Live leaderboard: PGA Championship

Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff are two of the most exciting young players on the PGA TOUR. Morikawa already has four wins, including a major and World Golf Championship, while the 22-year-old Wolff is just the third player to win the NCAA title and a PGA TOUR title in the same season. He also finished in the top four of two majors last year. The two stars are teaming up together at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans in hopes of securing another title. Morikawa is known for his precise iron play, while Wolff unique, powerful swing and his prowess off the tee is his trademark So with that, let’s take a look inside the bags of these TaylorMade staff players to see how their setups compare. Drivers Morikawa: TaylorMade SIM (8 degrees @ 8.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX Wolff: TaylorMade SIM2 Max (10.5 degrees @ 9 degrees) Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD TP 7 TX The most interesting contrast between these two driver setups is the way they configure the loft using the adjustable sleeve. Morikawa prefers to use a lower-lofted driver and close the face, which actually increases loft, while Wolff goes with a higher-lofted driver and opens the face to decrease loft. Even though the stated loft numbers on the drivers is 2.5 degrees apart, once adjusted, they’re only separated by half of a degree. There are a lot of reasons players might choose to play a driver more open or closed-looking, but the general consensus is about creating the right optics from address to inspire confidence. Fairway woods Morikawa: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (15 degrees @ 13.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX/TaylorMade SIM2 (19 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX Wolff: TaylorMade SIM2 Titanium (15 degrees) Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD XC 8 X Just like with his driver, Morikawa uses the adjustable hosel to dial in the loft and the look he wants at address with his 3-wood. He opens the face to reduce the loft, while Wolff leaves his set to standard. Morikawa also carries a 5-wood to create proper gapping into his irons, whereas Wolff only has a single 3-wood. Both players have a lot of clubhead speed: Morikawa averages close to 114 mph with his driver, and Wolff is at 122 mph. The 5-wood helps create spin and height a lot easier than a 3-iron, which means the ball comes in higher and stops sooner, which is crucial when hitting approach shots into long holes. Irons Morikawa: TaylorMade P770 (4-iron), P7MC (5-6), TaylorMade P730 (7-PW) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Wolff: TaylorMade P7MC (3-PW) Shafts: Project X 6.5 Morikawa plays a mixed set of TaylorMade irons that includes a faster-faced, foam-filled 4-iron, which transitions to a small cavity back with his 5- and 6-irons and then blades with his short irons. This gives a little extra forgiveness in the long irons, the preferred trajectory with each club and maintains a proper gap in the distance between each of his irons. Wolff, on the other hand, uses a single model throughout his entire set. This could be for a number of reasons, including having a consistent look from club to club. Wedges Morikawa: TaylorMade MG2 (50, 60 degrees), Titleist Vokey Design SM8 56-14F (bent to 55 degrees) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Wolff: TaylorMade MG2 (50-09SB, 56-12SB, 60-09LB) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Both golfers use the same 50, 56, and 60-degree wedge setup. The only tweak is that Morikawa has his 56-degree wedge bent one degree strong to fit particular yardage. A three-wedge setup (three wedges beyond a pitching wedge) is by far the most common configuration on TOUR because, with so many shots hit inside 100 yards, having a club for any situation can save valuable strokes. Putters Morikawa: TaylorMade Spider FCG Wolff: TaylorMade TP Berwick Both the TaylorMade Spider FCG and the TP Berwick are mallet-style putters that offer higher MOI and grooved inserts to improve ball roll around the face. FCG stands for Forward Center of Gravity, and Morikawa’s Spider putter is specifically designed to play like a blade but offer the alignment of a bigger front-to-back mallet putter. Balls Morikawa: TaylorMade TP5 Wolff: TaylorMade TP5 ’21 Pix Both golfers use the same model ball, which should work well this week in Zurich’s team format. The only difference is Wolff uses the “Pix” version of TaylorMade’s TP5 ball, which features extra graphics for alignment. The TP5 is a slightly softer and higher-spinning ball compared to TaylorMade’s other premium option, the TP5x. Using the same model means each golfer won’t have to make any adjustments for distance or shot preference around the greens. As for graphics or no graphics during the alternate shot —we’ll leave that debate up to Collin and Matthew. Grips Morikawa: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord Wolff: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord (+3 double-sided tape) Both Morikawa and Wolff play the same model of grip. Wolff has three extra layers of tape under his, however, to make them thicker. Although their clubs are similar, it’s the small details of each set that allows both players to perform their best and makes them one of the teams to watch this week.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

