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New-look Kent State turns heads at UCF Challenge

New-look Kent State turns heads at UCF Challenge

Golfsolutions February 01, 2021
New-look Kent State turns heads at UCF Challenge https://ift.tt/3oCSlqK

ORLANDO, Fla. – Kent State could be easily spotted in the first round of their spring season opener on Sunday by the giant wagging dog tail. Assistant coach Jenny Gleason’s dad put a bright yellow Kent State t-shirt on his 6-year-old Golden Retriever, Sky, and brought her out to Eagle Creek to walk along the cart paths to support the Golden Flashes. At times in the university’s history, a Golden Retriever has been the athletic mascot. It’s that way again this week.

Sky wagged her tail happily, posed for pictures, then trotted off to watch junior transfer Emily Price par the 11th hole.

Scores: UCF Challenge

It’s not always sunshine and dog slobber in the Midwest. Until last week, Kent State players hadn’t actually hit a golf ball off of real grass. It makes it that much more impressive they began the UCF Challenge with a 12-under team effort. That was better than every team except Arkansas, which played three tournaments in the fall.

Kent State played none.

“Everyone is a little bit like, even going to sleep last night, you’re like, wow what’s going to happen,” Strom said.

Kent State dog

Sky belongs to assistant coach Jenny Gleason’s parents and walked the cart paths at the UCF Challenge with the Kent State team. (Photo submitted)

A year ago this week, Kent State won its fourth tournament title of the season at Eagle Creek. Seniors Karoline Stormo and Pimnipa Panthong finished T-4 and seventh, respectively, on the individual leaderboard, a combined 11 under. Panthong transferred to South Carolina for a fifth year and Stormo has since turned professional.

This is new-look Kent State, and with a bit of a chip on the shoulder. It’s a different vibe, but Strom still feels like the team picked up right where it left off in March 2020. They’re intentional at home and they mesh well on the road.

“I’ve intentionally not tried to compare because it is such a different look,” Strom said, “but these guys can do a lot of different things, too.”

The practice facilities were humming after Sunday’s first round. There are plenty of teams in the field likely cherishing the time spent on real grass. Kent State got its first taste of that last week when Strom flew her players down early for a few holes across town at Timacuan, then two 18-hole practice rounds at Eagle Creek. An extra 27 holes made all the difference.

“Getting on grass, getting those feels back – they’re just so good that you give them a little bit of time and it comes back really quickly,” she said.

Strom spent several minutes on the range post-round with senior Chloe Salort, one of the big holdovers from last year’s squad. A year ago, Salort was working on a break-through in her mental game, which is sometimes harder to stick with because the fruits of the work aren’t always so obvious.

Kent State women's golf

Kent State women’s golf with “mascot” Sky. (Photo submitted)

After an opening round of even-par 72, Salort lined up several drivers with her coach and talked through each. In between shots, she told Strom she was able to get over the poor shots quicker on Sunday – that she decided she just wasn’t going to waste energy on them.

Three players in the Kent State lineup went under par, including Price and fellow Englishwoman Caley McGinty. Price’s 7-under 65 put her at the top of the individual leaderboard. Three closing birdies helped immensely.

“I think I’m more prone to be adaptable to wind,” she said. “England is a very windy, rainy cold place so I know how to keep balls low, adjust. I’m very equipped with that kind of weather.”

Price hasn’t played a college golf tournament for 13 months. It’s been so long that initially, it felt strange to be out there.

Price was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2019 at South Carolina. She has a fresh outlook at Kent State.

“A change was necessary for me, I think,” she said. “The environment at Kent seemed like a really good fit for me for what I was looking for, what I wanted.”

The Golden Flashes also gained Valentina Albertazzi for this spring, a transfer from Nova Southeastern. Fifth-year senior Marissa Kirkwood is back in the lineup after struggling to break in last year.

In that way, new faces don’t necessarily translate to lack of experience.

Strom goes back to a team meeting in the lobby of their hotel the night before the first round. The Flashes spread out and went through their yardage books. As they wrapped it up, Price gave the team a little verbal boost.

“To have that kind of leadership from someone who’s new to our team?” Strom said. “I think that just kind of shows you where they are as a group.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3j4wYNM
'We do go in with a game plan': USGA's John Bodenhamer talks U.S. Open setup at Torrey Pines

'We do go in with a game plan': USGA's John Bodenhamer talks U.S. Open setup at Torrey Pines

Golfsolutions February 01, 2021
'We do go in with a game plan': USGA's John Bodenhamer talks U.S. Open setup at Torrey Pines https://ift.tt/2MmSm54

This year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, one of the country’s finest municipal golf facilities, located in the tony enclave of La Jolla, California, returns to the site of one of Tiger Woods’s most memorable major triumphs when he beat Rocco Mediate on one leg in a Monday playoff.

