Shibuno’s 66 good for 1-shot lead at Mission Hills

How do you spend your Saturday nights? If you’re Maverick McNealy – a 26-year-old Stanford graduate who sits 18th in this season’s FedExCup standings – you might find yourself inventing a training aid. McNealy texted Odyssey rep Joe Toulon on the Saturday prior to the start of the Farmers Insurance Open with an idea. He wanted a training aid for his putter that would help him put his hands on the grip the same way every time. In the latest example of a TOUR pro thinking about the tools in his toolbox in a unique way, McNealy wanted to create a mold of the way he currently holds his putter and have that mold put onto a backup putter to use as a training aid. McNealy is 50th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, gaining 0.31 strokes per round on the greens. To help bottle the positive feelings he has on the greens, the mold can help his hands return to this baseline if he gets lost. “Everybody has seen those clubs that have, like, the training grip on it that shows you where to put your hands,” Toulon told GolfWRX. “And he had this thought, ‘What if I do that off of my own putter grip and make a grip off that, and every time I’m a little bit lost with my putting or my grip feels like it’s changed a little bit, I know what it needs to feel like?’ He’s obviously putting well right now, so he kind of wants to hang onto that feeling and make sure he knows exactly how things have change. It would act like a guide. It’s a good time to get a baseline.” A brilliant idea, but how do you actually make something like that? The Odyssey team began brainstorming solutions to McNealy’s request, but McNealy had a better answer. His uncle, Bob Randolph, runs a dental office in the San Diego area, and dentists often use molding material to create impressions for teeth. The patient simply bites down on a putty-like material, and it hardens over time to create a mold. Why not use that same material to mold hands on a putter grip? Well, that’s exactly what they did. “It’s actually funny,” McNealy explained at Torrey Pines. “I was wanting a way to grip my putter consistently like a grip trainer, so I was talking to him about that stuff they use for impressions. We wrapped some of that around my putter grip on Monday.” The Odyssey research and development team currently has the mold of McNealy’s hands, and they’re working on a way to scan it and turn it into a putter grip. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take, because we’ve never done anything like that,” Toulon said. “To actually scan it is pretty easy, and then, we’re actually talking about potentially 3D printing the grip. It’s kind of uncharted territory. We’re just learning as we go, but I think it’s something that we can do.” Assuming Odyssey pulls this off and creates the perfect training-aid grip for McNealy, this begs the question going forward: Could anyone mold their hands and have it turned into a putter grip? If so, could average golfers get their hands on the molded grips of top PGA TOUR players to see what it’s like to hold the putter like them? The applications for this type of training aid could be endless. And it’s all thanks to a concept McNealy created while deep in thought on a Saturday night. “Yeah, it’s my first foray into dental molding,” Toulon said. “But McNealy thinks of all that kind of stuff. He likes to tinker. He’s obviously a very bright guy. It’s a Saturday night and he’s thinking of stuff like that. Those are the fun things when you can help bring a brilliant idea like that to life. “It could be something we can use for all the TOUR players. How does Jon Rahm hold the putter? Here’s his grip.” Albeit illegal to use in competition, or during a round of golf, molded grips could potentially be a game-changer for McNealy, and for so many average golfers looking to improve.

Click here to read the full article…

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It’s been roughly a year since Jason Day first discussed the balloon therapy that helps keep his rib cage in place, strengthens his core and loosens his back. That means a year of 30-minute sessions blowing into balloons at the gym while others are pumping iron. “Mind you, you feel self-conscious because you’re in the gym blowing up balloons and no one else is blowing up balloons,â€� Day said. On the flip side, he’s become pretty adept at it. “Got really good at farm animals and … swords and stuff like that,â€� he said. “If you need a kids’ party, I can do it for you.â€� Related: Leaderboard | Pro-am leaderboard | TOUR Insider: Five wins and Phil’s lucky silver dollar Yes, he knows exactly how that comes across. But at this point, the 32-year-old Australian is trying anything he can to stay healthy and avoid the kind of back problems that have nagged at his career. The latest example came late in 2019 when he aggravated his back during a practice session and was forced to miss the Presidents Cup in his native land. Of course, when he’s healthy, the 12-time PGA TOUR winner is one of golf’s best players. He showed that again Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when he shot a bogey-free 8-under 64 at Pebble Beach – tying Chris Baker’s 64, also at Pebble Beach, for low round of the day – to move into solo second at 12 under, two shots behind leader Nick Taylor at the halfway point. Both Day and Taylor will be at Spyglass Hill on Saturday in the final day of the three-course rotation. It’s no surprise that Day is playing well in this event. He has six top-10 finishes in 10 career starts, including top-5s in the previous three years. “I would like to change having the top-5s,â€� Day said. “I would like to win.â€� It’s getting close to two years since Day’s last TOUR win at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. He was ranked seventh in the world after that win, but a tough 2019 campaign dropped him to 46th entering this week. The pain in his back became so bad – and the stress to deliver on those high expectations became so intense – that he wondered if he should continue playing. Frustrating and losing confidence, he told his wife at one point, “I think I’m nearly done here.â€� But those dark moments subsided. He persevered, hoping his health and his game would improve. Even if he’s not all the way back to where he once was – he ended 2016 as the game’s top-ranked player — he feels better about things. One area that seems to be coming around is his putting. He’s doing less of it during practice rounds – instead of 200 putts that might take more than two hours, he’s about at half that amount – and that’s allowed him to focus more on it. “Hoping that kind of lowering the reps and upping the concentration … will kind of even itself out,â€� he said. Oh, and yes, the balloon therapy helps, too. It was developed by the Postural Restoration Institute more than a decade ago. Day’s trainer Kevin Duffy introduced his client to it. After his round Friday, Day explained how it works. “If I stood with my shirt off, my rib cage always faces right,â€� he said. “So I’m trying — through balloons, blowing into them; I could do it without it – and I’m trying to hold a certain position and get my rib cage back into position. “But through blowing up a balloon, it actually pressurizes everything for you because if you don’t hold that breath and exhale out, it honestly feels like you’re suffocating. That’s the feeling that I’m trying to get.â€� He wants to make sure his thoracic is mobile and that he’s not turning from his lower back. “That’s really kind of why a lot of golfers have back problems because they get too tight in the thoracic and then they get tight hips and then they get their rotation through their lower back,â€� he said. So now, of course, you’re going to picture him blowing into balloons. Smile if you will. But also take another look at the second-round leaderboard. Jason Day is producing more than farm animals this week.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…