He started the week saying he didn’t want your sympathy. Then his game proved he didn’t need your sympathy, either.
Click here to read the full article…
| Do you like slot games with a chinese theme? Read a review of Ox Bonanza, a slot with a Chinese theme, appropriate for the upcoming Chinese New Year. You can find it at our partner site Hypercasinos.com |
Welcome to the Monday Finish, where we’re still trying to replicate Jordan Spieth’s bunker shot. Looks like we’re going to be here a while. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The aftermath of a milestone is the perfect opportunity for reflection, and it may be time to admit we’ve failed to appreciate the true level of Spieth’s talent. Every little lull in his game, like the two consecutive cuts he missed in May, lead to questions about his game. But Spieth’s victory at the Travelers Championship, and the dramatic fashion in which he did it, serve as a strong reminder that he is a special talent. This was the 10th victory of his career. He’s only 23 years old. It’s impressive for a player to earn his PGA TOUR card before turning 24. Spieth already owns two majors and a FedExCup. The high standard he set in 2015 makes people under-appreciate what he’s accomplished since. He’s won two times in each of the past two seasons, and he ranks high in every possible metric: fourth in the FedExCup, third in the Official World Golf Ranking and second on the U.S. Presidents Cup team rankings. No, he’s not immune to bad weeks, but they should be placed in a larger context. We’re watching Spieth compile a resume worthy of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Those who have talked about Spieth’s slumps may just be too impatient. Since October 2014, he’s never gone more than 12 PGA TOUR starts without a win. Spieth and Dustin Johnson are the only players to post multiple victories in each of the past two seasons. In 16 starts this season, Spieth has seven top-10s, including five finishes in the top three. Spieth’s dramatic hole-out did more than net another PGA TOUR win. It reminded us of what he’s capable of. 2. Spieth’s win continued an impressive run for the 25-and-under set. It used to be that any player in his 20s was considered young, but now we see a growing contingent of players who are racking up victories before they turn 25. There have been 12 wins this season by a player 25 or younger. Eight different players have combined to win those 12 titles. Justin Thomas has three wins this season, while Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama have two wins apiece. The other winners this season who were 25 or younger at the time of their victory are Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Si Woo Kim, Daniel Berger and Mackenzie Hughes. 3. Berger may have cost himself a spot on last year’s Ryder Cup team at last year’s Travelers Championship, but this year at TPC River Highlands he all but clinched his spot on Team USA. Berger, who lost a three-shot lead in the final round of last year’s Travelers, made up a three-shot deficit Sunday to catch Spieth before falling in a playoff. The runner-up finish moved Berger to fourth in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings. Berger isn’t short on confidence, or distance, and should fit in quite well as a rookie on the young team. Half of the top 10 players in the U.S. point standings would be representing their country for the first time in professional competition. The five potential newcomers are Berger, Justin Thomas, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Chappell and Brian Harman. The win also moved Berger to eighth in the FedExCup as he looks to make his third consecutive TOUR Championship. He finished 11th in the FedExCup en route to winning the 2015 Rookie of the Year Award, and was 26th last year. 4. Rory McIlroy’s putting woes continue. He finished 17th at the Travelers despite ranking 69th (out of the 74 players who completed 54 holes) in Strokes Gained: Putting “Tee-to-green, I’m right where I need to be,â€� said McIlroy, who ranks 65th in the FedExCup. “(I’m) driving the ball as well as I ever have, and hitting my irons pretty good. If I could sharpen up the short game a little bit and just convert a few more chances I’m giving myself, I feel like I’ll be right there for the next few weeks.â€� Hunter Mahan, who beat McIlroy in the championship match of the 2012 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, was one of the players who tied McIlroy last week at TPC River Highlands. Mahan’s game has fallen on hard times. He began the week ranked 215th in the FedExCup and 889th in the Official World Golf Ranking. The T17 was Mahan’s first top-50 finish since he finished 43rd at the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2016. Mahan now ranks 195th in the FedExCup and 723rd in the world ranking. 5. Before Spieth’s bunker shot overshadowed all that occurred last week at TPC River Highlands, the play of Monday qualifier Chase Sieffert was among the week’s interesting storylines. Seiffert, a Florida State teammate with Berger and Brooks Koepka, was one shot off the lead after birdieing his first hole Saturday, but faded to weekend rounds of 72-71 to finish 43rd. He had the opportunity to be the first Monday qualifier to finish in the top 10 this season. Only four Monday qualifiers have posted top-25s. This was the second successful qualifying attempt this season for Seiffert, who finished T74 at The RSM Classic. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. This probably should come as no surprise, but Spieth was among the week’s best from around the green. He finished second in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, averaging +1.51 strokes gained per round. It was the best performance around the greens by a winner this season (at a tournament where all four rounds were measured by ShotLink). Rod Pampling averaged +1.30 Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green in his win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, while Kim averaged +1.23 in his win at THE PLAYERS Championship. 2. Perhaps Spieth’s iron play should get more credit, though. He leads the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season, and ranked seventh in that category at the Travelers Championship (+1.25). Spieth average proximity to the hole on approach shots (27 feet, 0 inches) was nearly 15 feet better than the field average (41’, 8â€�). Spieth won despite not having his best stuff with his putter, finishing 31st in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.57). 3. This was just the fourth time this season that a player has won after losing strokes to the field off the tee. Spieth ranked 56th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last week, averaging -0.26 strokes per round. Spieth owns two of the four wins this season by a player who lost strokes to the field off the tee. He also did so in his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach 4. Spieth joined Tiger Woods as the only players in the modern era to win 10 times by the age of 24. Woods won 15 times before he turned 24. It’s impossible for Spieth to match that number, as he’ll celebrate his 24th birthday on July 27. 5. This is the 10th week this season that Spieth has ranked in the top five of the FedExCup. TOP THREE VIDEOS 1. That rake throw. 2. I feel like we’ve seen this before. 3. Until Sunday, this was my favorite Jordan Spieth bunker shot of the week.