This will be the third year that John Bodenhamer is charged with the course setup. Bodenhamer, 60, joined the USGA in June 2011 and oversees the USGA’s Open championships in his role as senior managing director or championships. He took time to speak to Golfweek about this year’s national championship before heading to San Diego to see how the pros handled the South Course during the Farmers Insurance Open.

Golfweek: What made Torrey Pines an appealing venue for the USGA to return to?

John Bodenhamer: History is something you can’t buy; you can only earn it. Torrey has it because of what happened in 2008. That never goes away. That was one of the greatest championships in the history of the game. That putt Tiger made lives in the minds of so many. That makes us very proud to come back and be able to tell that story again.

As a U.S. Open venue, it’s Southern California, the weather is so ideal if we can avoid the fog. Torrey is a big footprint. We can have a big celebration of the game. We can get in front of a lot of folks. It allows us to provide a traditional U.S. Open that is the ultimate examination.

Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th green after sinking a putt for a birdie and to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate during the final round of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. (Photo by Richard Hartog/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

What are the most significant changes that have been made to Torrey Pines in preparation for this U.S. Open?

JB: Nothing significant. If memory serves me right, it will play 42 yards longer. We’ve got three new tees. One of them is on No. 10 that will play 449 yards; it played 415 before. There’s another new tee on No. 15 that will play 510, which is 35 yards longer and a new tee on 17 that will play the same yardage but it’s down on the left near the barranca and it’s a new angle, which we really like. It’s a long golf course. It’s 7,680 yards. We won’t play it that long on any day of the U.S. Open. Depending on the weather and the wind, it will play anywhere from 7,200-7,400 yards.

What the city did to bring in Rees Jones and his partner Greg Muirhead to renovate, restore the golf course, give it a facelift, is magnificent not only for the U.S. Open but for the Farmers and to enhance that asset for the city of San Diego is a nice thing to do.

It included everything from drainage to irrigation systems to maintenance roads and paths. On the golf course itself, bunkering not just around the putting greens but in the fairways. They restored all the putting green collars. They had gotten tired and needed to be upgraded. They brought back some of the closely mown areas on Nos. 7, 9 and 15, which will be nice. It won’t be a whole lot different, more of a facelift, but it will provide us what we want to do at a U.S. Open and make a premium on driving.

Q: How do you do that?

JB: The fairways will be narrow. We’re coming out to check on what the Tour does, but I expect the fairway widths will be similar. The difference is January versus June and the weather patterns are much different, the length of the day, temperature and wind patterns are all different. We’ll have a lot more kikuyu in June. They overseeded last fall and so you’ll see a lot more bent and rye and so in the spring the kikuyu will take form again. We’ll probably have a bit longer rough.

Q: What will be the height of the rough you will be looking for?

JB: With kikuyu, 4-plus inches is our starting point. Kikuyu is pretty tough. It could be 3-3 ½. We were planning to come out last summer after the U.S. Open for the California State Amateur to see what the kikuyu was like but we couldn’t because of the pandemic. If it is as dense as we saw this spring, we’ll be in that range. At Winged Foot, we were between 4½-5½, but with kikuyu that’s too much.

Q: Have you considered making the rough longer from, say, 300-plus yards versus shorter distances?

JB: No. It’s very difficult from a maintenance standpoint. You’d have to change mower heights and that’s untenable for the maintenance staff. It would add hours and hours to their job. We have talked about it and there could be ways to do it robotically in the future, but what we do is we have graduated rough. No. 6, which will play as a par 4 in the U.S. Open at 515 yards, will have graduated rough. If you drive it just off the fairway there may be a swath of rough 2½-3 inches where players can hit 5-, 6-, 7-iron out. Frankly, we don’t want them pitching out all the time. We want them to try to knock the ball on the green. We think there will be more birdies but also more double bogeys. On holes like No. 2, you probably won’t see any graduated rough at all. It just depends on the width of it and how much you’ll see.

