Leaderboard: Trio share lead at St. Jude Classic

When Adam Scott showed up to Muirfield Village Golf Club on Monday for the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, he had a set of unique Titleist 681.AS irons in his golf bag. That was no surprise, though, since Scott has been using the custom-made irons since THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in October. The Titleist 681.AS irons are special because they’re made to match Scott’s exact preferences; he prefers more offset, higher toe sections and longer blade lengths. The 681.AS irons are essentially updated versions of the Titleist Forged 680 irons that Scott has used for the majority of his 14-win PGA TOUR career. The 680s came out in 2003. “When you’re old and stubborn, you like what you like,” the 41-year-old told PGATOUR.COM in October. “I’ve been stuck on the 680s for a long time now. … The (681.AS irons) are as exact a replica as you can get, but with the way they’ve been made, I could argue it’s a more solid head with a more solid strike.” Scott had been using the Titleist 681.AS irons for months. Interestingly, though, Scott had an old Titleist 680 Forged 8-iron in his bag on Monday that had its sole ground flatter to take some of the bounce out. Scott told GolfWRX on Monday that he was merely testing the 8-iron against his 681.AS 8-iron because of that flatter sole. During a Tuesday practice round at the Memorial Tournament, however, he had an entirely new set of blade irons in the bag. Only his logo was stamped on the clubs’ muscle backs. Scott told GolfWRX on Tuesday that he opened a box full of these mysterious irons just minutes before his range session. After passing the eye test, and his initial range tests, Scott put them into his bag for the Tuesday practice round; it would be the first time that Scott had ever hit the irons on a golf course. Now, what exactly are these the Scott-logoed irons? As he revealed to GolfWRX.com on Tuesday, they’re completely custom irons made by Miura Golf, which is a golf equipment company that specializes in Japanese forged irons. After the practice round, GolfWRX caught up with Scott to see how the testing went with his brand new one-of-one irons and to see if he’ll put them in play come Thursday. “It’s hard to say,” Scott told GolfWRX.com after his practice round. “I mean, it’s pretty early days. It’s not easy to just throw in a new set of clubs. But I enjoyed them, I think they’re a great set of clubs. I need some days to feel confident, but I think they’re doing everything they should.” According to Scott, the difference between his 681.AS irons and the Miura irons is the sole (remember, he was testing out a flatter-soled 680 Forged iron on Monday). “Really it’s the sole design that’s the difference,” Scott said. “It’s just a little less bounce. They’re a little flatter and wider on the sole. “My eye for a blade is very different than most of the stock blades that are being made by the companies today. I grew up with offset, which is almost a thing of the past. Even in larger headed irons these days, there’s little offset out here. But I like it, and it’s hard to find. Titleist made me an amazing set of 681.AS irons that had the offset and were pretty much like the clubs I were using (the Titleist 680 Forged). And this set was made with the idea of less bounce than those.” While Scott has a particular eye for blade iron designs, his desire for less bounce wasn’t aesthetic. It was actually based on statistics. “Getting into the nerdy, nerdy stuff like looking into stats on different turf conditions throughout the years, potentially there’s a better balance point with the bottom,” Scott told GolfWRX.com. “I had contacted Miura to see if they could make a set of clubs with my aesthetic looks. I hit one of their other irons, (the MB-101) that had that sole, and I asked if they’d build something with that sole, and they said, ‘Yes.’” Miura’s retail MB-101 blade irons typically have the company’s logo stamped on the rear portion of the irons, but Scott’s custom-designed heads have his personal logo stamped on them. As Scott admits, that added touch might have actually influenced him to give the irons a test run faster than he would have otherwise. “I didn’t even ask really for them to stamp my logo on them, but they sent them, which is very cool,” Scott said. “They probably knew if they stamped (my logo) on them I couldn’t resist. I got them out on the range pretty quick. They went from the box to the range in about 1.5 minutes.” Looks and performance aside, Miura’s irons are made in Japan, as the hosel stampings confirm, so do they feel any different to Scott compared to his Titleist 681.AS irons? “The 681.AS irons use an incredible material,” Scott said. “I know that the material – if it’s not the same material as the Scotty Cameron putters are, then it must be similar, but I always thought it was the same. So that’s a really nice material. The Miuras are renowned for using nice materials. I think they both have a great feel. It’s really the turf interaction that I’m looking for.” Due to the turf conditions at Muirfield Village, Scott implied that the course isn’t necessarily ripe for new irons with a flatter sole, but upcoming tournaments with firmer turf, such as the Open Championship, are on his radar. “Here this week isn’t the best test; it’s so plush and nice,” Scott explained. “It’s more the Bermudagrasses, and then on Open Championship-like tight lies where I’m trying to improve my strike.” So, will we see Scott’s new one-of-one Miura irons in play this week at the Memorial Tournament? Even he isn’t sure just yet. Tuesday was his first day ever using the irons, but if the flatter soles end up improving his turf interaction like he hopes, and with the Open Championship at St. Andrews right around the corner in July, we could see them go into play sooner rather than later. We’ll keep you updated on whether Scott makes the switch, or whether he sticks with the Titleist 681.AS irons.

