Golfer explains why girlfriend rejected celebratory kiss

McKINNEY, Texas — Sam Burns still has the lead going into the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson despite more magic on the 18th green from local favorite Jordan Spieth. Now it’s a race to beat the weather in Texas in the final round with a good number of the players headed to the PGA Championship in South Carolina. RELATED: Tee times adjusted for final round Burns shot a 3-under 69 for a one-stroke lead over K.H. Lee, who had a 67. Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Charl Schwartzel each shot 66 and were three strokes back along with Alex Noren, who shot 70. The players will switch from twosomes back to threesomes going off the first and 10th tees soon after daybreak Sunday with heavy rain in the forecast. Without delays, the tournament will finish about four hours earlier than normal. Spieth rolled in another eagle at the par-5 18th, this time a shorter, bending putt from the fringe behind the hole. This time it just trimmed his deficit after Spieth’s 55-footer up a hill that splits the green gave him a share of the first-round lead. The roar was the same, though, from the biggest gallery on the new course of his hometown event, the TCP Craig Ranch in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas. It’s the third venue in the past four Nelsons. “Once it got on the green, it looked good,” Spieth said. “Started the putter raise and I wasn’t positive it was going in because the angle it was coming in at. I wanted to do the no look to the crowd, but, I mean, it was a really cool moment.” Seamus Power holed out on a 35-foot bunker shot on the par-4 15th for a 67 and was tied with 2017 U.S. Amateur winner Doc Redman at 16 under. Redman shot 69. Scott Stallings and Harris English shot matching 63s after making the cut on the number at 6 under, a record low for the Nelson on a course that hosted two Korn Ferry Tour Championships. Burns, trying to become first player since Camilo Villegas in 2008 to get his first two PGA TOUR victories in consecutive events, had his first bogey of the tournament on No. 1 and another on the sixth hole. He missed an eagle by inches on 18. Lee birdied four of his last seven holes and the South Korean briefly shared the lead with Burns before the Louisiana native tapped in for birdie on the final hole. Spieth’s eagle was a boost after back-to-back bogeys stalled the momentum of six birdies over a nine-hole stretch for the three-time major winner who will be looking for the career grand slam next week. Kuchar birdied five of the last seven holes on the front nine, and the 2011 Masters champion Schwartzel answered a bogey at 16 with consecutive birdies. Stallings birdied six consecutive holes a day after shooting 71 in the second round, when allergy medication affected him badly enough for his caddy to ask, “You think we could break 80 today?” Seeking his first win since 2014, Stallings made the turn at 2 under in the second round. The 36-year-old Tennessean had four straight birdies, made the cut on the number and has played 27 holes in 13 under. “You’re way behind, you’re trying to give yourself as many birdie putts as you can,” said Stallings, who has just three top-three finishes in seven years since winning at Torrey Pines. “I didn’t know that I made six in a row.” Sung Kang, the defending champion from 2019 before last year’s COVID-19 cancellation and the subsequent move to TPC Craig Ranch after two years at the treeless links course Trinity Forest in Dallas, shot 72 to remain at 8 under. Jon Rahm, the highest-ranked player in field at No. 3, is 11 under after a 68. Fifth-ranked Bryson DeChambeau, who played at nearby SMU, stayed at 7 under with a 72.

