By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected]; @benalberstadt on Instagram)

September 5, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.
1. New driver testing protocol 
Golf Digest’s E. Michael Johnson and Brian Wacker report the PGA Tour will begin a new driver testing protocol at next week’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier.
…In an email sent to players on Wednesday, the tour specified that its in-use driver-testing program will consist of the following:
  • Two weeks of informational sessions that will take place at The Greenbrier and at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January. During the sessions, members of the USGA Equipment Standards staff will demonstrate the testing procedure-which will be the same Characteristic Time (CT) test used on tour and at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush-and work with manufacturer representatives on site to review their own procedures. Additionally, they will test clubs of players on a voluntary, first-come, first-served basis.
  • Each manufacturer with driver heads in play will appoint a representative to be the on-site contact when testing is occurring. This representative and the player will be the only people who are notified of the results of the test.
  • At various times throughout the season, testing will occur at PGA Tour events. The testing will be unannounced and on non-competition days when manufacturer reps are on-site. If a player has been selected, a rules official will notify him when he arrives at the course. The player will be asked to provide the driver (or drivers) he intends to use for that event. Each test will take approximately 15 minutes, be conducted by a member of the USGA Equipment Standards staff and be performed on a pendulum device in accordance with published USGA test protocols.
Full piece. 
If you’re wondering what the test looks like (I believe it is) the same process that’s displayed in this video.
2. Brooks in the buff arriveth
The moment of Brooks’ full nakedness is upon us! With ESPN’s Body Issue hitting newsstands Friday, BK’s full pictorial portfolio is, well, revealed online…
  • Golfweek’s Bill Speros…”Portions of the Body Issue were posted online Wednesday. The final print version of the Body Issue will hit newsstands Friday. ESPN has announced that the magazine will cease publication this year.”
  • “A total of 17 different past and present athletes, or groups of athletes, bore all for the 2019 Body Issue. Among the au naturel jocks joining Koepka are five members of the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line, soccer star Kelley O’Hara and Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder.”
  • “A dozen still images and videos of Koepka are featured, including one of him in a full-sized The Body Issue Robe awaiting to hit a tee shot. The photos were taken early in 2019 at Palm City, Fla., by Rob Daly.”

Full piece.

3. WLD
AP report…”Kyle Berkshire won the World Long Drive Championship on Wednesday night, beating two-time champion Tim Burke with a 406-yard drive at WinStar World Casino and Resort.”
  • “After Burke got to 374 on his eighth and final attempt in the final, Berkshire missed the grid on his first three shots before nailing the winner for his first world title and third tour victory of the season.”
  • “The top-ranked Berkshire, from Crofton, Maryland, played two seasons at the University of North Texas.”
  • “South Africa’s Chloe Garner won the women’s title, beating three-time champion Phillis Meti of New Zealand with a 347-yard drive on her fifth attempt. Meti, hitting first in the final, had a best of 344.”
Full piece.
4. Lee6’s family reunion
Golf Digest’s Keely Levins…”Nearly four months after winning the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston, Jeongeun Lee6 relived the moment in a unique way on Wednesday when she returned to her native South Korea to take part in what was billed as the first Women’s Open trophy tour of the country.”
  • “It has been a while since the U.S. Women’s Open, I thought the fans and reporters wouldn’t care this much,” Lee said. “But today, I saw so many media and fans are here, to celebrate with me, and congratulate me, put so much effort into today, I feel so happy and blessed.”
  • “Part of what made the return to South Korea so meaningful was that Lee6 was finally able to share the victory with her parents. Neither her mother, Eunjin Ju, or father, Jung Ho, were in South Carolina in May to see their daughter, an LPGA rookie, win her first major. The 23-year-old hasn’t seen her parents for months. They keep in touch via video calls while she’s traveling.”
Full piece.
5. Best Tour card stories
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard rounds up a few of the most compelling tales…Doug Ghim…”Ghim entered the week 29th in the standings. After the week of play at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the former Texas standout needed a par on his final hole of the day and the 1,224th hole of his Korn Ferry season…”I’ve never felt nerves like that before. … to have it all come down to one putt is pretty surreal,” Ghim said after his round….Not only did Ghim earn his par, he did it the hard way, with an epic sand save.”
  • D.J. Trahan…”Ghim making par on his final hole was difficult. What if he had to make birdie?…That wasn’t a “what if” scenario for Trahan, it was his situation. And the 38-year-old made it look easy….On the 432-yard par-4 18th hole, Trahan painted the fairway off the tee and went pin-seeking with his approach, setting up the birdie he so desperately needed.”

