Temporary golf course to open inside Busch Stadium next month
Busch Stadium has hosted baseball, soccer and football games, and it looks like golf is next.
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – How would you like to play a round of golf inside Busch Stadium? Well, that will be possible next month.
Stadiumlinks is transforming baseball heaven into a 9-hole golf experience Nov. 1-3. You’ll take your shots from tee boxes placed all around the stadium concourse and aim for holes on the baseball field.
Each shot is somewhere between 60-150 yards and scoring is based on where your ball lands. You can play in groups of two, four, six, or eight and will need to book a tee time in advance. Make sure you join the waiting list, here, so you can set up a tee time.
Each player within your group will be provided with 18 complimentary golf balls to use on the Stadiumlinks course.
Here’s an example of what the course looked like in other stadiums, such as Citi Field in New York, Minute Maid Park in Houston and the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Five things the best golf instructors see in your swing that you don’t
Walk the range at a tour event and you’ll see a squadron of instructors capturing video, with the teacher and player huddling to figure out which magic adjustment might make the difference between first place and 50th on a given week. It’s certainly interesting to eavesdrop on what they’re discussing—in fact, it’s why we’ve been showing swing sequences in Golf Digest since the 1950s. But hearing about Dustin Johnson’s key to hitting his 4-iron incrementally better is only going to help you so much.
What does a top teacher see when he or she looks at your swing? And what kind of things are you missing when you have your buddy shoot you from down the line during your next practice session? We asked three top teachers—Jason Guss, Jason Sedan and Tom Rezendes—for the fundamental things they look at in an initial swing lesson, and how changing your focus to those things instead of the “prettiness” of your move will make you get better way faster.
“Can we all be honest with each other and accept that virtually nobody has the genetic gifts to roll out of bed and swing like Adam Scott or Anne van Dam?” says Rezendes, who runs the NorCal Golf Academy in Walnut Creek, Calif. “The important part to remember is that you don’t HAVE to do that to play well. A trained set of eyes sees what adjustments you need to make for you to swing your best, not necessarily look like a swing model.”
1. What your face angle is during your backswing
Where the face is pointing during the whole swing might be most under-paid-attention-to fundamental in golf. “Almost every good player has either closed the face or is about to when they come out of the transition at the top,” says Jason Guss, who runs the Jason Guss Golf Academy at Hawk Hollow, in Bath, Mich. “Players who struggle don’t have it square ever, or they’re even opening it at the start of the downswing—which causes a whole other chain of events. If you’re looking at your own swing or any other, is that face angle looking down at the ground when the club is halfway down to the ground on the downswing? I like to help players get keyed in on the face instead of the wrist movements that produce it because those wrist movements are so small.
2. How your technique matches your intention
What you’re trying to can (and should!) have a huge impact on what your swing looks like. “Students send me video of swings all the time and my first question is always the same—what are you trying to do here?” says Jason Sedan, who runs Fore Door Golf at Lake Winnipesaukee Golf Club in New Hampshire. “Most amateurs record a swing on the range, and it’s just a random swing that came after a random practice swing. But every shot should have a goal, a shape and a speed at which you’re trying to swing, and rehearsals that are about that exact thing.
“The next part is that the speed you swing changes a lot of the relationships within the swing. A video of a player making a smooth swing with a pitching wedge can tell a way different story than one where he or she is smashing a driver. You want to look at the full context, not just for one move you want to tear down.”
3. The underlying cause of your main swing problem
Putting an ankle brace on for a broken finger isn’t going to be very effective. Which means you need to look for the main source of your issues. “The phrase ‘over the top’ is one a ton of amateur players read and hear about, and a lot of them accurately see it about their own swings,” says Sedan. “But the way they go about fixing it doesn’t address the fundamental reason it’s happening. You probably see it as a swing path issue, but the swing path issue is a symptom, not the problem.
“If an over-the-top swinger just tries to flatten the club in transition and swing more ‘from the inside,’ all you’re doing is creating a swing that produces weak blocks to the right. Does that ‘fix’ the over-the-top? I guess so, but it just moved the problem into a different box. If you don’t address the open clubface that produces most over-the-top moves, you’re not addressing the problem.”
