Who’s in charge of keeping players from running afoul of protocol as the NHL’s postseason tournament gets rolling? We check in with a handful of bench bosses.
John Pak has made sacrifices to pursue a pro golf career. Now he’s one step closer to realizing that dream. Pak, a Florida State senior, holds the top spot in the first edition of the PGA TOUR University Ranking, putting him in the pole position to earn Korn Ferry Tour status and an exemption into Q-School’s final stage next year. Those are the rewards that will be given to the top five in the PGA TOUR U standings after next year’s NCAA Championship. PGA TOUR UNIVERSITY RANKING: Standings | How it works Pak moved to Orlando, Florida, during high school to escape New Jersey’s harsh winters and increase his practice opportunities. “That was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” said Pak, the youngest of five children. “I moved down with just my dad. Leaving them was hard because I’m very close with my family.” Pak made the most of the move. His work ethic has allowed him to make steady progress in his golf career. It was instilled in him by his father, Kwang Pak, who owned two grocery stores. “He spent hours and hours picking up the produce, spending time at the store, making sure the business was run properly,” Pak said. “He worked a lot of hours and retired at 52. He disciplined himself and that’s translated into my golf game.” John Pak won two of his last three starts before the coronavirus pandemic cut the college season short. Last week’s Southern Amateur was his first event since, and he tied for sixth, five shots behind SMU senior McClure Meissner, who is No. 7 in the PGA TOUR U Ranking. He’s spent the past few months in Tallahassee, Florida, to take advantage of the Seminoles’ training facilities. He often puts in two practice sessions per day, working on his game six to seven hours per day. He loves the process of improving. When asked about his favorite aspect of the game, he said, “The fact that I want to be better. It’s such a difficult game. When things aren’t going right, I need to practice and work at it until I get it right.” The work has paid off. Pak has won seven times while playing for the Seminoles, including six of his past 16 starts. He is one short of the school wins record, an impressive achievement for a program that boasts PGA TOUR winners Brooks Koepka, Hubert Green, Daniel Berger, Kenny Knox, Nolan Henke and Jonas Blixt among its alumni. As a sophomore, John had the lowest scoring average in school history (69.6 strokes). He finished first or second in more than half his starts that season, including four victories. He also set the school record for single-season scoring average (69.6) and was named a first-team All-American. His scoring average was even lower last season (69.4), but Pak played just five events before it was canceled. “Everything he does, he’s consistent,” Florida State head coach Trey Jones said. “His daily routines, his habits. It shows on the course. “He’s not going to show up late. He knows what he’s going to do every day. He doesn’t wait until he gets to the course to figure it out. He has his disciplines that he does.” Pak recently added stretching to the routine. Making practice swings in front of a full-length mirror to check his positions. That meticulous training has made consistent ball-striking the hallmark of his game. “His ball just doesn’t move,” Jones said. “It’s comical at times how straight he hits it.” His game is not one-dimensional, though. That was proven with his performance in last year’s Walker Cup on the links of Royal Liverpool. Pak earned his spot on the team after winning the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference championship, being named a first-team All-American and advancing to the Round of 16 in both the U.S. Amateur and Western Amateur. Pak was the only player on either team to go undefeated. He was 3-0 in one foursomes and two singles matches. In the final session, Pak won the last two holes to defeat the reigning British Amateur champion, James Sugrue, and help his team to the largest victory by a visiting U.S. team since 1987. “That experience was incredible,” Pak said. “I feel like if I could perform under that kind of pressure, I can perform under anything. It taught me a lot. That was probably the most nervous I’ve been in my entire life.” It was good preparation for the PGA TOUR, a place that PGA TOUR University can help him reach.
