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Instagram followers and clubhead speed are meaningless metrics if not accompanied by victories. Combining all three, though, can be the recipe for an alluring prospect. This week’s Travelers Championship is Matthew Wolff’s first tournament as a professional. It may be the most anticipated pro debut in a decade. The consensus collegiate player of the year combines charisma with a swing that is identifiable from a few fairways over. “He wins. He’s unique. His swing is different, so it catches everybody’s eye,� said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. “And then there’s the incredible speed. “When you see somebody with speed … it gets your attention.� Wolff has drawn comparisons to another player who starred in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for two years before making the leap to the pro ranks: Rickie Fowler. Both players built unique, unfettered swings on modest Southern California courses. Their games were showcased well before they turned pro, thanks to social media and the increased coverage of amateur golf on television. Wolff has one thing Fowler lacked, though: eye-popping length. His 340-yard tee shots attract casual fans, while his on-course success impresses the more discerning aficionados. Wolff won this year’s Jack Nicklaus and Fred Haskins awards, the two trophies honoring the top player in the college game. He won six times and his 68.7 scoring average was the lowest in the history of college golf. His five-shot win at the NCAA Championship was the largest victory margin in that event since 2004. He was introduced to wider audience at last year’s NCAA Championship, when he holed a 15-foot birdie putt to clinch the national title on Oklahoma State’s home course, Karsten Creek. The match-play championship has become popular viewing among hardcore fans because of the inherent drama that match play produces. The star-studded Cowboys team was under pressure to end a 12-year title drought. Having home-course advantage only added to the expectations. Wolff lifted the burden by making that putt in front of hundreds of orange-clad fans encircling Karsten Creek’s 15th green. It was a clutch finish to a season when he won the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation’s top freshman. He started his sophomore campaign by winning his first four starts. His amateur career reached a crescendo at the recent NCAA Championship, when he won by five shots despite shooting 40 on his first nine holes. He was 14 under on the next 63 holes. Only four other players finished under par. The average score that week exceeded 76 strokes. “Obviously, he had a lot of pressure, but when you’re good and you’re playing good golf, there’s really not much to deal with,� said Oklahoma State teammate Viktor Hovland, who’s also making his pro debut this week. “You bomb it 330 down the middle. You don’t have to think much, you just kind of see it, react and do it.� There’s a new highly-hyped prospect every year. Many never meet the expectations. This debut feels different. It’s about more than his on-course performance. Wolff is a potential star for an age obsessed with authenticity. He’s faced criticism about his unique action, but now he’s reaping the rewards after resisting calls to conform to the norms of golf instruction. “He has that same sort of carefree attitude that great athletes have,� Chamblee said. “That freedom, the uncluttered mind.� He’s also the poster child for a groundswell in golf instruction, bringing to the mainstream a movement that’s mostly played out on social media among a hardcore niche of swing enthusiasts. “I would call us disruptors,� said Wolff’s swing instructor, George Gankas. “It’s not by intention. It’s what works.� Golf is undergoing a transformation similar to the one seen in baseball. The importance of distance has been further reinforced by advanced statistics, and technology has revealed new ways to achieve it. The orthodoxy of instruction is undergoing rapid change as aesthetics become less important than launch-monitor readings. “We can measure things better and there are more smart people in golf instruction now than ever,� said Charles Howell III. Like Wolff, he turned pro to much fanfare after winning an NCAA title at Oklahoma State. Howell, who’s visited a variety of instructors during a pro career that’s lasted nearly two decades, is qualified to offer an informed perspective on instruction. “The cool thing is I think they’re asking better questions, which is what matters. ’What did the greats do?’ as opposed to a theoretical model that I don’t necessarily think has been correct.