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Opening the blustery Memorial with a one-under 71, Tiger Woods appeared sound physically and played a calm, mostly-rust free round alongside Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka. Either he’s swinging at about 80%, as he did in the successful run-up to the 2019 Masters, or maybe his flowing swing of today looks slower thanks to Bryson’s recent slashing.

Either way, the combined sight of such good tempo and seemingly effortless accuracy suggests he’s well positioned for the upcoming majors.

From Steve DiMeglio’s story, noting just how tough the winds were when the all-star threesome teed off, and Woods’ struggle to make putts.

“I was very pleased the way I drove it, my feel for my irons. I just didn’t quite hit the putts hard enough. Most of my putts were dying, didn’t quite have enough oomph to it.”

Tiger Tracker was pleased with the performance too, noting that either poor positioning or a conservative approach led to only one par-5 birdie. Woods hit 8 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens.

While there is no video posted of Jack Nicklaus opining during a lengthy Memorial round one telecast visit, the disdain in his voice was evident.

As Kyle Porter notes for CBSSports.com, the tournament host put the USGA and R&A “on blast” with his latest comments imploring action sooner than later.

"The golf ball is a very simple thing to fix and I've been preaching about it for ... 43 years I first went to the USGA," Nicklaus said in the Golf Channel booth during the first round of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday. "I mean, that's a long time to be studying something. Guys, stop studying it and do something, will you please?"

The man is 80, he should not have to be this exasperated.

The comments stood out because Nicklaus had complimented Bryson DeChambeau for playing stellar golf after his transformation.

ESPN.com’s Stephanie Ball takes a pretty extensive look at the PGA Tour’s successful start and highlights everything that’s gone into the COVID-19 testing protocols.

While there have been hiccups, questions about the legitimacy of the traveling “bubble” and recent signs that transparency is diminishing, the program has been a remarkable success in restarting golf and along with NASCAR, setting a solid example the world of major sports. (No players tested positive this week, a minor miracle given the country around them.)

Especially as other major leagues have restarted in bumpy fashion and now face questions about whether they are gaining unfair lab testing priority. (That issue was solved by the PGA Tour having an on-site, mobile test lab.)

It’s not clear if ESPN.com’s Ball saw some of the elements in person, but the story does indicate a foregone conclusion element to at-home testing before events (we know one player did not partake and traveled a good ways just to test positive and spend 10 days in quarantine).

Anyway, one component of the story still sets off alarm bells given what we know about the virus and people exercising indoors: the Tour’s fitness van. That’s where players are now asked to workout instead of hotel or home gyms, seems like a spreader event waiting to happen.

Liberty National’s 18th hole (left) and desired area for expansion (right), with New York City in the distance (Photo by Geoff Shackelford)

Liberty National owner Paul Fireman, has given up recently rekindled efforts to expand the course into sensitive wetlands just off the current 18th hole, reports NorthJersey.com’s Terence T. McDonald. The plan was

Paul Fireman, the former Reebok executive and owner of Liberty National Golf Course, said in a statement Wednesday morning that he is pulling the plug on the expansion plan so the park’s advocates can address what he called the “social justice problems connected to Liberty State Park.” Fireman allies have alleged recently that the park’s keepers have not done enough to make it accessible to the largely Black neighborhoods that sit just outside of the 1,200-acre urban oasis.

The course recently hosted the 2017 Presidents Cup and 2019 Northern Trust won by Patrick Reed.

Tiger Woods always travels in a crowd. Whenever he plays, he is surrounded by thousands. In his first tournament in five months and first without fans, he experienced the new normal.

Tony Finau birdied seven of his last 10 holes Thursday and had a one-shot lead over Ryan Palmer after the first round of the Memorial.

Tiger Woods opened with birdies on two of his first three holes Thursday at the Memorial, but he admitted to being "a little bit rusty" in his first tournament since February.

