How golf has handled previous global crises

A new season represents a fresh start for Rickie Fowler. After sneaking into the FedExCup Playoffs by earning the 125th and final spot in the postseason, Fowler starts the 2023 season with a new caddie, Ricky Romano, and a return to a previous swing coach, Butch Harmon. You can read about those changes here. From an equipment standpoint, Fowler also has made a significant change for this week’s Fortinet Championship. He is using a new set of irons at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California. Fowler switched irons and putters fairly often last season as he tried to snap a winless streak that’s extended past three years. The Equipment Report has been following those changes closely and we were obviously interested when we saw a new set of irons in Fowler’s bag Tuesday. The clubs are a never-before-seen set of Cobra King Tour Forged prototypes. The cavity-back irons represent a change for Fowler, who has mostly opted for thin, muscle-back blades in recent years. Thanks to the slightly larger size and overall design, Fowler told GolfWRX on Tuesday that he’s finding more stability on off-center hits, especially low on the face. “Ben (Schomin) and the guys built me up a few new sets; some of our new MBs, a CB, and then a King Tour,” Fowler explained. “These ones are definitely bigger than what I’m used to, but I was also excited to hit them. … Mishits a little off center, or a little low on the face, or heel-toe bias, were really stable. Especially the ones a groove or two low, the misses weren’t as short. I’d see some, if I hit the MB or the CB a little thin, distances could drop anywhere from 7, 8, 9 yards. I was seeing these more in the 4, 5, 6 (range). A few yards here and there can make a big difference. Overall, I just saw more forgiveness, but at the same time, keeping the characteristics that I want with flight and spin. We’re going to give them a go (this week).” A common complaint that better players make about larger, cavity-back irons is that they have too much offset (the measurement of space between the leading edge of the iron and the hosel). In the past, Fowler has tended to play with irons that have very little offset, or none at all. His new King Tour Forged irons appear to have little offset, especially for a cavity-back. Fowler seems to approve of the appearance. “Cavity-backs have been in and around (my bag) every once in a while, but I’ve been primarily blades or (muscle-backs),” Fowler told GolfWRX.com “Always have loved the look and the feel, but if I’m able to basically get still a great look, really good feel with these. It feels like there’s a lot of mass behind it, but at the same time get a little more forgiveness, why make it harder on yourself?” For now, Cobra Golf has yet to announce a release date, or any technical information on the new King Tour irons, so Fowler’s testimonies remain all we know about the unreleased designs. After finishing a career-worst 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, we also spotted Fowler experimenting with putters on the practice green at Silverado. He was trying out two different Scotty Cameron Timeless+ Tourtype SSS putters, pictured below. As competition begins on Thursday in Napa, we’ll keep an eye on which putter Fowler ends up rolling with to match his new iron set.