Going into Pebble (in 2019) we changed our philosophy and we have less graduated rough and want to put more of a premium on driving accuracy and less emphasis on green speeds to allow us to use a few more hole locations. It’s something I feel strongly about. We want it to be about driving the ball in the fairway. That’s something we want to achieve. It’s a strategic choice. We want to slow the greens down a little bit and use more of the hole locations and restore the importance of driving it in the fairway.

Adam Scott plays his shot from the sixth tee during the second round of the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf South Course. (Photo by: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

Q: What was the thinking behind that change of philosophy, including to slow the greens?

JB: Well, first of all, let me just say that 12.9-13.4 (on the Stimpmeter) isn’t slow. But it really came about from talking to players. We talked to a lot of our past champions, myself, Jason Gore on our staff and Jeff Hall. We want to create something special and very challenging so when a player wins he feels like he did something special but that is also fair and we don’t want green speeds to get away from us, especially if the wind kicks up. With certain hole locations, if the wind kicks up, it can be a problem.

There’s a quote that I think about from Geoff Ogilvy after he won at Winged Foot (in 2006). He was asked after he shot 67 one round, did you enjoy shooting that score on a U.S. Open golf course and he paused and he said, “I don’t think I necessarily enjoyed or had fun doing what I did today, but shooting 67 on a U.S. Open golf course I really feel like I achieved something. It was meaningful. I achieved something special.”

That’s the essence of what we’re trying to achieve. The goal is to drive it in the fairway most of the time and navigate your ball below the hole on the putting greens to have an adequate chance to score. When you miss a putting green there is a penalty for that. We think we can achieve that in the high 12s and low 13s using certain hole locations. I don’t want to call it an old-fashioned U.S. Open but that’s kind of what it is. That’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we endeavor to do.

Q: What can you learn this week from watching the pros play? How will you study the course?

JB: We’ll watch particular holes and we’ll be in touch with the PGA Tour staff and get their thoughts on setup and thinking on some of the new tees at 10 and 15. We’ll look at the width of the fairways, hole locations they are using, compare the wind patterns in January to what we expect in June. We’ll really be watching holes like 6, like 9 with the new collection areas around the green, we’ll definitely be watching the new tee on 10, and I’m assuming they’ll use the new tee on 17 and how players play that. Those are what I’ve circled so far.

We’ll have Jason Gore out there talking to players. We’ll be asking them questions about the golf course as much as we’re asking the Tour staff. What was your target from the new lower tee on 17? Why didn’t you hit driver and chose to lay up short of that bunker on 10? What did you think of the new putting complex on 4 and the new bunker in front of the green? Because they’ll tell us that a fairway needed to be a little wider and it will inform our decisions. We’ll talk to the caddies too. At Pebble Beach, we brought Casey Boyns out. He’s been a caddie there 35 years and he gave us the hole location at 18. There’s a little ridge that we did not see and he did, and we’ll be getting the intel from not just players but Tour officials and those who just know the course well.

Q: If we get good weather and it plays fast and firm, what do you expect the winning score to be?

JB: I knew you were going to go there (laughs). Curtis Strange (1988 and ’89 U.S Open champion) said something that really resonated with me. He said, today’s players are bigger, stronger, more athletic, better coached, better fitted with better equipment, with better course management. He said I really wonder when a player doesn’t shoot under par at a U.S. Open what happened – was it the weather or something with setup? We don’t want 20 under or 20 over to win. I guarantee you that I don’t focus on a score. It’s a metric. We look at it. But I would say a few under par, something like that. You look at what Bryson (DeChambeau) did, 6 under lapping the field (at Winged Foot in September). That was an impressive performance what he did. Everyone else was even or over par. Winged Foot is brutal. It’s a tough test no matter when you play it. From the back tees at Torrey with the length it has and get a little bit of wind from off that ocean, it’s tough, but these players are so good today that I think a few under par is going to win.

One other thing I’ll say to you, and this is genuine, let me come back to scoring – I meant what I said and I wouldn’t change it – but what I’m really trying to say – and it was demonstrated at Pebble and Winged Foot to a small extent but really Pebble – is we do go in with a game plan. We’ll look for firm and fast conditions but not overly so, especially in the fairways. We don’t want them too fast so they stop hitting driver. We want them to hit driver. The greens will be firm, the rough will be up, the greens will be fast and we want a little wind off the ocean. That’s what our plan will be. We’ll modify based on the weather patterns.

I’ll tell you what we don’t do: If we don’t get the wind and it rains and it’s wet, we won’t force hole locations into places that are unfair and we won’t move tees back away from the game plan to get length we didn’t plan on. We didn’t do it at Pebble and we just don’t do that. We’ll just let Torrey Pines be Torrey Pines and we’re not going to play for a score. If it’s 12 under because we didn’t get the weather and it rained and we didn’t get the wind then it will be, and we’ll be fine with that.

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'Basically an opposite-field event': Phoenix Open Monday qualifier is loaded

'Basically an opposite-field event': Phoenix Open Monday qualifier is loaded

Golfsolutions February 01, 2021
'Basically an opposite-field event': Phoenix Open Monday qualifier is loaded https://ift.tt/37H0zJg

“It’s basically an opposite-field event.”

Those are the words of one of the better follows on golf Twitter, acaseofthegolf1, aka Monday Q info, whose real name is Ryan French.

The guru of PGA Tour Monday qualifiers is totally right about the Waste Management Phoenix Open Monday qualifier. The event, which currently lists 157 golfers, will determine the final spots in the Phoenix Open. Many Tour events have about 75 golfers in their Monday events.

All Tour stops have four spots open for those who can survive the rigors of Monday qualifying, but those attempting to get in the Phoenix Open will have a higher bar to clear. It’s the only Tour event with only three Monday spots available.

With that many golfers and the fact that the final groups aren’t teeing off until 2:35 p.m. local time at McCormick Ranch Golf Club’s Pine Course in Scottsdale, it’ll actually spill over into Tuesday before we learn the names of those three lucky golfers.

But before we can even get to the qualifier, there were eight pre-qualifiers around the Phoenix area last week. Each of those started with 78 golfers, so the rough math means that about 800 golfers started the process of earning one of those coveted final three spots in the Phoenix Open.

That’s a huge number of golfers trying to get into a Tour event, says French, but he points out several factors led to such a high turnout. Many of the golfers in the qualifier are members of the Korn Ferry Tour. They have status that gets them right to Monday and without a KFT event last week or this week, many decided ‘Why not?’ when it came to getting in the mix. Further, countless pro golfers live in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area and so it’s an easy drive with no need to spend money on a hotel for them.

According to French’s math, there are over 6,700 career PGA Tour starts in this Monday qualifier. Taking a look at the list, several names jump out.

Aaron Baddeley

When he won the 2007 Phoenix Open, Baddeley was the first to cash a first-place check for more than $1 million at the event. This year, the Scottsdale resident finds himself in the qualifier. He’s currently 193rd on the Money List after making $39,270 and missing the cut seven of nine times this season, including the Farmers Insurance Open.

Billy Mayfair

The Phoenix native was 14-for-14 cuts made in 2020 on the PGA Tour Champions but hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since 2016. He hasn’t played the Phoenix Open since 2012.

Andy Olgetree

The low amateur at the November Masters, Ogletree is playing in the same group with Mayfair on Monday. John Augenstein, the man Ogletree out-dueled to win the 2019 U.S. Amateur, is in the Phoenix Open field on a sponsor exemption but Ogletree is looking to play his way into the field.

MJ Daffue

The South African is no stranger to Mondays. During one stretch last year, Daffue earned a spot into a tournament field in nine of 14 Monday qualifiers between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour.

Jared du Toit

Monday qualified into the Farmers but missed the cut by two shots, so he drove over from San Diego and he’s back to Monday again this week. Ten months ago, he shot the first 59 in Outlaw Tour (Arizona mini tour) history.

Akshay Bhatia

Built great rapport with Phil Mickelson during a practice round at the American Express in La Quinta, California, two weeks ago. Bhatia skipped college, choosing instead to just turn pro out of high school. He’s made two of 11 PGA Tour cuts, both of them this season.

Ricky Barnes, Ted Purdy, Charlie Beljan

Some of the locals once again seeking to play their hometown tournament. Both Barnes and Purdy were born in Phoenix and both played at the University of Arizona. Barnes is 3-for-3 cuts made this season and posted at Top 25 the season opening Safeway Open. He last played the Phoenix Open in 2018. Purdy, who turns 48 in August, hasn’t made a Tour cut in 14 months. Beljan, who was born and lives in nearby Mesa, Arizona, famously won a PGA Tour event while battling high blood pressure, an increased heart rate and numbness in his arms after suffering what he said was an “anxiety or panic attack that kind of spun out of control” after 36 holes at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic in 2012.

