More bets and more money have been wagered on Tiger Woods to win the Memorial Tournament than have been placed on any other golfer at multiple sportsbooks.
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PGA commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday that he's hopeful of having at least some spectators in attendance for tour events before the end of the year.
Why are there so many styles of putters and so many different ways to improve your putting? We are all made up with different body structures, minds and strengths. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another. Some methods work better than others and stubborn golfers find it hard to change. As it turns out there are only 3 consistent skills that you need to master for putting success.
You need to understand that every method of putting CAN BE successful. Every different style of putter and putting stoke has won the US Open and The Open (British). You can be successful by swinging your wrists or rocking your shoulders and swing in a straight line or arc. You can also jab at the ball or swing with the consistency of a pendulum or accelerate through the ball. Only you can determine what works best for your physical limitations and ability.
Phil Kenyon training Rory McIlroy (who has a wonderful putting stroke). He locks his wrists, rocks his shoulders and swings straight up his target line.
I recently read an article by Phil Kenyon, who is now the director and principal owner of Harold Swash Putting in the UK. He has trained many of the top professional golfers and recent winners to the US Open and The Open to help them hone their personal putting styles. He believes that they must achieve three key outcomes to have success.
The 3 Key Skills:
1/ Control the starting direction of the ball,
2/ Control the speed of your ball.
3/ Predict the break of your ball.
July 15, 2020
Safeway Open to Kick Off 2020-2021 Season Without Fans
The Safeway Open presented by Chevron announced today that the 2020 event, the first of the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR season, will not have fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual PGA TOUR event held at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, CA will be played as scheduled, September 10-13.
“The health and safety of the Napa community, as well as our players, volunteers and partners, has remained of utmost importance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re disappointed to announce that we will not be able to host our tremendous fans at this year’s event and we will continue to work closely with the PGA TOUR as well as local, state and federal agencies to ensure the well-being of all who are allowed onsite during tournament week,” said Executive Director Jeff Sanders.
With deadlines approaching tied into the operational logistics of running the Safeway Open presented by Chevron, conducting the 2020 event with fans onsite was not a possibility in the current health climate.
The staggering numbers that prove just how far Bryson DeChambeau is hitting the golf ball these days
He looks bigger. He swings harder. The ball travels farther. The numbers of just how much farther will leave you shaking your head.
Even with the outcome having been determined, the fill-in Workday Charity Open on CBS edged FS1’s prime time NASCAR to rank as last weekend’s top rated sports broadcast, notes Sports Media Watch.
Showbuzzdaily.com has the full listing here.
The Workday final round from Muirfield Village, won in a playoff by Collin Morikawa over Justin Thomas, competed against NBC’s live airing of the American Century Championship.
Compared to the same weekend in 2019, the Workday easily beat the John Deere Classic while the American Century held steady.
Golf organizers fixed an oversight Wednesday by agreeing to move the pandemic-postponed Curtis Cup so that it doesn't conflict with the Solheim Cup.
Tiger Woods is in the field as the PGA Tour remains in Dublin, Ohio, this time for the Memorial Tournament at Jack's place. Here are our experts' best bets.
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
That grand old saying has been credited to everyone from Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) to Oprah Winfrey and, as sayings go, it’s as axiomatic as they come. It’s also an accurate descriptor of Birdieball, its award-winning Birdieball putting mat and the company’s 17-year journey to overnight success.
The Colorado-based Birdieball copped top honors in MyGolfSpy’s Putting Mat Buyer’s Guide for 2020. In this article, we’re going to share with you the story of Birdieball and its two signature products: the odd-looking but surprisingly fun-to-hit Birdieball and the award-winning Birdieball putting mat.
But to really understand this 11-person family business, let’s jump into the WABAC Machine and set the dial for April 1999.
Running Down a Dream
“What I’ve learned in life is nobody buys your dreams,” says Birdieball founder, president, owner and inventor John Breaker. “You have to show them the dream in concrete.”
It’s been about 1.5 years since we first told you that Arccos Caddie Link was coming. We’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten about it or simply assumed it was vaporware. The Link wearable wouldn’t be the first bit of promising technology that never went anywhere.
Here we are, 18 months or so later, and Arccos is finally launching its Link device.
If you’re just hearing about Arccos Caddie Link, all you really need to know is that it eliminates the need to either own and wear an Apple Watch or keep your phone in your pocket during your round.
I’ve been firmly “in the pocket is no big deal” camp from the earliest days of Arccos. I didn’t understand the complaints about keeping your phone in your pocket. However, when women chimed in with “at least you have pockets,” I realized why Arccos’s phone problem was such a deal breaker.
The focus across sports -- around the world -- is the coronavirus. But with athletes, there is another health factor: Avoiding injury. So how is the PGA Tour juggling that in a social distance world?
Tiger Woods returned to Muirfield Village for a practice round with Justin Thomas and spoke to media soon after. The session didn’t reveal much, though the big buried lede came when discussion last week’s Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village when Collin Morikawa and Thomas went to a playoff.
Tiger revealed that he was watching on his computer like most after CBS successfully produced excellent live early round coverage for Golf Channel, then sent viewers to its app and website to watch continuing live coverage all so the final round could be shown on tape in its regularly scheduled time slot.
Q. You've been in this situation before, too, but I'm sure you saw on Sunday J.T. holes a 50-footer. If there's a crowd around like Memorial usually gets and they react to it, how much harder is it for Collin to make his putt?
