When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
"Hitting a golf ball out of mid-air is easy compared to clinching your first tour card and fulfilling a childhood dream."
/Nike Giving $10 Million A Year To Clothe Jason Day?!
/Bryson's Irons Redux: "It’s a potential paradigm shift for golf equipment."
/Mike Stachura reminds us at GolfDigest.com that attention spans are short, because it wasn't that long ago golfers were witnessing Bryson DeChambeau's success wondering if same-length iron sets were around the corner.With DeChambeau's Web.com Tour playoff win and signs that Cobra Puma Golf has a prototype that looks promising for a market debut in the "now-increasingly-imminent future," he writes:
But DeChambeau’s almost religious prophet approach to his iron-length concept is more than some quirky personal trait or party trick. It’s a potential paradigm shift for golf equipment. Is DeChambeau's win like Billy Burke’s win with steel shafts in the 1931 U.S. Open, or Jim Simons victory at the Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach in 1982, the first televised win for a metal wood? DeChambeau, not surprisingly, thinks it has that potential.
“I think you will see a change take place among junior golfers over this next year. I know it’s not just better for me but for all kinds of players,” he said. “I think this was an important day. Maybe we look back and say this is the day the game changed.”
Bellwether? Reed Breaks Gavel At NYSE's Closing Bell
/Is this a statement about his stroke?
The markets?
The Playoffs(C)?
Video: Tom Watson & Caddie Struggle Over A Simple Yardage
/I heard about it on social media and mercifully some brave soul posted it on YouTube. Undoubtedly the USGA will try to take it down, but I've been assured by all who know caddie Neil Oxman, his job and longtime friendship with Tom Watson is more than safe.
ProGolfWeekly.com sets up the situation from Scioto last week where Watson finished T54.
Here's the full clip on YouTube:
Long Driver Sadlowski Retiring To...Play Pro Golf
/As much as I'd love to mention how the World Long Drive athletes and their form of higher, faster, stronger would fit in these Olympic Games in Rio, because it's a conversation to be tabled for another day.
However, Canada's Jamie Sadlowski is taking an unconventional path to pro golf: transitioning from elite (2-time) World Long Drive champion to Web.com Tour school. A.J. Voepel explains:
Sadlowski began competing in long drive events when he was 14 (he hit it 370 in his first qualifier). But there’s no questioning his overall game: he’s 3-for-4 in cuts made on the Web.com Tour, (the latest coming earlier this year and in 2015), and is also 1-for-2 in cuts made on the Mackenzie Tour- PGA TOUR Canada (his latest in 2013).
He explained on last night's Callaway Live:
Flashback: Gene Sauers And His Miraculous Return To Golf
/"What's it like watching your husband compete for a major? Torture"
/How Pete Cowen Helped Henrik Stenson Get His Game Back
/One of the many things lost in the haze of the magnificent Stenson-Mickelson battle for the ages at Troon was Henrik's bizarre career arc.
It's easy to forget that he hit rock bottom many years ago, but with the help of instructor Pete Cowen, Stenson built a swing that led to one of the great performances in major history.
Bob Harig files this super profile of the Cowen/Stenson partnership for ESPN.com.
"He couldn't hit the world, let alone the fairway,'' said Pete Cowen, Stenson's longtime instructor. "And it could be with every club in his bag. He could hit 5-irons out of bounds, 7-irons out of bounds. There are three important things, and they are to start the ball on line, and have the correct flight and spin. Henrik couldn't start it on line, and then you have no idea where it is going to finish.''
Stenson turned pro in 1998 and found some early success on the European Tour. But at the European Open -- at the K Club in Ireland -- his game, his ego and his confidence took a hit 15 years ago, one from which it is amazing he recovered.
Playing in July 2001 with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Sandy Lyle, Stenson came to the 13th hole and hit a massive slice that would not have been so alarming if he had not hit a massive hook on the same hole a day prior. Stenson had no idea where the ball was going, and was so spooked by his lack of form that he withdrew.
"After nine holes, I told the guys they'd be better off without me,'' Stenson recalled. "The balls were all over the place.''
Two months prior, Stenson had won the Benson & Hedges International tournament, but now he wondered if he'd ever be able to compete again.
Tagging Along With Steph Curry In Tahoe Pro-Am
/Peter Willett Finally Has Answers About Brother Danny
/The brother of Masters Champion Danny Willett, who rose to fame thanks to his Masters final round Tweets, has finally got answers to the questions he's gotten on nearly every interview given.
Regarding "Did you ever think he could win The Masters?" Writing in The Telegraph:
2. Did you ever think he could win The Masters?
No – I never thought he’d win The Masters. I never thought he’d become a professional golfer. I thought he would end up selling plus-fours
Another Reason To Be In Awe Of Lydia Ko: Lack Of Distance
/How Dustin Johnson Is Using Trackman To Become Better
/If you saw Dustin Johnson on Golf Channel warming up for his WGC Bridgestone final round, you know he was hitting balls with a Trackman on Firestone's range tee. Doug Ferguson explains how the device has helped Johnson break out of an early season slump and improve the biggest (statistic) weakness in his game.
Johnson wanted it only for his wedges.
"All I look at it is carry numbers, just so I have more of a feel when I'm on the course and playing," Johnson said. "I felt like that was one area I needed to improve on. I felt like I was good with it, but I was too streaky. One day I'd be perfect, the next day ... not that I hit them bad, I just didn't hit them good enough."Now it's perhaps the most underrated part of his game.
Three years ago, Johnson was tied for 113th on the PGA Tour in approach shots from 50 to 125 yards.
Now he is No. 1 on tour.
Regarding DJ's latest win, the SI/golf.com roundtable kicked the WGC Bridgestone around and noted this:
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated (@AlanShipnuck): It’s the grittiness. We’ve all known for a long time DJ had the talent to overwhelm the golf world. Suddenly he is playing with a different hunger, and focus. If he keeps imposing his will like this, look out!
Cameron Morfit, senior writer, GOLF Magazine (@CameronMorfit): I remember once interviewing DJ and he made mention of his long limbs, but not in the context of that being an advantage. He was saying that because of his physique, when things got out of synch, they really got out of synch. Well, now he’s really, really in synch, and to do it on two vastly different tracks, one choked with trees and one with none, is impressive.
Heading to The Open, the Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson looks at Dustin's "late bloomer" evolution given his age and the way players are evolving at a young age, and reminds us of this:
You have to go all the way back to 1950 and seven Opens at Troon to find the last non-American champion and Johnson will now be favoured by plenty to continue that winning streak.
How has the game’s best athlete gone from something of an underachiever to serial winner at the age of 32?
Video: Spencer Levin's U.S. Open Tantrum
/I just can't get enough of this childish meltdown during round one's Friday wave of play at Oakmont.