In its battle with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour is promising big events and bigger money. After Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's rallying cry, will top PGA players embrace the changes? That's the big task ahead for the Tour.

Newly crowned British Open champion Cameron Smith will make an emotional return home to Brisbane in November to contest the Australian PGA Championship.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are launching a tech-infused golf league in partnership with the PGA Tour that will have players competing on six three-man teams in 15 regular-season matches and a playoff starting in January 2024.

Top PGA Tour players have committed to play at least 20 events next season, with Rory McIlroy saying they want a "more compelling" product. Four events have been added to elevated status, meaning 12 tournaments will have purses of at least $15 million.

When comparing the best versus worst stand bag of 2022, we compared 43 products. 43?! Could 43 golf bags really be all that different?

You would be surprised.

The Vessel Player III DXR is the best overall stand bag in 2022. So which took the dubious title of the year’s worst? Read on!

Verdict

The Vessel Player III DXR is the best stand bag in 2022 with a rating of 93/100. This bag has all of the best pocket sizes and locations, it can work for walking or cart riding, has the best setup as far as dividers are concerned and even has a premium look and feel to complement all those features. The Vessel golf bags are more expensive than others on the market but, in this case, you certainly get what you pay for.

The worst stand bag in 2022 is the Jones Classic Stand Bag. At first glance, it’s obvious this bag does have the same detail or finish as the Vessel Player III DXR. When comparing the best versus worst stand bag, the only area in which the Jones Classic Stand Bag beat the Vessel was with the total weight. Every other aspect did not measure up, earning the Jones Classic a score of just 75/100.

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 2022 Callaway Chrome Soft X LS. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

About the Callaway Chrome Soft X LS

The Chrome Soft X LS is the newest member of the Callaway Chrome Soft family. The original launched in early 2021 and then was updated alongside the standard Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X LS earlier this year.

It’s billed a low-spin offering and, while there’s often some wiggle in those descriptions, golfers should expect it to spin less than the standard Chrome Soft X.

Callaway Chrome Soft X LS Construction

The Chrome Soft X LS is a four-piece offering. Like the CSX, it’s a dual-mantle (as opposed to dual-core) design. Like other Chrome Soft offerings, it features a 332-hex dimple cover. While the count is the same, Callaway says it alters the geometry of the dimple on each cover to provide an optimized trajectory for each model.

Details on that meeting with Tiger Woods, player remarks on the playoff format and more from East Lake Golf Club.

The season-ending Tour Championship takes place at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Here's how you can watch all of the action.

Attorneys representing the PGA Tour submitted a motion Tuesday asking a federal judge to unseal certain details of contracts that were signed by the tour's former players who defected to the rival LIV Golf circuit earlier this year.

The change in who qualifies for Kapalua means a trip to paradise to start the year for Cameron Young, Sahith Theegala, Scott Stallings, Collin Morikawa, Corey Conners, Brian Harman, Adam Scott and Aaron Wise.

 

The post Donald Ross’ NorCal Connection appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Will Zalatoris had to withdraw from the season-ending Tour Championship because of two herniated disks in his back. He also will miss next month's Presidents Cup.

Whistling Straits

One of the most iconic courses in the United States is located near Sheboygan, Wisc. It’s called Whistling Straits. The 7,790-yard  monster was designed by the late Pete Dye in 1998 over 560 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan.

The Straits course includes more than 1,000 bunkers (that’s not a typo). As you read on, you will see the word “bunker” pop up repeatedly as these sand pits are in the most random places. For instance, I was playing the back tee on 15 where golfers seldom go and, on my right, yup, there was a bunker.

I was surprised there haven’t been more professional events played on the Straits course. Maybe it’s because even the best players feel like they’re hanging on by their fingernails on every hole. As Dye said, “this course is like popcorn—but sometimes you choke on popcorn.”

Professional Events

Here are the professional events Whistling Straits has hosted:

PGA Championship 2004 (Vijay Singh)U.S. Senior Open 2007 (Brad Bryant)PGA Championship 2010 (Martin Kaymer)PGA Championship 2015 (Jason Day)Ryder Cup 2020 (USA)

At the 2010 PGA Championship, Dustin Johnson needed a par on the 72nd hole but found himself in the sand. Thinking he was in a waste area, not a bunker, he grounded his club. Unfortunately, it was a bunker. The resulting two-stroke penalty left him tied for fifth, two strokes out of the playoff between Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson.

Advantage Scottie Scheffler? With Patrick Cantlay heating up and others back in the mix this week, here's who has a real shot at the Tour Championship this week.

In addition to appearing on the cover of the video game, Tiger Woods will be among the star athletes featured in the new PGA Tour 2k23. Michael Jordan, as well as several PGA and LPGA pros, will also be included.

The Best Golf Shoes at the BMW Championship

As the field continues to shrink, so do my options for the best golf shoes of the week. And to avoid sounding like a broken record, I wanted to switch it up and show some love to some of the underdogs—those whose shoes have gone largely unnoticed.

I’m constantly reminding myself that what’s cool to me may not be cool to you. Not everyone salivates over NIKE or Jordan Brand golf kicks the way I do. With that said, here are some of the best (and most under-appreciated) golf shoes I saw at the BMW Championship.

