Golfers to face strict virus protocols at The Open

Kiawah Island is the longest course in major championship history so it should be no surprise that a new driver has been key to Phil Mickelson’s success halfway through the PGA Championship. Mickelson, 50, held the lead after Friday’s morning wave thanks to rounds of 70-69. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, in the top 10 of Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and averaged 298 yards off the tee. This is the first week that Mickelson is using a custom Epic Speed head that effectively has 5 degrees of loft. The shaft is 47.9 inches, pushing up against the USGA limit of 48 inches. “It’s like working with a long-drive competitor at that point,” said Gerritt Pon, Callaway’s senior club performance analyst. “He’s not using it for accuracy. He’s using it for distance. Interestingly enough, he’s the type of player who does not necessarily lose accuracy with the longer shaft. Some lose a tremendous amount, some actually gain a little bit, but he’s the type of player who doesn’t lose accuracy. But he gains speed. “To swing the longer shaft, he’s trying to hit up on the ball a little more than with a normal shaft. He’s creating a lot of loft at impact to launch it high, so the main things that had to be accomplished was making the driver low-spin and fast.” Mickelson’s new Epic Speed, which was built especially for him, features Callaway’s aerodynamic Cyclone head shape. A second screw was added to the front of the head to lower the center of gravity. “With faster swing speeds, you see more benefit from the aerodynamically-designed head,” Pon said. “He has a driver that is fast, easy for him to draw, mitigates the left miss (for a left-hander) more than some of our other models that are popular on TOUR, and is very low spin.” Mickelson tested an 8.5-degree model of the Epic Speed that was lofted down to 6.5 degrees but that head created too much spin. He wants his draws to spin under 2,000 rpms and his fades to spin under 2,400, Pon said. If Mickelson were right-handed, the increased number of offerings available may have made it easier to find a match for him. Making a head that fit Mickelson meant designing a new head in CAD and then working with the foundries to have it produced. That is typically an eight-week process, Pon said. “We started with a baseline of the Epic Speed, which was a long time in the making, and then modified it with Phil in mind,” Pon said. “This particular model of the Speed is pretty new. Even though it looks like the same Epic Speed, it’s a customized version for a left-hander who’s trying to swing a long shaft with low loft and low spin. “So basically Phil Mickelson.”

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In recent months, Bubba Watson, Tony Finau and Louis Oosthuizen have popularized Ping “Blueprint Forged� prototype irons, which are made with compact profiles, thin toplines and thin soles. Oosthuizen, for his part, won the 2018 South Africa Open using the new forged irons. Many thought the TOUR prototype irons were hollow-bodied due to a screw in the toe, however, PGATOUR.COM since learned that the screw is simply to add additional weight. The Blueprint Forged irons, as of now, are a TOUR-only offering, meaning they are not available at retail. While Ping still has not confirmed that the irons coming to retail, a new iron spotted at the 2019 Honda Classic on Monday could suggest they may be available to the public sometime in the future. Seamus Power, who most recently was using a set of Ping iBlades, showed up on Monday of the Honda Classic with Ping Blueprint Forged irons that have a red dot on the back cavities. These differ from the dot-less irons that Watson, Oosthuizen and Finau have used in PGA TOUR competition. A Ping representative confirmed they are different heads than the previously seen prototypes. The red dots on Power’s irons suggest these iron heads are being made under the dot system, which uses different color dots to identify different lie angles on retail products. Power confirmed his irons are 1-degree flat.

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It’s holiday card season, and for many families that means gathering around the fireplace, Christmas tree — or anywhere you can find good lighting to dress alike, share some laughs and snap a couple of pictures to help spread holiday cheer. For TaylorMade Golf, the Carlsbad-based company has a lot to be cheerful about, especially considering their staffers claimed two of the three major championships this year thanks to Collin Morikawa's win at the PGA Championship at Harding Park and Dustin Johnson's record-setting victory at Augusta National on the heels of his dominant run to his first FedExCup. TaylorMade's Christmas card made headlines last year because it gave us the opportunity to see Tiger Woods in a onesie. This year, the big news was who WASN'T featured on the card. The big news of Tommy Fleetwood signing with TaylorMade was announced Monday. He was included on the holiday card that was posted to social media on Tuesday. Jason Day and Jon Rahm were noticeably absent from the lineup, however. This is an interesting development since both Day and Rahm have been TaylorMade staff players for their entire careers with Jason having one of the longest tenures going back to when he turned pro in 2006. TaylorMade was without comment on the changes. So where will Day and Rahm land in 2021? Day, who last won in 2018, is likely going to go the free-agent route like many players have in the last few years. For Rahm, reaching No. 1 in the world brought with it a lot of opportunities, and it is likely he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse to join another OEM staff and become a prominent player. Wherever each player ends up equipment-wise, we will find out as the calendar page turns, but for now, we can enjoy the smiles of Johnson, Morikawa, Woods, Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy and Matthew Wolff on TaylorMade's holiday card.

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