4. The movement of your swing in 3D, not 2D
A golf swing moves in three dimensions, which is hard to see on video. “You’ve heard of ‘angle of attack,’ but what does it really mean? And it’s so hard to see without a TrackMan or a trained eye,” says Guss. “But angle of attack gives a lot of clues about your bad shots. A player could be hitting these low hooks with the driver because he or she isn’t getting the weight transferred to the lead side. Ball position and swing direction work together. If you want to hit a higher shot or tend toward a fade, you adjust that ball position forward, which moves the swing direction left and the angle of attack upward.”
5. How your body segments work together to produce speed
“Most players (and a lot of teachers, to be honest) are focused on the basics—grip, posture, alignment—because those are the easiest to see,” says Rezendes. “There’s a place for that stuff, of course, and a place for launch monitor data like clubhead speed and distance, but I’m watching for a swing’s kinetics—how you produce force. What is making you do what you’re doing in your swing, and how is it impacting your shots?
“For example, how centered your thorax is over your pelvis has huge ramifications for how much energy you can deliver into the ball. And if your hip joints are working correctly in conjunction with your pelvis, that’s a major differentiator between good players and players with less skill. Good players turn ‘into’ the trail hip joint instead of rotating the whole pelvis in the backswing. That might seem like a subtle difference, but it’s why Cameron Champ hits it the way he does instead of the way you do. He’s producing more energy, not finding a set of swing positions.”
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Fall is a great season for golf. The heat of summer has passed, and many courses are enjoying some of their best playing conditions of the year. Fall is also a time of transition when many important changes happen on golf courses. Here are five things every golfer should know about fall course conditions:
1. Frost delays are making a comeback.
Frost delays are a common part of fall golf throughout the U.S. While these delays can be frustrating, it is important not to walk or drive on frost-covered grass to avoid causing damage that may not heal until next spring. Remember, there may be frost at the course even if there is none on your grass at home. If you are concerned about a possible delay, call the golf shop to check on conditions before heading out the door.
2. Grass may be a little taller.
At many golf courses, superintendents slightly raise mowing heights during fall to help grass generate and store energy for winter. Leaves are like solar panels, so more surface area means more energy for the plant. The extra leaf surface also helps to maintain good playability into the late fall and winter as turf growth slows or stops.
3. Leaf cleanup is underway.
Leaves are falling and maintenance staffs are working hard to keep playing surfaces clear. Unfortunately, it can be tough to keep up when tens of thousands of leaves may fall from a single tree. Try to be understanding if you encounter tree debris on a putting green or have difficulty finding a ball hidden under some leaves. Before your round, check to see if a local rule is in place that allows for a free drop if your ball is lost amongst fallen leaves.
4. Traffic control is increasingly important.
Managing traffic becomes especially important in the fall because grass is growing slower and has less ability to recover from damage. Don’t be surprised if a few more ropes or traffic signs appear on the courses you play; they will help maintain good playing conditions until grass starts growing at full speed in the spring.
5. Planting, painting or patience?
In areas where golf is played through the winter, some courses overseed certain playing surfaces with grasses that continue to grow during cool weather. Other facilities may use turf colorants instead of overseeding to reduce disruption, conserve resources and improve year-round playability. Some courses choose to do neither and simply accept what the grass naturally offers until spring arrives. The best approach depends on how busy a course is during fall and winter and the playability and aesthetics desired by golfers.
Using turf colorants instead of overseeding can provide the desired aesthetics with less disruption and cost.
The seasonal changes we experience on the golf course are part of what makes golf fun and challenging.
Bonus Item- Playing With Preferred Lies:
As fall progresses, golf courses may choose to implement a Local Rule allowing for preferred lies, or, as it is commonly called, “lift, clean and place.” When this Local Rule is in effect, does your score count for Handicap purposes? The short answer- yes!
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The full story behind Bryson DeChambeau’s single-length iron revolution
One of the most important developments in the recent history of golf club technology began with a single sentence buried in a cryptic tome. Homer Kelley’s 1969 book, The Golfing Machine—its pages bursting with insightful and highly technical swing treatises—has long thrilled and baffled readers. When he was 15, Bryson DeChambeau borrowed a well-thumbed copy from his swing coach Mike Schy. “Mind blown,” says DeChambeau. Chapter 10, section 7 covers what Kelley termed “customized” swing planes. With his idiosyncratic punctuation, Kelley wrote about a Zero Shift swing: “…one Basic Plane Angle is to be used throughout the stroke without ‘a Variation’—that is, No Shift.” Those 18 words raced through young Bryson’s mind for days. Was it really possible to be on the same plane with clubs as different as a sand wedge and a 3-iron?
