Adam Hadwin makes wild hole-in-one at Memorial Tournament

Ariya Jutanugarn turned a 3-shot deficit into a 4-shot lead after shooting 5-under 67 Saturday at the U.S. Women’s Open at Shoal Creek.

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Two-time PGA TOUR winner Scottie Scheffler, who won the 2022 WM Phoenix Open and the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in a three-week span, has officially signed a multi-year deal with TaylorMade Golf. While the exact terms of the deal are unspecified, TaylorMade says that Scheffler will continue to use a Stealth Plus driver and P-7TW irons, which he used to win both events this year, and he’ll add Stealth fairway woods. The 25-year-old will also be using a TaylorMade staff bag. It’s important to note that prior to this announcement, Scheffler had been an equipment free agent throughout his professional career. That meant he could play with any 14 clubs of his choosing. Since joining the PGA TOUR, however, he has been using TaylorMade irons. During his rookie campaign, he employed TaylorMade’s P730 irons. He then switched to the company’s P-7TW irons at The American Express in 2021 and has been gaming them since. “TaylorMade equipment has been integral in my career for many years, and I couldn’t be more excited to formally be a part of their roster of elite golfers,” Scheffler said in a press release. “I’ve worked with TaylorMade’s team on Tour for multiple seasons and their commitment to getting the right equipment in my bag was a driving force in joining Team TaylorMade. Continuously working to get my game to the highest level will always be at the forefront of my approach and I am thrilled to combine my passion for success with that already established culture at TaylorMade.” In addition to his long history with TaylorMade irons, Scheffler also switched this off-season into a TaylorMade Stealth Plus 8-degree driver. According to TrackMan feedback from Scheffler’s initial TaylorMade testing session, Scheffler picked up an average of 3.4 mph ball speed compared to his previous gamer (177.4 mph vs. 174.0), resulting in 11.1 more yards of total carry (305.8 yards vs. 294.7). Scheffler switched into the TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver at The American Express in 2022, and he’s used the driver during both of his two PGA TOUR victories. “We are humbled that Scottie chose to commit his equipment future to Team TaylorMade,” said David Abeles, TaylorMade’s CEO and President, in a press release. “As he has proven with his two wins in his last three starts, Scottie’s game and champions mindset have driven his ascension to No. 5 in the world. Our goal as a company has been and will always be to attract the best players in the game and Scottie’s decision to join our team has us motivated to continue to push the limits of innovation across all product categories.” Scheffler will make his first start as a TaylorMade staffer at THE PLAYERS Championship this week.

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SAN DIEGO – When Adam Scott putts well, Adam Scott contends. It’s a simple saying that could apply to most PGA TOUR players but it most certainly applies to the 13-time TOUR winner. Known as a premier ball-striker throughout his career the former PLAYERS champion has long struggled to match up his putting stats with the rest of his game. In 10 of his last 11 seasons Scott’s year-long rank in Strokes Gained: Putting has been outside the top 100 on TOUR with six of those outside the top 150. But on the rare occasions he gets it right – like the Australian did this week at the Farmers Insurance Open – Scott becomes a monster to contend with. Since the beginning of 2016 Scott has finished just 10 tournaments inside the top 25 players of Stroked Gained: Putting. Eight of those weeks resulted in a top six finish, including two wins and two runner ups, the latest at Torrey Pines this week. Scott was 14th in putting at Torrey Pines needing just 28 putts each round across four days. He did it after moving to an armlock putter with a claw grip and leaving the flagstick in for all of his putts. Armlock putting has been successfully used recently by Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson. All have won at least once in the last year. “Making the putter change was a pretty good experiment this week, it worked nicely,â€� Scott admitted. “Definitely something to build on. I learned a lot with that style of putting this week and it was quite a big adjustment and I made some errors out there with it, but it’s looking all positive and I like that. Twenty‑eight putts four straight days is probably the best I’ve ever done.â€� The errors Scott spoke of were certainly ugly. And without them he may just have been able to take down Justin Rose rather than finish two shots behind the Englishman. On Sunday he missed a putt from 21 inches. On Thursday he had a three-putt from six feet. Those were just a few of the miscues. But given he only picked up the armlock putter in the days prior to the event there were sure to be teething problems. Armlock putters have different loft angles because of the setup needed to use them, a visual the 38-year-old veteran certainly wasn’t used to. “All of a sudden six degrees of loft and the grip is three inches in front of the blade, so it was a little fiddley getting into position,â€� Scott said. “And when I didn’t put it in the right position, it was in a more natural position, I didn’t start putts where I was intending. “So I missed a couple really short putts throughout the week, which was carelessness.â€� Scott intends to continue the method at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Open in coming weeks.

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