Tiger 14 over at Open, to miss another major cut

Tiger Woods is making an equipment switch for Saturday’s edition of Capital One’s The Match, and it just so happens to be the item that golfers use most often. Golf.com first reported that Woods is expected to switch to Bridgestone’s B X golf ball for the next two weeks. As part of a busy December, Woods is scheduled to compete in the PNC Championship alongside son Charlie after Saturday’s match, where he will team with FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy to face Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Woods, who last competed at The Open in July, had been using a Bridgestone B XS golf ball, which is a softer, higher-spinning ball. Woods has traditionally played a softer ball with more spin to have more variety with his approach shots and around the greens. Artistry with his irons and a myriad of short-game shots have been hallmarks of Woods’ historic career. According to Golf.com, Woods began testing the B X on his at-home simulator and noticed that the ball carried 10 yards farther. The B X is firmer and offers lower flight and spin than the B XS ball. “These are more of an exhibition-type situation, and I think that’s factoring into his decision,” Elliot Mellow, Bridgestone’s golf ball marketing manager, told Golf.com. “So he’ll be a Tour B X player at least for the next few events. He’s been looking at distance and the greenside spin is where it needs to be.” After testing the ball on his simulator, Woods did on-course testing with the ball in The Bahamas before withdrawing from the Hero World Challenge with plantar fasciitis. “The real test was (in the Bahamas during Hero week) where it hit it into different winds and liked the ball flight,” Mellow told Golf.com. “The comments we’ve heard from Tiger and his team is that it’s really cool that if he’s looking for something different, we don’t have to go out and build him a specific ball. He can just go to something we’re already making that’s on the retail shelf.” Bridgestone expects Woods to return to the B XS ball when he returns to official competition in the new year, however. “The Tour B XS is still a ball he helped co-design, and it’s a ball he’ll probably go back to in those situations where he needs more playability and workability in the golf ball,” said Mellow. “We don’t get the impression this is a permanent thing. It’s more situational. He’s chasing distance more than spin for all the obvious reasons.”

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No longer will PGA TOUR players dip hands into a Rules official's upside-down hat to determine the order of play in extra holes. Instead, the TOUR will go to a first-to-finish, first-to-play format for playoffs. Players in the same group will play off in the same order in which they finished regulation play within their group. The TOUR Rules Committee's decision was made after a Player Advisory Council meeting at The Genesis Invitational last week and will go into effect immediately. Immediacy, in fact, was one of the driving factors for the change, which is expected to expedite the playoff process and tip broadcast partners ahead of time as to the order of play. The full e-mail is below: With support from the PAC during last week's meeting, the PGA TOUR Rules Committee is making a change to the "order of play" protocol used during tournament playoffs. Rather than deciding the order of play "by draw" as has been done in the past, beginning this week we will now use a procedure based on order of finish in the final round. The order of play within the playoff group will be done on a “first-to-finish, first-to-play” method. For players tied in the same final round group, order of play within the final round groupings will be used. Simplifying this procedure allows us to expedite the process to start the playoff and also allows our broadcast partners to know the order of play in advance.