SHANGHAI  — Dustin Johnson shot a 4-under 68 in blustery conditions that led to big numbers, building a six-shot lead in the WGC-HSBC Champions and leaving him one round away from becoming the first player to win three World Golf Championships in the same year. He got plenty of help from Brooks Koepka. They were tied for the lead through seven holes Saturday until a four-shot swing on the par-5 eighth hole. Koepka drove into the hazard off the tee, and then found the hazard again on his approach to the green. He missed a 6-foot putt and took triple-bogey 8. Johnson smashed his drive over the trees and into the fairway, and with a thick splotch of mud on his golf ball, he sent that into the left rough above the green. He hit a flop shot to 15 feet and holed it for birdie. Just like that, his lead was four shots, and no one got any closer the rest of the way. Johnson was at 17-under 199. Koepka hit into the water from a bunker on the par-5 closing hole at Sheshan International and had to make a 6-footer to save bogey. That gave him a 73, leaving him six shots behind. Henrik Stenson, finally starting to round into form, shot 69 and was at 10-under 206. Even with more wind anticipated Sunday, this was turning into another exhibition for Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player. “I’m in a good position going into tomorrow,” Johnson said. “But I’m still going to have to go out and play a really solid round if I want to get it done.” Johnson earlier this year won the WGC-Mexico Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas. Not even Tiger Woods with his 18 titles in the World Golf Championships ever won more than two in one year. Johnson already has five such titles, and he’s the only player to have won each of the four. He won the WGC-HSBC Champions four years ago. “If Dustin keeps on playing the way that he’s done this week, I think it’s going to be a one-man show tomorrow,” Stenson said. “But you never know. Tough wind, and this golf course has a couple of holes where you can certainly have a number. It’s never over until it’s over.” Koepka discovered the hard way how big numbers can wreck a round. The U.S. Open champion was practically flawless at the start, running off three straight birdies to take a two-shot lead. Johnson responded with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth and driving into the rough just short of the par-4 seventh green, hitting a delicate flop-and-run to 3 feet for birdie to catch Koepka. And then after a lengthy wait on the tee at No. 8, it all changed. With the wind at the players’ backs, and with sheer power of Johnson and Koepka, the line was over trees that have grown so tall in recent years they can’t see the fairway. Johnson hammered his tee shot and knew from experience he was fine. Koepka caught his drive on the toe and it turned over from right-to-left. His caddie ran down toward the area to see if he had a shot, and quickly realized it was gone. Koepka hit his third shot from the tee, and then his fourth turned left into the hazard again. He had no choice but to take another penalty and head back to the fairway, and after a good wedge, he missed the putt for his 8. Koepka also missed good birdie chances on No. 9 and 11, and good par chances on Nos. 10 and 12 that he felt could have given him momentum. “It was definitely windier today,” he said. “I didn’t think it was playing that difficult. Definitely should be able to shoot 4 under out here, minus a triple and whatever else I had, a lot of bogeys.” He wasn’t alone. One reason for the waiting on the front nine was Patrick Reed, who had a triple bogey on the opening hole and a pair of double bogeys for an outward nine of 44. Two more double bogeys on the back nine led to an 82. Si Woo Kim made an 11 on the eighth hole. Sheshan International played to an average score of 72.73, two shots harder than the opening round. Conditions likely will be tougher for the final round, made even more difficult by the No. 1 player ahead by six shots.

Click here to read the full article…