DeChambeau spent a summer experimenting and glumly concluded that, in fact, he had 13 different planes, owing to the varying length of each club. Having been raised as a golfer to think untraditionally, DeChambeau came up with a solution that seemed blindingly obvious to him: Make every iron the same length with the same weight, the same shaft flex and the same lie angle (72°), allowing the exact same swing plane to be repeated over and over. (Woods and hybrids would largely be left alone, at least for the time being.)
Schy was supportive of the experiment, so a set of old clubs was chopped up in the name of science. Into some old Nike VR heads they inserted 37.5-inch shafts, which is the length of a traditional 6-iron. In any set, the heads of the wedges are heavier than those of the slender long irons. After running a series of calculations in the supercomputer that doubles as his brain, DeChambeau determined that an ideal uniform weight for the heads in a single-length set would be 282 grams. Lead tape was used to make the heads on the longer irons heavier; the extra mass made up for a shorter swing arc. To shed weight on the wedges, holes were drilled in the back of the head and metal was gouged out of the backline of the sole; losing that mass was counteracted by the increased swing speed that came with the longer shaft.
When the work was complete, DeChambeau raced to the first fairway at Dragonfly Golf Course, the humble public track he grew up haunting in Madera, Calif. From 160 yards, he selected an 8-iron. The club felt a little long and light but not overly so. He hit a lovely draw pin-high. On the second hole he dropped a ball 210 yards from the flag and reached for his reconstituted 5-iron. This was the moment of truth: If the shorter, heavier long irons worked, his underlying theory of a single-length set was sound.
DeChambeau flushed the shot. “It was in the air for what felt like forever,” he says. The suspense was awful. Was the ball going to be 20 yards short? Twenty yards long? It landed three feet from the flag.
Less than a decade later, single-length irons are a rapidly growing part of the equipment market. DeChambeau didn’t invent the concept—Tommy Armour Golf tried (and failed spectacularly) to sell a version in the 1980s—but he is now the public face of a fundamentally different way of playing the game. He has had some help along the way. While an undergrad at SMU, DeChambeau became close to David Edel, a fellow obsessive whose Texas-based boutique company has long turned out some of the most gorgeous (and expensive) putters and irons on the market. Edel spent years perfecting the single-length clubs that DeChambeau used to win the 2015 U.S. Amateur and NCAA title, going through three dozen handcrafted sets. From the beginning, Edel could feel a revolution brewing that transcended DeChambeau’s idiosyncrasies.
Schy was supportive of the experiment, so a set of old clubs was chopped up in the name of science. Into some old Nike VR heads they inserted 37.5-inch shafts, which is the length of a traditional 6-iron. In any set, the heads of the wedges are heavier than those of the slender long irons. After running a series of calculations in the supercomputer that doubles as his brain, DeChambeau determined that an ideal uniform weight for the heads in a single-length set would be 282 grams. Lead tape was used to make the heads on the longer irons heavier; the extra mass made up for a shorter swing arc. To shed weight on the wedges, holes were drilled in the back of the head and metal was gouged out of the backline of the sole; losing that mass was counteracted by the increased swing speed that came with the longer shaft.
When the work was complete, DeChambeau raced to the first fairway at Dragonfly Golf Course, the humble public track he grew up haunting in Madera, Calif. From 160 yards, he selected an 8-iron. The club felt a little long and light but not overly so. He hit a lovely draw pin-high. On the second hole he dropped a ball 210 yards from the flag and reached for his reconstituted 5-iron. This was the moment of truth: If the shorter, heavier long irons worked, his underlying theory of a single-length set was sound.
DeChambeau flushed the shot. “It was in the air for what felt like forever,” he says. The suspense was awful. Was the ball going to be 20 yards short? Twenty yards long? It landed three feet from the flag.