HOW THEY QUALIFIED Winners of the Arnold Palmer Inv. & the Memorial (Last 3 Years) Matt Every William McGirt Tournament Winner in Past Two Seasons Aaron Baddeley Greg Chalmers Fabián Gómez Cody Gribble Billy Hurley III Smylie Kaufman Chris Kirk Peter Malnati Brian Stuard Vaughn Taylor Career Money Exemption Retief Goosen Sponsors Exemptions – Web.com Tour Finals Taylor Moore Nicholas Thompson Sponsors Exemptions – Members not otherwise exempt John Rollins Heath Slocum Sponsors Exemptions – Unrestricted Derek Bard Ross Bell Sam Burns Wyndham Clark Spencer Levin Dru Love Jimmy Stanger Ben Wolcott PGA Section Champion\Player of the Year Phil Schmitt Past Champion of Respective Event Scott Stallings Life Member Davis Love III Top 125 on Prior Season’s FedExCup Points List Jason Kokrak Kevin Streelman J.J. Spaun Patton Kizzire Luke Donald Richy Werenski Ryan Blaum Robert Garrigus Brian Gay Brandon Hagy Derek Fathauer Tyrone Van Aswegen Harris English John Huh Blayne Barber Ben Martin J.J. Henry Leading Money Winner from Web.com Tour & Web.com Tour Finals Chesson Hadley Top 50 & Ties Web.com Tour Finals from Prior Year Brice Garnett Andrew Landry Jonathan Byrd Abraham Ancer Nicholas Lindheim Sam Ryder Rob Oppenheim Ted Potter, Jr. Ryan Armour Stephan Jaeger Talor Gooch Shawn Stefani Andrew Putnam Jonathan Randolph Ben Silverman Bronson Burgoon Austin Cook Keith Mitchell Nate Lashley Tyler Duncan Kyle Thompson Denny McCarthy Adam Schenk Troy Merritt Matt Atkins Tom Lovelady Conrad Shindler Martin Piller Andrew Yun Alex Cejka Lanto Griffin Matt Jones Aaron Wise Cameron Tringale Brett Stegmaier Ethan Tracy Corey Conners Steve Wheatcroft Brandon Harkins Roberto DÃaz Tom Hoge Beau Hossler Joel Dahmen Seamus Power Top Finishers from Web.com Tour Medical Brian Davis 126-150 on Prior Season’s FEC Points List Zac Blair David Hearn Daniel Summerhays J.T. Poston Trey Mullinax Ricky Barnes Johnson Wagner Cameron Percy Ben Crane Rick Lamb Beyond 150th on Prior Season’s FEC Points List Hunter Mahan Jason Gore Stuart Appleby Ken Duke Ã�ngel Cabrera Dicky Pride Jason Bohn Carl Pettersson Mark Wilson Eric Axley John Merrick Derek Ernst Robert Allenby Y.E. Yang Charlie Wi Brendon de Jonge Craig Barlow Arjun Atwal Tommy Gainey Daniel Chopra Richard S Johnson Tim Herron Steven Bowditch D.J. Trahan Mark Hensby Omar Uresti Brendon Todd
In the 1970s, Ping began making two gold-plated replica putters for golfers who won major TOUR events using a Ping putter. One of the gold putters went to the player, the other was kept at the company’s headquarters in Phoenix. Eventually, the stockpile of gold putters, which mimic the exact specifications of the game-used putters, grew into a collection of nearly 3,000 that are now housed in Ping’s “Gold Putter Vault.� And the collection continues to grow. In turn, the Gold vault also houses a stockpile of fascinating stories. During a recent trip to Ping’s headquarters, I entered the vault with tour guide and longtime Director of Marketing at Ping, Pete Samuels, to uncover some of those stories from inside the vault. Below were my discoveries, with narration from Samuels. The First of Many “The first documented putter win (for Ping) was 1962, the Cajun Classic, which was won by John Barnum. I believe it was the (model) 69 series. This tradition of doing gold-plated putters started in the mid-70s, so some of these putters have been added after the fact. The first major was the ’69 Masters with an Anser by George Archer. It’s been interesting over the years, people have been becoming more and more aware of it… pros who did win, who never got a gold-plated putter, just because the records weren’t as well kept back then. So if a player reaches out to us and says ‘Hey, I won such and such tournament, but never got my gold putter.’ If it’s documented, we can prove it, we’re happy to give it them. We want as many putters in here as we can get, right?� Westwood vs. Seve: Who has more Gold putters? “From a wins perspective, Seve has the most wins with 47. And they’re all with the Anser putter… I’m pretty sure it was the same spec. So what we do is we build (the Gold putters) the exact specs of their putter: length, lie, loft, all that. I can’t say all of those wins were with the same Anser, they’re all an Anser model, but he may have had more than one over the years.� “Then as far as Westwood… so Lee just won (the 2018 Nedbank Golf Challenge) with a Fetch. I think he’s closing in on Seve, with a couple more wins he’ll overtake him. But Lee has more Gold putters in the vault because as a staff player we also acknowledge some career milestones or achievements, so he would have some Ryder Cup putters in here. We also give staff players a gold putter based on surpassing a career earnings milestone. So he has several of those as well. I’d have to count them up. It’s probably in the mid-50s in terms of how many he has. But wins wise, he’s still a hair short of Seve, but not much. Hopefully he’ll win a few more here. I think (Westwood has) 13 or 14 different models. Probably 14 now because of the Fetch, that’ll be another new model for him. What’s interesting is everything from mid-mallets to pure mallets to even blades, some Anser-style putters. Quite a variety.� Ping at THE PLAYERS “There was a string here, that mid-to-early 90s, we had a pretty good streak of putters winning THE PLAYERS. So from ’91 to ’97, every one except for Nick Price in ’93.� Steve Elkington won the 1991 and the 1997 PLAYERS Championship, Davis Love III won in 1992, Greg Norman in 1994, Lee Janzen in 1995, and Fred Couples in 1996 — all using Ping putters. Tiger Woods, the putter that started it all “It’s an Anser 2, which he used growing up. And these are the ’94 and ’95 U.S. Amateurs, where he used the Ping Anser 2, stainless steel was the material. Those are definitely must-sees when people come in here they want to see the Tiger putter. As you know, he still uses a Ping grip on his current putter. On his current putter he blacks it out, but it’s the same grip design that he had on his Anser 2.� “He did some experimenting this year for sure. Pretty much since he switched from the Anser 2 to the Cameron he’s had the Ping grip on there, because it’s our understanding, it’s not confirmed, there’s some debate… but we believe either 13 or 14 of his major wins have had the Ping grip on it. Somebody questioned all 14, but we’re pretty sure it was all 14. “He definitely loves the grip, and we provide them to him obviously, happily. We actually still sell it. We have what we call a black-out version, because he’s made that popular and people ask for it.� Not only putters “We’ve got a replica of Bubba’s wedge that he hit out of the trees on the 10th at Augusta in the playoff with Louis to win that Masters. The same year, if you recall, Louis made a double-eagle on No. 2, so we have a replica of his 4-iron in memory of that. “And then we do have some other wedges like when Bob Tway holed out of the bunker to win the ’86 PGA, that’s a Ping Eye2 wedge. Azinger hold out of the bunker at The Memorial on 18 to win to beat Payne Stewart. Jeff Maggert chipped in on I think the first extra hole at the match play to win ’99 with the Eye2 sand wedge, as well.� 1988 “The other cool story is in 1988, Ping putters were used to win all 4 major championships, which was the only time in history to date that that’s happened. If my memory serves me, Sandy Lyle won The Masters with the Ping Pal, Curtis Strange won the U.S. Open with the Zing 2, Seve won the British with an Anser, and Jeff Sluman won the PGA with the Pal 2. Pretty cool feat when you think about winning the Grand Slam of Golf.�
