Confidence Factor: Fantasy advice for the Memorial Tournament

SANDWICH, England — Louis Oosthuizen set a 36-hole record at The 149th Open and is halfway to ending that run of near misses at the majors. He’ll have to hold off a cast of major champions on the weekend at Royal St. George’s. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Morikawa makes waves on Friday On a day of pleasant summer weather that took the fear out of the links off Sandwich Bay, Oosthuizen broke away from a three-way tie with a birdie-birdie-eagle run from the 12th hole. He shrugged off his first bogey of the week for a 5-under 65 and a two-stroke lead on Friday. Former PGA champion Collin Morikawa had a 64 and was two shots behind. Another shot was Jordan Spieth (67), going after his fourth major. Lurking was two-time major champion Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who shot 65. Oosthuizen was at 11-under 129, breaking the 36-hole Open record first set by Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield and matched by Brandt Snedeker in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. This will be the fifth time in the last nine rounds at a major that Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion at St. Andrews, has had at least a share of the lead. He was runner-up at the last two majors, to Phil Mickelson at the the PGA Championship in May and to Jon Rahm the U.S. Open last month. “I’m not really going to think about the second spots,” said Oosthuizen, when asked what he’ll do differently this time. “I know my game is in a good place.” He’ll also be aware of the quality of player behind him, though. Morikawa, making quite a debut in links golf, made seven birdies in his first 14 holes as part of a clinic in iron play. He missed a 5-foot par putt on No. 15 and had a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole catch the lip. Spieth, four shots behind when he teed off, was tied for the lead after 12 holes and then played the last six holes in 1 over. Then there was Dustin Johnson, a runner-up at Royal St. George’s in 2011, who stuck his approach at the last to 3 feet for a birdie and a round of 65, which left him tied for fourth place at 7 under with Dylan Frittelli of South Africa (67) and Scottie Scheffler (66). One shot behind an eclectic mix of players at 6 under — including two more South Africans in Justin Harding and Daniel Van Tonder — were Rahm (64) and Brooks Koepka. Koepka made four birdies in his last five holes for a 66. DeChambeau just made it to the weekend at Royal St. George’s by shooting a 70, which saw him make the cut on the number at 1 over. Rory McIlroy did, too, needing a birdie on the final hole for another 70. He was 11 shots behind. Other big names weren’t so lucky: No. 7 Patrick Cantlay, No. 9 Patrick Reed, former Open champions Francesco Molinari and Henrik Stenson, and Darren Clarke, the 2011 champion at Royal St. George’s, were all headed home.

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OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Rory McIlroy came close to shutting down his season and eliminating his opportunity this year to become the first player to successfully defend the FedExCup. The dull ache from an inflamed rib joint had left him frustrated and concerned. Rest was an alluring option. More than the nagging pain, though, was a nagging feeling that McIlroy couldn’t shake. For each of the last eight years, he had always managed to win one event. But thus far in 2017, he has been shut out. McIlroy could manage the pain he was feeling. What he couldn’t manage was the disappointment of going through an entire calendar year without raising a trophy. “The real thing for me was I want to win,� McIlroy said Wednesday on the eve of the FedExCup Playoffs opener, THE NORTHERN TRUST. “I want to win at least once before the end of the year. I haven’t not won a tournament since the 2008 season, which was my real rookie season on the European Tour. “Even in 2013 when I struggled, I went down to Australia at the end of the year and I won – and it made the end of the year feel pretty good. I’d like to have that feeling again.� He’s guaranteed at least three more chances in the Playoffs. He begins the week 44th in points, which will safely keep him inside the top 70 players who’ll advance to the third event, the BMW Championship. He still has work to do to move inside the top 30 for the TOUR Championship, which McIlroy won last year in a playoff against Ryan Moore and Kevin Chappell. That’s the last time McIlroy has won. Since then, he’s battled a rib injury for most of 2017, and also took time off to get married. He’s made just 13 starts this season. His game seemed to be coming around after top-5 finishes at the Open Championship and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. But in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, a course on which he’s won twice, he was not in contention. On that Sunday, he finished the final round unsure of his immediate playing schedule due to the rib problem and what he described then as numbness in his left arm after each round. He amended that description this week to “a dull ache.