The pros and cons of NHL playoff officiatingThe pros and cons of NHL playoff officiating
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Day: June 24, 2021
The first class of the APGA Collegiate Ranking is learning on the jobThe first class of the APGA Collegiate Ranking is learning on the job
Mulbe Dillard IV had a lot on his mind on the six-hour car ride from his home in Jacksonville, Florida, to Raleigh, North Carolina and the Korn Ferry Tour’s REX Hospital Open earlier this month. A newly minted graduate of HBCU Florida A&M, Dillard, 22, was about to make his first start as a professional, having earned a place in the field by virtue of his spot atop the first APGA Collegiate Ranking. Wilson had shipped bags, umbrellas, and caps to the course ahead of time, and he planned to reach town with plenty of daylight to practice. Alas, when he arrived that Sunday afternoon, the back nine of the Hale Irwin-designed par-71 course had been closed. He walked the front and marveled at the long, tumbling fairways and fast undulating greens. He played nine holes Monday, and finally saw the back nine Tuesday. The Wednesday pro-am devolved from a scouting mission to a rubbernecking exercise as Dillard was paired with football legends Torry and Terrence Holt. “I was pretty nervous,” Dillard recalls. “I’ve never really been in this position.” The APGA Collegiate Ranking – which takes the five best seniors from Division I, II or II programs and exempts them into APGA summer events and from Korn Ferry Tour pre-qualifying – is part of the PGA TOUR’s 10-year, $100 million commitment to racial justice. The idea is to extend a shorter, smoother onramp for top Black collegiate golfers yearning to follow in the footsteps of Harold Varner III, Cameron Champ, Joseph Bramlett and others. “My best players are looking at their ranking regularly,” says Howard men’s golf coach Sam Puryear. “I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve had with them about it. They want to be on that list because they want those shots.” Dillard is one of four FAMU players in the APGA Tour College Ranking, a short list that comes with major bragging rights for HBCU golf coaches like the Rattlers’ Mike Rice. His all-senior team became the first in the history of the program to earn an NCAA tournament berth after carding a 19-stroke triumph in the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference championship. This, despite golf not exactly ranking high on the list of student concerns at FAMU – not even in the golf class that Rice teaches in addition to coaching the team. “My introduction to them is, ‘I’m also the head coach of the golf team,’” he says. “And most of them are like, ‘We didn’t even know we had a golf team.’” Rice’s annual budget would barely cover recruiting expenses at a traditional Division 1 golf powerhouse. Florida State, for example, recruits with scholarships, gets sponsored equipment and apparel, and trains on its own course that can be groomed to replicate tournament conditions. Meanwhile, its Tallahassee neighbor FAMU makes do on a public course, with players carrying heavy course loads and working jobs on the side to keep up with expenses. And while a recent deal with TaylorMade and a new practice range will help the Rattlers, so much more is needed to prepare them for pro careers. Tim O’Neal, an HBCU grad and touring pro, says it’s a giant leap from HBCU golf to the professional game. “Like going from high school baseball to triple-A,” he says. “There are some players who have the potential. But if you go to an HBCU, you’re not gonna be playing at a level to go up against a top-five school. Not to say it can’t happen, but it’s gonna be a while you see a guy from an HBCU come out and just dominate.” It’s been 36 years since South Carolina State’s Adrian Stills graduated from Q School; he’s the last Black player from a black college to reach the PGA TOUR. He didn’t have the benefit of the APGA Tour, which seeks to provide playing opportunities for promising minority golfers, and for which he serves as Director of Player Development. Nor did Stills have help from the APGA Collegiate Ranking, which can at least provide players with exemptions and cover travel costs associated with APGA Tour events. In theory that makes HBCU products more competitive with counterparts from predominantly white institutions. In reality, though, those kids get their own boost from PGA Tour University; upperclassmen in the top five of that ranking receive a yearlong Korn Ferry Tour exemption, while the next 10 finishers win free passes into the PGA TOUR’s three international tours. Some coaches and others believe HBCUs need to be given the chance to play against bigger Division I powerhouses more than once a year at the conference tournament. Yet another challenge for HBCU golf programs is that many are under the constant threat of being shuttered. That the Rattlers even have a course at their disposal, in