Everybody is chasing Dustin Johnson at this U.S. Open. Do they have chance? Sure. Will it be easy? History says absolutely not.
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Former PGA Tour player Kevin Stadler accidentally injured a fan at the WinCo Foods Portland Open on Friday by breaking his club. Shaun Micheel wrote about the incident at the Web.com Tour event Facebook Friday night. Micheel refused to name Stadler, referring to him simply as his playing partner.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – There’s not much additional inspiration necessary this week for Spain’s Jon Rahm, who can become the world’s top-ranked golfer for the first time with a win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. But just in case the current world No. 3 needs a little boost, he can draw upon his memorable pro-am pairing Wednesday at TPC Scottsdale. Rahm played alongside another of the world’s best, as 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps joined him in the pro-am. The former competitive swimmer got an up-close look at the red-hot Rahm, who enters the week fresh off a solo second at the Farmers Insurance Open. “The guy is unbelievable to watch,â€� Phelps said. “He has got a ton of power, and he putted the ball great today. It’s always fun when you get to watch someone getting the putter hot. It’s a special treat. It was great to watch him roll a couple in and get ready for this week. “He is a possible No. 1. There are so many talented players out there. It just depends on who is going to want it bad enough.â€� Related: Amy paying it forward one year later | Insider: Woodland putting in work to reach new heights  Phelps, of course, is best known for his record 23 gold medals, including an incredible 13 in individual events. Rahm, meanwhile, is still waiting on his first. He will get the chance to change that this summer at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. “I never grew up with that being a goal of mine because golf wasn’t in the Olympics,â€� Rahm said. “ … To be an athlete and have a gold medal, I don’t think there’s anything better than that. There are not many things that you can say that would be a better feeling than to say you have a good medal from the Olympics. “It’s a very select group of people that can say that in human history. So it’s definitely a goal and I hope it can be there in Tokyo and fight for it.â€� Rahm was not in Rio de Janeiro four years ago when golf returned to the Olympics after a 112-year absence. Both Spanish players who did participate finished in the top 10 – Rafa Cabrera Bello was T5 and Sergio Garcia was T8. As for the Rahm-Phelps pairing on Wednesday … they’re actually quite familiar with one another, as they’re members of the same Scottsdale golf course. That should provide Phelps more than enough time to offer any sage Olympics advice he may have. Rahm will eagerly soak it in. “To be at that level at every single one of those events and to be able to win every single one of the events one year, it’s absolutely mind-blowing,â€� said Rahm, who played collegiately at Arizona State. “I don’t think a lot of times people appreciate some of what these Olympians accomplish because we only hear about it every four years. If he’s not the greatest Olympian of all time, I don’t know who is. I’ve got to say. Really, the discussion of greatest athlete of all-time could not be had without him.â€�
Adam Scott is back on the leaderboard at The Riviera Country Club with a new putter in hand. Scott, winner of The Genesis Invitational just two years ago, was in third place after Friday’s morning wave thanks to rounds of 68 and 65. He gained approximately four strokes on the greens in the first two rounds to rank fourth in the field in that metric when he walked off the golf course. Unlike most of his peers on the leaderboard, Scott doesn’t use a conventional length putter, or putting style. Instead of letting both of his hands hang in front of his body, as per tradition, he grips his elongated putter like a broomstick with his left hand up by his sternum. While Scott has spent most of his recent years with the same Scotty Cameron prototype putter in the bag, he recently switched into an L.A.B. Golf “Mezz.1 Proto” putter ahead of last week’s WM Phoenix Open. (Scott’s other recent switch is into Titleist 681.AS irons. More on that here) L.A.B., which stands for “Lie Angle Balance,” crafts putters that are designed to reduce torque and twisting throughout the stroke. Scott has experimented with the company’s original Directed Force head shape in the past, but the newly developed Mezz.1 Proto has a more palatable look for him. “I had experimented with their putters; in 2019, I used a shorter version of their original design for a few weeks on Tour and I like the technology,” Scott told the media on Friday following his round. “They’ve designed a new shaped head, which I think is more appealing than the old one, and the performance is good. Obviously, that’s why I’m using it. I like what it does for me.” The winged shape of the putter helps to enhance forgiveness across the face, and the sole of the head comes with 20 weights to ensure the head is properly weighted for Scott’s longer build. “The whole concept is lie-angle balanced,” Scott explained. “I’m not smart enough to explain the physics of it, but it swings very nicely.” Since most golfers swing the putter on some degree of an arc, L.A.B.’s lie-angle balance design is intended to keep the putter face square to that arc. With less twisting of the face compared to more conventional putters, the idea is to create greater consistency and stability. So far – through two rounds, at least – the technology and the switch appear to be working.