TIGER WOODS: A lot more difficult. I just think that the energy -- even it felt weird as I was watching on my computer at home, like 14, when Collin hit the ball on the green there, and granted, they've never had the tees up there during the Memorial event, but if they were and had that same situation during a Memorial event, to have someone drive the ball on the green that close to the hole, I mean, that whole hillside would have been going nuts.
Now, I’m speculating here, but work with me: Tiger Woods went to Stanford, he has a big yacht, he loves sports, and watches a lot of those sports on TV in the comfort of his home. I’m thinking he has a pretty nice TV setup, maybe even a “guy” who set up a sweet system complete with surround sound, Sonos through the estate and every channel known to man.
ESPN.com’s Bob Harig reports on Jack Nicklaus’ most intriguing pre-Memorial Tournament press conference comment: the 80-year-oldlegend intends to maintain the tradition of greeting the likely winner with a handshake after they’ve completed 72 holes.
"I'm going to shake their hand. I going to walk right out there and shake your hand," Nicklaus said during a virtual news conference at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. "If they don't want to shake my hand, that's fine. I'll give them a fist bump or an elbow bump, but I'm not going to give them COVID-19, so that's -- I wouldn't put anybody in that position. I wouldn't do that, and if I was in any danger of doing that, I wouldn't shake their hands.
"And incidentally, I like shaking their hand, too. I think that's a great tradition, but it was as much fun for me as I hope it is for them."
The PGA Tour has repeatedly asked players, caddies and officials not to shake hands or even fist bump, though Commissioner Jay Monahan and Rory McIlroy couldn’t help themselves at Harbour Town. But the view of Nicklaus stands out because he had recorded a PSA back in March imploring younger generations to protect those of his age group.
"Many of you kids, you're going to a lot of places that may bring that home to a senior citizen. I don't think that's what you want to do," Nicklaus said. "Let's all make sure we wash our hands. Let's make sure we're very smart about where we go, and when we go, let's try to stay away from public places. Let's just be smart. Americans have always been smart, and Americans have always gotten through these things, and we'll get through this one."
The PSA:
There is a key detail missing in Doug Ferguson’s AP report saying the PGA Tour is exploring a move of its fall Asia swing to the west coast of the United States.
Naturally, there will be no creativity shown with field size and format but some fall west coast golf is a nice alternative. Tough conversations will have to take place with sponsors whose primary sponsorship interest lies in bringing top players to their part of the world.
So no, those aren’t the details missing. It’s something else.
Wait, I’ve got it!
The rest of the world, flattening the curve, will want no part of a mostly-American group of golfers, their luggage handlers, and a tour featuring COVID-19 positive-testing-but-not-negative groupings (going off in two twosomes with GMac quietly added to that dubious division).
Jack Nicklaus said he will continue the tradition of shaking the hand of the Memorial Tournament's winner at the 18th green.
Tiger Woods said he put safety first in deciding not to play much during the coronavirus pandemic.
It may be 2020, but the new Bettinardi BB1-Wide Totally ’80s Limited Run putter will take you on a DeLorean ride right back to 1985. Ah, the much-romanticized 1980s. The decade dominated by big hair, bold clothing, and the naive view that trickle-down economics was a sound fiscal strategy.
Those of us a bit more advanced in age actually lived through and remember the ’80s. As such, perhaps our collective nostalgia for the decade requires some suspension of disbelief. The vibrantly hued ’80s had it’s dark tones as well. We had the Challenger disaster, Iran-Contra, and the super-effective Just Say No campaign. Really though, as we slog through the shitshow that is 2020, pondering days past can be a refreshing escape. Just ignore the dark spots of the ’80s, and instead reminisce about the neon simplicity that was Miami Vice, the two Coreys, and the Truffle Shuffle dance craze.
Hey youngsters, feel free to search #truffleshuffle on TikTok. You’re welcome.
The Bettinardi BB1-Wide Totally ’80s Limited Run putter may not be a time machine, but it has all of the elements necessary to take us back to that decade of dayglow decadence.
Robert B. is on the Cut
For weeks, one sporting event after another was canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Here is when we can expect a return to action.
It's been five months since he last played on the PGA Tour. For the first time post-shutdown, he's back. How will he adjust to no fans? Will he break Sam Snead's all-time record? What does the rest of his year look like?
🚨Stat of the week:
The 2020 @MemorialGolf SoF is set to break many #OWGR era records. As it looks now, this will be:
- strongest regular @PGATOUR event ever
- 1st regular PGA Tour event with SoF > 800
- stronger than any Playoff event ever
- stronger than the last 8 Masters pic.twitter.com/btBDoZrPsX
With the world’s top nine players and Tiger Woods turning up in Dublin, Ohio for the rescheduled Memorial Tournament, the strength of the 133-player field appears set to be historic (see above embed).
That said, as a few pointed out on Twitter today (below), the field features several sponsor invites of former champions from long ago who haven’t shown signs of relevance in a some time. Namely, Carl Pettersson and Vijay Singh.
Singh, 57, has yet to make a cut in 2020 in seven starts, has on top ten the last four years on the PGA Tour, and has made just 12 cuts in 42 starts during that time.
Petterson, 42, has made one PGA Tour start the last two years and since 2016, has made eleven made cuts in 60 starts with three WD’s and one top-25.