Less than a decade later, single-length irons are a rapidly growing part of the equipment market. DeChambeau didn’t invent the concept—Tommy Armour Golf tried (and failed spectacularly) to sell a version in the 1980s—but he is now the public face of a fundamentally different way of playing the game. He has had some help along the way. While an undergrad at SMU, DeChambeau became close to David Edel, a fellow obsessive whose Texas-based boutique company has long turned out some of the most gorgeous (and expensive) putters and irons on the market. Edel spent years perfecting the single-length clubs that DeChambeau used to win the 2015 U.S. Amateur and NCAA title, going through three dozen handcrafted sets. From the beginning, Edel could feel a revolution brewing that transcended DeChambeau’s idiosyncrasies.
“One of the hardest things for amateurs is to consistently produce a good strike with their irons,” says Edel. “On every swing the club feels different, because it is. With a wedge you have to squat down and stand close to the ball, and it’s a short, heavy club. With a long iron you’re more upright, the ball is farther away, and the club is long and light. No wonder people struggle! Eliminating all of those variables automatically makes the game easier. That is the holy grail of golf equipment, and we found it.”
DeChambeau turned pro after a stellar showing at the 2016 Masters. Cobra Golf had won what its vice president of R & D, Tom Olsavsky, calls “the Bryson recruiting lottery,” but at the outset of his pro career DeChambeau still had Edel irons in his bag. DeChambeau and Edel are both strident and headstrong, and that spring they suffered a falling out that neither cares to discuss. The engineers at Cobra had already been fooling around with single-length sets, but suddenly they had a mandate to build one for their new star, who, naturally, was intimately involved in every detail. “Bryson brought so much knowledge to the process,” says Mike Yagley, Cobra’s senior director of innovation and AI. “We learned along with him.”
When DeChambeau claimed his first Tour win, at the John Deere Classic, in July 2017, he was wielding Cobra irons. A year and a half (and four more DeChambeau victories) later, Cobra has sold some 40,000 single-length sets worldwide, helping a small-scale company gain two more percentage points of market share in 2017 and move up to fourth in overall iron sales. Now Cobra is going all-in on its One Length line, with three different head designs and hybrids on the same shaft. (“They look like a toy, but they’re as long as all of our other hybrids,” says Olsavsky.) Importantly, Cobra has also rolled out an extensive fitting system and introduced a trial program in which consumers can test out a set of One Length clubs for two weeks for a mere $20. All of this is designed to help educate and entice golfers to think different, to borrow a handy marketing phrase.
Even without DeChambeau in the fold, Edel Golf remains committed to the single-length concept. It has over 100 fitting accounts across the country and a bespoke fitting system through Club Champion, and has also introduced a demo program in which the open-minded can have three irons at a time delivered to them to test, for $150. If Cobra is trying to reach every kind of golfer, Edel is more of a high-end niche product—its irons feature a smaller head with a thinner topline and unique Paderson shafts made of Kevlar. Each club sells for $245, more than double the most expensive Cobra model. “As the market gets bigger, there’s room for more variety,” says Edel.
It remains to be seen if an industry behemoth like Callaway will take the plunge. The biggest barrier to entry might be the simple fact that there is not enough Bryson to go around. Every Tour player endorses some kind of gear. They’re paid mercenaries, peddling hyperbole. DeChambeau is offering something much more rare: authentic enthusiasm. “I have zero doubt this is the best way to play golf,” he says. “Not just for me, but for everybody.”
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Why grip diameter matters when it comes to your golf swing
Ever wondered if your golf grips are hindering your ability to hit better, more consistent golf shots? Obviously, if your grips are old, worn out, or just plain slippery, you’re going to have some trouble. But what about the actual size of your grips?
When was the last time you thought about that?
Grip size, or diameter if you want to get technical, is often one of the most overlooked parts of getting your clubs fit for your game. And yes, it can make a huge difference in how well you swing the handle. Luckily, determining the right grip diameter isn’t all that difficult.
The trick is to look at your golf glove. If you wear a small golf glove, a women’s medium or smaller, or any junior size glove, then undersized grips with smaller diameters will probably fit your hands better. Medium-sized gloves usually predicate standard size grips, and if you wear a large or extra-large glove, oversized or sometimes jumbo-sized grips may fit you better.
What happens if you have the wrong size, though?
Grips too small
If you’re playing with grips that are too small for your hands (regardless of your golf glove size), the smaller muscles of the hand and fingers have to work harder, often causing an overactive motion through the ball. In other words, smaller grips can make you handsy and cause you to release the clubhead too quickly. Also, having grips that are too small make it really easy to hook it. Trust me, I know this one from experience.