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The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is a unique week on the PGA TOUR calendar. When its new format debuted in 2017, it was the first team event on TOUR in more than 30 years and the first to use foursomes, or alternate shot, in stroke play. Unfortunately, this event will not be played in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. But, because the Zurich Classic is one-of-a-kind, so much of its intrigue happens before a shot is struck. The players’ selection of teammates gives us an insight into their relationships. Measuring how their skills complement each other is a fun exercise in analysis. So even though we won’t see players at TPC Louisiana this week, we can still celebrate the Zurich Classic. In that vein, here’s a look at 10 modern teams (active PGA TOUR players) we’d love to see if the Zurich Classic was being played this week (and one that had already confirmed its pairing). With this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans canceled, PGATOUR.COM writers will publish a series of our favorite two-man partnerships in honor of the tournament’s unique team format. Each day, we’ll focus on a specific category. Use the comments section to let us know which two-man teams you’d most enjoy seeing: TODAY: Modern teams. Sean Martin picks out his 10 favorite teams from today’s active pros. WEDNESDAY: Classic teams. Tom Alter picks out his 10 favorite teams from former PGA TOUR and golf greats. THURSDAY: Fantasy teams. Jim McCabe picks out his 10 favorite teams using partners from different generations. FRIDAY: ShotLink teams. PGA TOUR’s ShotLink crew picks out its 10 best partners utilizing analytics from the ShotLink Era (since 2003). 1. Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson Who else would you put first? And we can almost guarantee that this pairing will have more success than it did at Oakland Hills in the 2004 Ryder Cup. 2. Rory McIlroy-Brooks Koepka There were final-round showdowns at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, as well as the TOUR Championship with the FedExCup on the line. Then there were the quotes exchanged in the fall and the talk of a rivalry. But what if they joined forces for just this week? 3. Collin Morikawa-Matthew Wolff They were competing in college events this time last year. Now they’re both PGA TOUR winners and part of the TOUR’s youth movement. Morikawa and Wolff are two of five TOUR winners age 22 or younger since July. Compare that to the 15 years from 1985-2000, when there were four winners from that age group. Morikawa and Wolff have known each other since high school. They’ve already dueled once on TOUR, going head-to-head down the stretch at the 3M Open. Wolff won with an eagle on the final hole. Their duel was one of the highlights of last summer. They have the potential to be a strong team, as well; thus, no surprise they were scheduled to partner had this week’s event been played. Wolff’s length off the tee will leave Morikawa, who’s known for his laser-like approach play, with shorter iron shots in the alternate-shot format. 4. Charles Howell III-Viktor Hovland Let’s not forget Hovland, who was playing with Wolff at Oklahoma State in 2019. Hovland has a win of his own, at this year’s Puerto Rico Open. Another former Cowboy, Charles Howell III, could be a good partner for Hovland even though he’s nearly two decades older. Howell has served as a mentor for his fellow OSU alum during his brief pro career. They play practice rounds together and share a swing coach (Dana Dahlquist). Their games could complement, as well. Hovland admits that the short game is his weakness. Howell is 23rd in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green this season. 5. Francesco Molinari-Tommy Fleetwood Remember MoliWood? They were the stars two years ago at Le Golf National. Fleetwood has been his usual consistent self, while Molinari has struggled recently. Perhaps pairing with his former Ryder Cup partner is just what Molinari needs. 6. Bryson DeChambeau-Harry Higgs The former college roommates are a study in contrasts. DeChambeau is the mad scientist, in an unceasing quest to eliminate the variables. Higgs is a little more laid-back, as evidenced by his unbuttoned collars that often expose his chest hair. Don’t let his easygoing demeanor obscure his talent, though. The rookie is 42nd in the FedExCup thanks to a runner-up finish in the Bermuda Championship and ninth-place finish at the Farmers Insurance Open. 7. Maverick McNealy-Danielle Kang The first-year TOUR player and his LPGA-major-winning girlfriend have become one of golf Instagram’s power couples. McNealy is having a strong debut season on TOUR after Kang introduced him to instructor Butch Harmon. McNealy, who had a decorated amateur career at Stanford, is 57th in the FedExCup. His missed cut in his last start snapped a streak of 11 straight cuts made. That includes a T5 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and three other top-25s. Kang’s most recent LPGA victory came in October, and she’s currently fifth in the Rolex Rankings. 8. Hideki Matsuyama-Denny McCarthy Hideki’s prowess with his irons, and struggles with the putter, have been well-documented (he’s currently third this season in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green but 198th in Strokes Gained: Putting). That’s where McCarthy comes in. He’s the undisputed best putter on the PGA TOUR. He led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting last season and is first among players with at least 15 measured rounds this season. 9. Bubba Watson-Webb Simpson Watson beat Simpson in a playoff at TPC Louisiana nine years ago, so they’ve had success here. Simpson is already a top-10 player in the world. He’d be even closer to the top of the world ranking if he had another 30 yards off the tee. That’s what this pairing gives him. TPC Louisiana’s wide fairways allow Watson to be aggressive off the tee. They’re both in good form, as well. Simpson won this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open and has four top-7 finishes in five starts this season. He’s fifth in the FedExCup. Watson finished sixth in this year’s Farmers Insurance Open and third at TPC Scottsdale, three shots behind Simpson. 10. Sungjae Im-Justin Thomas This would have been a shrewd move on Sungjae’s part. If he paired with JT, then Thomas wouldn’t have been able to gain on him in the FedExCup. Im is atop the FedExCup thanks to his win at The Honda Classic and three other top-3 finishes, but his lead is just a slim 55 points over Thomas. It will be quite the race when the season resumes. Im, despite his good play and stellar Presidents Cup performance, remains underrated, so giving him a week with JT would help expose more people to his impressive game.

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