this economy, is a luxury. “Don’t get me wrong,” Rice says. “Southwood is a good course, and I love it. But at a public course, greens are running an 8, 10 [on the Stimpmeter] max. And then you go and play in a bigger event where the greens are running 12 to 14. That’s a huge adjustment.” The system is still in the early stages, and far from perfect. O’Neal believes the APGA Tour Collegiate Ranking formula will require some tweaking to brace players to jump up. Some would like to see it opened to all minorities, not just seniors. At the REX Hospital Open, Dillard exulted after bombing his opening tee shot 310 yards down the fairway. But his round quickly unraveled from there. Thrown by a rainstorm that slowed the greens and stretched first-round play over two days, Dillard shot a 79. It was a rough start for a player who had two top-10s in three APGA starts as an amateur. “It was frustrating,” he says. “That was probably the nerves and, you know, just being a little uncomfortable.” Urging him on were coach Rice; his parents, who flew in from Chicago; and former FAMU teammate and friend Logan Bryant, whom Dillard hadn’t seen since the start of the pandemic. But what ultimately cut through was advice from three-time PGA TOUR winner Johnson Wagner, with whom he’d played a practice round after a chance meeting on the back nine. “He told me this five times, but it didn’t really click until the fourth time,” Dillard says. “I told him how I was sponsor exempt, kind of how I got there, and he was just like, ‘Go for it.’ “I understand what that means,” Dillard continues, “but what does it really mean?” That’s when Charles Raulerson, Dillard’s swing coach and caddie, broke it all down. “You don’t have anything to lose,” he said. “You’re not out here trying to make a list or fighting for your next meal or anything. You’re here to learn and get better. So don’t be scared. Don’t leave anything on the table.” Once Dillard committed to “getting comfortable with everything that made me uncomfortable,” he says, his prospects turned around. Playing with more self-belief in the second round, he fired a 72. And though it proved too little, too late to make the cut, it was proof he could compete. Along with signing his scorecard, he wrote a note to himself: Just go for it. The phrase could well serve as a rallying cry for the next class of Black golfers aiming to land on the APGA Collegiate Ranking.
Islanders fans’ twisted declaration of loveIslanders fans’ twisted declaration of love
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Jaguars start with clean slateJaguars start with clean slate
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Sales Pitch discussion: Gonzaga’s emergence and what else matters in top mid-major conferencesSales Pitch discussion: Gonzaga’s emergence and what else matters in top mid-major conferences
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Inside Jon Rahm’s putter switch before U.S. Open winInside Jon Rahm’s putter switch before U.S. Open win
His 18-foot, curling left-to-righter breaks toward the hole, eyes locked on its path, Jon Rahm raises his Odyssey Rossie S putter and unleashes jubilant fist pump as his ball dives into the darkness. We’ve seen the highlight how many times in the handful of days that have passed since that putt clinched Rahm’s U.S. Open victory? It’s hard to imagine after seeing the confidence and firm conviction the ball would roll inevitably into the hole Rahm displayed on Torrey Pines’ 17th and 18th greens, Sunday, that the world No. 1 only switched into the flatstick the tournament prior to the U.S. Open. It’s surprising, too, that the mid-mallet model he settled on was a significant departure from the gigantic rear-center of gravity, high MOI mallet he had been using for months. So, how did we get here? How did Rahmbo look more like 2008 Sunday Tiger Woods on the 72nd at Torrey Pines and less like a golfer who was so frustrated with his putting he went back to the drawing board less than a month ago? The week prior to the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Rahm visited with Callaway head of tour operations Tim Reed and Odyssey rep Joe Toulon at the Ely Callaway Performance Center in Carlsbad, California, to test putters. There, Rahm was most intrigued by an Odyssey Rossie S mid-mallet putter. He remained happy with the Microhinge Star insert that had been, well, inserted into his 2-Ball Ten at the PGA Championship, so Toulon and company had the Rossie built with the Microhinge. After evaluation on SAM PuttLab and Quintic (two putting analysis systems), it was clear the Rossie performed better than the higher-MOI, rear-CG 2-Ball Ten he had been putting with since joining Callaway’s tour staff in January. And as evidenced by his barnstorming three rounds at the Memorial Tournament and his clutch putt-filled win at the U.S. Open, the Spaniard’s putting performance was indeed elevated. For the inside story of