Grips too big
The opposite might be true with grips that are too big. Instead of engaging the smaller muscles, a bigger diameter grip restricts and slows the hands down — often causing you to lose both swing speed and the ability to square the clubface fast enough through impact. Meaning, you’re prone to slice it a whole lot more if your handles are too big.
Finding the right grip diameter to fix your swing
If you tend to slice the ball a lot, and you’re running out of options—a smaller grip might help you. And if you naturally tend to swing too much with the hands and fingers causing you to hook, a thicker grip can help mitigate your handsy action through impact. Both instances are not paramount for everyone, though. Some players might actually swing faster with thicker grips and so on. It’s really up to you and your club-fitter to test and find out what works best for your swing.
Additionally, some players opt for different grip sizes on different clubs. It’s not uncommon to find thicker grips in the wedges or short irons to prevent hooking or overswinging. Furthermore, several professional golfers often use grip tape to build up the lower region of the grip, thus reducing the taper. Depending on who you ask, this is also to mitigate hooking the ball.
Again, don’t take the “bigger grips are for bigger hands and smaller grips are for smaller hands” advice as gospel, even though it’s true for most golfers. If you find you’re hooking, slicing, or simply uncomfortable holding your clubs, try a different grip size and see if it helps. No doubt you’re likely to see and feel an immediate difference.
Whether that difference is good or bad, it’s up to you to find out.
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Jordan Spieth was on top of the world in 2015. After capturing the Masters, he attributed his success in part to the Full Swing Simulator he’d installed in his home — adding that he was using it to prepare for The Open Championship. There, he finished one stroke out of a playoff. The next year, Tiger Woods put Full Swing in his home and began touting the technology on social media. Amateurs and Tour pros quickly realized that if a Full Swing Simulator was helping these stars play even better golf, then it might also benefit themselves. No coincidence, thousands of Full Swing Simulators now grace homes and businesses worldwide. In fact, the brand won the Golf Digest Best of Award for the third consecutive year, capturing the 2019 Multi-Sport category.
It’s no wonder. Full Swing remains the most advanced system for golfers. Tour pros rely on it because the realism is jaw-dropping: When your club makes contact with the ball, an overhead camera records video and measures your clubhead data. The ball passes through two infrared tracks built in front of the screen — which measure the ball speed and direction, as well as other data points — and seamlessly crosses from the hitting bay into the virtual world with zero lag. You see the entire flight, exactly as you would outdoors. No other simulation technology or indoor launch monitor can capture and analyze action that quickly and with as much precision.
You can virtually play dozens of the world’s top courses, and even simulate wind and weather. During the season, Tour pros practice for events at the digital likes of Kapalua Resort, Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Firestone Country Club, and Harbour Town Golf Links, setting their Full Swing Simulator to mimic current course conditions — before actually heading there. It’s that reliable. Average Joes gush over its on-demand nature, where the pace of play is always comfortable. And beginners can learn the game without the intimidation of strangers watching. Then there’s the convenience: No travel time to and from a course; no carrying a bag; no weather issues. And it’s less taxing on the body.
Ironically, Full Swing Simulators are not improving just golf games. Take it from Tour pro Brandt Snedeker and his wife Mandy, for example, who installed a Full Swing Simulator in their home for an even better reason. “It lets me spend lots more quality time with my family,” says Snedeker. “You can’t put a price tag on that. I can get in 30 minutes of range time that would otherwise take 90 minutes at the golf course.” He’s home for his children much more often now and even plays golf with them on the simulator. Like many other families that have installed Full Swing Simulators in their homes, the Snedekers also use theirs as a large TV screen for weekend football gatherings. Redefining home entertainment, Full Swing Simulators are compatible with gaming systems and can come installed with 13 interactive sports experiences, including baseball, football, hockey, soccer, and even Zombie Dodgeball, among others — perfect for getting kids up and moving.
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One less week of Playoffs action made it imperative for players to perform well in the postseason. Now a debut format for the TOUR Championship will determine this year’s winner of the PGA TOUR’s Ultimate Prize.
Here’s everything you need to know for this week’s TOUR Championship, the grand finale of the FedExCup season.
Starting Strokes
Gone are the confusing projections and days when two players had to share the trophy ceremony on East Lake’s 18th green.