July 16, 2020

New Steph Curry Signature Shoe to Benefit Ace Kids Golf

Limited edition Under Armour signature shoe inspired by The Masters

Warriors star Stephen Curry showed off more than his golf game at the recent American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe. And Bay Area youth have reason to celebrate.

Prior to starting his first round, Curry released a limited edition drop of his signature sneaker. The newest version–Under Armour Curry 7–was inspired by the  par-5 13th hole at Augusta National, which is named Azalea. Along with floral accents, the shoe features a bright green and pink colorway.

Golf weekend drop …a limited edition #Curry7 inspired by my favorite hole in golf, 13 at @themasters…aka azalea! AND 100% of net proceeds are going to @acekidsgolf in Oakland.

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) July 10, 2020

FINAL_80-81_Winter NCGA_Rules Quiz_v5

 

The post 2020 Winter Rules Quiz appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Six weeks into its return to golf, the PGA Tour is reporting that it has had nine positive coronavirus cases among the players and caddies tested each week.

A PGA Tour event hosted by the Warriors' Steph Curry starting in the fall of 2021 took a step closer to reality, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bryson DeChambeau is literally going to new lengths on the golf course. See for yourself what he did in the first round of the Memorial.

The LPGA Tour will not have spectators for the Drive On LPGA Championship and the Marathon Classic when play resumes in two weeks in Ohio.

In the sunshine state, there’s no shortage of great golf courses to play. Offering everything from all-inclusive resort courses to some of the most challenging and enjoyable public golf courses in the southeast, Florida is one of the must-visit states for serious golfers and casual players alike. Below we’ve rounded up five golf courses in […]

The post Best Golf Courses in Florida appeared first on Golf Blog, Golf Articles | GolfNow Blog.

#MyTubSpy asks, should anyone play cheap golf balls? Also, the Best Rangefinders of 2020 and Top 5 Golf Equipment Trends, all on this week’s No Putts Given.

0:43  – Meet Phillip Bishop, our new Director of Hard Goods Testing6:33  – Should you buy cheap golf balls?24:38  – The Most Wanted Rangefinders of 202026:32  – The Top 5 Trends in Golf Equipment26:56 – 3D Printing36:16 – Large OEMs embrace DTC37:53 – Golf retail is dying45:30 – A shift away from traditional marketing49:00 – The rise of the personal launch monitor

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The post Should Golfers Buy Cheap Golf Balls? | #NoPuttsGiven 45 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

Let’s start with a not-so-amazing thesis: The material used to construct every golf club is important. For that matter, so are the design, construction and geometry.

That’s not particularly hard-hitting information. But consider how much of the marketing chatter around drivers, fairway woods and hybrids features buzzwords like Triaxial carbon crowns, Inverted Cone construction and the ever-popular catch-all “multi-material technology.”

The answer is “a lot.” It’s an order of magnitude greater than Bryson DeChambeau’s daily calorie intake.

What’s clear is manufactures want consumers to associate certain materials or processes with different levels of quality.

What’s less defined is how much merit one should assign to these sometimes audacious claims.

On this very day, Odyssey will be announcing and releasing their Odyssey Stroke Lab Black Toe Up Big Seven putter.

Yes, you read that right. I’m going to give you the scoop on this new putter today and it should also be in your golf shop today as well. Let’s hear it for instant gratification!

For any other putter release, the fact that you can buy one on the same day that it is announced would be the big deal. But there is something even bigger going on with the Odyssey Stroke Lab Black Toe Up Big Seven.

Sing it with me!

Everybody
Rock your body
Everybody
Rock your body right
Backstryke’s Back, Alright!

As far as trades go, this is huge win for San Francisco, Harding Park and the PGA Tour from what I’m reading in Ron Kroichick’s San Francisco Chronicle story.