� Social media, the domain of puppy photos and scenic panoramas, also has been a gathering place for golf nerds to discuss the latest discoveries about the golf swing. Instructors use the platforms to promote their work, as well. Few have done that better than Gankas. He dissects his students’ swings and explains drills in brief videos on Instagram. His reputation for helping players increase their swing speed has gained him more than 145,000 followers on that platform (Wolff has nearly 45,000 of his own). Padraig Harrington, Adam Scott, Sung Kang and Danny Lee are among the PGA TOUR players who’ve sought him out. Wolff has been compared to Cameron Champ, but with a more well-rounded game. Champ used prodigious driving distance to succeed at the start of his rookie season. He was sixth in the FedExCup after the fall portion, winning the Sanderson Farms Championship and posting two other top-10s. His pace has slowed this year, though. He injured his back in March and has struggled with his iron play. Oklahoma State head coach Alan Bratton points to two shots from the NCAA Championship to illustrate Wolff’s shotmaking versatility. In the same round, Wolff used an 8-iron to hit approach shots from 150 and 208 yards. “Everyone talks about his driver, but his biggest asset is his iron play and putting,� Bratton said. Length has always been an asset. Mark Broadie’s Strokes Gained statistics helped quantify the advantage, though. Players can ride a hot putter to victory one week, but long hitters have an advantage week-in and week-out. The scoring advantage of having a 120-yard approach versus a 140-yarder may be small, but those incremental advantages add up over the course of weeks, months and years. Wolff played his first PGA TOUR event at this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. He impressed with a 67 in his first round before fading to 50th place. He was third in driving distance (325.4 yards), trailing only Bubba Watson and Ollie Schniederjans. Wolff’s clubhead speed of 125.8 mph was second only to Champ. Wolff reached 131 mph in the second round at TPC Scottsdale. “Occasionally someone comes along who is uncorrupted and they’re called freaks. They’re dismissed as freak talents,� Chamblee said. “They have a way of dismissing genius for convenience’s sake because it doesn’t fit their model or aesthetic. “Here comes Matt Wolff, here comes George Gankas, here comes a bunch of golfers who are going to change the game. They’re going to hit it 20-30 yards past what we thought were the longest players and they’re going to have an advantage.� Wolff’s swing has inspired enough copycats, especially among Gankas’ students, that people have assumed it is a model that Gankas tries to squeeze his students into. Wolff developed that move before coming to Gankas during his freshman year of high school. Now, after seeing the results and the power that it produces, students are asking Gankas to teach them to swing like his star student. At the top of the backswing, the former baseball player is reminiscent of another natural talent who took his sport by storm at a young age: Ken Griffey Jr. The front heel is lifted off the ground, the trail elbow is separated far from the body and their chosen implement points past their head. Wolff is unaware that his swing is a deviation from the norm, though. “It’s pretty natural,� he said. “I didn’t try and swing that way. If no one ever filmed my swing, and I never saw my swing, I would think I took it straight back and straight through.� Plenty of people have seen his swing on film. Wolff was one of the students who convinced Gankas to open an Instagram account. The instructor has become a Pied Piper among junior golfers around Westlake Village, a suburb located about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles, because he combines a Southern California skater’s ethos with instruction based in biomechanics. That his home base is a modest 5,000-yard course with artificial turf mats and striped range balls only adds to his appeal. “He’s the only one I trust with my swing,� Wolff said. Gankas, who isn’t afraid to give lessons in sandals or an untucked shirt, isn’t concerned with conforming. Many of the unique traits in Wolff’s swing were employed by the game’s greats but fell out of fashion in recent decades, a time period that Chamblee calls the dark ages of instruction. The pursuit of aesthetically-pleasing swings led to restricted actions. Wolff swings without restraint. It starts with his final move before taking the club back. He bounces gently on his feet, rotates his hips and shoulders open, and takes one last glance at his target. It’s a trigger move reminiscent of Sam Snead. The raised left heel and flying right elbow were employed by Jack Nicklaus. Having the clubhead pointed across the line stores up power to be unleased at the moment it matters most: impact. Wolff “flattens� the shaft at the start of the downswing, which allows him to turn through impact without restriction or compensation. “People with really funky golf swings, if they make it to the TOUR, they have to be so mentally tough at a young age to resist the temptation to give in to conformity,� Chamblee said. “They have a golf swing that works and they know it works. And then they have the mental toughness from having to deal with all the scorn and questions and scrutiny. “You put those together and that’s a hell of a combination for longevity. He has a chance to be a big-time major winner.�

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Their duels date back to the Donald Ross Junior during their teen-aged years in North Carolina. On Sunday, Brendon Todd and Webb Simpson will face each other for a PGA TOUR title. They’ll play in The RSM Classic’s final group alongside Sebastian Munoz. Todd, seeking his third consecutive victory, continued his incredible comeback with a 62 on Saturday at Sea Island’s Seaside Course. Simpson shot 63. He trails Todd by two shots, as does Munoz. They first met when Todd moved to North Carolina in middle school and immediately started challenging Simpson’s dominance in the state. “I was kind of winning golf tournaments and then he moves to Cary, North Carolina, and he starts beating me like a drum,â€� Simpson said. “He was really good and I think we kind of inspired each other growing up. I’m only a couple months younger, but a grade behind him, so he definitely pushed me and hopefully I pushed him.â€� RELATED: Leaderboard | Plantation Course’s new look for The RSM Classic They also supported each other during the tough times, talking on the phone when they were struggling with their games. Simpson endured a winless streak of nearly five years after he was forced to switch putters. Todd’s slump was much deeper. He got the full-swing yips and had a tough time just breaking par. “We both just try to encourage each other and try to be open about what we’re feeling and how we solve it and I think we both have kind of helped each other in that way,â€� Todd said. Saturday’s 62 was Todd’s 12th consecutive round of 68 or better. Four of those rounds have been 63 or lower. Impressive for someone who once went 828 days without breaking 70 in a stroke-play event on either the Korn Ferry Tour or PGA TOUR. “That just proves what kind of guts he has inside of him to not give up or throw in the towel,â€� Simpson said. Todd is trying to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006 to win three consecutive events. Simpson is the highest-ranked player in the field, though, and has done everything but win at Sea Island. Munoz won the Sanderson Farms Championship two months ago and ranks fifth in the FedExCup. Todd admitted Saturday that it will be difficult to not think about what’s at stake Sunday, but handling the stress of the past few years has prepared him to handle final-round nerves. “I’ve had to be so disciplined over the last year mentally about just focusing in on ever shot, that I’m aiming to kind of use that experience to my advantage now,â€� Todd said. Todd leads the field in driving accuracy, missing just one fairway through three rounds. On Saturday, he hit every fairway and missed just one green. He started the day four off the lead, but birdied four of his first five holes and made the turn in 6-under 29. He’s gone 35 consecutive holes without a bogey on the Seaside Course. He also gained 3.4 strokes on the green Saturday, holing four putts from outside 15 feet. It could have been even lower, but multiple putts lipped out. “it was like a video game out there today,â€� Todd said. “Just thrilled with the way I’m hitting it and feeling out there. I fought unbelievably well today.â€� Putting has always been his strength, but a few recent changes have increased his confidence on the greens. He switched to a Sik putter last month. At the Houston Open, he added a long red line to his ball to aid with his alignment. A final-round 66 there kicked off the current run. Simpson also hit 17 greens Saturday. He didn’t hole a putt outside 10 feet until making a 27-footer for birdie on the final hole. That moved him a stroke closer to his childhood friend who sits atop the leaderboard. Todd called Simpson “the best friend anybody could ask for.â€� They’ll be trying to beat each other Sunday, though.

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Life off the course has been pretty good for Adam Scott, who with his wife, Marie, and daughter, Bo Vera, welcomed a son, Byron, last summer. On the course? That’s another story. Good results have been hard to come by for the 13-time PGA TOUR winner, who nevertheless may be starting to play his way out of a year-long slump. He shot three rounds in the 60s and finished T11 at THE PLAYERS Championship last week. It was a welcome uptick for a player who has no top-10s in 11 TOUR starts this season; is 110th in the FedExCup; has dropped to 65th in the world from ninth a year ago; and is in danger of snapping his streak of 67 straight major championship starts, second to only Sergio Garcia. “I have to back it up,â€� Scott, 37, said at THE PLAYERS. “I need three or four good weeks in a row now, but you can’t have three or four good weeks in a row without the first one.â€� Next up: This week’s AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club, the linksy, windswept Coore/Crenshaw design in South Dallas. This is the tournament Scott won in 2008, albeit on a different course, and he has great reverence for its namesake, who passed away in 2006. So much reverence, it informed Adam and Marie’s decision on what to name their son last August. At his press conference at Trinity Forest on Wednesday, Scott recounted his first-ever meeting with Nelson at the 2002 Masters. The legend was sitting on the first tee of the Par 3 Contest when a slightly nervous Scott, then 21, approached to introduce himself. “Before I could say ‘Mr. Nelson,’â€� Scott said, “He said, ‘Adam, it’s nice to see you here, you’re going to have a great career.’ I was pretty touched by the fact that he even knew who I was.â€� In truth, the surfing town Byron Bay and poet Lord Byron also played a role in his son’s name, but Scott never forgot the gentleman golfer Nelson. “If my Byron can be anything like that,â€� Scott said. “Doesn’t have to be a champion golfer, but if he can be a gentleman, I’d be very, very proud.