Americans win seventh straight Presidents Cup

Editor’s note: Ernie Els has been writing a blog in 2017 and this is his most recent installment. For more information on the World Golf Hall of Famer, visit www.ernieels.com. Before we get on and discuss this week’s tournament on the PGA TOUR, there are a few other items of news that deserve a mention. First of all, big congrats to Jason Dufner at The Memorial. It’s good to see him back in the winner’s circle. Needless to say, it was disappointing to not be able to play at Muirfield Village in what is one of my favourite tournaments of the year, but Liezl and I were attending the school graduation ceremony for our daughter Samantha. Those type of occasions happen only once in a lifetime and no parent wants to miss that. It was a special day. We then all enjoyed a nice weekend at home together. On Monday morning we had a captains’ visit to Liberty National Golf Club, which as you’ll know is the venue for this year’s Presidents Cup. There was some serious business to discuss – specifically, how we go about winning back the trophy after way too long now! But it was also a fun day and great to spend some time with the guys. Of course, Nick and me go way back and it’s an honor that he named me as one of his captains’ assistants. It’s a role that I’m keen to embrace 100 percent. I do think it’s going to be an unreal Presidents Cup. I mean, to be at Liberty National with those wonderful views of the financial district and the rest of Manhattan, it’s such a unique venue, and the energy that comes out of that place is just crazy. I think it’s going to be a terrific week. So, let’s return to the ‘day job’ and this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind in Memphis. You’d be right in saying this is the final tune-up for the U.S. Open, but this is also undoubtedly a fine tournament in its own right. I’m looking forward to teeing it up here and trying to build further on some of my recent good play at the AT&T Byron Nelson and the BMW PGA Championship over in the UK. Let’s see how we go. It will actually be only my third appearance in the FedEx St. Jude Classic, having made my debut back in 1995 when it was played the week after the U.S. Open, not the week before as it is now. I played here last year also. It’s an historic tournament going back over half a century and it has a great sponsor that is obviously hugely committed to golf here in the U.S. As with every tournament these days on the PGA TOUR, there’s a strong charitable ethos. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital helps find cures for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases and over the years this tournament has helped raise more than $33 million for the cause. You have to applaud that. Follow me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy.