Other notables

Some more recognizable names teeing it up on Monday: Rob Oppenheim, Seamus Power, Matt Every, Sam Triplett, Parker McLachlin, Alex Cejka, Michael Allen, Sangmoon Bae, JJ Spaun, Robert Garrigus, Anirban Lahiri, Grayson Murray, Justin Suh, Sahith Theegala and Joseph Bramlett.

One name that was on the list but will be taken off is Peter Malnati, who withdrew from the Monday qualifier. He finished 7 under, good for a tie for 10th.

Corey Conners was the last player to qualify on Monday and hoist the trophy on Sunday when he did so at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3oy3Lw1
How much money each PGA Tour player won at the Farmers Insurance Open

How much money each PGA Tour player won at the Farmers Insurance Open

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
How much money each PGA Tour player won at the Farmers Insurance Open https://ift.tt/3iWR7Fu

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, folks. Just ask this week’s winner, Patrick Reed.

After another entanglement with the Rules of Golf during Saturday’s third round, Reed bounced back to win the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines’ South Course. The 30-year-old will leave San Diego with a ninth win on Tour and the first-place prize of $1,350,000.

Tony Finau, Henrik Norlander, Ryan Palmer, Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland all finished in a five-way tie for second at 9 under, earning $456,375 each.

Check out how much money each player earned this week at the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open.

Farmers Insurance Open: Leaderboard | Photos | Winner’s bag
More: Xander Schauffele calls out Reed, PGA Tour

Farmers Insurance Open prize money

Position Player Score Earnings
1 Patrick Reed -14 $1,350,000
T2 Tony Finau -9 $456,375
T2 Henrik Norlander -9 $456,375
T2 Ryan Palmer -9 $456,375
T2 Xander Schauffele -9 $456,375
T2 Viktor Hovland -9 $456,375
T7 Will Zalatoris -8 $235,625
T7 Lanto Griffin -8 $235,625
T7 Jon Rahm -8 $235,625
T10 Luke List -7 $168,125
T10 Francesco Molinari -7 $168,125
T10 Rory Sabbatini -7 $168,125
T10 Peter Malnati -7 $168,125
T10 Sam Ryder -7 $168,125
T10 Adam Scott -7 $168,125
T16 Robby Shelton -6 $125,625
T16 Rory McIlroy -6 $125,625
T18 Charl Schwartzel -5 $80,761
T18 J.T. Poston -5 $80,761
T18 Joseph Bramlett -5 $80,761
T18 Marc Leishman -5 $80,761
T18 Cameron Tringale -5 $80,761
T18 Adam Hadwin -5 $80,761
T18 Ted Potter Jr. -5 $80,761
T18 Bo Hoag -5 $80,761
T18 Kyle Stanley -5 $80,761
T18 Max Homa -5 $80,761
T18 Sam Burns -5 $80,761
T29 Louis Oosthuizen -4 $51,375
T29 Jason Kokrak -4 $51,375
T29 Carlos Ortiz -4 $51,375
T32 Brandt Snedeker -3 $42,825
T32 Wyndham Clark -3 $42,825
T32 Sungjae Im -3 $42,825
T32 Cameron Davis -3 $42,825
T32 Sepp Straka -3 $42,825
T37 Kevin Streelman -2 $34,125
T37 Doug Ghim -2 $34,125
T37 Justin Suh -2 $34,125
T37 Alexander Noren -2 $34,125
T37 Corey Conners -2 $34,125
T42 Lucas Glover -1 $25,875
T42 Tom Lewis -1 $25,875
T42 Brandon Hagy -1 $25,875
T42 Bill Haas -1 $25,875
T42 Will Gordon -1 $25,875
T42 Bronson Burgoon -1 $25,875
T48 Cameron Percy E $19,455
T48 Matt Jones E $19,455
T48 Talor Gooch E $19,455
T48 Gary Woodland E $19,455
T48 Matthew NeSmith E $19,455
T53 Rhein Gibson 1 $17,496
T53 Hideki Matsuyama 1 $17,496
T53 Dylan Frittelli 1 $17,496
T53 Rickie Fowler 1 $17,496
T53 Phil Mickelson 1 $17,496
T53 Michael Kim 1 $17,496
T53 Roger Sloan 1 $17,496
T60 Chase Seiffert 2 $16,575
T60 Xinjun Zhang 2 $16,575
T60 Richy Werenski 2 $16,575
T60 Steve Stricker 2 $16,575
T60 Kelly Kraft 2 $16,575
T65 Harry Higgs 3 $15,900
T65 John Huh 3 $15,900
T65 Danny Lee 3 $15,900
T65 Kyle Mendoza 3 $15,900
T69 Pat Perez 4 $15,375
T69 Tain Lee 4 $15,375
T69 K.J. Choi 4 $15,375
72 Troy Merritt 5 $15,075
T73 Denny McCarthy 6 $14,850
T73 Tim Wilkinson 6 $14,850
T75 Byeong-Hun An 8 $14,550
T75 Tyler McCumber 8 $14,550
T77 Kevin Stadler 9 $14,250
T77 Jason Dufner 9 $14,250
79 Grayson Murray 10 $14,025

