McIlroy to miss Euro Tour’s BMW PGA event

The cold weather state of Massachusetts has plenty of rich golf tradition (think Francis Ouimet, 1913, and Paul Azinger was born there), but it doesn’t turn out too many professionals on the PGA TOUR. Two Bay State natives decided to team up at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and had some pretty strong results. Peter Uihlein, hot off his victory on the Korn Ferry Tour last week, joined up with Richy Werenski to tie the low round in Sunday’s foursomes format at the Zurich Classic. Even with a bogey at the par-3 17th hole, the pair made six birdies and would shoot 5-under 67 to climb 15 spots, all the way into third place at 19-under 269. (They would miss a playoff by one shot.) Only Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay matched their 67 on Sunday, which represented the low foursomes round of the week at Zurich. “It’s easy with a partner like Richy,” Uihlein said. “He drives it on a string and makes everything. So yeah, obviously I was playing well, I felt like foursomes was a pretty good game for us and coming into it we felt really good and we had a good game plan. I feel like we executed it pretty well.” Uihlein, 31, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion and a player once ranked inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, slowly has been working his way back into form after two seasons that didn’t meet his typical standards (he had one top-10 finish in 2019 and 2020). It was Uihlein’s second strong performance in Louisiana this year – he ran second at last month’s Korn Ferry’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open (67-67-66-67) as a build-up to winning last week at the Korn Ferry’s MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute, where he shot 16-under 272. Uihlein was born in New Bedford, and Werenski in Springfield. Uihlein played at Oklahoma State, and Werenski, a little younger, played collegiately at Georgia Tech. So, what brought the two together as a two-man team, outside of the state seal on their birth certificates and a love for the Red Sox? “We have a lot in common,” Uihlein said. “He just moved to South Carolina, but I knew him in Jupiter (Florida, where they both resided and played rounds together). We grew up playing with each other, and against each other, and we know each other’s games really well. Foursomes is more our style.” They paired very nicely in foursomes, posting a pair of rounds in the 60s in the difficult format. Werenski, 29, won his first PGA TOUR title last season when he captured the Barracuda Championship. Uihlein has always admired the way Werenski strikes it tee to green, and said Werenski’s solid putting helped to free him up this week. Werenski had a chuckle upon hearing Uihlein heap so much praise on his game. “He says I played good, but he carried the team,” Werenski said. “He knows it. But we had a great time. I love coming to this one, Louisiana is fun, so we had a great week, and looking forward to next year.”

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Matthew Wolff withdrew after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open with a hand injury. Wolff shot 78 on Torrey Pines' South Course while playing alongside Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka. "This week I've been battling an injury with my right hand that I've fought to play through but has unfortunately continued to worsen over the last 24 hours," Wolff said in a statement. "It's become clear I need to make the tough but right decision to properly address the pain in order to be able to play at 100% as quickly as possible. I'm disappointed to withdraw from one of my favorite tournaments of the year but want to thank the PGA TOUR, Farmers Insurance team and incredible volunteers for their hospitality." Wolff made 14 pars Thursday on the South Course but also suffered two triple-bogeys, on the seventh and 10th holes. He began his day with a bogey on the first hole before holing a bunker shot on 18 for his lone birdie of the day. Wolff is 16th in this season's FedExCup after runner-up finishes at both the U.S. Open and Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

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Collin Morikawa jumped out to an early lead at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, doing so with a ‘new’ putter in the bag. The 24-year-old has had a rough spell on the greens, finishing 2020 ranked 128h in Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s 180th in that statistic this season. The Californian has been using a TaylorMade Spider FCG mallet-style putter, along with a ‘Saw’ grip he learned from Mark O’Meara, for much of this year, but in search of a change of fortunes on the greens, Morikawa has now switched back to a blade-style putter. He used a blade-style coming out of college and in last year’s win at Muirfield Village, at the Workday Charity Open. He added a SuperStroke grip and adjusted the loft on his blade this time. But this isn’t your average story about a TOUR player switching putters. Morikawa settled on the putter after consulting TaylorMade’s online ordering portal that is available to everyone, from TOUR players to mere mortals. It paid off, as Morikawa shot a first-round 66 while gaining 1.8 strokes on the greens. For more details on Morikawa’s switch, we spoke with TaylorMade’s Paul Demkowski, Principal Engineer, Product Development and TOUR Rep Todd Chew. GolfWRX: In terms of MyTP, what did Collin see that he liked and why? PD: Collin was checking out the options online and reached out to us with his specific needs for the head, the insert, alignment etc. What we built for him is similar to the one he was previously using – a TP Juno with a long neck and sightline on the topline. The main difference is we machined the face to take loft away, 2 degrees to be exact. With his new setup he has his hands more forward. This allows us to then bend the shaft forward to get the loft he wants in a position where the face is square with hands forward. … If we don’t machine the loft away and simply bend the shaft forward for his new hand position the putter would have way too much loft on it. Additionally, he commented on how much he likes the copper insert in his FCG putter. We do not have copper available for the TP putters, so we put a stainless steel insert into this putter for a harder feel. So there are a couple of changes that were exclusive to him, but consumers can pretty much spec out 90% of his putter on our website. If a consumer wanted to spec out his putter on our website, these are the options they should look at: Collin’s putter is 34.25” and has the white/gray SS Pistol 1.0 grip. GolfWRX: Any idea what inspired him to start looking at MyTP? More about a search for something better suited to his needs, or, like we all do, the fun of designing something? PD: He used (MyTP) as inspiration as he was talking to our team and looking for a fresh TP Juno. GolfWRX: What was the process after Morikawa built his Juno to getting a putter in his hands? Any differences from the retail model? PD: Collin was looking at the options in the TP putter and wanted to add some customization to it as he’s used this model before, he just wanted some additional elements added. GolfWRX: Collin was in the Spider FCG. Who does that putter work well for? Todd Chew: FCG is ideal for a player who has always used a blade and wants the added stability of a mallet, but with the feel/balance of a blade. Ultimately, a true mallet will have more stability, but it feels very different to swing one. FCG is not as drastic of a change for a blade player. GolfWRX: The switch from a mallet to a blade (even one with blade-like properties) is significant. Why did Collin make the switch? Has his stroke changed? TC: His grip changed significantly which has made his stroke quite different. He hasn’t played a blade with the new grip and technique yet, so wanted to give it a try. GolfWRX: From a fitting and club building standpoint, is there a lesson here for the average golfer? TC: As always, getting fit for a putter is as important as the other 13 clubs in your bag. You need to feel comfortable and confident making the stroke, as much as looking at the numbers to see which rolls better for you to.

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