Chatting with America’s Caddie: Josh Scobee on mulligans in football and golf

HOMA REPEATS IN NAPA AFTER THRILLING FINISH The first event of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Regular Season opened in a fog and closed with a flurry that left Max Homa standing with his second-straight Fortinet Championship title. Homa and 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett spent most of the back nine ahead of the pack, with the Englishman leading by one as they stepped up to the par-5 18th. Fast forward from the tee to around the green and the loudest roar of the day. Homa had a tricky chip from 32 feet after coming up short from the greenside bunker but made the unlikely birdie look easy to tie the lead. Willett was still in control with less than four feet for birdie. Until he wasn’t. Three putts later and it was Homa who ended the day back in the winner’s circle for his fifth TOUR title. How did he do it? “Patience, I think. You know, my coach just said hang around, hang around, hang around and I don’t know, the last like three minutes were kind of a blur,” said the 31-year-old, “Danny and Justin both played great but I just tried to play my game … That was a wild finish.” Homa will take the high spirits with him to Quail Hollow as he gets set for his first Presidents Cup appearance for the United States. PREPPED FOR PRESIDENTS CUP The 14th edition of the Presidents Cup is here as the U.S. and International Teams get set to battle it out at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Captain Davis Love III heads up a U.S. Team with an impressive resume featuring an average age of below 30 and a combined 19 TOUR wins between them for the 2021-22 season. Presidents Cup rookie Max Homa (Wells Fargo Championship) and veteran Justin Thomas (PGA Championship) have won at Quail Hollow, with Homa fresh off a season-opening win. Time will tell, but it’s possible this U.S. Team could surpass even last year’s collection of all-stars despite the late injury to Will Zalatoris. Trevor Immelman’s International Team has five combined wins this season and features eight rookies including 20-year-old from South Korea Tom Kim who picked up his maiden win at the Wyndham Championship and big-hitting Canadian Taylor Pendrith. The Internationals will look to build on the success from Royal Melbourne in 2019, where Immelman was a captain’s assistant to Ernie Els and the Internationals nearly pulled off their second win of the competition. VIDEO OF THE WEEK MIC CHECK “But on the course, I found solace. I found my mom again. I’d be in a fairway somewhere, alone in my thoughts — and I’d look up to the green, and I’d see her. She’d be off to the side, with a coffee mug or a notebook, smiling and watching me. At first it sort of spooked me like, Holy S—, I just saw my mom. But it comforted me.” – Read Joel Dahmen’s story reflecting on his mom’s battle with cancer and how he was able to find comfort during his journey on the course. BY THE NUMBERS 1 – The RSM Birdies Fore Love competition began its 5th year this week at the Fortinet Championship and will again direct $1 million to charities during the fall portion of the TOUR schedule. 3 – Steve Stricker sealed his third win of the season on PGA TOUR Champions with a playoff victory at the Sanford International. Stricker continues to rebound in impressive fashion after a mystery illness kept him out until the end of April. 5 – Watch five PGA TOUR rookies Harrison Endycott, Nicolas Echavarria, Kevin Roy, Trevor Cone and Vincent Norrman hit their debut shots on the PGA TOUR at the Fortinet Championship with their families by their side. 11 – Digits is all you need to get behind-the-scenes content from the Presidents Cup right to your mobile device! Just text +1 (704) 237-6877 or click here to sign up and stay up to date with all of the action. 61 – John Huston is having a remarkably resurgent season on the PGA TOUR Champions at age 61 after recovering from neck fusion surgery, surgery on both shoulders in the years prior and brain surgery. Read more on the epic comeback here. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup Regular Season as determined by the FedExCup standings. The competition recognizes and awards the most elite in golf.

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A lot has changed in Brooks Koepka’s equipment setup since he won last year’s WM Phoenix Open. He was a free agent at last year’s event, meaning he had the flexibility to play any clubs he wanted. This year, he is as an official staffer of Cleveland-Srixon after signing a deal with the company in November 2021. A black-white-and-red Srixon staff bag with his name on it is the most immediate proof. His bag at last year’s WM Phoenix Open did include Srixon ZX7 irons (more on the development of Srixon ZX7 irons here), and that hasn’t changed. He switched to those irons in January 2021, and given the way he still talks about those irons and their unique V-sole designs, it doesn’t seem like that will change anytime soon. “The irons have been probably the easiest transition I have ever made,” Koepka said in Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference. “(The V-sole), … I’d never even heard of it, didn’t know it existed. But going through the turf, every once in a while, because I’m very steep on it, I felt like the club would grab a little bit and kind of drag it left. I haven’t seen that once with these irons. They went in the bag immediately.” He’s added more Cleveland-Srixon clubs to the bag since becoming a staffer. Koepka has the new Cleveland RTX ZipCore Tour Rack Raw wedges in play. Having played Cleveland wedges when he was a kid, the biggest part about getting comfortable with his new wedges was figuring out the right sole grind for his turf interaction. “The wedges, I’ve played Cleveland wedges growing up as a kid,” Koepka said. “It’s all about getting the grind work done for me. My lob wedge is probably a little difficult to get the grind right. Takes a few tries. Once we got that done, everything else, you know, you just match your specs.” At the top end of the bag, Koepka has a new Srixon ZX7 driver at 10.75 degrees, equipped with a Mitsubishi Diamana D-Limited 70 TX shaft that he’s used for years. Like Koepka said, he matched up his previous specs, so it makes sense he didn’t switch up his driver shaft even though he switched the heads. It’s the golf ball switch, though, that seemingly has Koepka most excited. As of November 2021, Koepka has been using a Srixon Z-Star prototype that offers him more height and stopping power with the irons, which is an advantage on the faster and firmer greens on the PGA TOUR. Despite the added height, Keopka says the ball provides ample stability in the wind. “The ball has been crazy actually to me,” Koepka said. “The ball doesn’t move that much in the wind, which I think is the craziest thing. So a little bit of adjustment there. But, I mean, it goes probably, like if I was hitting 7-iron, ball goes 15 feet higher, the Srixon ball, and it’s got the same amount of spin. So to me it’s only going to help me. This place, the greens are kind of firm so I can hold greens a lot better. Then it’s just been very easy transition, something I have been very, very pleased with. We have been working at it for probably six, eight months. So I have been very pleased.” Filling out his bag, Koepka continues to use a TaylorMade M2 Tour 3HL fairway wood and a Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron, each of which has been in his bag for years. He also has a Scotty Cameron Teryllium TNP2 putter, which is a new and slightly different version of the T10 Select Newport 2 proto he used to win last year. Check out the full specs below on Koepka’s bag for this week as he defends his title at the WM Phoenix Open. Driver: Srixon ZX7 (10.75 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D-Limited 70 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade M2 Tour 3HL (16.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D-Limited 80 TX Driving iron: Nike Vapor Fly Pro (3-iron) Shaft: Fujikura Pro Tour Spec 95 X Irons: Srixon ZX7 (4-PW) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore Tour Rack Raw (52 Mid, 56 Mid and 60 Low) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Putter: Scotty Cameron Teryllium TNP2 Golf Ball: Srixon Z-Star proto Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord (midsize)

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Jordan Spieth carded a 5-under 67 in the first round of the Valero Texas Open on Thursday, good enough for the solo lead amongst the morning-wave finishers. He held a one-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler and Tom Hoge. Related: Full leaderboard "I certainly would have signed up for 5 under starting out," Spieth said. "Felt like I played some really nice golf on our front nine, the back nine. Then just kind of got a little loose off the tee on the front nine, our second nine, and was able to kind of make do. "I hit some decent drives, ended up in iffy spots," he continued. "Overall, just chipped and putted really well, which was the difference maker today. I didn’t quite hit it as good as I have been." Mired in a slump at the start of this year, Spieth has regained his form with the help of longtime coach Cameron McCormick but also an unlikely ally: fellow TOUR pro Jason Dufner. Speaking about the upcoming Masters in a conference call Wednesday, Brandel Chamblee and Rich Lerner suggested that Spieth has been copying some of Dufner's moves. "Well, if you watch him when he rehearses before he hits a shot now, it's weird," Chamblee said. "Even when he's hitting bunker shots, he'll make this very flat golf swing and then in transition, he'll bring his right elbow much closer to his left elbow than I've ever seen him, and then he will round it off and sort of curve the hub. "He'll swing very much around and to the left," he continued. "The only other person I've ever seen make practice swings like that is Jason Dufner. So it would not surprise me in the least if he was not — if he wasn't taking lessons from Jason Dufner, talking to Jason Dufner about the golf swing, or watching Jason Dufner make golf shots. Or Cameron McCormick is." Added Lerner: "He has, Brandel. I spoke to their camp at Bay Hill and he has confided in Dufner, which sort of caught me by surprise." Asked about the Dufner connection after making seven birdies and two bogeys, one of them on his last hole, the par-4 ninth, Spieth said they've been friends, but that's about it. "Yeah, he’s somebody that has a good knowledge of the golf swing," he said. "He’s helped a lot of guys. Just kind of bounce ideas off him. He’s been a good friend of mine for a long time. "He’s been somebody I can always kind of bounce off - ‘Hey, I’m trying to do this, you know, what’s this feel like to you?' - that kind of stuff," Spieth added. "He’s been a good buddy, as I’ve had a lot of different guys over the years that have been offering advice on and off the golf course to the young guys and that’s not out of the ordinary out here."

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