� “Whenever someone hears numbness, all of a sudden, it’s like, well, that’s nerves and that’s really bad,� McIlroy said. “It wasn’t quite numbness. I didn’t probably describe it the right way.� He returned to Northern Ireland, took a few days off and then met with fitness advisor Steve McGregor. By then, the symptoms had calmed down. McIlroy explained Wednesday that his rib is healthy; the problem area is the joint that attached the rib to the vertebrae. He said the ligament has “become quite lax� and thus the joint frequently moves out of line. The more he adjusts it back in place, the longer it stays inflamed. He called it a never-ending cycle – one he hopes will end after his three-month sabbatical at the end of this year. Besides the FedExCup Playoffs, McIlroy will play the Dunhill Links Championship in October. After that, he plans to put the clubs away for six weeks before resuming practice. His next competitive event won’t be until mid-January. “It’s something that I’m going to have to address,� McIlroy said. “If I manage it over these next few weeks, I can’t do any damage to it. It’s not as if I can do anything that’s not already there. So it’s just about managing it.� As for taking three months off? “I’m excited for it,� he said. “To have three months where I can focus on myself, my health, my game and just improvement – I don’t think I’m ever going to get a chance like this in my career again where I get this opportunity to take three months to re-evaluate things.� Had the pain impacted his playing ability, he would have already ended his season. But he said it does not impact him when he’s inside the ropes. That’s why he’s looking forward to offering a proper defense of his FedExCup title. “I feel like I’m capable of giving myself a chance to win this thing,� McIlroy said. “So if you feel that way and you know you’re not going to do yourself any hard, then I think that was the right decision in the end.� A year ago, he started the FedExCup Playoffs in the 36th position. Like this year, McIlroy had not won on the PGA TOUR in 2016 (although he did win his own Irish Open during that summer). But he won at TPC Boston – next week’s venue for the Dell Technologies Championship – to vault inside the top six and give himself a realistic chance at East Lake. It was an opportunity he converted. It also was a satisfying end to his TOUR season. Perhaps he’ll use the same formula again. “Sometimes with lower expectations, you can come in and the pressure is off a little bit and you can make a run,� McIlroy said. “Feel like you’re more the hunter than the hunted. That’s how I felt last year and I got hot at the right time. “Your win two of the four, you should have a great chance of winning the entire thing. That’s the goal again the next few weeks and hopefully I can do that.�

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Tiger Woods’ career has spanned nearly … wait for it … a quarter-century. His equipment is as talked about as anything in the game, short of his resume. But what were the individual club(s) that have fueled his epic career? What clubs played a part in the actual historic moments that demanded our attention? We dug, debated, and ultimately landed on these 10 (ranked 10 to 1). Some will be obvious, and some will be a surprise. Keep in mind that a few on this list are representations or switches in Tiger’s bag that had a direct impact on his success, while others were just clubs he dominated with — either in a single moment or over a long period of time. This list could have been 50 clubs. Easily. Some clubs that aren’t mentioned on this list: Woods’ Nike SasQuatch driver, 3-wood, and 5-wood, his Vokey 58 (bent to 56) and 60-degree wedges from 2000, the TaylorMade Phase 1 irons he won the TOUR Championship with in 2018, and on and on. It’s like trying to rank the top 10 Air Jordans from moments in MJ’s career == not the coolest-looking shoes but the ones where he did something great. It’s almost impossible. We did our best, and we hope you enjoy where we landed. Here we go. 10. Nike T40 Tour 5-wood The Nike T40 was the first 5-wood Tiger ever put into competitive action. This was also the first time we saw Tiger start to routinely bring 15 clubs to a tournament and rotate the clubs in his bag based on playing conditions and course setup with either the 2-iron or the 5-wood being called into action. The Nike T40 was considered a mid-sized fairway wood at the time, and the key design element of the club was the 40-gram tungsten plug directly in the middle of the sole to help lower the center of gravity, increase launch, and improve forgiveness. The 5-wood has become a mainstay in Tiger’s bags since the original T40, and the 2-iron has all but disappeared the last few years in favor of an easier-to-flight option. The current club of choice for Woods is a TaylorMade M3 with a Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana D+ 80 TX White shaft. 