Farmers Insurance Open photos

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Xander Schauffele says Patrick Reed is 'protected by the (PGA) Tour' after latest rules situation

Xander Schauffele says Patrick Reed is 'protected by the (PGA) Tour' after latest rules situation

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
Xander Schauffele says Patrick Reed is 'protected by the (PGA) Tour' after latest rules situation https://ift.tt/3iWR7Fu

A lot of times fans will get frustrated with athletes for giving the same old, same old answers in interviews or press conferences after competition.

That wasn’t the case with Xander Schauffele after Sunday’s final round of the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

The talk of the weekend at the PGA Tour’s annual stop in San Diego surrounded Patrick Reed (and later Rory McIlroy) and a situation with an embedded ball during Saturday’s round.

“I mean, he did everything by the book according to the official and everyone stood by there,” said Schauffele, who didn’t search for video of Reed’s situation but heard players talking about it. “Obviously the talk amongst the boys isn’t great, I guess, but he’s protected by the Tour and that’s all that matters, I guess.”

Farmers Insurance Open: Leaderboard | Photos | Winner’s bag

When asked if he’d ever ran into a similar situation on the course, Schauffele’s response was direct and to the point: “I would not put myself and create a situation like that.

“If my ball’s embedded, I usually will wait and call someone and kind of wait until everyone’s on the same page, wait to look at video,” he continued. “So I try to avoid situations like that just for that reason.”

The San Diego native finished in a five-way tie for second at 9 under, five strokes behind Reed.

Lanto Griffin, who finished T-7 alongside Jon Rahm and Will Zalatoris, was also asked about Reed’s embedded ball situation, saying “it’s tough to see, it’s sad, kind of pisses us off, but it’s the way it is. Hopefully something changes and come to a conclusion.”

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Winner's Bag: Patrick Reed, Farmers Insurance Open

Winner's Bag: Patrick Reed, Farmers Insurance Open

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
Winner's Bag: Patrick Reed, Farmers Insurance Open https://ift.tt/3iWR7Fu

A complete list of the golf equipment Patrick Reed used to win the PGA Tour’s 2021 Farmers Insurance Open:

DRIVER: Titleist TSi3 (9 degrees), with Aldila Rogue Silver 70 X shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade SIM (15 degrees), with Aldila Rogue Black 70 X shaft

HYBRID: Callaway Apex (20 degrees), with Aldila Rogue Black 105 TX shaft

IRONS: Grindworks Patrick Reed Forged prototype (4-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

WEDGES: Artisan (52 degrees), Titleist Vokey Design SM8 Raw (56 degrees), Titleist Vokey Design SM6 (62 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts

PUTTER: Scotty Cameron for Titleist Tour Rat prototype

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

GRIPS: Golf Pride MCC

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3td6I8K
Patrick Reed bounces back to win Farmers Insurance Open after hectic weekend

Patrick Reed bounces back to win Farmers Insurance Open after hectic weekend

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
Patrick Reed bounces back to win Farmers Insurance Open after hectic weekend https://ift.tt/3iWR7Fu

Watching Patrick Reed on Sunday, you’d never know that just 24 hours earlier he was at the center of another entanglement with the Rules of Golf (later joined by Rory McIlroy).

Following a situation with an embedded ball in the third round, Reed shared a lead with Carlos Ortiz entering the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, but he was alone atop the leaderboard when all was said and done. The 30-year-old fired a 4-under 68 on Sunday to win the Farmers at 14 under for his ninth victory on the PGA Tour. Since earning his Tour card in 2013, Reed has won every year except 2017.

Farmers Insurance Open: Leaderboard | Photos | Winner’s bag

In his previous two starts so far this year, Reed finished T-21 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and missed the cut at last week’s American Express.

Tony Finau, Henrik Norlander, Ryan Palmer, Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland finished in a five-way tie for second at 9 under.