This year, the TOUR Championship’s final leaderboard will also represent the final FedExCup standings for the top 30 players. Stroke play will be used to determine the champion of the PGA TOUR’s season-long points race. To recognize players for their regular-season performance, there will be an unprecedented staggered start to the TOUR Championship utilizing a concept called Starting Strokes.
The FedExCup leaders will begin the event with a head-start on the competition. The player who finishes the four rounds at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club with the lowest score in relation to par will win the FedExCup.
“As soon as the TOUR Championship begins, any fan – no matter if they’ve followed the PGA TOUR all season or are just tuning in for the final event – can immediately understand what’s going on and what’s at stake for every single player in the field,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said when the changes were announced last year. “And, of course, players will know exactly where they stand at all times while in play, which will ratchet up the drama, consequence and volatility of the competition down the stretch.”
Bigger Payout
The entire bonus pool for this year’s FedExCup race is a record $70 million. That includes $10 million for the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, which was rewarded to the top players in the FedExCup standings at the end of the regular season. Brooks Koepka earned $2 million for taking first place in that competition.
First place in the FedExCup has increased from $10 million to $15 million. The runner-up will earn $5 million. Every player who makes it to East Lake will earn at least $395,000. Eight players will earn at least $1 million in FedExCup bonus money.
Every player who qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs will earn at least $100,000, while Nos. 126-150 in the final FedExCup standings all earn $70,000.
The FedExCup bonus money is the only money given for a player’s finish at East Lake. There is no longer a purse for the TOUR Championship. FedExCup bonus money is not considered part of a player’s official earnings for the season.
Questions and Answers
Answers to a few questions you may have.
HOW DRASTIC ARE THESE CHANGES?
The changes are, in Commissioner Monahan’s words, “significant and exciting.” Based solely on previous FedExCup outcomes, however, it’s difficult to label them as drastic. If the Starting Strokes system had been in place for each of the previous 12 FedExCup Playoffs, only one FedExCup winner would be different. Brooks Koepka, who entered this year’s Playoffs as the FedExCup points leader, was asked about the changes. “That’s fine with me,” Koepka replied. “I’d love a two-shot lead.”
WILL THIS BE AN OFFICIAL WIN?
The man who finishes atop the leaderboard after 72 holes at East Lake won’t just be credited with a win in the FedExCup. He’ll also be named the winner of the TOUR Championship. It will count as an official PGA TOUR victory and earn the player a spot in the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions. A win in the TOUR Championship also comes with a five-year exemption.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE’S A TIE?
In the event of a tie for first place following the TOUR Championship, the FedExCup winner will be decided in a sudden-death playoff immediately following completion of competition. The sudden-death playoff will follow the same format that would be used in the event of a tie for first place at a PGA TOUR cosponsored stroke play tournament.
In the event of a tie for positions below first place following the TOUR Championship, the FedExCup bonus distribution will be allocated using the same method currently used to distribute prize money when there is a tie. That is, the total money for each tying position will be averaged and that average will be distributed to each player in the tying position.
WHAT ABOUT STATISTICS?
Beyond the final leaderboard, most statistics will not be impacted by the Starting Strokes. For instance, Strokes Gained statistics and course records will remain based on how a player performs from his first swing in the first round to his final stroke on the 72nd hole.
WHAT IF A PLAYER CAN’T COMPETE IN THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP?
Any professional who is qualified for the TOUR Championship but unable to participate and/or any professional who is disqualified or withdraws for any reason will finish in last position for the TOUR Championship.
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Bubba Watson defends his title and seeks to join the late Billy Casper as the only four-time winner of Connecticut’s annual PGA TOUR stop, as the circuit switches coasts back from Pebble Beach for its 36th visit to TPC River Highlands.
Brooks Koepka is slated to make the trek one week after his quest for a historic third consecutive U.S. Open title, while Phil Mickelson is set to end a 15-year absence from a place where he became the tournament’s only back-to-back winner in 2001 and ’02.
