I had known his father, Jon, through Northern California golf where he had excelled as a player in his own right.