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
The Forecaddie on two of golf's very best saying more than normal about their pupils. Nice work by Morning Drive's Damon Hack pulling these nuggets from today's guests.
Pete Cowen on Henrik Stenson's focus levels (hint, he's not jazzed). Here's the clip from GolfChannel.com.
Butch Harmon on wanting to see Dustin Johnson work harder.
Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk and former world No. 1 David Duval cobbled together a fancy 7-under-par 65 Thursday in the Zurich Classic.
Now a full-time Golf Channel contributor, the 46-year-old spoke to Ryan Lavner about what exactly he's trying to do at the Zurich, making a run at the title all that much more fun if he and Furyk can keep it going, plus other stuff.
One highlight:
And that could have been the extent of his season (save for his annual appearance at The Open), but he was drawn to the idea of the team format at the Zurich, to the idea of playing with Jim Furyk, with whom he’s been friends for the past 32 years, dating to their days in junior golf. So Duval reached out, asking the U.S. Ryder Cup captain if he wanted to team up, for old times’ sake.
“This was about being with a friend, reuniting, having our wives together for a few days,” said Duval, who estimated that he’s played more than 100 practice rounds with Furyk over the years. “Expectation-wise, I don’t know what they are for me. I don’t get to participate out here and compete.”
Lydia Ko opened with a 70 in the Hugel-JTBC LA Open but the off-course discussion about her career trajectory continues. A few weeks after Kevin Van Valkenburg's ESPN The Magazine profile of Ko, where former instructor David Leadbetter's work is harshly evaluated by several golf observers, the famed instructor is pushing back.
Here is what might have prompted Leadbetter to respond, from Van Valkenburg's story:
Leadbetter helped Faldo remake his swing in the '80s, when he was the No. 1 player in the world, and he was Els' coach for nearly 20 years, when Els won three of his four majors. But he was also given the derisive nickname Lead Poison by tour players and media members after Wie, another teenage prodigy, failed to blossom. Wie, who recently won her first tournament in nearly four years, continues working with Leadbetter.
"Lydia Ko, from the time she was a child, everyone could see where she was headed," says Brandel Chamblee, a former PGA Tour player who now works as an analyst for the Golf Channel. "David Leadbetter completely changed the DNA of her golf swing. Why in the world would you do that? Because you want to put your stamp or signature on the masterpiece that is this kid?"
But Ko continued to play well before firing Leadbetter. She currently works with Ted Oh.
On his website, Leadbetter posted this rebuttal today. He targets Lydia's father and fatigue as key issues.
Along with all of this, her father, a non-accomplished golfer, heard rumors that she needed to change her swing and made suggestions to Lydia to change it - independently of her coaches. Sean Hogan traveled with her to the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship during the last part of the season and observed Lydia being very confused [with her swing].
Amazingly enough, despite all of this, she had an excellent chance of remaining No. 1 in the world with a solid finish at the last tournament of the year. She shot 62 (10 under par) in the second round and things seemed to be on track. Her last round, unfortunately, was very average and she just lost out on winning the LPGA Player of the Year.
In this day and age, we have ways of measuring energy output in the swing. In the last quarter of the year, she had lost 20% of her energy which could only mean one thing - complete fatigue. Unfortunately, to the unknowledgeable, this can be misconstrued as experiencing swing issues.
After beating Rory McIlroy 5&3 to advance in the WGC Dell Match Play, Brian Harman explained how he's gotten longer off the tee and fallen down the rankings.
No one wants to kick Lydia Ko when she's down, but given the turnover of coaches and caddies she's fired in recent years, this assessment filed by Golf Channel's Randall Mell from the Bank of Hope Founders Cup is noteworthy. (The event was won by Inbee Park, who held off world No. 363 Laura Davies among others, as Ron Sirak writes in this game story from Phoenix.)
From Mell's story on Ko:
Ko came to Phoenix ranked 112th in driving distance, 121st in driving accuracy and 83rd in greens in regulation. She was sixth in putting average.
Cristie Kerr saw the struggle playing two rounds with Ko.
“Her game’s not in good shape,” Kerr said. “She seemed a little lost.”
Big words gets my vote, though if there was any question about former U.S. Amateur Champion Bryson DeChambeau's ability to play with the big boys, he settled that by hanging in with a -15 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational performance, as Will Gray reports for GolfChannel.com.
