Rory shoots 76 in Players pairing of top 3 golfers

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson started his first event of 2019 with the lowest score of his PGA TOUR career. He ended it with a disappointing defeat, losing a two-shot lead in the final round of the Desert Classic. Mickelson followed Thursday’s 60 at La Quinta Country Club with rounds of 66 and 68 to post the second-lowest 54-hole score of his career. He started the final round two shots ahead of Adam Hadwin and three ahead of Adam Long. Long made a 14-foot birdie putt on 18 to beat Mickelson (69) and Hadwin (67) by one shot. Long’s Sunday 65 included chip-ins on the 12th and 15th holes. He finished at 26-under 262 (63-71-63-65). Mickelson has now failed to convert six of his last seven 54-hole leads. This was the second consecutive time he lost a two-shot lead entering the final round. The other came at the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This was Mickelson’s first official TOUR event since the Safeway Open in October and his first competitive round since his match with Tiger Woods. In spite of his low scores, he said that he was rusty at the start of the week. His lack of recent competition may have contributed to Sunday’s struggles, as well. “It’s a weird game how sometimes if you haven’t played for awhile it just can click and come right back,� Mickelson said. “But usually you need a little bit of a foundation there coming down the stretch. When you get to feel the pressure, you need to have that foundation of practice and seeing the shots that you want to hit, seeing the ball go in on the greens. I didn’t really have that today.� Mickelson was trailing by two when the final group reached the 10th tee. He bogeyed the par-4 ninth after driving into the water and Hadwin birdied the hole. Mickelson made back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 to tie Hadwin and Long atop the leaderboard, though. He made birdie after missing a 10-foot eagle putt. Mickelson narrowly missed lengthy birdie putts on the final two holes, as well. The long putts weren’t the problems, though. “It was the short (putts). It was the short putts that I really turned around these last few years and today I just struggled,� Mickelson said. He lost 3.2 strokes on the greens Sunday. He missed a 4-foot putt to three-putt the first hole and also missed two putts from 5-7 feet. “I had a terrible putting day, one of the worst I can recall in a while,� he said. “It started right on the first hole. … I felt awful with the putter. I hit a lot of good shots today, though, but just couldn’t get the ball to go in the hole.� Mickelson, 48, said earlier in the week that swing speed and putting are the two skills that see decline at his age. He led the field in driving distance (302.5 yards on all tee shots) but finished 64th (out of 73 players) in Strokes Gained: Putting.

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A new season represents a fresh start for Rickie Fowler. After sneaking into the FedExCup Playoffs by earning the 125th and final spot in the postseason, Fowler starts the 2023 season with a new caddie, Ricky Romano, and a return to a previous swing coach, Butch Harmon. You can read about those changes here. From an equipment standpoint, Fowler also has made a significant change for this week’s Fortinet Championship. He is using a new set of irons at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California. Fowler switched irons and putters fairly often last season as he tried to snap a winless streak that’s extended past three years. The Equipment Report has been following those changes closely and we were obviously interested when we saw a new set of irons in Fowler’s bag Tuesday. The clubs are a never-before-seen set of Cobra King Tour Forged prototypes. The cavity-back irons represent a change for Fowler, who has mostly opted for thin, muscle-back blades in recent years. Thanks to the slightly larger size and overall design, Fowler told GolfWRX on Tuesday that he’s finding more stability on off-center hits, especially low on the face. “Ben (Schomin) and the guys built me up a few new sets; some of our new MBs, a CB, and then a King Tour,” Fowler explained. “These ones are definitely bigger than what I’m used to, but I was also excited to hit them. … Mishits a little off center, or a little low on the face, or heel-toe bias, were really stable. Especially the ones a groove or two low, the misses weren’t as short. I’d see some, if I hit the MB or the CB a little thin, distances could drop anywhere from 7, 8, 9 yards. I was seeing these more in the 4, 5, 6 (range). A few yards here and there can make a big difference. Overall, I just saw more forgiveness, but at the same time, keeping the characteristics that I want with flight and spin. We’re going to give them a go (this week).” A common complaint that better players make about larger, cavity-back irons is that they have too much offset (the measurement of space between the leading edge of the iron and the hosel). In the past, Fowler has tended to play with irons that have very little offset, or none at all. His new King Tour Forged irons appear to have little offset, especially for a cavity-back. Fowler seems to approve of the appearance. “Cavity-backs have been in and around (my bag) every once in a while, but I’ve been primarily blades or (muscle-backs),” Fowler told GolfWRX.com “Always have loved the look and the feel, but if I’m able to basically get still a great look, really good feel with these. It feels like there’s a lot of mass behind it, but at the same time get a little more forgiveness, why make it harder on yourself?” For now, Cobra Golf has yet to announce a release date, or any technical information on the new King Tour irons, so Fowler’s testimonies remain all we know about the unreleased designs. After finishing a career-worst 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, we also spotted Fowler experimenting with putters on the practice green at Silverado. He was trying out two different Scotty Cameron Timeless+ Tourtype SSS putters, pictured below. As competition begins on Thursday in Napa, we’ll keep an eye on which putter Fowler ends up rolling with to match his new iron set.

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NAPA, Calif. – Throughout 2019, in his chase for greater control and consistency from his wedges, Bryson DeChambeau has tried a number of different steel shafts, ranging from the ultra-stiff True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 shafts, to the softer True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts. Of course, the wedge shafts he’s been using measure the same length as his irons. What he didn’t try previously, however, at least in competition, were graphite wedge shafts. Ahead of the Safeway Open, DeChambeau tested new LA Golf prototype wedge shafts that are so stiff that DeChambeau referred to them as “Texas Rebar� shafts while speaking with PGATOUR.COM at the Safeway Open on Wednesday. He said the 124.5-gram graphite shafts are stiffer than the X7 shafts he played previously, and actually, they’re “stiffer than anything made,� according to DeChambeau. “Bryson asked if we could make him a shaft out of graphite that was stiffer than the TT (True Temper) Dynamic Gold X7 that he was gaming,� said John Oldenburg, Chief Product Officer at LA Golf shafts. “Always being one to push the envelope and explore any angle that could improve his performance, he asked that we make him shafts to test that were as stiff as we could possibly make. These first prototype ‘Rebar’ wedge shafts are a full flex stiffer than Dynamic Gold X7…more than 10 grams lighter than X7. They are also considerably stiffer in the tip, and are even a bit lower in torque than the X7.� During his previous wedge shaft experiments, DeChambeau says he found that softer wedge shafts require “too much timing.� The softer shafts, he says, have too much lead deflection coming into impact, and inconsistent deflection as they make contact with the turf, thus causing inconsistent launch patterns and spin rates. With the new, super-stiff graphite shafts, DeChambeau says deflection is more consistent, and the shafts also work to lower ball flight, increase spin around the greens, and decrease spin on full shots. “It’s the most consistent shaft I’ve ever tried,� DeChambeau told PGATOUR.COM on Wednesday. With this new revelation, DeChambeau has put the LA Golf prototype graphite shafts into each of his three custom Cobra King wedges. According to Oldenburg, DeChambeau is also considering using these shafts throughout his iron set, too. Should DeChambeau follow through with the switch to graphite in his irons, he would then have graphite shafts in all 14 clubs; DeChambeau has been using an Ozik graphite shaft in his putter for over a year, in addition to using graphite shafts in his metalwoods.

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