Alice Cooper plays golf six days a week, almost always in the early morning near his home in Arizona. He’s about a 3-handicap – pretty impressive but perhaps fitting for the shock rocker who describes himself as a Golf Monster. Oh, and he loves Callaway’s MAVRIK driver. “Unbelievable,” declared the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. Of course, he’s not the only golfer – amateur or pro – who has taken to the MAVRIK line, with its Flash Face designed by Artificial Intelligence and touted by Callaway as its best combination of distance, forgiveness and feel. MAVRIK is the No. 1 driver and the No. 1 fairway wood across the major tours this year. But what about ball speed, you ask? After all, that’s what everybody seems to be talking about right now, a water-cooler topic among the pros at TOUR events as well as your fellow club members at the 19th hole. Callaway touts Flash Face as promoting optimum speed and spin for both drivers and fairway woods as it “works specifically with the size, shape and CG (center of gravity) location of each head.” Where it really shines, according to Callaway’s PGA TOUR Manager Jacob Davidson, are on shots that are not perfectly struck. In other words, most golf shots. Whether it’s Alice Cooper or Phil Mickelson swinging the club, any loss of ball speed is minimized thanks to a larger sweet spot. Instead, ball speed remains consistent on mis-hits. “Where I think we’ve separated ourselves — and we see it week in and week out on the PGA TOUR — is Callaway has a competitive advantage on non-center strike,” Davidson said. “I think across the face we see a jump in ball speed that was kind of pulled in with that compared to our competitors. “That’s kind of the frontier that seems to be popular right now. The professionals at the times they do miss it off the face used to lose a couple miles an hour on a heel strike or a toe strike. But we’re learning that if you hit it exactly center punched where optimal ball speed is, can we get the same on one that’s maybe a couple of millimeters to the toe or a couple of millimeters to the heel or higher or lower on the face? “Ultimately, that’s what we’re going after.” That advantage with non-center strike shots can make a big impact in performance, even on the PGA TOUR where we assume the world’s best golfers rarely hit such shots. But it’s more frequent that you might think. “Guys for the most part hit it in the center when they’re playing well,” Davidson said. “But you’d be surprised at how often they’re not. They’re missing it just slightly toe-ward or slightly heel-ward, and then that is obviously elevated because of the speed they’re swinging it at. So it seems to maybe stick out a little bit more.” Henrik Stenson, the 2013 FedExCup champ and six-time winner on the PGA TOUR, noted in the July-August 2020 issue of Golf magazine that “the ball speeds off of MAVRIK are really high, and I noticed that almost immediately when I first tried it. If I hit it dead center or if I miss the sweet spot, I still know that I’m going to get the speed and distance I’m looking for.” Having that confidence that a non-center strike can still be an effective shot is a huge advantage for any players, particularly those at the top level. And particularly on fairway woods, which can often be a pesky club to figure out – and a club that many weekend amateurs try to avoid as much as possible. “People’s confidence gets elevated when they hit a shot that they feel like they’ve mis-hit it and the results are very similar to a good hit,” Davidson explained. “I think that it gives them the confidence to know that, hey, I can still execute the shot that I want without a perfect strike. So they’re more likely to use that club.” For Davidson, a key indication that Callaway had a winner in the MAVRIK line was the high rate of conversion among its staff pros. Whenever their players tested a MAVRIK club, the increase in speed and the extra forgiveness was quickly noticeable. And the switch was quickly made. “They would look down at TrackMan and go, ‘Man, I hit that slightly out of the toe’ or ‘I hit that slightly out of the heel” and they couldn’t believe the ball speeds were still that high,” he said. “I think that was a defining moment for us.” Xander Schauffele was the first Callaway staffer to put a MAVRIK in his bag, back in December while representing the U.S. at the Presidents Cup in Australia. Schauffele won three matches with his then-prototype Sub Zero club that week – including his Sunday Singles match against the home favorite Adam Scott as the Americans rallied to win. A few weeks later, Schauffele was part of a three-man playoff at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Marc Leishman put a MAVRIK in his bag early in the season, then won the Farmers Insurance Open. “Took me only three swings to know it was the right driver for me,” Leishman said. Of course, Mickelson continues to “hit bombs” in a remarkable display of length for the recently turned 50-year-old who uses a MAVRIK Sub Zero driver. And non-Callaway staff pros such as Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger are using a MAVRIK driver; in fact, Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge with a MAVRIK Sub Zero. Now consider Will Gordon, who was ranked 812th in the world after he missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Gordon arrived at Callaway’s performance center the Monday of the Farmers Insurance Open and switched to the MAVRIK driver. He finished T21 that week, had a Top 20 finish at the Puerto Rico Open a few weeks later. In his first start after the resumption of play following the TOUR’s pandemic stoppage, Gordon — playing on a sponsor’s exemption – finished solo third and earned Special Temporary Membership. He’s currently 197th in the world. “You’re talking about a guy that’s trying to earn his way on the PGA TOUR with limited sponsor exemptions, on a big-boy golf course like Torrey Pines with extremely tight fairways and very penal rough, and he puts the MAVRIK driver in play,” Davidson said. “I think that was a catalyst to his confidence.” Confidence is a word frequently associated with the MAVRIK driver and woods. Confidence that a mis-hit can still be a solid shot. Confidence that ball speed will be maximized. Confidence in a line of club, no matter if they’re used on the tee box or in the fairway … and no matter if they’re used by a PGA TOUR pro or an aging Shock Rocker.
Will the Timberwolves stay in Minneapolis? Who are the frontrunners to buy the team? Our insiders share the latest.
Sports Betting News’ Charles Robinson and Terez Paylor discuss the NFL cancelling the preseason and the league agreeing with the NFLPA on COVID-19 testing procedures. Subscribe to the Sports Betting News NFL Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The NFL Players Association has agreed to the league’s plan to drop all preseason games for the 2020 season, a person familiar with the decision told Sports Betting News. The union also agreed to a 80-player roster limit for training camp, instead of the usual 90. The players’ association originally had sought no preseason games and the league had reduced the exhibition schedule to two games.
The Wilf family that owns the Minnesota Vikings has emerged as a serious candidate to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves, NFL sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Giannis Antetokounmpo admitted after Tuesday’s practice that he said he didn’t have access to a hoop only to gain an edge on his peers.
Already short-handed, the Los Angeles Clippers saw veteran guard Patrick Beverley leave the Orlando bubble Tuesday to tend to a personal matter, league sources told ESPN.
Despite the permission of the Lakers, reserve guard Alex Caruso elected to bypass his sister’s wedding in Texas to stay with his team in the NBA restart bubble.