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Let’s begin with some trivia: Looking at the past 10 years, which PGA TOUR golfer has made the biggest distance gain year over year? “That’s an easy one,” you say. “Bryson DeChambeau.” Correct. But who’s right behind Bryson and his 19.8-yard increase in distance from 2019 to 2020? Who picked up 18 yards off the tee from 2020 to 2021, increasing his average drive from 291 yards to 309? Here’s a clue: He’s the defending at this week’s John Deere Classic. While the riddle would have been much more difficult without a headline and image atop this story, it takes nothing away from Frittelli, whose driver clubhead speed is now an impressive 118.7 mph. “If you hit it 10 yards longer, you increase your prize money by $1 million,” Frittelli said earlier this year, citing statistics. “Things like that are non-negotiable in my mind. It’s fun for me. It’s re-invigorated my game. I’m excited to hit tee shots and see how I can play holes on golf courses differently. Not going full bore, just adding a little speed training in certain situations.” After doubling down on his fitness — “two solid years of lifting,” according to Frittelli — he wasn’t seeing his increased strength translate to a boost in distance. “Basically July last year, I looked at my trainer and I said why am I not hitting it any longer? I’ve been doing all these power workouts, strength workouts in the gym, and I’m getting stronger for sure because I can see my PRs moving up in each exercise. I then figured out that he said to me you actually want to hit it further? I didn’t realize that. Yeah, so we switched that up had a little more speed in the workout, so instead of just power and strength, trying to lift heavy and lots of reps, went down to fewer reps and lighter weight.” In addition, the South African has made some interesting adjustments to his driver setup. And as this is the Equipment Report, we wanted to get more information on the artillery the bomber-come-lately is employing. We spoke with Callaway’s PGA TOUR manager, Jacob Davidson, to learn more. GolfWRX: When did the discussion about switching to a longer driver shaft begin, and what was that process like to get him into his current setup? JD: It started last year. His driver cracked and he put the same model with a new shaft in play at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. We did some more work the next week at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD, and we moved him into a Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero D head that was a little bit wider. We did a bunch of testing at that point with different shafts, tipping. He played the Mavrik Sub Zero D through the fall. Around the Farmers Insurance Open, he did some new testing with the Epic Speed and did some more testing at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and ended up putting the Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond LS in play for the PGA Championship with a 46-inch Mitsubishi Tensei AV White AV 65 X tipped 1.5 inches. The head was a natural fit. His misses had been a little right. With this head, he got lower spin with a more neutral start line. It has a little weight back so it’s more forgiving. 7.6 degrees of actual loft. N-1 hosel setting. GolfWRX: How did the longer shaft experiment begin? JD: When he started his speed training, we made him some longer shafts — 46, 47 inches — just for him to swing to get his clubhead speed up. He said, “I’m seeing big gains. Let’s work on a head that gets me in the right window for launch in spin.” Once we got it dialed in, he figured out he wasn’t driving it that much less accurate and the gains in the distance were significant. GolfWRX: From a technical standpoint, is he delivering the driver differently to the ball now? How have his needs changed? JD: Not as much as you would think. His path and angle are pretty similar. His angle of attack is about 1.5 degrees more up. I think this is partly due to all the core work and being physically stronger. He trained hard before making the switch, which I think made it successful. GolfWRX: Finally, do you have any advice or guidance for the average golfer who might be considering a longer shaft in the pursuit of more distance? JD: They definitely need to train for it physically. And with a driver head, you need to go wider with head weight, stiffer on the shaft. You have to make adjustments to swingweight. You need to make sure (with your teacher) that technique is correct. Ultimately, you have to have the strength to be able to control a longer shaft and maintain accuracy.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Cameron Smith tied the PGA TOUR record for fewest putts in a round (18) during his second-round 62 at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He missed a birdie attempt from just over 22 feet on 18 that would have broken the record. “Yeah, it’s a pretty cool little title I guess to have next to your name,” Smith said after making six birdies and an eagle at the par-5 third hole, where he holed his sand shot from over 33 feet. He also had no putts at the par-3 fourth hole, where he got out of position but chipped in for par. All told, Smith made 110 feet, 3 inches worth of putts. He saved par eight times in eight tries. “The greens are so good around here,” he said, “if you get the ball started online and you’ve hit a good putt, most of the time they’re going in. Yeah, really just a good day on the greens, I guess. “…I probably didn’t drive it as good as I did yesterday,” he continued, “but the approaches were really nice. Like I said, I felt I was hitting lots of nice shots that were just going off the green and made a couple of them and a couple of them missed. That’s just how it went, but still a pretty cool record.” He admitted to trying to add up how many putts he’d taken on the day as he played the 17th hole. For some reason, he said, he thought the record for a single round must be 17, not 18 putts. Smith is one of 19 players in Memphis who played the Olympics in Japan, 14 times zones away. Still, fatigue doesn’t seem to have slowed him down much as he is in position for his first victory since capturing the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Marc Leishman in April. “Probably haven’t had the results that I wished for,” he said. “After the win at Zurich, I felt like I’ve continued to play really nice golf and really haven’t got the most out of my game, so a day like today I think was probably a little bit overdue, but it’s nice to know it’s still in me.”

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