Horses for Courses: Valero Texas Open

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Wesley Bryan had a confession to make after carding a second-round 66 to get to 8 under and in contention at the RBC Heritage presented by Boeing. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tee times | RBC Heritage kicks off Carolina Swing As a kid, on family vacations, he snuck onto Harbour Town Golf Links. Just a time or two. Nothing crazy. OK, maybe it was more than that. “I’ll be honest,” he said, “we snuck out here way more often than we probably should. We would walk out to the 10th tee and just start playing holes as kids. “Yeah, a lot of hours have been spent out here, whether they knew about them or not.” It’s fitting that Harbour Town would be the site of a mini resurgence for Bryan, given that he authored his lone PGA TOUR victory here in 2017. The Columbia, South Carolina, native and former University of South Carolina star is a popular figure around here. Even the home crowd, though, could be excused for wondering where he’s been. Bryan, 31, is 172nd in the FedExCup, 429nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, after missing five of eight cuts this season. He’s playing on a Major Medical Extension with nine starts remaining after undergoing surgery for a torn labrum in his left shoulder in January 2019. “I’ll be on a little hiatus,” he wrote on Twitter then, “but don’t worry I’ll be back.” He was coming off four straight missed cuts and a WD the previous fall. It was time. But it’s taken a while for Bryan to get back. A little hiatus? He made just nine combined starts in 2019 and 2020. “Shoulder is great,” he said after his second round, which included an eagle 3 at the second hole, plus five birdies and two bogeys. “I been feeling a lot better about the golf game than what the scores have been showing as of late. Post-surgery I picked up a lot of speed and started actually striking the ball well for the first time in my career, which was nice.” Bryan has always been streaky-good: He won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016. And he’s finally scoring, not just hitting the ball well. Now he just needs to keep it going through the weekend to become the first two-time Heritage winner since Jim Furyk (2015/2010). Asked what he learned from winning here four years ago, Bryan said the real lessons came earlier than that, on all those family trips to Harbour Town, which is more or less the same. “I’ve played this place a lot growing up,” he said. “It’s just one of the few stops even as a rookie on TOUR I felt very comfortable from day one. Not as much homework learning the golf course. “It’s more of just out here knowing where to miss it,” he continued. “You don’t necessarily have to drive the ball in the fairway out here to stay in position in the hole.” With that familiarity paying off, Bryan, too, is looking familiar – like the player he used to be.

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Thoughtfulness and precision. They make Collin Morikawa who he is as a player and also keep him in the hunt despite being just above average in length. The point is, he may not be a bomber but he will rip your eyes out with the rest of it. Case in point: Morikawa is 104th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee and seventh in Strokes Gained: approach. Every inch of Morikawa's bag is curated around trust. It's not enough to win the TrackMan war—that is, longer distance, higher apex, less spin, etc. in testing. To make it in the bag a club has to win the trust contest, and that is a huge hurdle to clear. Morikawa has been testing irons for the past six months, going from the TaylorMade P750/P730 combo he's head since college into the ever-popular P7MC (full set). This week at Riviera, he's dialing it in even further with input from Adrien Rietveld, TaylorMade's Senior Manager – Tour. Herewith, a conversation with Rietveld about Morikawa's approach to his irons. GolfWRX: The set itself looks quite familiar, but Collin has an interesting loft package in his irons. Can you explain his preferences around his iron makeup? AR: Collin's iron play is world-class and is the foundation of what makes him one of the best in the world. His lofts are definitely unique, if you compare them to what you might see as standard, but it all fulfills exactly the flight and spin that Collin is looking for. For example, in the transition from his P7MC 6-iron into his P730 7-iron there is only a 3-degree gap from 29 degrees to a strong 7-iron at 32 degrees. That is to get the launch/spin/carry dialed exactly. For the general golfer, there is a lot to be learned here - don’t get attached to the loft of the club, get attached to the job you need it to do and work off of that. Collin will trade distance and some potential launch to get the ball to do exactly what he sees in his mind. Golf clubs are built to do a job, that's how Collin sees it, and that's how all golfers should look at it. GolfWRX: How did switching into the new TaylorMade TP5 golf ball '21 enhance his iron play? AR: This ball continues to teach and impress me every time I test it. In this case, it only enhanced Collins's flight with all of his clubs (he gained 1.5 mph of ball speed with the driver with zero sacrifice anywhere else) and allowed him to dial in his spin and flight even more with the short irons. That's what is so exciting with this ball, players are getting the driver performance required to play out here but more importantly the shotmaking from 175 and in has improved quite a bit, and at this level, that's where all the money is made. You have to control it from 8-iron into lob wedge. TP5/X ' 21 has elevated already high expectations every step of the way. Collin Morikawa WITB Driver: TaylorMade SIM (8 degrees @9.5) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium "Rocket” (14 degrees @ 13.5) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited D+ 80 TX Hybrid: TaylorMade SIM2 Max Rescue (19 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White Hybrid 100 TX Irons: TaylorMade P7MC (4-6), TaylorMade P730 (7-PW) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (52-12F, 56-14F) TaylorMade Hi Toe2 (60-07LB) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Putter: TaylorMade Spider FCG Ball: TaylorMade TP5 21′

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