Click here to read the full article…

In the final round of the 2018 BMW Championship at rain-soaked Aronimink Golf Club, Keegan Bradley shoots 64, then beats Justin Rose with a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Bradley—who hadn’t won on the PGA TOUR in over six years—notched his fourth win to break into the FedExCup Top 30 and secure a return to the season-ending TOUR Championship. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Bradley’s final round was a miracle. At the start of his TOUR career, Bradley won three times, including the PGA Championship, in 2011 and 2012. He hoisted enormous trophies, played in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and was teammates with Phil Mickelson. Then it all went away. Over six years and 160 starts, Bradley didn’t win anything. He fiddled with his swing, and his putting stroke, and had a baby boy, Logan, with his wife, Jillian. The only cups he that remained were sippy cups. Now, though, after acing the BMW Championship’s final round, which was scuttled for rain Sunday and played Monday thanks to what Billy Horschel and others called a miracle, Bradley is sixth in the FedExCup. “It was the weirdest couple of days,â€� said Bradley, who was projected 30th in the FedExCup and into the TOUR Championship after the third round. “I knew in the back of my mind if we didn’t play, I was in Atlanta. It was my goal to start the year. It was difficult to get ready to play because I was like, man, if they call it, I’m good, but then I can go out — I’m only three back. So thankfully we got out here and played, and I made it to Atlanta and more now.â€� Just over two weeks ago, Bradley went into the final round of THE NORTHERN TRUST with an outside chance four back, but shot 78 alongside eventual winner Bryson DeChambeau. Bradley was 14 shots better this time, reigniting his career in the rain. 2. Rose won for losing. Despite running his record to 4/15 at converting 54-hole leads/co-leads into victory, Justin Rose took home a nice consolation prize: he ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “There will be next week to win tournaments, but to get to world No. 1 is unbelievable,â€� Rose said. “It’s something I can say now in my career I’ve been the best player in the world. I’ve been to the top of the game. That’s definitely some consolation. “I just wish I could have enjoyed the moment maybe,â€� he added after the runner-up finish, which left him second in the FedExCup. “This just slightly dampens it. But tomorrow or the next day, the week after, I’ll look back at this and think it was amazing, an amazing moment in my career.â€� 3. Rain helped Horschel cool it. Billy Horschel (64, T3) is one of many successful TOUR pros who admits he may sometimes burn too hot. He knows what he’s capable of, having won the 2014 BMW, TOUR Championship and FedExCup, and so it’s hard when he sees himself come up short. He had won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Scott Piercy, but hadn’t won an individual event this year. His 19-under total at the BMW was just a shot shy of the playoff. “You know, we’ve done a lot of good work with Todd Anderson, Brett McKay, a sports psychologist, some really good work with me,â€� Horschel said. “My team has done an unbelievable job to stick through some tough times that were bad, not that bad. Not being able to play to my ability I get very frustrated, very easily.â€� The long rain delay, he said, may have helped him cool the fire. “I sort of play well when we have delays and this and that,â€� he said. “Calms me down. I don’t know when we’re going to go play so I can’t get myself worked up.â€� 4. Week off could help Woods. Several players admitted to fatigue after a long BMW week. Then there was Tiger Woods, who already had reason to be tired owing to the fact that with his four back surgeries he hadn’t played this much golf in years. “I’m going to take a long break after the Ryder Cup,â€� said Woods, who won the TOUR Championship at East Lake in 1999 and 2007, and will return for the first time since 2013. “We’re going to evaluate things. But, more importantly, I need to start really lifting and getting after it and getting stronger in certain areas because playing every single week seems like every single day is maintenance at this point, war of attrition. “What you do in the off-season is what allows you to maintain it through the year,â€� he added, “especially on the backside of the year, and I really didn’t train for all this. Because I didn’t know how much I was going to be playing. I was just trying to play. “So, next year I have a better understanding of what I need to do and this off-season will be very different than it was last year.â€� 5. Aronimink was defenseless. The rain-soaked course gave up birdies in bunches. Four players shot 62: Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Kevin Na and Tiger Woods. Fleetwood did it twice, Friday and Saturday, and McIlroy signed for that number despite bogeying two of his last three holes Thursday. Then there was this odd bit of trivia: Amongst the top five guys on the leaderboard through the first three rounds—Rose (-17), McIlroy (-16), Schauffele (-16), Fleetwood (-15) and Fowler (-15)—it represented the career-low 54-hole score for all five. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Bradley led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+1.790); he was 186th in that stat going into the BMW, although he’d had a few good putting weeks here and there. He was one of 10 players to take 100 or fewer putts in a tournament this season, doing so at the RBC Canadian Open (solo 4th). His 28 birdies were the most of his career by five (2012 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). 2. Xander Schauffele, who came into the week 41st in the FedExCup but played his way to Atlanta with a T3 at the BMW, could impact an obscure stat. Two players, Brendan Steele at the Safeway Open and Brooks Koepka at the U.S. Open, have successfully defended their titles this season. Schauffele is heating up and has just 29 players to beat to become the third. 3. Four rookies made the 70-man BMW Championship: Aaron Wise, Austin Cook, Peter Uihlein and Keith Mitchell. Two of them had already won on TOUR this season and were in the driver’s seat for Rookie of the Year: Wise (AT&T Byron Nelson) and Cook (RSM Classic). But only Wise (67, T16, 21st in FedExCup) advanced to the season-ending TOUR Championship. 4. Tommy Fleetwood’s middle rounds of 62-62 made him just the 10th player with a 36-hole total of 124 or better in consecutive rounds. Troy Matteson tops that list, taking just 122 strokes over consecutive rounds at the 2009 Safeway Open. 5. Monday gave us the 12th playoff this season, and the first since Bryson DeChambeau won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. It was also the 17th event with a suspension or delay of play, and the third unscheduled Monday finish. (The Dell Technologies Championship always ends on Labor Day.)

