What to watch for Sunday at the PGA Championship

Tony Finau, ranked 30th in the FedExCup after two runner-up finishes this season, is one of the headliners for this week’s 3M Open in Minnesota. With the PGA TOUR season reaching its final stretch, Finau is seeking his sixth consecutive TOUR Championship appearance. His impressive ballstriking is the reason for his consistency that makes a trip to East Lake an annual occurrence. This year, he ranks in the top 25 of Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (13th), Off-the-Tee (21st) and Approach-the-Green (17th). Finau ranks 125th in Strokes Gained: Putting, however, and has taken steps over the last couple years to improve that aspect of his game. Below we will highlight three interesting nuggets about Finau’s unique putter and preparation. 1. Finau has a drawn-on alignment aid In the modern world of equipment design, small tweaks can be made to golf clubs with a few clicks of a button within CAD (computer-aided design) files, but Finau’s alignment additions are a bit more old-school. Last year, Finau worked in close collaboration with Ping through its PLD (Putting Lab Design) platform to build a custom putter. Finau’s PLD Anser 2 model, which was crafted based on his direct feedback, measures 37 inches and has 5 degrees of loft. Everything from the length and loft, to the depth of the face milling marks, was tested and approved by Finau. Like many golfers, Finau preferred a single line in the back of his putter head to use for alignment at address; his white-painted line pops particularly well off the black head. Finau’s putter includes two subtle, yet unique, additions to the head. If you look closely at the heel section of his putter, you’ll notice white/silver markings in the small notch between the hosel and the topline of the putter, and in the far heel portion of the head on the crown. According to Finau, the additional markings help guide his setup, making sure that he gets his hands and eyes aligned the same way every time. If he accidentally makes a small deviation from the norm, the markings won’t appear properly to his eye at address, and he’ll be triggered to make an adjustment. 2. He can hear loft? PGA TOUR players are so finely-tuned that they’re able to tell the difference in minor loft adjustments just by looking down at the club. It’s even more common for them to be able to see performance differences from loft changes; more loft, for example, will generally lead to higher launch angles and spin rates on the golf ball. According to Tony Serrano, Ping’s Senior Design Engineer, Finau can actually hear the differences in loft with his PLD Anser 2 prototype putter. On the outdoor practice green at Ping Headquarters in Phoenix, Finau was hitting lag putts with his custom-built putter and noticed a small issue; he could hear it was impacting the grass more quickly than he was used to, telling him the ball was launching too low because the putter had slightly too little loft. “He automatically noticed the difference in the loft coming off the face, because the loft was a little different than his previous gamer,” Serrano explained. “He was like, ‘I could hear that right away.’ “I don’t know if it was so much coming off the face, but the way it was interacting with the turf, he could hear that it wasn’t rolling right. So we went and did some testing and took video, and he was right. It had too little loft on it, so we had to adjust it a half-degree or so, and he took it back out, and he said, ‘Now we’re back where we need to be.’ But he knew right away, he could hear how the ball was rolling off the face.” That’s a new level of awareness. In the end, Finau settled on 5 degrees of loft being ideal for his custom Anser 2. 3. Finau’s putter drills When PGA TOUR players take to the practice putting green, they don’t mindlessly hit a few putts to get the speed right and head to the course. They practice with a purpose, seeking to instill the proper technique and feels into their putting strokes. Finau uses two drills, in particular, that stand out. GolfWRX has spotted Finau on numerous occasions flipping his putter 90 degrees and putting with the extreme toe side. Additionally, Finau was recently spotted at The Open Championship using a True Pendulum Motion (TPM) Putting Aid made by Ixia Sports. The aid attaches to the shaft of any putter, and by tucking the putting sticks of the apparatus underneath the arms, it helps reduce wrist activity and create more of a swinging motion. Coming off a T28 finish at The Open Championship, Finau is set to tee off at 1:33 pm Eastern at TPC Twin Cities on Thursday for the 3M Open. Pay careful attention to his putter, setup and stroke during the event to see if you can spot the subtle differences.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Jordan Spieth went into the third round 9-under par and just four off the lead at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. Three double bogeys, a bogey and no birdies later, he signed for a 7-over 77 and missed the 54-hole cut – the last 54-hole cut on the PGA TOUR before a new policy takes effect. “Yeah, it was just a bad day,â€� Spieth said, addressing a small scrum of reporters outside the scoring area. “Overall, just didn’t play well.â€� Although fans might have hoped that the 2015 FedExCup champion was finally emerging from a long slump, it all came crashing down in one round, starting with a double-bogey 6 on the first hole. Spieth, who is a work in progress with his long game but made 225 feet of putts the first two days, hit just four of 14 fairways, and took 32 putts – nine more than Thursday and Friday. It was a very long, hot day. “On the front nine I actually had decent looks at birdie on a lot of holes,â€� Spieth said. “And then No. 10, when I hit that one out of bounds, it was like, man, I don’t know what’s going on. “Yeah, I mean, I putted my ass off for two days to be able to be where I was at,â€� he continued, “and you can’t exactly fix your ball-striking in a day from being a negative three or something Strokes Gained to trying to gain positive. It’s just too much to try and force it.â€� He is 2 under and will be one of the last players to miss the second cut on TOUR. Instead of going home to Dallas, he said he would most likely stay in Greensboro before flying to the New York/New Jersey area for next week’s FedExCup Playoffs opener, THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National. “This extra day could serve me really well through the Playoffs,â€� Spieth said before signing autographs.

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