Full piece.

6. Awful
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall with some seriously bad news…”On Saturday the University of Kentucky announced that sophomore golfer Cullan Brown has withdrawn from school for the upcoming year to begin immediate chemotherapy. Brown was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer.”
  • “My family and I are immensely appreciative of the outpouring of kind words, well-wishes, love and prayers we have received in the last few weeks from family, friends and the Big Blue Nation,” Brown said in a statement. “It certainly will be a tough year, but nothing that can’t be handled thanks to the amazing support group I have behind me at all times. Even though I will not be with my team in person this year, I will be there in spirit every time they compete, which I have full faith they will continue to do with the upmost integrity, passion and excellence.”

Full piece.

7. “Sorry state of Scottish PGA”
Martin Dempster of The Scotsman…”The fading glory of the Scottish PGA Championship has been lamented by one former competitor while another has said it is no surprise in the current economic climate and believes players need to do their bit to breathe new life into the event.”
  • “This week’s PGA in Scotland event at Downfield is taking place without a title sponsor, and with 132 players effectively playing for their own money after each paying £120 to enter the Tartan Tour’s flagship event.”
  • “Paul O’Hara, one of the first-round pacesetters at the Dundee venue, said the grand old tournament “feels like a sweep” as a consequence, adding that many others in the field share his “disappointment” about the paltry prize fund.”

Full piece.

8. Open heart surgery for Fuzzy
Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski...”They said it wasn’t going to kill me, so I said, ‘Well, if it isn’t going to kill me, I’ll see you all at the end of May,’ ” Zoeller said with a hearty laugh.
  • .…Doctors performed a triple bypass on the two-time major winner on June 17, which kind of sounds like a big deal. The timing of the procedure explains why Zoeller, the 1984 U.S. Open winner, was one of the few absentees for the champions’ reunion at Pebble Beach Golf Links prior to the 119th U.S. Open.
  • “It worked out pretty good,” Zoeller said by phone from his home in New Albany, Ind., still downplaying the procedure that included replacing one of his valves, the very operation that his hero, Arnold Palmer, was waiting to have when he passed away in 2016. “Yeah, they did the triple Lindy on me. Threw in a double-toe loop. But it’s all good now.”
Full piece.
9. Herman’s goodbye to his childhood home course
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall on the demise of Shawnee Lookout and Jim Herman-who grew up honing his skills on the track-playing his last round there.
  • “Out of the park district’s seven courses, Shawnee was the black sheep. Tipping out at 6,016 yards, the architects shoehorned 18 holes in a space for 14, yielding an eccentric routing. A lot of holes banked against, not with, the terrain. Laying up was futile, because there was no such thing as a flat lie. There was a z-shaped par 5 that required a 200-yard drive, a 200-yard second up a mountain, followed by a 130-yard (minimum) approach. One par 4 resembled a boomerang, with a landing area the size of a laptop. Another par 5 went 300 yards straight down a hill and 240 yards up another.”
  • “That could explain why Shawnee routinely had the fewest customers of the district’s properties. Due to the unmanageable terrain, its conditioning was volatile (usually good in the spring, a superfund site by the summer), and when paved paths were installed, the slopes were so sharp and serpentine that many a cart ended overturned. Power lines from the plant were omnipresent.”
Full piece.

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