But as Kevin Casey notes at Golfweek.com, DeChambeau's post-third round answer on his recent injury could be equally as important. The quote from Bryson about his back issue:
"Well it was the QL and that really got inflamed for me. It was because my quadratus lumborum wasn’t working, my iliacus, longissimus thoracis, they were all kind of over working, if you want to get technical on that. But they weren’t working very well and I overworked them. Pretty much my lower right back was hurting and I rested it. How about that?"
Oh to have seen the looks on press room faces!
BTW, the back looks to be just fine in this shot posted by his friends at Cobra:
A post shared by COBRA Golf (@cobragolf) on
Rory McIlroy offered a constructive solution to the loud-loser issue that has crept up in recent weeks (well, and years at the Ryder Cup): limit alcohol sales.
I've suggested a cut off hour is badly overdue at tournaments featuring loud and abusive fans. But since most of golf's leaders would give their grandmothers the Heisman for the chance to belly-flop on a loose penny, we've yet to see a golfing equivalent of the 7th-inning cutoff.
Bob Harig of ESPN.com reports on McIlroy's comments following a round where one fan kept yelling out his wife's name.
"There was one guy out there who kept yelling my wife's name," said McIlroy, who shot 67 on Saturday to pull within two shots of leader Henrik Stenson. "I was going to go over and have a chat with him. I don't know, I think it's gotten a little much, to be honest. I think that they need to limit alcohol sales on the course, or they need to do something because every week, it seems like guys are complaining about it more and more."
After winning the Valspar Championship with a final round 65 and moving to 12th in the world, Paul Casey boarded a flight to England for a sad goodbye instead of a planned API appearance.
The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson talks to him after the Valspar win sunk in for a player who has top six finishes in the last three Masters but who played with a heavy heart after learning of Mary Colclough's passing. Her husband Ian was one of Casey's early supporters from his days at Burhill Golf Club.
Lawrenson writes in his weekly golf roundup:
Once he received the sad news of Mary’s passing, there was never any question of that. And so he spent the long flight home reflecting on his conflicting emotions, and life’s fateful concoction of magic and loss.
‘I played with a heavy heart, and maybe that helped,’ said Casey, who had tossed away plenty of chances to win in America during a nine-year victory drought. ‘Ian was one of my best friends when I joined Burhill. He always looked after me and still does to this day, and Mary would always tag along for the ride.
‘One of those sad stories, and we all know one. Cancer sucks.’
A Sky Sports roundup at the Valspar Championship talks to European players commenting on the distance debate includes Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.
All downplay any issues for different reasons, but McIlroy's comments were of note given his views on equipment influences.
"For me there's no concern. It's not the ball, it's not the equipment, it's the people that have got more athletic and have more speed.
"The guys train better, they know what they're doing more, they have Trackmans so they can figure out how to swing it fasters and be more efficient. It's not the golf balls, it's not the golf clubs, I think it's just fine the way it is."
So if the equipment is not a factor--a farcical statement but let's work with the theory--then what's the harm in tweaks to the rules for elite players to keep courses a sustainable distance?
I'm not sure I understand the line of rhetorical questions posed by Rose:
"Is the golf ball going further? Yes. Are we stronger? Yes. Is it a problem? Golf isn't getting any easier for the amateur and it isn't getting much easier for the pro.
"Are we getting make some courses obsolete by the distances we're hitting? Yes, but then again great designed golf courses don't need to be long."
So they're obsolete, but the courses do not need to respond to a changing game?
Obsolete would imply they are outmoded and in need of replacement.
Onward...
We've heard of players skipping the upcoming WGC Dell Match Play because they don't like the old one-and-done format so close to the Masters, but as Will Gray reports for GolfChannel.com, I'm pretty sure this is a first: Henrik Stenson is skipping because he's a match play purist.
“Match play, it’s kind of do or die for me,” Stenson said. “Either I’m winning and I’m staying, or I’m losing and I’m going home.”
Stenson did offer a “middle ground” option like the one used at the British Amateur, where 36 holes of stroke play determine the bracket for single-elimination match play. But given the current format structure, he won’t be making the trip to Austin.