Click here to read the full article…

The magnitude of Tiger Woods’ win at the TOUR Championship cannot be understated. Last April, it was unclear the 14-time major winner would ever return to the course following L5-S1 spinal fusion back surgery that clouded the future of his golf career — one that had been marred by numerous back procedures over the previous three years.  Just 17 months later, Woods, who called himself “A Walking Miracle earlier this year,” returned to the TOUR winner’s circle for the 80th time in his career.  It was a win that not only validated all of the tireless work and preparation Woods put in behind the scenes to get his body in shape to compete again but the grind he underwent to find the perfect equipment setup — an important piece of the puzzle that took nearly a full season to figure out.  For a player who’s used to making equipment changes at a glacial pace, this season forced Woods to get comfortable with the idea of undergoing wholesale changes when he arrived at Medalist Golf Club, his home course in Hobe Sound, Florida, last December for his first official testing session with TaylorMade since signing a 13-club equipment deal at the beginning of 2017.  Woods worked through a myriad of clubs on that particular day, including different driver builds, a prototype 6-iron tailor-made to his specifications and a new utility iron. For someone who never embraced adjustable drivers — Woods always opted for a glued, non-adjustable hosel — the session felt like a crash course in acclimating to new equipment, technology and getting on the same page with TaylorMade reps.  “One of the things I think I’ve really done over the years is that I’ve been pretty ardent about playing a product that is better than what I’m using, and all of the companies I’ve been with, they all know that,” Woods told PGATOUR.COM during an exclusive interview after the testing session. “I will give it my best efforts to try and put it in, but it’s going to take a little time sometimes.”  When Woods resurfaced two months later at the Farmers Insurance Open, TaylorMade’s M3 driver was the newest addition to the bag. Woods continued using the driver during the season while making incremental changes to the two adjustable weights in the sole, before settling on a low spin and launch orientation with the weights centrally located in the center track.  What started with minor changes to the driver weights quickly progressed to new TW Phase1 prototype irons at the Wells Fargo Championship and two Milled Grind wedges at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Woods even tinkered with the shaft in his TaylorMade Tour Preferred UDI — along with briefly using a GAPR LO driving iron during The Open Championship — going from True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 steel to Mitsubishi Tensei White graphite and then back to steel, albeit in a higher-launching Dynamic Gold AMT package.  The irons and wedges, for as tough as Woods is on new equipment during the testing process, weren’t all that difficult to figure out.  Aside from a CG adjustment that needed to be made on the irons following the initial testing session at Medalist, former Nike master craftsman Mike Taylor — who now runs Artisan Golf but still grinds Woods’ irons and wedges on the side — was able to get the iron and wedge shaping to match up with his previous Nike set.  Even a shift away from Nike’s ball line to Bridgestone’s Tour B XS didn’t seem to phase Woods. And the ball always seems to be a tricky part for most players.  There’s no doubt Woods made strides on the course this season with new equipment and a different golf ball, but it seems fitting for a player who considers himself old-school when it comes to testing and equipment, that the two most important pieces of the puzzle were a putter that’s been by his side since 1999, and a driver shaft he used previously during the 2013-14 season.  Outside of his struggles off the tee, Woods failed to find his stroke with the putter midway through the season, prompting to bench his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS blade for TaylorMade’s TP Black Coper Ardmore 3 at Quicken Loans National. The mallet represented just the second time in Woods’ career that he’d used something other than an Anser-style blade.  It felt like a move made out of desperation at the time, as Woods attempted to inject some life into his flat stick. But once the honeymoon period wore off, the mallet was benched in Boston during the Dell Technologies Championship for a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Ardmore 3 putter that looked eerily similar to Woods’ Newport 2.  One week later, Woods shelved the putter at the BMW Championship for the Newport 2 and things suddenly started to click again.  “I know the release point and I know how it swings and my body morphed into a position where it understands where it needs to be to release the putter,” Woods said.  “I’ve hit hundreds of millions of putts. I’ve had it since ’99. I’ve hit putts with it. I just — my body just remembers it. When I go away from it — and, you know, when I was using the Nike putter I always bring it out and hit putts with it. Sometimes it works but it just feels very familiar to me.” The brief time away seemed to be exactly what Woods and his putter needed, as he finished the season ranked second in Strokes Gained: Putting at East Lake en route to taking home the TOUR Championship for the third time in his career. The driver shaft proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for Woods, who rotated between numerous models during the season before settling on a familiar profile in Mitsubishi’s Diamana D+ White Board. The move came on the heels of a significant change for Woods, who opted for a counterbalance Tensei CK Pro Orange part over a non-counterbalance part to gain more club head speed. What Woods found out, in the end, was that accuracy, in his case, mattered more than distance. With Diamana, Woods found the center of the fairway and still managed to average over 300 yards during the final event of the season while ranking no worse than T27 in driving accuracy during the FedExCup Playoffs. “It’s a feeling that I know and I used to use it for a number of years,” Woods said of the shaft. “I know the graphics have changed a little bit but it’s basically the same shaft. Went back to something that I knew and had success with, and it’s turned out pretty good.” From an equipment perspective, Woods’ season will be remembered for all of the changes he made over the course of 10 months — some many never expected to see from Woods (mallet putters and graphite driving irons). New technology no doubt helped Woods make strides on the course, but in the end, it was two reliable products from his past that helped push the 42-year-old over the top and produce a storybook finish for the ages.

Click here to read the full article…