Follow live: Kuchar strikes out in front at The Open

Trending PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour players will be able to play their way into the field at the 120th U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Sept. 17-20, the United States Golf Association announced Thursday. Not only will top-five finishers in the FedExCup earn spots for Winged Foot, so, too, will the top finishers at select TOUR events this summer. There will be 10 spots for Korn Ferry Tour members, too. Oh, and Phil Mickelson, whose tie for second at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot was perhaps the most agonizing moment of his career, will also be there. The coronavirus pandemic led to the sweeping changes to this year’s qualification criteria. The USGA had previously announced the field will include 144 and not 156 players, for reasons of daylight, and will be made up of entirely exempt players – no more local and sectional qualifiers. Mostly the USGA will use the Official World Golf Ranking – top 70 and ties as of March 15, when the rankings froze for the pandemic, instead of the usual top 60. At the time, perennial U.S. Open bridesmaid Mickelson was ranked 61st. He had previously said he didn’t want to be given a special exemption, but now he’s in with the rules change. Mickelson needs a U.S. Open win to complete the career slam. “That worked out great, to be able to know that I have a chance to go back to Winged Foot and give it another shot,” Mickelson said Thursday after his 6-under 64 in the opening round at the Travelers Championship. “But I’ve had 30 U.S. Opens. I’ve had plenty of opportunities, and so if I don’t qualify, I want somebody else who deserves a spot, too, to play. As long as I’m playing well enough to compete to earn my way into the field, then I want to play and keep trying to win that tournament.” In addition to Mickelson, other PGA TOUR members now with U.S. Open invites who weren’t previously in the field include Andrew Putnam, Keegan Bradley and Joel Dahmen. The USGA will also invite the hottest players on various tours, which will thicken the already substantial plot for PGA TOUR players. The top two players, not otherwise exempt, in the top 10 and ties of The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, 3M Open, World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Barracuda Championship and Wyndham Championship will earn spots in the field at the U.S. Open. The top three not otherwise exempt in the top 10 and ties of the 2020 PGA Championship will make it to Mamaroneck, New York. And in another twist, so will the top five on the Korn Ferry Tour regular season points list, plus the top five in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. “This is a wonderful opportunity for our top players to showcase the level of talent that exists week in and week out on the Korn Ferry Tour,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “We are excited to know that 10 of our up-and-coming stars will compete in the U.S. Open.” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships, said, “The exemption categories for this year’s championship at Winged Foot Golf Club were carefully developed to mirror a representative U.S. Open field, and we are excited that players will still have an opportunity to earn a place in the field through a variety of categories.” The 2019 Order of Merit for the Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, Asian Tour and Australasia Tour will help to round out the field of 144 players, as will the World Amateur Golf Ranking, from which the top seven point leaders who are not otherwise exempt as of Aug. 19 will be added to the six amateurs who are currently exempt. Exemptions for finishes in recent USGA championships, including the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Senior Open, will remain unchanged, as will exemptions for winners of THE PLAYERS Championship, Masters, Open Championship, PGA Championship, T and BMW PGA Championship. Remaining spots in the championship will be filled using the OWGR, as of Aug. 23. Winged Foot Golf Club is hosting its sixth U.S. Open and 13th USGA championship. The course was the site of Geoff Ogilvy’s tense one-stroke victory over Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie and Mickelson in 2006. Mickelson double-bogeyed the 72nd hole to lose. Mickelson, who ranks 188th in driving accuracy this season, said, “A U.S. Open is going to be more difficult for me now than it probably was because I drive it the way I drive it, and so that week in 2006 my short game was the best it’s been in my career, and I got up-and-down from everywhere. I know that I’ll have to do the same and hopefully drive it better.” Besides Ogilvy, other U.S. Open champions at Winged Foot include: Bobby Jones (1929), Billy Casper (1959), Hale Irwin (1974) and Fuzzy Zoeller (1984).

Click here to read the full article…

A quarterfinal loss at Match Play will cost Ian Poulter a bid to go to the Masters after he was initially told by a group of reporters that he was assured a trip to Augusta.

Click here to read the full article…

Stewart Cink, the 48-year-old who this week is defending his title at the RBC Heritage, is ranked 50th in driving distance this season, averaging 304.1 yards per tee shot. That’s a significant increase from just two years ago, when he ranked 113th and averaged 295.7 yards off the tee. So how did Cink increase his driving distance even as he nears PGA TOUR Champions eligibility? “I set out to achieve (increased distance) two years ago,” Cink told GolfWRX this week. “That’s something we’ve been focusing on, gaining a little distance. I felt like I was leaving something in the tank. I just wasn’t properly using everything I had at my disposal. Me and my coaches went out and tried to solve that, and two years later, (it worked).” According to Cink, his secret to the distance increase was two-fold. First, he improved his technique as it relates to distance. Then, he optimized his equipment to better suit his improved mechanics. “It’s not like I found a hot driver and could hit it farther, it was definitely technique and form and biomechanics first, and then I got my equipment to be efficient to match that,” Cink told GolfWRX. “Fitting is one thing, but especially if you have optimized mechanics and form.” In a PGATOUR.COM article published earlier this year, Sean Martin went inside Cink’s new-and-improved, distance-focused golf swing. As highlighted, Cink learned that hitting drives with an upward angle of attack was more efficient than hitting drives with a downward angle. Cink moved the golf ball forward in his stance to help make this change. And it worked. “My attack angle went from, say, minus-2 to about plus-2, which is a kind of a big deal in driving these days,” Cink told PGATOUR.COM. “The best drivers and the guys who hit it the farthest … are the ones that attack up. … I wasn’t trying to change my attack angle, but the setup change and the way I was using the bigger muscles in my body on my back swing, I kind of accessed more of the power from stronger areas of my body, and those two changes just resulted in a lot more ball speed and a lot better attack angle.” Then came the equipment adjustments. Prior to his swing changes, Cink was using a Ping G425 Max 10-degree driver that was set to the highest-lofted hosel setting. It’s called “Big Plus,” which relates to the symbol used on the hosel; it equates to an added 1.5 degrees of loft compared to standard on the driver head. Back in 2019, before Cink changed his angle of attack, he was launching the ball only 8.6 degrees, which put him 169th on TOUR in launch angle. That meant Cink needed a bit of extra loft on his driver to keep him from flying the ball even lower. When he changed his swing to hit up on the ball, though, the higher-lofted driver was no longer optimal. He was spinning the ball too much and it was costing him distance. That’s when Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates worked with Cink to help him dial in the driver. Using the same Ping G425 Max 10-degree head model, Oates dialed the hosel into the “Small Minus” setting, which is 1 degree less than standard, and they eventually moved into the “Big Minus” setting (pictured above), which is 1.5 degrees less than standard. Despite the significantly lower lofted setting, Cink’s launch angle went up to 11.5 degrees in 2021 due to his swing changes, putting him T48 in launch angle. From 2020 to 2021, Cink also increased his ball speed from 171.7 mph to 175.1 mph (generally speaking, lower lofts can help increase ball speed; for a more extreme example, imagine the difference between hitting a ball with a 3-iron and a sand wedge). As a result, Cink went from averaging 295.7 yards in the 2020 season, to 306.6 yards last season. Although Harbour Town Golf Links isn’t known for its demanding length, it’s never a bad thing to have a little more distance in the tank when it’s needed. For the millions of aging golfers who are looking to increase their distance and hit the longest drives of their lives, follow the Cink model. First, figure out a technique and setup that can help you launch the ball higher. Then, find a driver to match those new delivery patterns. It worked for Cink, and it can work for you, too.

Click here to read the full article…