9. King Cobra Deep Face Driver This particular model first caught steam at the 1993 Open Championship when Greg Norman lit up Royal St. George’s on the final day with a 64 to win his second Claret Jug. At the time, Cobra was in a transition, having rebranded to the “King Cobra” label and upped its presence. Fast forward a year when Tiger began dabbling with the Cobra driver. The first models he tried were not the ones with which he ultimately took over the golf world. The model that made history (1996 U.S. Amateur and 1997 Masters), was a special setup made specifically by Cobra for Tiger with a “bore through” shaft. According to legend, the idea was that having the shaft go all the way through would increase stability to support Tigers 130-plus MPH swing speeds. Specs Loft: 9 degrees Length: 43.5 inches (finished with grip) Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 (tipped to length with bore through) Swing weight: D4 Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R 8. TaylorMade P7TW 8-iron It may seem odd to most, but this club, especially in the final round of the 2019 Masters, was the one that did the most work — and arguably the most damage. Tiger hit nine 8-iron approach shots on Sunday at Augusta, two of which represented the beginning of his chase (8-iron into the seventh for a birdie) and the door-slammer (8-iron into the 16th). Tiger’s specs on this club are as precise as you would imagine. Specs Loft: 40.5 degrees Length: 36 5/16″ (finished with grip) Lie: 63.5 degrees Shaft: Dynamic Gold X100 (tipped 1/4″) Swing Weight: D4 Grip: Golf Pride BCT 58R 7. Titleist 681T 2-iron In the early Tiger days, this club was as much a tool for Tiger as it was an intimidation stick. On any golf course, Tiger could pull thus club and hit a variety of shots the distance that the average PGA TOUR player was hitting his 3-wood, and in some cases, driver. And, oh yeah, the “stingers” this club produced were legendary. Arguably, the most notable 2-iron from this time was the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. Coming down the stretch, Tiger hit a frozen rope 2-iron into the 13th hole from 263 yards that set up a birdie and all but secured his three-shot victory over Phil Mickelson. Specs Loft: 19 degrees Length: 39.5″ Lie: 60 degrees Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 (tipped 1/4″) Swing weight: D4 Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R 6. Titleist 975D driver The Titleist 975D is the driver that, to this day, stayed in the bag the longest of any driver Tiger ever used. The 975D debuted in 1998 and was a big success on TOUR and with amateur players. Even as more and more professionals on the PGA TOUR transitioned to larger heads with graphite shafts, Tiger stuck it out with a 43.5-inch True Temper Dynamic Gold X100-shafted 260cc driver and remained one of the longest players. As driver head volume grew to over 400cc in the early 2000s, Tiger was reluctant to switch and used the 975D all the way until the 2002 season when he finally switched to a Nike Forged Titanium driver. Woods stayed with the steel shaft for a number of years after that. 5. Nike Fastback 60-degree wedge The 2005 Masters was the scene. Final round. 16th hole. From the back left of the 16th green, Tiger (with his 60-degree Nike wedge in hand) ran his ball up the side of the hill past the flag, and in a moment that seemed to last forever, the ball gingerly crept back down the hill, perched on the edge of the cup for an eternal couple of second, and slipped into the hole. Some say this was Woods’ best shot ever, and it’s hard to argue that point. This wedge, built and ground by the famous Mike Taylor, was front and center. Specs Loft: 60 degrees Length: 35 3/16″ (finished with grip) Lie: 64 degree Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 Swing weight: D4 Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R Notes: This wedge featured a square sole, flatter camber, and 10 degrees of bounce. Three exact models were made for Tiger in