â€� A good omen for this week? Sure. And then there’s this: Scott and Texas golf go together like Wranglers and cowboy boots. He’s won the Houston Open (2007), the Nelson (2008), the Valero Texas Open (2010) and the Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial (2014), completing a rare Texas Slam. Another good omen. Trinity Forest, alas, is a course unlike any other in Texas. “I don’t know anything about it,â€� Scott said. “I mean, obviously, I won at the other course, but things change It’s time to move on. I don’t know that it was a sacred site for the golf tournament. “Hopefully this is a good move,â€� he added, “and it’s important, too, that the Byron Nelson tournament continues to move forward and be fresh, because it’s been named after a great player and you don’t want to see — you want to see it go from strength to strength, so hopefully moving venue will spice things up a bit for it.â€� The spiciest news for Scott is the fact that he may be emerging from the putting doldrums. He is part of a mini-revival of former anchored-putting experts that includes new PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson (first in strokes gained: putting last week) and Keegan Bradley, who tied for seventh and was 22nd in strokes gained: putting. Scott made over 330 feet worth of putts at TPC Sawgrass, which was 27th best in the field. He was 28th in strokes gained: putting (+.590). For a guy who was 193rd in that statistic going into THE PLAYERS, who merely aspires to be average on the greens, that’s pretty good. Trying to keep up with his putting travails isn’t easy, even for him. There’s a pattern, though: He makes a change, putts well, and then, after a while, the ball stops finding its target. His enviable swing is out of reach for most amateurs, but with putting he is like many fellow TOUR pros and virtually every weekend player who would try everything and anything, as long as it’s legal. An old cross-country ski with a modified claw grip attached to the bindings via one of Harry Vardon’s old pipe cleaners? Sure. Let’s give it a go. Scott started his career with a standard-length putter, winning, among other tournaments, THE PLAYERS in 2004. He used a long putter for victories at the 2011 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and 2013 Masters. Then, a month after Scott became the first Australian to win at Augusta National, the USGA announced it would ban anchored putting in 2016. That’s when things started to change. “It’s not a very nice thing; the vibe on the course every week was people yelling we’re cheating,â€� Scott said. “And that was a horrible situation to be in. And then the constant questioning in that 12 months before of what are you going to do, what are you going to do, when are you going to do it, how are you going to do it, all that stuff was quite frustrating.â€� The frustration, he added, began to creep into his game. “No doubt I didn’t putt very well the back half of ’15,â€� Scott admitted, “and it was more out of frustration. For a while I didn’t have to think about putting, and all of a sudden I’m thinking about putting, and thinking for me is never really a good thing.â€� Fed up with his results and the implication that he was doing something wrong, Scott went back to a standard-length putter in the fall of 2015. He practiced, trying to remember the feeling of the thing. Christmas came and went. Then New Year’s. Then something unexpected: Scott won The Honda Classic and WGC-Cadillac at Doral to come out roaring in the 2016 Florida Swing. What had happened? Was he better with the standard-length putter? It didn’t last. By last fall, Scott was struggling again. He skipped the first FedExCup Playoffs event, THE NORTHERN TRUST, to be back in Australia for the birth of his son, and his surprise return for the Dell Technologies Championship to try to extend his season didn’t work out (MC). He went 1-3-0 for the International Presidents Cup Team at Liberty National. This season brought more of the same. “Just me being a little too stubborn,â€� Scott said. At the Wells Fargo Championship, two weeks ago, he finally went back to the long putter he used to win the 2011 WGC-Bridgestone. He braced the grip against his left arm like others have done, and it worked. Although Scott missed the 54-hole cut at Quail Hollow Club, he putted better. Then came TPC Sawgrass, the most encouraging week yet. Those crucial 15-foot par saves that keep a round going? He made one or two of them each day. “It keeps the round going,â€� he said. “And I just haven’t been doing that consistently, and it makes it hard, always on the back foot.â€� Assuming his stroke traveled to Texas with him, the 65th-ranked Scott is in prime position to crack the top 60 in the world by either May 21 or June 11, thereby earning entry into the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. Otherwise, it’s off to sectionals. But that’s background noise. Scott has another Byron in his sights, this time on a course that evokes the Open Championship, a tournament he’s always played well. Given the trajectory he’s on with his new/old putter, you’d be smart to keep an eye on him.

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