Johnson still sharing lead at Pebble Beach

  The 2017-18 PGA TOUR season started in October at the Safeway Open, but for most equipment manufacturers, the “season” doesn’t commence until Jan. 1 — better known as the start of the equipment signing period.    Callaway is the leader in the clubhouse at the moment with two marquee signings in 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia and PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele.    With more signings expected to be announced, here’s a running list of who’s coming and going in the equipment world.   Callaway Sergio Garcia (formerly with TaylorMade) Xander Schauffele (TaylorMade) Si Woo Kim (TaylorMade) Hudson Swafford (Bridgestone)   Titleist Brian Harman (TaylorMade)   Bettinardi Francesco Molinari (Free agent)   Cleveland/Srixon  Jamie Sadlowski (Callaway) Grayson Murray* (Callaway)   * – Iron, wedges, ball, hat, bag 

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Played annually on South Korea's Jeju Island, THE CJ CUP will make a one-year move to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas before returning to Asia in 2021. THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK will once again feature a 78-player field highlighted by reigning FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson and fellow FedExCup winners Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. FIELD NOTES: Brooks Koepka, winner of the 2018 CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, is scheduled to make his return after a two-month layoff due to injury... All of the top five golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking will tee it up at Shadow Creek including Johnson, Thomas, McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa... Sponsor exemptions into the limited-field event include Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter, and past FedExCup winners Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth... Tony Finau will return to action after testing positive for COVID-19... Joo-Hyung Kim is among the Korean contingent who earned spots into THE CJ CUP. The 18-year-old has played two PGA TOUR events thus far this season, making the cut in both. He already has four professional wins on his resume. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Shadow Creek, par 72, 7,527 yards (yardage subject to change). The Tom Fazio-designed desert oasis, which opened in 1990, has been long known as one of the world's most exclusive clubs. It played host to the first made-for-TV match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, giving fans a glimpse of the layout. Dustin Johnson has the course record (66), while Woods and Fred Couples shared the record prior to Fazio's restoration in 2008 (60). About 30 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, the course feels far from your usual desert golf experience with its rolling mounds, creeks, waterfalls, peaks and valleys. STORYLINES: Thomas has won two of the three CJ CUPs in South Korea and will look to see if that success will transfer over to the United States...This is the second of two events in Las Vegas after the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open... Koepka has been on the shelf for the last two months after withdrawing from both the opening event of the FedExCup Playoffs and the U.S. Open as he rehabbed an injury. This will be his first start on the PGA TOUR since a missed cut at the Wyndham Championship... Patrick Cantlay will look to continue his Las Vegas heater at Shadow Creek. Cantlay has finished 1-2-2 at the Shriners the last three seasons and shared the 36-hole lead heading into the weekend in 2020. 72-HOLE RECORD: 267, Brooks Koepka (2018) 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Ryan Palmer (Fourth round, 2018) LAST TIME: Thomas shot a 5-under 67 Sunday to top Danny Lee, who was born in South Korea, by two shots at the 2019 CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Thomas held the 54-hole lead and despite making a bogey on the par-3 17th hole, he bounced back with a closing birdie to win his 11th PGA TOUR title. It was also his second CJ CUP victory after winning the inaugural event in 2017. Lee's runner-up result was his best in the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season. Hideki Matsuyama, Gary Woodland, and Cameron Smith finished at 15-under and rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR Live: Thursday-Sunday, 12:45 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-8 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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PXG (Parsons Xtreme Golf), founded by billionaire-entrepreneur Bob Parsons, made an immediate mark in the golf industry by offering golf clubs that sold for relatively enormous prices in the domestic golf market. The barrier to entry for becoming a PXG customer, however, is shifting. Parsons has described the company’s products as the “Ferrariâ€� of golf clubs, and its prices have reflected that. PXG’s original 0311 irons sold for $300 per iron, and its 0811 drivers sold for $850. The company’s newest Gen2 0311 irons, released in March 2018, upped the ante even more, selling for $400 apiece. The new Gen2 drivers, however, which released in January 2019, came with a reduced price of $575 each because Parsons said the company was able to reduce manufacturing costs through scaling. Now, PXG is bringing a drastically lower-priced set of irons to retail with its 0211 irons that are priced at $195 per club with steel shafts, and $210 with graphite shafts. PXG recently tested the theory of making more affordable irons available to the public, and it passed. “After we introduced our Gen2 irons and pretty much sold through our Gen1s, we did a test,â€� Parsons told PGATOUR.COM. “What we did was we ordered a new run of our Gen1 irons and didn’t have the R&D that we needed to recover, so we were able to sell those at a lesser price. What we learned was there’s a big demand for that, especially from our brand, and sales of that were very well received.â€� The price difference between the Gen2 0311 irons (at $400 per iron) and the 0211 irons (at $195 per iron) comes from the different constructions, and the cost of making the clubs. PXG’s recently released Gen 0311 irons are triple-forged from 8620 carbon and feature the company’s trademark weight ports around the perimeter. The 0211 irons, on the other hand, are investment cast from 431 stainless steel, and they do not feature PXG’s traditional screw weights. The investment casting process is less expensive than the forging process. The new 0211 irons do, however, feature the company’s new COR2 material – a “proprietary high-speed polymerâ€� – in the space between the HT 1770M faces and the 431 stainless steel bodies. This design allows the faces to be constructed thinner for more ball speed without sacrificing feel, sound and durability. “What we did was we took our Gen2 technology, which we already have the R&D paid for with the Gen2 irons, and we put that in [the 0211 irons] as much as we could,â€� Parsons said. “We used a less expensive manufacturing process, but still, the way we do it, these irons cost us more to make than other companies pay for their forged irons.â€� Parsons also says that because they have the same COR2 technology that was introduced in the Gen2 irons, the new 0211 irons perform better than the forged Gen1 irons that did not have this material. “Our 0211s, when it comes to our Gen1 irons, they outperform them considerably,â€� Parsons said. “They’re longer, they have faster ball speeds, launch higher, got a higher peak height, steeper landing angle and they’re more accurate. So we made these as good as we could.â€� While PXG’s flagship Gen2 0311 family of irons consists of four different head models (0311T, 0311P, 0311 XF and 0311 SGI), the 0211 line has just one head model. The 0211 irons (4-PW, SW, GW, LW) have a progressive makeup where the short irons have less offset and smaller profiles and the long irons have more offset and larger profiles. Also, the Gen2 0311 irons have a slew of shafts available at no upcharge, but the 0211 shaft options are more limited; they come stock with True Tempers Elevate steel shafts, and Mitsubishi’s MMT steel or graphite shafts, with other shafts coming with an additional upcharge. For those who may question the relatively cheaper price tag of the 0211 compared to its previous iron releases, Parsons had this to say: “While these irons are significantly less compared to our 0311s — our forged irons, our flagship products — when you compare them to other investment cast products [they’re] pretty expensive,â€� Parsons said. “$195 for a casted product, that’s pricey. That’s still in that upper price range. But for the performance that you get, the value is totally there.â€� PXG’s new 0211 irons, which come with a chrome finish, will be available everywhere that PXG’s current 0311 Gen2 irons are sold, including its website.

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