FIELD NOTES: Patrick Cantlay, whose first visit to Greater Hartford as a 2011 amateur featured a 60, is back for his fifth appearance. He’s just three weeks removed from winning the Memorial Tournament for his second TOUR win. … Paul Casey, who couldn’t close out a four-shot lead heading to last year’s final round, is back in search of an elusive Hartford win. He also was a playoff loser to Watson in 2015. … England’s Tommy Fleetwood will get his first look at TPC River Highlands. … Outgoing U.S. Amateur champ Viktor Hovland and Oklahoma State teammate Matthew Wolff are set to make their professional debuts. Two other freshly minted pros accepted invites – Collin Morikawa makes his third pro start and Justin Suh his second.
FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points.
STORYLINES: Watson, who preceded last year’s victory with playoff wins in 2010 and ’15, now sets his sights on Casper’s Hartford standard. Casper captured what was then the Insurance City Open in 1963, following with victories in ’65, ’68 and ’73. … A Watson triumph also would lift him alongside Mickelson as the event’s only back-to-back winner. … Mickelson sets foot at River Highlands for the first time since 2003, when he tied for 58th in his bid for a three-peat. That’s when the event was played in August, rather than following the U.S. Open. … Each of the past five Travelers champions has won after playing the U.S. Open, though Russell Knox’s 2016 victory gets an asterisk. An Olympic shakeup that year moved the Travelers back to August. … Just four New Englanders have won in Hartford, though two came back-to-back in 2005 (Brad Faxon) and 2006 (J.J. Henry). The others are Paul Azinger (1987, ’89) and Bob Toski (1953). … The Travelers has gone to a playoff in each of the previous three odd-year editions – 2017 (Jordan Spieth), 2015 (Watson), 2013 (Ken Duke).
COURSE: TPC River Highlands, 6,841 yards, par 70. Located about midway between Hartford and New Haven, River Highlands is the third course to occupy the property and enters its 36th year as a PGA TOUR venue. Pete Dye oversaw a complete redesign of the former Edgewood Country Club in 1982, and Dye protégé Bobby Weed offered an upgrade nine years later in consultation with former TOUR pros Roger Maltbie and Howard Twitty. The spotlight falls on Nos. 15-17, which play around a four-acre lake and create a finish considered among the most thrilling on TOUR. River Highlands is the site of the TOUR’s only 58, when Jim Furyk reeled off 10 birdies and holed out for eagle at the par-4 No.3.
For those visiting Greater Hartford, must-play courses include Lyman Orchards GC (Middlefield, Conn.) and Richter Park GC (Danbury, Conn.). Book your reservations via TeeOff.com.
72-HOLE RECORD: 258, Kenny Perry (2009).
18-HOLE RECORD: 58, Jim Furyk (4th round, 2016).
LAST YEAR: Watson wiped out a six-shot deficit for the second time at River Highlands, chasing down Casey with a 7-under-par 63 for his third victory of the 2017-18 season. After posting 33 on the front side, the lefty heated up with five birdies after the turn. A birdie at the drivable par-4 15th lifted Watson into a tie with Casey, and he moved in front when his second shot at No.18 stopped 3 feet from the flagstick for a closing birdie. Casey followed up a Saturday 62 with a 72, falling into a share of second with Stewart Cink (62), Beau Hossler (66) and J.B. Holmes (67). Watson also overcame a six-shot deficit to win in 2010, eventually capturing a playoff with Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank for his first PGA TOUR victory.
https://i0.wp.com/honeycreekgolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/golf-news-black.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1300500Teesnap Developerhttps://honeycreekgolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/logo-honey-creek-golf.pngTeesnap Developer2019-06-19 08:13:332019-06-18 18:15:26Will Watson make it number four at the Travelers?
Phil Mickelson’s quest to end US Open nightmare is on its last legs
Phil Mickelson will turn 49 Sunday, the day of the final round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
What are the chances that he’ll be standing on the first tee at Pebble on the final round with a chance to win on that day?
Regardless of his age, because of who he is, how he embraces the big moments, how motivated he remains and what he’s done, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he is in the mix to win the U.S. Open on Sunday.
If he is in the hunt, this is what Mickelson will face: Completing the career Grand Slam as a winner of all four major championships.
It’s a feat that’s been accomplished by only five players in the history of the game — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and most recently Tiger Woods.
Since Mickelson won the 2013 British Open at Muirfield, this week will mark his sixth attempt at completing the Slam.
Mickelson has finished runner-up a record six times in the U.S. Open, the most recent his second-place finish in 2013 at Merion.