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Kim Hyo-joo won the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club on Sunday as Australian Hannah Green bogeyed the last two holes to hand the South Korean victory.

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – It was closer than many expected, this 101st PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, which at times resembled a very slow-moving trophy ceremony. Still, after weathering four straight back-nine bogeys and a charge by Dustin Johnson (69, 6 under total) that briefly cut the lead to one, Brooks Koepka stabilized and shot a final-round 74 to win by two. He’d done enough over the first three days, which he spent “absolutely destroying this placeâ€� (Xander Schauffele) and playing “ridiculous golfâ€� (Rob Labritz). And now he’s won four majors in 23 months. “Brooks is young; he might get to double figures,â€� three-time major winner Padraig Harrington said after missing the cut earlier this week. “It’s a numbers game. He’s young enough that he could do it. Why wouldn’t you talk about getting to 18? He’s cracking them out at a fair pace.â€� Koepka, 29, put the lie to his own prediction that the winning score would be around even or a bit better. But he may prove himself right in suggesting before the tournament that he could perhaps get to double digits in major wins. If he keeps this up, he could get there quickly. The question is whether he will. “Players drift in and out,â€� said Harrington, a six-time PGA TOUR winner who won his three majors, the 2007 Open Championship and ’08 Open Championship and PGA Championship, in just 13 months. “Pretty much if you watch everybody’s career, they get about 18 months where they truly peak. Whether they’re 100th in the world and they become 50th, or 50th and it becomes 20th, or 20th and it becomes 10, or 10 becomes 1, I don’t know.â€� Until his four back-nine bogeys Sunday, you could count Koepka’s missteps on one hand. He bogeyed the relatively easy first hole to start the final round while playing partner Harold Varner III birdied it to cut the margin to five, but even then there wasn’t much cause for concern. Related: Winner’s Bag | Bjerregaard aces No. 17 at Bethpage | Get to know Jazz Janewattananond Johnson shot a 3-under front nine to cut the margin to four, but Koepka hit his approach to 2 ½ feet and birdied the 10th, and it was back to five again. Then came a wild sequence, in swirling winds, as Johnson held steady and Koepka bogeyed holes 11-14. The lead was one. “DJ, DJ, DJ!â€� the rowdy Bethpage crowd chanted, awakened by the promise of a tight finish. Alas, Johnson missed from just under 9 feet and bogeyed 16, then bogeyed 17, too, to give Koepka the cushion he needed to play the last four holes in 1 over and become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to successfully defend his PGA Championship title. Woods, whom Koepka beat head-to-head by 17 shots over the first two days, was also the last player to win four majors in a span of eight major starts – as Koepka has now done – in 2005 and ’06. But Woods, an 81-time PGA TOUR winner, including 15 majors, has been such an outlier, as Adam Scott reminded at Bethpage, “I think comparing anything to Tiger is a little unfair.â€� Nor is it helpful to compare Koepka to Jack Nicklaus, who won 18 majors of a span of 24 years, from the 1962 U.S. Open through the instant-classic ’86 Masters Tournament. Another outlier. Lee Trevino won four majors from the 1968 U.S. Open through the ’72 Open Championship, roughly four years. He won the ’74 and ’84 PGAs, too, for six majors over 16 years. More common, especially amongst today’s crop of talented, young players, is the trajectory of Johnny Miller, who won 16 times, including three majors, from the 1973 U.S. Open to the ’76 Open Championship. That was mostly it for him; Miller ended his career with two majors. Rory McIlroy (69, 1 over total) won 11 times worldwide, including four majors, from 2011 through 2014. Since then, however, he’s gone largely dormant at the biggest tournaments, the glaring exception being his victory at the recent PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. “It’s awesome,â€� McIlroy said of Koepka’s current run. “It’s great to watch.