Meet the rookies: Michael Gellerman

Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka were all smiles with each other after they both contributed to a dominant U.S. victory in the Ryder Cup.

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HOUSTON - Jason Day is accustomed to the question. "How's your health?" he was asked after his second round of the Vivint Houston Open. "I feel like I've had that question a lot in my career," Day said Friday. "Yeah, I feel pretty good." He had to like his position on the leaderboard as well. After shooting a second-round 68, Day was just two strokes behind leader Sam Burns after the morning wave. The last time Day was in contention on the PGA TOUR, he withdrew just one hole into the final round of THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. He was playing in the second-to-last group but had to walk off because of injury. Day, whose winless drought has lasted more than two years, has been working on swing changes to alleviate the back pain that has hampered him throughout his career. Day split with long-time swing coach Col Swatton in late July. There were some promising signs late in the summer, as Day posted four consecutive top-10s, including a T4 at the PGA Championship, to re-enter the top 50 in the world ranking. He hasn't finished better than T38 in his last six starts, however. "The form's been very inconsistent because I'm trying to change my swing a little bit just to try and help the back out," Day said Friday. "I guess I'm stuck in between patterns right now. What I want to feel, my body just won't handle it and sometimes it just compensates elsewhere. That's why it happened to my neck at CJ." Day's last win came at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. It was his second win in seven starts, but he hasn't hoisted a trophy in 53 events since. This is the first time he went back-to-back seasons without a win since he had three straight winless seasons from 2011-13. Day was 2 over par on his opening nine holes this week, but had eight birdies and just one bogey over his next 27 holes. The 30 he shot on his back nine Thursday was his lowest nine-hole score in more than a year. He has hit 14 greens in each of the first two rounds and is 6 for 8 in scrambling. The steep banks of short grass around Memorial Park's greens have challenged players, but Day, who led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green last season, is known as a master scrambler. "It’s one of these golf courses, you leave yourself on the wrong side ... and you’re just struggling the whole day," Day said. "It’s one of those courses where you’ve just got to be patient and try to get your birdies when you can."

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Kiawah Island is the longest course in major championship history so it should be no surprise that a new driver has been key to Phil Mickelson’s success halfway through the PGA Championship. Mickelson, 50, held the lead after Friday’s morning wave thanks to rounds of 70-69. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, in the top 10 of Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and averaged 298 yards off the tee. This is the first week that Mickelson is using a custom Epic Speed head that effectively has 5 degrees of loft. The shaft is 47.9 inches, pushing up against the USGA limit of 48 inches. “It’s like working with a long-drive competitor at that point,” said Gerritt Pon, Callaway’s senior club performance analyst. “He’s not using it for accuracy. He’s using it for distance. Interestingly enough, he’s the type of player who does not necessarily lose accuracy with the longer shaft. Some lose a tremendous amount, some actually gain a little bit, but he’s the type of player who doesn’t lose accuracy. But he gains speed. “To swing the longer shaft, he’s trying to hit up on the ball a little more than with a normal shaft. He’s creating a lot of loft at impact to launch it high, so the main things that had to be accomplished was making the driver low-spin and fast.” Mickelson’s new Epic Speed, which was built especially for him, features Callaway’s aerodynamic Cyclone head shape. A second screw was added to the front of the head to lower the center of gravity. “With faster swing speeds, you see more benefit from the aerodynamically-designed head,” Pon said. “He has a driver that is fast, easy for him to draw, mitigates the left miss (for a left-hander) more than some of our other models that are popular on TOUR, and is very low spin.” Mickelson tested an 8.5-degree model of the Epic Speed that was lofted down to 6.5 degrees but that head created too much spin. He wants his draws to spin under 2,000 rpms and his fades to spin under 2,400, Pon said. If Mickelson were right-handed, the increased number of offerings available may have made it easier to find a match for him. Making a head that fit Mickelson meant designing a new head in CAD and then working with the foundries to have it produced. That is typically an eight-week process, Pon said. “We started with a baseline of the Epic Speed, which was a long time in the making, and then modified it with Phil in mind,” Pon said. “This particular model of the Speed is pretty new. Even though it looks like the same Epic Speed, it’s a customized version for a left-hander who’s trying to swing a long shaft with low loft and low spin. “So basically Phil Mickelson.”

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