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College golf is gearing up, but with an added COVID wrinkle: attestation forms

College golf is gearing up, but with an added COVID wrinkle: attestation forms

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
College golf is gearing up, but with an added COVID wrinkle: attestation forms https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

By the time a college golf coach gets his or her entire lineup to the first tee of a tournament this spring, a major hurdle will have been cleared. Central Florida head women’s golf coach Emily Marron will be among several coaches breathing a sigh of relief at that point.

“I think the most stressful part now for us is testing,” Marron said in talking about the COVID protocols that are allowing college golf to go forward this spring. “It’s a little bit of anxiety for (student-athletes) too. They all feel healthy, we’re doing symptom tests, but you just never know, and it’s just a whole new thing.”

Marron is hosting the UCF Challenge at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando this week. It’s one of the first women’s college tournaments of the spring. For the 17 teams in the field, the previous Wednesday was a big day. Many conferences have COVID testing protocols in place that require student-athletes to undergo a PCR test 72 hours before the start of competition – which, in college golf, means the practice round.

That’s where attestation forms come in. In many cases, schools or conferences require that every other team in the field attest that every individual in its travel party has achieved a specified level of COVID testing. That’s verified by an attestation form, which must be received from each individual school or conference in the field.

“We got a form back in December from our conference saying if you play anybody outside of our conference, you’re going to have to have them sign this form,” said Marron, who coaches in the American Athletic Conference. “All of the conferences, it’s all the same.”

Seven conferences are represented in the 17-team UCF Challenge field, which makes for quite a bit of paper trading when it comes to COVID attestation forms. There’s no real guidebook to this, and so Marron has worked to learn the process and streamline it. That involves email threads to each conference instead of each school.

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Some aspects of attestation forms suit other sports better than golf. For example, golf teams don’t often travel with a trainer and in some cases, Marron said, verbiage on the form indicates it should be exchanged among schools three hours prior to competition. That might work for a soccer or volleyball game, but not a three-day golf tournament.

Much of the responsibility for the paperwork falls on a university’s trainer or medical staff as opposed to the coach, as Marron noted. The coach, of course, has a vested interest in making sure it all gets done.

Establishing a system

Teams in the SEC got to play three conference-only tournaments in the fall, which made COVID attestation forms a non-issue. When Golda Borst, head women’s golf coach at Kentucky, realized how many forms would need to be traded back and forth in order for her team to play in the UCF Challenge, she decided to divide and conquer with another SEC coach in the field.

“The SEC, the Big 12 and the ACC, those three conferences got together and said if we play each other, our COVID testing guidelines are the same,” she said. “We don’t need forms from each other because we’re all good, but everybody else, we have to have signed forms from.”

Ultimately, some schools will be at the mercy of other schools to return the necessary forms or they might not be able to compete.

“It’s a little stressful but I also know every school we’re playing against here, I can call up the head coach and they’re going to get it signed,” Borst said.

It’s not just the forms that makes this year look different. Teams eating out in restaurants are a thing of the past. Borst said she is required to create a more detailed travel plan, for instance charting where student-athletes will sit in the team van or bus and restricting hotel room assignments to less than three individuals. After the fall season, the SEC determined that quick meals or snacks in the team van are a way the virus spreads, so those are out, too.

“It’s very dependent on the school,” Borst said of such guidelines. “We have our SEC guidelines but then also UK might have their guidelines.”

Marron may be navigating the attestation process first through her host duties, but many other coaches will face it eventually. Houston head women’s golf coach Gerrod Chadwell, whose team is also competing in this week’s UCF Challenge, is already receiving blank attestation forms for his Houston-hosted Icon Invitational in three weeks. Chadwell, also in the American Athletic Conference, would like to see the attestation process become less redundant.

“I think this could all be resolved by the tournament has its own attestation form and that’s it,” Chadwell said. “You sign it, and if you need to, send yours to somewhere else. We’re all abiding by the same protocol.”

Chadwell also wonders why coaches can’t attest on-site to the COVID testing their teams have undergone rather than require university medical staff to complete the forms. He raises a valid question: “We can keep our whole team’s score if we play in a group of five, but I can’t attest that my kids have tested negative to play in a tournament?”

Language is key

When Ryan Blagg’s Louisville men’s golf team was invited to fill a last-minute spot in last week’s Southwestern Invitational (one left vacant when UCLA pulled out because of COVID protocols), Blagg’s first question was about testing protocols. He knew his team couldn’t compete unless every team already in the field was abiding by the ACC’s protocol of 72-hour PCR testing. Tournament host Michael Beard, head men’s golf coach at Pepperdine, made it a priority.

