FedEx St. Jude Classic provides little intrigue

It had been more than 70 years since an Italian won on the PGA TOUR, but when the drought was broken it was broken in style as Francesco Molinari obliterated the field on Sunday at the Quicken Loans National. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Molinari gave the heart broken Italian soccer fans who have been watching the World Cup without a team something to cheer about at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Mistake-free golf is very hard to do but Molinari went four days with very few errors – on a course that a year ago played as one of the toughest on the PGA TOUR. Now this year it was certainly a little softer and more receptive but to make 21 birdies and an eagle in four rounds is phenomenal stuff, especially paired with just two bogeys. And they came before Sunday’s final round with everything on the line. On Sunday a clinical Molinari was a sight to see. Knowing those around him would likely face nerves, particularly co-leader Abraham Ancer who is without a victory, Molinari hit six of seven fairways and seven of nine greens on the front side. Two birdies gave him a nice little buffer heading down the stretch. Then from the ninth green on, he showed some serious class. A huge par putt on the ninth stopped the challengers feeling like he might wobble. Then he went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie to annihilate the field and wound up winning by an incredible eight shots. That sort of steady golf will certainly give him a huge chance at completing his goal of making the TOUR Championship. Read about his win here. 2. Tiger Woods changed his putter prior to the tournament, opting for a mallet style weapon. It certainly sent the golf world into a frenzy. But after a handful of tournaments with poor results on the greens, and with the slower greens expected at the upcoming Open Championship, Woods felt the time to change was now. The 79-time TOUR winner certainly made more putts this week. He ranked seventh overall in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting and as such is taking confidence with him to Carnoustie. But there remains a small concern. He is still missing some of the shorter putts. He missed 13 from inside 10 feet with five of those inside 7 feet. The old Woods didn’t miss that many short ones in half a season. But his T4 result is another step forward in this latest comeback. The signs are there. He is good enough to win again. Read more about his round here. 3. Ryan Armour certainly fits the profile of “some things get better with age.� The 42-year-old broke through for his first TOUR win early this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship and added a runner-up finish this week. With his seventh top-25 finish of the season, he has matched that of his rookie 2007 campaign, but of course there were no victories that season. He finished 128th in the FedExCup having dipped out in the first week of the Playoffs (142 players were eligible back then). He has never returned but is a certainty now that he’s moved up to 30th in the current standings. There was nothing overly special about his Sunday round except that he stayed focused even when winning was not a likely option. Instead he buckled down and earned a berth in the Open Championship. Don’t be surprised if he sneaks his way to East Lake. 4. Speaking of the Open Championship, Armour was joined by Ancer, Sung Kang and Bronson Burgoon as those players fortunate enough to play their way in as part of The Open Championship Qualifying Series. The top four players not already exempt earned a ticket. The Open will be Armour’s first major championship. Kang qualified just as he did at the same venue a year ago, this time shooting 6-under 64 to take third place. It will be his fifth major and second Open Championship after a T44 finish last season. Ancer dropped from the overnight lead with a 2-over 72 leaving him tied for fourth but gets the consolation of playing his first major championship. The last spot went to Burgoon, who had a huge Sunday playing with Tiger Woods. At 408th in the world leading in, it took a 72nd hole birdie for Burgoon to lock it up. That’s clutch. 5. Beau Hossler’s time is coming. Soon. He leads the TOUR this season in rounds in the 60s – now at 42 out of 86 rounds. His T6 finish this week is a fifth top 10 and he has made 20 of 23 cuts. He’s pushed up to 26th in the FedExCup. There is still the issue of his scoring average fading as each passing round goes on but the experiences are filling up and will eventually bring a new level of comfort. It is not a matter of if Hossler will win on TOUR, it is a matter of when. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Molinari moved from 123rd in the FedExCup to 42nd with the win. He has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each of the last three seasons but has yet to make the TOUR Championship. 2. Molinari’s 54-hole score of 197 is a career-low and a tournament record, tying Ancer this week. His 72-hole score of 259 is a career-low and a tournament record. It’s also the lowest winning total this season. The eight-stroke win smashes the previous tournament record of three strokes and matches Dustin Johnson’s victory margin at the Sentry Tournament of Champions as the largest this season. 3. Final-round 62 marks best finish by a winner this season (one better than Bubba Watson’s 63 at the Travelers Championship last week). 4. Molinari ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee but was first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He hit 42 of 56 fairways. He also led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, hitting 62 of 72 greens in regulation. He was second in the field in proximity at 27 feet, 8 inches. He also ranked first in the field in scrambling. 5. Woods now has 11 starts on TOUR in his comeback. This week was his third top 10, moving him to 47th in the FedExCup. He is now assured to qualify for the Playoffs for the first time since 2013 when he finished second overall in the FedExCup.

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It used to be easier to identify the brand of irons that a PGA TOUR player uses. These days, it’s becoming more difficult. In the current golf equipment landscape, ultra-personalized custom irons are growing in popularity among PGA TOUR players, whereas they historically would use irons that were available to the public on the retail market. The tide is shifting. In 2022 alone, Adam Scott debuted custom Miura Golf-made irons with his logo on them, and Maverick McNealy used a custom set of Callaway Apex prototype irons – a set that included an “11-iron” – throughout the year. Justin Thomas also has been using a “1-of-1” custom set of Titleist irons that meet his specs. There may be another big name added to that list soon. In a Halloween-day post on Instagram, former FedExCup champion Justin Rose revealed an equally mysterious set of irons, showcasing no other logos aside from his personal “JR” logo. The golf world was abuzz trying to figure out which equipment manufacturer designed and built the set. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long to find the answer. Rose revealed shortly after, in a comment on the GolfWRX Instagram page, that Custom Golf Works at Gatwick Studio custom-built the irons. He later confirmed via Instagram DM with GolfWRX that the iron heads themselves were manufactured by Miura, much like Scott’s custom irons. While Rose is not entirely positive if and when the custom “JR” irons will go into play, he’s giving them serious consideration. Most players do the bulk of their equipment testing in tandem with a company’s reps – often at tournaments, a company’s home office or the player’s home course – but Rose has used Custom Golf Works, an independent, off-site clubfitting facility, multiple times this year. They also helped fit him for the Titleist 620MB irons he was using earlier this year. The fitter boasts a decade of fitting players on the DP World Tour but also is open to the public. It isn’t affiliated with a single equipment brand. When Rose switched to Titleist clubs earlier in the year, it was simply because the irons won out over other brands he was testing. For Rose, changing irons wouldn’t be anything new; since becoming an equipment free agent in 2020, Rose has used multiple sets of irons in PGA TOUR competition, including TaylorMade P-730 irons, Mizuno MP-20 irons, TaylorMade P-7MC irons, and Titleist 620 MB irons. This time around, it seems Rose’s new custom “JR” irons are made especially for his look and preferences, so maybe his iron search has reached a finish line.

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