Sepp Straka in Sqairz Golf Shoes

Sepp Straka has been one of the few Tour pros to sign a shoe deal with Sqairz. Alongside names like Nick Faldo and John Daly, Straka has quietly been giving the people at Sqairz a lot to be excited about. His lone Tour win in February came while wearing the Sqairz Speed but the model he’s been wearing recently doesn’t look like any I’ve seen before.

We can’t move on without mentioning that since their inception, Sqairz has been a great tester for us here at MyGolfSpy. The Sqairz Speed was crowned the most stable golf shoe in our 2022 spiked golf shoe testing.

I’m sure some of you are much more familiar with Sqairz than I am. If you’ve worn a pair, love your pair or have any experience with the brand at all, feel free to leave me a comment. I’m genuinely curious about your experience.

With a premium golf glove, the goal is to feel like you have a secure connection with the club without the glove getting in the way. We, as golfers, are really asking for a bit of magic—a glove that doesn’t feel like it’s there.

With impressive feel, strong grip and a history of being one of the best premium golf gloves on the market year after year, we put the Titleist Players glove to the test again.

Overall, the results are promising. It’s a slightly lower finish than last year, not really because of anything Titleist did but more because of what other companies are doing. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the Titleist Players glove and whether it’s worth your money.

Titleist Players Glove Details

The Players glove is the most premium option in the Titleist lineup. It’s the thinnest glove in their lineup and the thinnest of all 42 gloves we tested. It’s also one of the more premium-priced golf gloves. Although it may sound counterintuitive to pay more money for a thinner golf glove, you’re actually paying here for performance.

It should come as no surprise that we like “labs” here at MyGolfSpy. Having built our own golf testing lab, it’s fun to see an upstart brand like L.A.B. competes against the biggest names in the game. We put the L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 putter to the test to see how it did against the competition.

L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Putter Details

We tested the L.A.B .Golf Mezz.1 putter as part of our Best Mallet Putters of 2022 test. It ranked 12th overall amid mixed feedback from our testers. The thing that helps all L.A.B. putters stand out is the 100-percent lie angle balanced (thus L.A.B.) design. The idea behind the lie angle balanced putter is more consistency, more forgiveness and less work on the part of the golfer. 

The club head is fully CNC machined from a 6061 aircraft aluminum body and 303 stainless steel midsection. There are 10 weights that can be customized to fit the exact needs of your putting stroke. With the Mezz.1, you will get quite a bit of feedback which is good for the golfers that want to make adjustments. The Mezz.1 allows more feedback than the Directed Force from L.A.B. Golf but less than the B.2.

Pros

Lie angle balanced designDurable aircraft aluminumCan be custom builtImpressive feedbackEasy to use alignment aids

Cons

Design is different looking and didn’t appeal to many of the testersDistance control on the longer putts was lackingCenter-shafted design is not for everyone

How We Test 

The L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 was part of our 2022 Most Wanted Mallet Putter test comprising 27 putters. There were 12,000 putts taken. We analyzed putters at five, 10 and 20 feet and picked a winner for each of these categories. Slightly different than with previous golf putter tests, we did this one with the main focus on making a one-putt.

L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Putter Review

The L.A.B. Golf Mezz. 1 was ranked 12th overall with a score of 80.66/100.. However, there is kind of an outlier in the Mezz.1 performance that is worth taking a look at. 

If you have even hinted to your phone or computer that you like golf, chances are you have seen a Blue Tees ad. Blue Tees Golf  comes at you hard and fast with marketing and promotion. Hype or fact?

To find out, we put the Blue Tees Golf Series 3 Max rangefinder to the test as part of our 2022 Best Golf Rangefinder review.

The ads for Blue Tees make it seem like you are a cool golfer as soon as you own one of these rangefinders. As is our mandate, we were more concerned about the accuracy, speed, optics and features. In our Blue Tees Golf Series 3 Max rangefinder review, we will give you all the details you need to determine if this product is for you.

Blue Tees Golf Series 3 Max Rangefinder Details

The Blue Tees Golf Series 3 Max rangefinder is compact, affordable and has some features we see in more premium-priced rangefinders. One of the first things you need to know is that it is a “slope” rangefinder and you can quickly toggle that function on and off so you can use this in your next competitive event.

The Blue Tees Golf Series 3 Max claims to be accurate to within one yard from as far away as 900 yards. With the Blue Tees Golf Series 3, you will get a built-in magnetic strip and it holds on to the cart well. The water-resistant casing is a bonus.

 

When we do any kind of testing at MyGolfSpy, there are always some products that surprise us. In the 2022 Most Wanted Mallet Putter Test, the Wilson Staff Infinite Buckingham turned our heads. This is one of those situations where the numbers don’t lie. 

Putting stats are not overly complicated. You either make the putt or you don’t. 

We tested the Wilson Staff Infinite Buckingham from five, 10 and 20 feet. This putter earned top honors for the 20-foot putt, second place for five feet and fifth for 10 feet. In addition, the Wilson Staff Infinite Buckingham won the best value. 

If you need a new mallet putter, it’s worth looking at this one. 

Wilson Staff Infinite Buckingham Product Details

The Wilson Staff Infinite Buckingham is a mallet-head design with high MOI and looks very similar to the TaylorMade Spider. The double-milled face helps promote consistency and gives golfers of all handicaps better distance control.