A U.S. Open is something Mickelson desperately wants to win for a couple of reasons. The Slam, of course. But it always has been his most coveted major championship title, even before he won his first major, the Masters in 2004.
His realistic window of opportunity, of course, is closing before his eyes.
What if it never happens after all of those close calls?
“No matter what, he’s going to be one of the greatest players that’s ever played this game,’’ Tiger Woods said. “How he’s viewed and whether he wins the career Grand Slam or not, I still think he’s one of the best players to ever pick up a golf club.
“There’s only five guys that have done it, so that’s the hard part,’’ Woods went on. “It’s just one of those fickle things. You’ve had some of the greatest champions of all time that have been missing one leg of the Grand Slam [Arnold Palmer, for example, never won a PGA Championship].
“So, for a person [Mickelson] who we all know hasn’t driven the ball as straight as he would probably like, he’s had six seconds in the U.S. Open. That’s incredible to be there that many times. He’s figured out a way to play well in the U.S. Open. It just happens to be one of those things where he hasn’t won, but he’s been there. And wouldn’t surprise me if he’s there again.’’
There is some mojo going for Mickelson, too, at Pebble Beach, where he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. He’s won the AT&T four times and the last time the U.S. Open was played at Pebble, he finished tied for fourth in 2010.
Overall, this will be Mickelson’s 27th U.S. Open in a professional career that has included 44 victories and five major championships.
“There’s not much I could do right now that would do anything to redefine my career, but there’s one thing I could do, and that would be to win a U.S. Open,” Mickelson said. “So if I were to do that, it would change the way I view my career because there are only, what, five guys that have ever won all the majors. And you have to look at those guys differently.”
“The difficulty is not the age,’’ he said. “The difficulty is that when you’re in your 20s you feel like you have multiple chances’. And when you’re turning 49, you’re like ‘I’ve got two more chances, this year and maybe [in 2020 at] Winged Foot [where he finished runner-up in 2006] and that’s about it. With that being the only one in the four that I haven’t won, and what it would offer me and how I look at my career, I put more pressure on it. That’s the difficult thing.
“It would be pretty special to be part of the elite players that have won all four. To me that’s the sign of a complete game. It would redefine my career.’’
“I don’t think about [the Grand Slam] a lot,’’ he insisted, but added, “I do think about what I have to do to win a U.S. Open. And it’s getting increasingly difficult.’’
Paul Azinger, the former player who is now an analyst for NBC, wonders whether Mickelson’s burning desire to finally win a U.S. Open will increase the degree of difficulty. But he, too, believes this week is set up well for Mickelson.
“Of course he wants it too much,’’ Azinger said. “[But] he’s going to a place that he knows like the back of his hand. There’s not a better scenario for Phil Mickelson to get a U.S. Open. Expectations will by sky high … off the charts. He’s already trying to deflect — saying his winning there [in February] has no bearing whatsoever [on the U.S. Open]. He’s an artist at redirecting pressure. The redirect is a great gift.
“But I can’t tell Phil how to think; he can’t teach me how to think,’’ Azinger went on. “He knows how to think. Phil is disciplined enough and he knows what he’s doing. Phil has proven he can play in the elements and he knows the greens. You’ve got to know how the ball is going to bounce and react on those poa annua grass. A lot of guys are going to misjudge that first hop. But Phil won’t. He’s been there for most of his life.’’
Mickelson’s grandfather, Al Santos, was one of the first caddies at Pebble Beach. Mickelson said his grandfather carried a 1900 silver dollar in his pocket while he worked, and passed it down to Mickelson, who uses it as a ball marker whenever he plays there.
“What an American dream,’’ CBS golf commentator Jim Nantz said. “Instead of what his grandfather was making, 25 cents a bag, now he’s going to close out the career Grand Slam on the sacred sod of Pebble Beach, what a story that would be. The story is too good and his record is too good there for me to overlook it.”
Said Azinger: “I think six seconds should equal one win. I’d lobby for that.’’
Of course, golf doesn’t work that way.
“I have such great memories here,” Mickelson said. “I would love to add to it.”
https://i0.wp.com/honeycreekgolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/file-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=16301200Teesnap Developerhttps://honeycreekgolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/logo-honey-creek-golf.pngTeesnap Developer2019-06-11 10:17:512019-06-11 10:17:51This will be Mickelson’s 27th U.S. Open in his professional career - Will this be his year?