February of 2005 4. Mizuno combo set: MP 14 and MP 29 Looking back at Tiger’s first major win, the 1997 Masters, his golf bag was very different than it is today. Yet one thing remains the same: forged blades. The irons Tiger used during that record-breaking win were a mixed set of Mizuno irons consisting of two different Mizuno blade models: the MP 14 and MP 29. The reason for the mixed set of irons was a slight difference in the offset progression between the two sets, and Tiger chose the irons from each model that offered the least amount of offset. The MP 29 irons had a reverse-offset progression that offered less offset in the longer irons and more offset into the shorter irons — something that is much less common today. The MP 14 irons had a standard progression of more offset into the longer irons and less into the shorter clubs. The result was a mixed set MP 29 2-iron through 4-iron and MP-14 5-iron to pitching wedge. This is a key example of Tiger’s exacting eye for getting his specs just right. To put this in perspective, this particular iron set was used to win all three of his U.S. Amateur titles (94, 95, 96), his first six professional wins, and his first major. Interestingly, the specs of these clubs are almost spot on to the lofts and lies he uses to this very day. 3. Titleist 970 3-wood Beyond the famous Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter, the Titleist PT (970) fairway wood could be the club most synonymous with Tiger Woods and some of his most famous shots. The deep face satin steel look of the Titleist PT made it easy to recognize, and from a design perspective in an era of quickly evolving technology in fairway woods Tiger, much like with the 975D driver, stuck it out with a steel shaft and small head shape for a long time. This was the tool used to hit perhaps his best 3-wood shot ever, the famous, “That the one you’re talking about?” at the 2000 Open on the 14th hole at St. Andrews during the third round from 281 yards. The 3-wood was his only fairway wood for a long time, and the next club in his set was always a 2-iron. This meant having to execute a lot of shots with that single club. One of the benefits of the Titleist PT, when you are one of the best players of all time, is that for what it lacked in overall forgiveness, it offered extreme workability. Tiger took full advantage of it. 2. Scotty Cameron Teryllium Newport The final two spots were reserved for putters. With all the talk of his power and precision iron play, it’s the flat stick that demoralized his competition more than anything. The ridiculous amount of key 5-footers, long bombs and everything in between. Tiger Woods’ relationship with these two Scotty Cameron putters is no different than Harry Potter to his wand or a Jedi to his lightsaber. Alone they are strong; with them, they are unstoppable. Most people know about the Newport 2, but the other famous Scotty Cameron Tiger used is the Teryllium Newport that he used to win the Masters in 1997. Tiger once famously said in an interview years ago when talking about all the clubs around his house, “My kids can play with any clubs, but they know there are two clubs they can’t touch and it’s this putter (referring to his Newport 2) and the putter I won the Masters with.” The difference between the Newport versus the Newport 2 model, which has now become famous, is the rounded bumpers and slightly shorter blade length compared to the more squared-off shape of the Newport 2. The other big feature of the Newport is the Teryllium insert and elastomer backing that helps reduce vibration. The back cavity is an iconic part of the design and was recently brought back by Cameron for the release of the T22 series of putters. This particular model was also the first sighting of the “Tiger dot” for alignment. In this case, Tiger blacked out the sightline and had Scotty drill a white dot on the top line. 1. Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS The Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS that Tiger has used since early in the 1999 season has been most the most talked-about piece of golf equipment in the last 50 years. The tri-sole design and very recognizable red lettering have been with Tiger for 14 of his 15 major wins and 66 of his 82 PGA TOUR victories. Getting a face-on look at it now, you can not only see the incredible wear mark in the upper middle part of the sweet spot of this particular putter but also the face of actual golf history. Specs (note: with the age of the putter these specs may be +/-) Loft: 3.75 degrees Length: 35.25 (finished with grip) Lie: 70 degrees Head weight: 327 grams Grip: Ping Man (Black Out)

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