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Learning after a heartbreaker at last season’s Wyndham Championship, where he was in the mix until a double-bogey on the last hole doomed his chances, C.T. Pan goes birdie, par, par under pressure and in difficult winds to notch his first PGA TOUR win at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Pan shot a final-round 67 to edge FedExCup leader Matt Kuchar (67) and become the tournament’s seventh straight come-from-behind winner. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Pan almost didn’t tee it up. Having played the American Junior Golf Association from 2007 to 2010, Pan was excited to put on the first C.T. Pan Junior Championship, an AJGA event, back home in Houston. One problem: the tournament was scheduled for the same week as the RBC Heritage. In light of Pan’s lackluster results on TOUR of late, his wife and sometime caddie, Michelle, pushed him out the door, saying she’d host the juniors instead. Good decision. “Just listen to your wife and you will have a good life,â€� Pan said with a smile after becoming the sixth international winner on TOUR in the last eight events. As for Michelle, she says she’d done carrying the bag but has already volunteered to caddie for her husband at the Masters Tournament Par 3 Contest next year. 2. Another short hitter tamed Harbour Town. The course rewards precision, but not necessarily length. Pan is only 5 feet, 6 inches tall and ranks 170th in Driving Distance (284.8 yards). In other words, he fits the mold of other RBC Heritage winners like Loren Roberts (1996), Brian Gay (2009), Jim Furyk (2010, ’15) and Graeme McDowell (2013). Dustin Johnson was trying to make like five-time RBC Heritage champion Davis Love III, the most notable long hitter to win here, but after taking a one-stroke lead into the final round he shot a 6-over 77 to finish T28. Xander Schauffele never got much going and finished T63. Pan was studying the final-round pin placements Saturday night, and got to the course four and a half hours before his tee time Sunday. He also plotted out and executed a strict approach to play conservatively over the first four holes (which he played in even par) but go for it on holes 5-13 (4 under). “And that’s how I snuck on the leaderboard,â€� he said. 3. Most notable win for power was Seamus Power. Seamus Power had missed 11 cuts in 15 starts heading into last week, but his 4-under 67 in the final round gave him a T6 finish, his fourth top-10 finish in 69 TOUR starts. “Yeah, a lot,â€� Power said, when asked what he could take away from the good result. “The last four or five tournaments have been much, much better. It’s was a struggle early but starting with THE PLAYERS I started to find some stuff and build it better. “So it’s been encouraging,â€� he added after moving from 189th to 141st in the FedExCup. “A week like this is great. It’s a kick start for me. It’s not where I want to be, but certainly a move in the right direction.â€� 4. Kuchar is building FedExCup lead. In notching his 12th career runner-up finish and second in his last four starts, FedExCup leader Matt Kuchar banked 300 more FedExCup points and is now up to 2,030. Kuchar, a two-time winner this season who has six top-10 finishes in 13 starts, is almost a full 500 points ahead of second-place Xander Schauffele (1,562). “I wish I could tell you,â€� Kuchar said, when asked what has changed this season. “I think I just continue to evolve. The goal as a player every year is to continue to get better. And I feel like the work I’ve done, my instructor, Chris O’Connell, each year we try to get a little bit better. And I think we’ve really done some good work. It’s tiny little things that add up.â€� 5. Lowry almost made like 2015. Shane Lowry was going for his second TOUR victory and first since the 2015 World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, but a final-round 70 wasn’t quite enough (T3). “I personally feel like it almost got away,â€� Lowry said after moving from 203rd to 125th in the FedExCup. “I’m a little bit disappointed. This was my best week in quite a while. So many positives to take from this week. And going forward I’m looking forward to next week.â€� Lowry will play the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Padraig Harrington. FIVE INSIGHTS   1.  Pan won with his short game. After ranking in negative numbers in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (-0.159, 50th in the field), he stabilized at 18th best in SG: Approach-the-Green (+0.872). Then he got really good: He was seventh best in SG: Around-the-Green (+0.928) and fifth in SG: Putting (+1.571). That means he outperformed the field by 2.499 strokes per round from on and around the tiny greens at Harbour Town. And his edge was heightened in the final round, when he was +1.72 in SG: Around-the-Green, the second-best SG: Around-the-Green performance by a winner this season, trailing only Xander Schauffele at Sentry TOC (+1.77) 2. He was flawless from short range. Pan made all 52 putts he hit from inside six feet, one of three players who made the cut who were perfect from that range. Matt Kuchar (second) and Denny McCarthy (T33) were the others. The winner also averaged a very tidy 24.75 putts per round, marking the 15th time a TOUR winner has averaged 24.75 putts per round in a four-round event since 1986. Five of those 15 events have been at the RBC Heritage. 3. There were some big FedExCup movers. Not only did Pan shoot up 87 places, to 26th, in the FedExCup, Shane Lowry (T3) made a jump of 78 spots to 125th, and K.J. Choi (T10) was up 55 spots, to 187th. At 48 years, 11 months and 2 days, Choi would have been the oldest RBC Heritage champion, barely edging 1994 winner Hale Irwin. Choi briefly held a piece of the lead, but could only manage a 1-over 72. 4. Johnson’s 77 was a shocker. The final-round blow-up by world No. 1 and RBC Ambassador Johnson was his worst score since the third round of the 2018 U.S. Open. He was looking to improve on his T16 finish the year before and join 2017 champion Wesley Bryan as the only South Carolinians to win the tournament. Alas, Johnson’s one-stroke lead through 54 holes turned into a T28. 5. The wind sent scores soaring. Johnson wasn’t the only victim of the tricky winds, as defending champion Satoshi Kodaira shot 82 and there were only two bogey-free rounds (J.T. Poston, 66; Brian Stuard, 68) Sunday, the fewest of the week. The course played to a scoring average of 71.170, just slightly over par. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. There were no changes after the RBC Heritage, with Matt Kuchar, a two-time winner this season, strengthening his position at the top with his second runner-up finish in his last four starts. First-time winner C.T. Pan, meanwhile, vaulted from 113th all the way to 26th and looks considerably better as he zeroes in on his stated goal of making the TOUR Championship.

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It’s still the “Greenest Show on Grass” and #ThePeoplesOpen, and it still excites all the senses, but now it’s known as the WM Phoenix Open. Spectacular weather in the Valley of Sun – what else! – is expected for the most-attended sporting event in the world. As usual, TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course serves as the stage to 132 entrants. Details on the course, what it takes to prevail and more can be found beneath the projected contenders. Recent winners Tom Hoge (Pebble Beach), Harold Varner III (Saudi International), Luke List (Farmers) and Hudson Swafford (American Express) will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades on Tuesday. Compared to most of the rest of the country, any winter in Phoenix is preferable, but to locals, it doesn’t take much more than a daytime high in the mid-60s to generate conversation about finding a sweater and something thicker than a light jacket. That’s also almost too cold for the ubiquitous hoodie/jeans/flip-flops combo in these climes. But not this week. A warming trend with temperatures approaching 80 degrees will bridge all four rounds of the tournament. Believe it or not, that’s well above average for this time of year. Wind will not be a factor. The weather, or lack thereof for anyone who defines it as requiring something other than glorious sunshine, parallels expectations inside the ropes at TPC Scottsdale. The course is the same as it was last year, and it’s perfect. The par 71 with three par 5s tips at 7,261 yards. Greens will roll at 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. Primary rough is trimmed to 2½ inches. Last year’s field averaged a cool 69.455, easily the lowest since Tom Weiskopf’s renovation was unveiled in 2015. However, that was in part due to a wet season immediately preceding it; that is the Stadium Course really didn’t have a chance. Greens that average a sizeable 7,000 square feet were hit on an average of almost 13 times in regulation per round. Those scoring opportunities yielded close to an average of four par breakers per round. With a drier pattern a year later, the track should punch back a bit. Brooks Koepka likely largely is remembered for holing out for eagle on the par-4 17th hole in the final round en route to his second victory on the course – he recorded his first PGA TOUR title here in 2015 – but he wouldn’t have been in position to pay off that 2 unless he put all the pieces together beforehand. As is often the case on the Stadium Course, distance off the tee is rewarded. Although cacti and other desert flora await the most wayward of tee balls, it serves more as the visual routing in contrast with the rich greens of the overseeded bermuda that blanket every hole. Koepka has the muscle, of course, but he also co-led the field in greens in regulation, missing only 10 all week. He ranked second overall in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and the all-around to post 19-under 265, lowest since Weiskopf went to work. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws and Fades SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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