“I had our guy send the form to him and he sent it out to all the coaches saying get this to your administrators,” Blagg said. “And we got it done in about 12 hours, which was pretty fast.”

Blagg has learned that it all boils to the language and the level of testing. The key is that all schools must abide by the 72-hour PCR test if they’re in a field with a conference school that requires one, even if their conference doesn’t require that level of testing. Many smaller schools and conferences are testing at that level anyway.

At the University of Alabama Birmingham, players tested once a week from the time they arrived on campus in the fall to the time they went home for the holidays.

“There aren’t very many schools in the country that test golfers like we do,” said Mike Wilson, head men’s golf coach at UAB. The Blazers, undefeated in three fall starts, never encountered a Power 5 school in the fall. UAB competes in Conference USA, and Wilson ended the fall by hosting the Graeme McDowell Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama. He doesn’t remember filling out attestation forms.

“We made it pretty simple on our end, even when we hosted, you basically just had to provide (evidence) the team that was traveling to the tournament had tested negative 72 hours before the start of the practice round,” he said.

In college golf, connection is achieved through common opponents. The validity of the rankings depends on it, and a postseason field that’s truly made up of the best teams depends on valid rankings. Attestation forms will be the price to achieve that.

Scott Schroeder, head men’s golf coach at the University of North Florida, co-hosted the Timuquana Intercollegiate last week – which included a 11-team field made up of four conferences, including the ACC and SEC. UNF competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

“For our event at Timuquana, we had four different conferences – so we had the ACC, SEC and Big 12 – and then UNF also had a form,” he said. “Six schools had to sign four forms and then there were five schools that only had to sign one form.”

Schroeder collected the forms himself and sent them on to the conferences. Otherwise, he said, he wouldn’t know whether every school had truly completed the necessary forms. He views it as more of a pain for university administrators than for coaches and hopes to see the process more streamlined.

“This needs to be viewed as a small sacrifice for the student-athletes to play. We haven’t played in over 10 months for some of us,” he said. “It’s not great, but it’s better than not playing.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3ar3shA
Rory McIlroy involved in similar embedded ball situation to Patrick Reed in Farmers Insurance Open third round

Rory McIlroy involved in similar embedded ball situation to Patrick Reed in Farmers Insurance Open third round

Golfsolutions January 31, 2021
Rory McIlroy involved in similar embedded ball situation to Patrick Reed in Farmers Insurance Open third round https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

SAN DIEGO – Turns out there was another embedded ball incident during Saturday’s third round of the Farmers Insurance Open.

The golf world knows of the first one – when Patrick Reed was cleared of any rules violation when he took relief for an embedded ball on the 10th hole.

Replays of the incident caused a firestorm on social media, with some saying Reed took liberty with the rules, while others were much harsher. Especially seeing as Reed was involved in a rules fiasco in the 2019 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He took two practice swings that scraped the sand and improved his lie on both occasions on the 11th hole. Cameras caught the infraction. After the round, Reed pleaded his case, bringing up the angle of the cameras, but was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Well, a few hours after Reed’s episode in the third round at Torrey Pines, Rory McIlroy was involved in a similar incident.

On the par-5 18th, McIlroy’s second shot wound up in the rough right of the fairway. McIlroy said after the round he asked a marshal if the ball bounced and was told they had not seen it bounce. McIlroy alerted his playing partner Rory Sabbatini that he was going to check if the ball was embedded. He determined it was, took free relief, and wound up making a par.

On Sunday morning, the PGA Tour released a statement concerning McIlroy’s drop.

“John Mutch, Ken Tackett and Gary Young have reviewed the Rory McIlroy videos from No. 18 yesterday and determined that it was virtually the same situation that Patrick Reed faced on No. 10 during the third round,” the statement read. “It was reasonable for both players to conclude – based on the fact that they did not see the ball land but given the lie of the ball in soft course conditions – that they proceed as the Rule allows for a potential embedded ball.

“They marked, lifted and assessed the situation to determine if the ball was embedded. Patrick went one step further and called in a Rules Official to be sure his assessment would not be questioned (although this step is not required). Both players took proper relief under the Rule 16/3. The Committee is comfortable with how both players proceeded given the fact that they used the evidence they had at the time.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/2MkoVAC