I can't argue with his love for the old format which certainly had a certain charm. But for fans, sponsors and players wanting competitive rounds before the Masters, the new setup has worked quite nicely,
The golf ball defenders won't be happy with Tom Watson siding with Jack Nicklaus (again) and the ball issue, citing 2001 to 2003 as the time when the ball started flying "farther and straighter."
From Morning Drive, where Matt Ginella asked the golf great his views in light of the latest USGA/R&A distance report.
Doug Ferguson talks to Bill Haas about the tragic events of his Los Angeles stay last month that ended abruptly after a car crash. The accident claimed the life of Haas's Genesis Open host for the week and the car's driver, retired businessman and golfer Mark Gibello.
Haas returns to this week's Valspar Championship with a heavy heart.
Along with leaning on his wife and his family, he has spent time with a therapist to cope with the wide range of emotions and the lingering questions.
"I don't know that I won't have recurring images and thoughts and feelings about that night," he said. "Why was he taken and I wasn't? I ask, `Why?' all the time. From the people who have reached out to me and the advice I've been given, you can't ask, `Why?' in life. Life happens in ways you can't explain. There's no point in asking. It won't solve anything, and it only brings more questions."
USA Today's Steve DiMeglio talks to players and caddies about distance adjustments they're making for this week's WGC Mexico City and they've settled on a solid 15% or more bump in distance.
The story is of particular note given that we are not far from hearing pros howl about the awful adjustment period should the governing bodies ever roll out a distance rollback. But here they are all on the record about Trackman and the relatively easy process of adjusting thanks to launch monitors.
“I think this is going to be the best week for (Trackman’s) branding, for sure, versus any other week,” said Justin Thomas, who won his seventh title in his last 30 PGA Tour starts last week in the Honda Classic. “It's very, very dependent on the shot you're hitting and the club you're hitting, but when you hit those drivers up in the air, they go pretty far.”
And there was this...
Chez Reavie was in full mathematician mode Tuesday on the range in his first trip to the tournament. For 2 hours, 30 minutes, he and his caddie, Justin York, went to work with numbers spinning around in their heads.
“We jumped on the Trackman to get numbers,” Reavie said. “I hit 10 balls with every club to find a median number each ball was carrying. And we found about a 15-18% difference. We have all the clubs plotted now and from there we’ll rely on feel. But at least we have a ballpark figure now.”
That's all you need! Of course, players will tell us that a Masters ball would be impossible because of the long adjustment period.
As the distance discussion ramps up, many professionals are beginning to suggest they don't like seeing mediocre ball striking corrected by equipment. The de-skilling of the pro game is not a new topic to most of us, but I do think it's fascinating to see players slowly coming to that conclusion.
The Forecaddie quotes William McGirt on the constructive criticism he offered to the USGA and that he sees all of this as a health-of-the-game matter.
“I told them, ‘Look, if you honestly believe that the ball doesn’t go any farther than it did 20 years ago, you’re in denial,’” McGirt told TMOF. “If that’s the case, why am I hitting my 7-iron 10 yards farther in the air today than when I was 23 years old? They finally admitted the ball goes farther. The big thing is, I just wish they’d make it curve again. Let foul balls be foul balls.”
McGirt is in the minority on many fronts, from being articulate on the matter to wanting to see skill preserved. Average golfers will no doubt hear this and assume that their game improvements clubs will be taken away from them--they won't. So calm down!
However, his point is worth considering and an articulate contrast with comments earlier this week.
Carve out a few minutes or Instapaper this Sunday Independent conversation moderated by Paul Kimmage and featuring Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy chatting.
This is a nice teaser:
Harrington says: "We would like to spend more time with Rory in the evenings. But we have a very different way of preparing for tournaments. He likes to play early, I like to play late. I’m not prepared to do his thing, he’s not prepared to do mine. And that’s fine because when I was his age I would do nothing for nobody in terms of (making compromises). Everything was: ‘What was the best thing for me?’. . . I’m prepared to compromise now.”
And Harrington says that he prefers the version of McIlroy that he occasionally comes across in private to the public face.
"I wonder sometimes about how you present yourself to the world,” he says. “It always seems much colder than who you really are. I don’t think I’ve ever been in your company where I haven’t walked away thinking you’re a nicer guy than I thought beforehand. And yet, media-wise, you can sound quite cold and clinical at times and I think: ‘He’s trying to be Tiger Woods.’ Because you present this . . . wall."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