â€� Most pros would sooner watch paint dry than another pro play golf on TV, but McIlroy admitted he was done so early he watched a lot of Koepka on TV this weekend. Because when a guy seems to be playing a different golf course than everyone else, it begs the question of how. Graeme McDowell (70, 5 over) did the same thing. “I just wanted to see just how these guys were dismantling this golf course,â€� McDowell said. “When he played 15 the way he played it (Saturday), that kind of summed the course up to me because when I missed 15 fairway, I’m physically incapable of getting to that green in two, and obviously it was a brute-force wedge or 9-iron he hit to 15 feet.â€� Bethpage, he added, favored those who could muscle the ball out of the rough. “That’s why I lift all those weights,â€� Koepka said with a shrug. With winning off the table, McIlroy talked about playing for pride, Phil Mickelson (76, 12 over) about working on his game. Matt Wallace (72, 2 under, T3) spoke of being on a quest for world ranking points. FedExCup leader Matt Kuchar (69, 1 over total) remained in pole position. Koepka’s seven-shot lead through 54 holes was the largest in PGA history. So was his seven-shot lead through 36 holes. He broke the course record with a 63 on Thursday.  Said Tony Finau, Koepka’s partner at the 2018 Ryder Cup in France, “This is not a golf course where in the practice rounds I would have told you anybody’s breaking any kind of record.â€� McDowell called the winner perhaps “the next real dominant player.â€� We have been here before, most recently with Jordan Spieth (71, 2 under, T3) when he won five times, including two majors and the FedExCup, in 2015. He got his third major at The Open Championship in the summer of ’17. But as with Miller, McIlroy and most others not named Nicklaus, Woods or Trevino, the pace proved unsustainable. That doesn’t mean Spieth won’t be back, and he showed some positive signs in posting a season-best T3 at Bethpage Black. McIlroy could have a second act. Same for Jason Day, who won seven times, including the 2015 PGA and 2016 PLAYERS Championship, in 17 starts. “I don’t think he faces too much challenge, to be honest, with the way he’s playing,â€� Day (72, 4 over total) said of Koepka, “but everything ultimately comes to an end.â€� Only three players have reached double digits in majors: Nicklaus (18), Woods (15) and Walter Hagen (11). Koepka, with four, is mowing them down quickly, on very hard courses. He knows he doesn’t have to be perfect, and when he’s not, he can bounce back. Mostly, he knows that if he plays his game, nothing else matters. He said he couldn’t remember any shots hit by Woods or Francesco Molinari after the first two rounds. He’s in his comfort zone. “Tiger used to say, ‘My B game is good enough to win,â€� Harrington said. “If you think your B game is good enough to win, your A game will turn up. If you think you need your A game, your B game will turn up. That’s just the way golf is.â€� Next up: the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Koepka will be the two-time defending champion there, just as he will be the two-time defending champion at the PGA at Harding Park next year. Whether it’s New York or California, one suspects that Brooks Koepka, king of the majors, won’t be all that worried about which game will turn up, or much of anything else. 

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