By: GRATIATPosted on
By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

July 9, 2019

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans.
1. Wolff the disruptor
Arguably the definitive Matthew Wolff take, via PGATour.com’s Ben Everill…
  • “Matthew Wolff certainly brought plenty of notoriety with him when he came to the PGA TOUR this season. The 20-year-old was a stud in college golf, the best in the country actually, and on top of that has an unconventional YouTube swing that is riveting to some, but has been dismissed by many long-term analysts and coaches publicly and privately. Yet here he is, in just his fourth start, winning the 3M Open.”
  • “In the days of hyper hype in sports those people who thought the noise around Wolff was over the top can be forgiven. But he called himself a disruptor leading into his pro debut on TOUR a few weeks ago and he was right. Whether this all translates into long-term success remains to be seen, but you can’t start trying to build that road without the first win. And that has come in rapid time. Only Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods previously won the NCAA title and a TOUR event in the same year… they went on to do pretty decent things”
Full piece.
2. Equipment tweaks key for Wolff? 
Via Andrew Tursky at PGATour.com…
“…according to Ryan Ressa, Manager of Product Development at TaylorMade who’s worked with Wolff since 2013.”
  • “Before turning pro, Wolff used a TaylorMade M5 driver head (9 degrees) equipped with a Graphite Design Tour AD-TP 7TX driver shaft, and a TaylorMade M5 (15 degrees) 3-wood with a Graphite Design Tour AD-BB 8X shaft. At the Travelers Championship, however, Wolff switched to a TaylorMade M6 8-degree head with the same shaft as before, and he switched into a TaylorMade M6 fairway wood (15 degrees) with a new Project X HZRDUS Smoke shaft.”
  • “While Wolff was able to knock down spin with the M6 driver, and he saw greater forgiveness from the club’s design versus the M5, he was unable to hit the low-spinning, left-to-right cut shot that he likes to hit, according to Ressa. So Wolff returned to the M5 driver design, except this time he used an 8-degree head with the adjustable sole weights farther forward to reduce spin and create more of a fade bias. The result was that Wolff was better able to hit a “traditional flat cut” that he’s used to.”
Full piece.
3. …and credit to his caddie as well!
The Forecaddie writes…”Yes, Matthew Wolff practically cried on the shoulder of caddie Steve Lohmeyer after sinking an eagle putt to win the 3M Open and you were thinking, what happened to The Forecaddie report saying a famous caddie was hired to carry Wolff’s golf club luggage?”
“Seems J.P. Fitzgerald was not a good fit and got the pink slip after just one week when Wolff posted a lackluster T-80 at the Travelers. On the bag instead was a former assistant pro-turned looper, Lohmeyer. Wolff credited the former Kent State golfer for keeping him loose by talking NBA free agency, among other things.”
Full piece.
4. Women’s Open purse increased 40%
BBC report…”The prize money for August’s Women’s British Open will rise by 40% to $4.5m (£3.6m), the R&A have announced.”
  • “The winner will receive $675,000 (£540,000), up from the $490,000 (£392,000) won by Georgia Hall in 2018.”
  • “In the men’s Open Championship, which takes place at Royal Portrush later this month, the purse is $10.75m (£8.56m) and the winner will claim $1.89m (£1.51m).”
  • “This is an important first step,” said R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers.“We know it will take time to move closer to achieving parity with the men’s game.
Full piece.
5. Inside childcare on the LPGA Tour
Lori Nickel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, syndicated in Golfweek…
  • “As Icher shot a 70 in her final round Sunday at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic at Thornberry Creek at Oneida, and finished tied for 35th place overall, her daughters spent the day playing, reading and exploring with three full-time credentialed child development staffers – the same three who will be on tour all year. There’s also a police officer for security.”
  • “The LPGA Child Development Center was the first traveling childcare center in pro sports. Now in its 25th year, it will travel to 21 LPGA tournaments this year, with a van packed full of toddler beds and high chairs and picture books.”
Full piece. 
6. An invite for Noh
Randall Mell at Golf Channel…”American teenager Yealimi Noh will get another chance to build on her promising LPGA debut as a professional.”
  • “With Noh, 17, making a stirring run into contention at the Thornberry Classic last week, the Marathon Classic announced Saturday that she had accepted a sponsor’s exemption to play in its event this week. Noh ended up tying for sixth on Sunday.”
  • “I’m just overall really happy with how I played and how I finished, too,” No said. “It was my goal to be inside the top 10.”
Full piece.
7. Peter Alliss’ 1951 Portrush adventure
BBC report…””I’d opened up (at Royal Portrush) with a 69 (in the second qualifying round),” the 88-year-old tells The Open – Portrush ’51 which will be broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland at 22:35 BST on Wednesday, 10 July.”
  • “Then my brother and I went down to the town that night and met a couple of girls on holiday from London.”
  • “Feeling decidedly the worse for wear, Alliss fired a 79 on the Dunluce course the next day and after an 80 followed on the Thursday, the young man’s Portrush playing adventure was over although he did stay on to see compatriot Max Faulkner win the Championship during the final 36 holes of action on the Friday.”
Full piece. 
8. Let’s remember Sam Snead! 
Guy Yocom at Golf Digest…”Even Tiger remembers Sam. In 1982, when Tiger was 6 and Sam 69, they played a two-hole exhibition at Soboba Springs in San Jacinto, Calif. On the first hole, Tiger hit his tee shot on a par 3 into water, his ball partially submerged. “I got in there to play it, and the ball was sitting up, but from behind me Sam yells, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Woods recalls. “I look around, dumbfounded. I’m going to hit the shot. Sam says, ‘Just pick it up and drop it. Let’s go on.’ I didn’t like that very much.” Tiger’s teacher at the time, Rudy Duran, recently told writer Bill Fields, “Tiger kind of looked at Snead kind of funny and got his iron out and hit it on the green. Sam shook his head like, That’s pretty good.”
“Tiger in the last couple of years has become more relaxed, more approachable. Still, his accessibility is nothing like Sam’s, who would talk with anyone, anywhere, anytime. The first time I asked a colleague for Sam’s phone number, he said, “Call directory assistance. He’s in the phone book.” Sam loved people, enjoyed showing off and relished the give and take, especially if your face was somewhat familiar. Once you penetrated the first outer ring of Snead’s circle, he treated you like there weren’t many circles left. Is there a great modern player like that? Phil Mickelson comes closest, but most others understandably keep the rank and file at a distance. As Tiger will tell you, there are perils out there. It’s a different time.”

Full piece.

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9. Rise and shine

Chris Bumbaca at USA Today…

“In an effort to adjust to the time-zone change when he and the rest of the golfing world head across the Atlantic Ocean to Royal Portrush and the 148th Open Championship later this month, the 15-time major champion has been waking up at 1 a.m., or 6 a.m. local time in Northern Ireland.”
“The time difference means Woods will have to have his body ready for optimal performance earlier in the day than it’s used to, hence the unique training strategy with 10 days before the first round.”
“Nike, a longtime sponsor of Woods, posted an Instagram story Monday with Woods speaking into the camera, timestamped at 1 a.m”
See it here.

 

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