Rahm’s Rossie S, GolfWRX spoke with Odyssey tour rep Joe Toulon. GolfWRX: When Rahm signed with Callaway, he was using a putter that looked very much like the Odyssey 2-Ball Ten he ultimately put in the bag. It intuitively made sense that’d be his choice, but he switched to a different putter at the Memorial. Why? Joe Toulon: When he came into our putter studio in January, he hadn’t really been putting great. He was anxious to get into something. We had, probably, 20 putters made up for him, and the whole time, we were thinking the 2-Ball Ten with the S-neck would be the winner because it was similar to what he was using coming in. But through that process, you have to listen to what the player is saying and how they’re saying it. He was struggling with setup and how his putter sat on the ground…and he found himself fidgeting. In his college days, he used a 2-Ball. So the 2-Ball Ten, the way it sat on the ground for him was the reason he gravitated toward that. He felt comfortable with it…and with his path, he squared it up a little bit more and hit more putts in the center of the face. The last thing we did with that putter was change to a White Hot insert. He’s such a feel player, and he told us that White Hot felt good at impact. So that’s what he switched to at the Farmers Insurance Open and used through the PGA Championship. GolfWRX: And then he made a minor modification at the PGA Championship… JT: So, we follow player stats very, very closely. We talk to players, caddies, and agents. We always want to see what the feel is with the putter (and every club, really). His putting didn’t really change much from the beginning of the year, over time, he just grew frustrated as he expected he’d start making those 8-12 footers. He never really had a hot week with it [the Odyssey 2-Ball Ten putter]. He was always right around zero strokes gained: putting for the week. So, looking at his stats, we thought if the putter could just get relatively hot, he was doing everything else great. We had a meeting before the PGA Championship with Jon, his caddie, and a couple of other people, and we wanted to dive deep into the stats and what he was feeling out on the course and what his caddie was seeing. We started hearing him say his speed had been a little bit off, so we made an insert change in his 2-Ball Ten [White Hot to Microhinge Star]. We didn’t want to change the whole putter because it was the week of the PGA Championship. We were pretty excited about what we were seeing, but then after his round Saturday, he told us it would be his last round using the putter. GolfWRX: Wow. Back to the drawing board then! What direction do you go from there? JT: The Rossie was one of the putters I had made for him back in January, and I could just tell, watching him look at all the putters and listing to his initial thoughts, it was all positive with that one, and he kept kind of looking back at it, so that was something I built up for him along with a couple of others. We kind of pieced everything together knowing that he’s not a very linear person; he doesn’t like lines on his putter, and we knew he liked the insert. He liked the speed off the face, the feel, and the roll, so we knew we were going to go with that insert. And we wanted to go back to something with an S-neck so he could feel the face rotate. The 2-Ball Ten, where the center of gravity is in that putter is further back. Over time, we started to get the sense that wasn’t working well with him wanting to feel the face rotate. And over time, that kind of altered his stroke a little bit to the point where he didn’t look comfortable over the ball. So, we wanted to give him something with the CG a little more forward. He came into the test center Thursday and Friday (of the Charles Schwab Challenge) to look at putters and dial in the right one, but Thursday when he came, he was in love with the Rossie and we got him on Quintic and PuttLab and made sure the numbers were good. At that point, we may have made a slight loft adjustment to help launch angle, but that was it. It was pretty amazing just to see how confident and comfortable he looked with that putter in his hands. He was a completely different person on the greens. GolfWRX: So clearly a different putter and better performance, but why/how was it working better for him? JT: Basically, he was just feeling the face a little bit more, which made him more attuned to face angle and how it was rotating in his stroke. He was feeling like a more “natural” putter again. Jon Rahm putter specs Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG Rossie S Insert: Micro Hinge Star Shaft: Steel stepped Grip: Odyssey 56 pistol Length: 37 inches Loft: 2.5 degrees Lie: 68-degrees Weight: 544 grams
MLB Power Rankings: There’s a new No. 1 on our final list of JuneMLB Power Rankings: There’s a new No. 1 on our final list of June