In a nutshell: the PGA Tour and City of San Francisco contract called for several events, including the 2026 Presidents Cup (which now moves to 2027, one year closer to Olympic Club hosting the 2028 PGA). Instead, the already-once-failed attempt at a Steph Curry-hosted fall event has been resurrected. Originally slated for Lake Merced the first go-round, Kroichick says next month’s PGA Championship host will end up the regular site instead of the Presidents Cup.

Workday, sponsor of last week’s one-off “Charity Open” at Muirfield Village was the likely sponsor the last time a Curry-hosted event was considered and seems the likely sponsor for the new fall stop.

In his pre-Memorial media session—which came after a virtual luncheon…these strange times—Commissioner Jay Monahan said the likely next event to be played before humans will probably be the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

JAY MONAHAN: You know, obviously we've canceled -- we're not going to have spectators and we're not going to have pro-ams through the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. Right now you look at the PGA TOUR schedule, the next event up is the U.S. Open, and I know that the USGA continues to work with the state of New York and is making plans to return fans. If I had to guess, that would be the first week that we would do so.

I think to give a little more texture to your question, we're spending a lot of time in each of the subsequent tournaments or each of the tournaments in the fall working on a number of different ways to stage the event, which includes full capacity, partial capacity, and obviously the way that we're operating now, which is no spectators, and that will be largely dependent on what we hear from the communities where we play.

As noted yesterday, New York’s newly imposed quarantine restrictions on visitors from pretty much any place with a population seem like a bigger issue for mid-September’s rescheduled U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That said, even a small crowd would make a huge difference in giving the event a major championship field—if safe to do so. Oh, and help move some 2020 merch.

How refreshing to see Bryson DeChambeau tackle a question about distance, equipment rules changes and Martin Slumbers’ recent remarks with both class and wisdom.

Many players might bristle or give signs of a narcissistic blow. Mercifully, DeChambeau is confident that the recent advantage he’s gained would likely remain if the governing bodies ever did something to lessen the role of technology over skill. He seems fine with any rule change and willing to take responsibility for adjusting to the rules. Many a lesser man would have taken all of this personally.

From today’s pre-Memorial Tournament presser:

Q. I wanted to ask, Slumbers talked about the fact that they're going to have to address what's going on, and you seem to be now the newest poster boy for this. Would you be upset if they rolled things back in regards to equipment because you've shown them that you can hit the ball as far as you can hit it?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Hmm. No, I wouldn't. No matter what rules they give me, I'm going to try and do my best to maximize my athletic ability. They can't take working out away from me. I know that. At least as of right now. Whatever -- look, 1998 the COR test was put in stone where you couldn't have a certain number off the face, and they've used that ever since. It's now a CT test. The ball speeds coming off the face are what they are, and they really haven't changed that much. If anything, the clubs have gotten longer, the shafts have gotten stiffer, and we can swing it faster with more control. Back in the day, the shafts were a little more flexible, and LA Golf Shafts has provided me with a shaft that's super stiff, super stable and allowed me to swing at the speeds while retaining the same control with the face.

Yeah, it's a lot of work on my end, too, to gain strength and to swing it hard, to train. It's a lot of hard work. People don't realize how hard I've worked to get here. It's been working out for at least an hour every single day for the past five, six months, fixing my body when it breaks down. I have to go, okay, I've got to go fix my body and work out and train in the right way to be able to tolerate all these forces going through my body and out of my body.

So in regards to whoever is saying we're going to have to look at equipment, I've got no problem. I'm, again, just going to look at my game and how I can improve it in the best way possible, no matter if they roll the ball back there's still going to be a percentage difference. Even if it gets rolled back there's still going to be a gap. Whether it's closer now, it is what it is. I'm not really worried about it. I'm just going to keep trying to make those athletic gains so that I can be the best golfer that I can possibly be.

Commissioner Jay Monahan, who is on the record as pro-distance, was asked about DeChambeau and distance in his pre-Memorial session with reporters on hand. He mentions how DeChambeau disrupted himself (his bacon and milkshake supplier would concur) and then largely dances around the R&A/USGA position.