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NHL Playoffs Daily: Knights try to avoid elimination in MontrealNHL Playoffs Daily: Knights try to avoid elimination in Montreal
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Ping unveils new line of putters with 11 different modelsPing unveils new line of putters with 11 different models
Ping’s 2021 putter line features both traditional and new putter models designed to offer multiple options for each stroke type. With its emphasis on fitting, Ping has taken great care with the line to optimize each model with different blends of materials and technology best suited to each head shape. Ping’s VP of engineering Paul Wood told us that upwards of 70 percent of golfers favor inserts/softer feel, so the company was determined to offer a full range of insert-style putters to complement the solid-faced Heppler line. The objective in developing the insert for the 2021 line was to create a successor to the Sigma 2 line that offered a similar soft feel with some performance-enhancing technology and new models. Ping’s engineers are continuing to use a dual-durometer insert that feels softer on shorter putts and firmer on longer strokes. Wood indicated the shallow, uniform groove technology (previously known in-house as the Bubba Watson Groove due to his early involvement) came straight from feedback from tour professionals by focusing on optimizing player perception more than anything to do with the physics. In addition to the dual-durometer insert, Wood said the other key to the 2021 line is every putter uses multiple metals that have been selected based on the head shape. ”Each putter in the line has a combination of heavier and lighter materials positioned to maximize stability and keep a low center of mass,” Wood said. For example, the blade putters use steel with tungsten around the perimeter for greater stability. However, that formula would be too heavy in the larger mallet putters, such as the Harwood, which has an aluminum body with tungsten inserts. Finally, in terms of technology across the line as a whole, Wood told us there are four main ways players line up the ball: the top rail, a long central alignment, ball framing lines, and an alignment feature that directly meets the ball. Across the whole line, there is something for everyone and each model focuses on one or two of these primary alignment styles for ease of alignment. Speaking on the 2021 line, John K. Solheim, Ping president said “We’ve engineered a lot of score-lowering technology into the 2021 putter line through extensive research and tour player feedback. All of the models are developed with higher MOI through strategic use of various materials, including tungsten, steel and aluminum, to provide the forgiveness and accuracy golfers expect from a Ping putter. The dual-durometer insert features uniform, shallow grooves to give golfers a soft, responsive feel for more consistent distance control with the precise touch they need to hole more putts.” Ping 2021 putters: The models The Anser, Anser 2, and Anser 4 combine a stainless-steel head with tungsten heel and toe weights to elevate the timeless designs to the highest MOI in company history. While in the Kushin 4, DS 72, and Tyne 4, a steel weight is positioned in the heel, and tungsten is used to the toe to optimize the center of gravity locations for each model. The Fetch and Oslo H merge together a cast 304 stainless steel body with an aluminum sole plate to position mass around the perimeter of the heads for highly forgiving mallet-style designs. For the new CA 70 head, a stainless steel sole weight is used to lower the center of gravity of the putter, which features a body mostly constructed of aluminum. The largest of the new designs, the Harwood offers the highest MOI in the line thanks to its 6061 aluminum body and 93 grams worth of tungsten weights positioned in the four corners of the head. Specs, availability, prices The new 2021 Ping putter line will be available in a total of 11 different models including one in an armlock configuration and come in both right and left-handed. The putters are each fitted with one of three original Ping-designed grips intended to maximize the putter performance based on stroke fit. The PP58 – A mid (87g) standard-sized pistol shape made of rubber and designed to help square the face at impact is the standard grip on the Anser, Anser 4, Kushin 4, CA 70, DS 72, Tyne 4, and Tyne C. The PP60 – Another (86g) midsize option, pistol design with a rubber under-listing with larger flat surfaces for increased face awareness. A new rubber outer layer features a unique texture to enhance a golfer’s sense of touch. It comes standard on the Anser 2, Fetch, Oslo H and Harwood. The PP58-S – A pistol-shaped midsized grip featuring a straight taper and predominantly flat surface to aid in clubface awareness. All of the 2021 Ping putters are priced at $270, except for the Harwood and Harwood armlock, which are priced at $380. Click here to purchase.