New father Campos shares Bermuda lead

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Mike Thomas is a common sight at the side of his son, Justin, during practice rounds on the PGA TOUR. Mike, of course, pulls double duty as both the father and the lifelong swing coach for the former FedExCup champ, and he’s often seen holding a wedge while observing Justin’s swing. The story behind Mike’s club is a special one that illustrates the strong relationship between father and son. To occupy his hands during the long hours of practice days, Mike used to grab one of Justin’s wedges while Justin was practicing nearby. There was one problem. The habit used to aggravate his son. “I mean he just always had to have a club in his hand from my bag,” Justin Thomas told GolfWRX. “And to be perfectly honest, it just pissed me off that I would want to chip with a club and he would always grab a 56 or a 60 (degree wedge). So I’d have to go across the green and get it from him and it was happening every week and I was like, ‘I’m done with this. I’m just going to carry an extra wedge. This is your wedge, don’t touch my other ones.’” And that, as they say, is how this whole thing started. It was in 2019 when Justin gifted Mike one of his old Titleist Vokey SM6 wedges to carry around. Mike still carries the same club, but it looks a little different now. Since the 2019 Genesis Invitational at Riviera, Titleist’s Vokey wedge rep Aaron Dill – who’s the man behind many of the genius wedge stampings on the PGA TOUR – has been stamping important memories and events that Justin and Mike have shared together. “They call it my walker,” Mike said. “I think the first stamp on it was in LA. … It says ‘Meat Coma.’ And the story behind that is we would go to Baby Blue’s BBQ every year in LA, and we basically ate ourselves into a meat coma. “So AD, Aaron Dill with Vokey and Titleist, he put meat coma on there. I think he put ‘Meat Coma 2’ on there somewhere, too.” Other stampings mention tournaments by their trademarks, like ‘Milkshake Invitational’ for the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, which is known for the milkshakes in the Muirfield Village clubhouse. There’s other memories like ‘COVID-19 Quarantine’ and ‘Raising Money for Kids.’ The most recently noteworthy addition is ‘2022 PGA Championship,’ where ‘Champion’ is highlighted in a different color to celebrate Justin’s victory. That’s one of Mike’s favorites. Mike says he never requests a stamping, but when Dill sees him at a tournament, he’ll track Mike down and make the appropriate updates to the wedge. There’s only one problem. They’re running out of room on the club. “He’s got a great imagination for that stuff,” Mike said about Dill. “Somehow he’ll remember where (Justin) was, and he’ll go, ‘OK, we have to put the Scottish Open, the British Open, we have put the Playoffs on there.’ He somehow remembers where he was at. I don’t.” Justin finds joy in looking back at the memories, too. “I like looking at (the stampings),” he says, “and just laughing at the memories.” To solve the space issue, Dill said he’s currently working on an apparatus that would allow him to sturdy the wedge and stamp on the clubface, something he’s obviously never done when building clubs for competition. This wedge is one of a kind, however, with more stories to tell than any other club on TOUR.

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Imagine taking on Justin Thomas down the stretch at East Lake for the FedExCup. What about trying to outduel Tony Finau as you hit the stadium hole at TPC Scottsdale with thousands of fans screaming for action. Ever wanted a round at Riviera Country Club with Bryson DeChambeau or a veteran like Ian Poulter or Jim Furyk? Or maybe you fancy yourself the next Alister Mackenzie, Pete Dye or Ben Crenshaw of course design? All of these scenarios and more come to life in the new PGA TOUR 2K21 video game set to launch on August 21 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PC, Nintendo Switch and Stadia. Game developers HB Studios have put together a serious upgrade on the previous iteration, known as The Golf Club 2019, teaming with 2K and the PGA TOUR to bring to market a game that screams to both the arcade-style casual player and the hardcore golf superfan. While TPC Sawgrass, TPC Boston, TPC Deere Run, TPC Scottsdale, TPC Southwind, TPC Summerlin and Atlantic Beach Country Club return in this edition now you can show off your skills at Riviera, the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, East Lake, Quail Hollow, TPC Louisiana, TPC River Highlands, TPC San Antonio and TPC Twin Cities. And chances are a few more will join the stable soon after release via updates. “Our goal is to make the PGA TOUR 2K21 in-game, licensed, real-life course recreations as detailed as possible, so it feels like you’re actually playing the course alongside top PGA TOUR pros,” HB Studios senior producer Shaun West said. “To see professionals play these courses on TV, and then watch each come to life as playable courses within the game is an incredibly cool process to see, and we’re excited for our fans to be able to experience it as well.” You’ll take them all on in career mode, starting as a rookie on the Korn Ferry Tour who needs to find his way to promotion. The you will try your luck against a stable of PGA TOUR stars led by former FedExCup champion and world no.1 Thomas in a 30 event season. DeChambeau is going to rip it long, even though his avatar doesn’t have the bulk the six-time TOUR winner has put on lately. His body scans were done before his power lifting and weight training efforts – but that’s not to say he won’t be adjusted in the future. “It’s a good thing we have contacts on the WWE side, maybe we can borrow some of their body types as he has gotten considerably thicker,” Josh Muise, creative director at HB Studios joked. “When we scanned Bryson he was a very different size then he is now and full credit to Bryson for putting in all the extra hard work during the lull of the season. It’s a unique one that landed on our plates and we will do our absolute best to play catch up if we need to.” If it’s bulk you like you can use it when you build your own player in great detail, combing through apparel from licensed sponsors to find your perfect look. You can also customize your clubs but all options bring balance in some way. Max out in one space, you’ll lose out elsewhere. So consider who you really want to be. Will you be a power hitter who gives up accuracy but is constantly hitting bombs or will you put a premium on fairways and be one of the sports premier ball-strikers who isn’t fazed by being out-muscled off the tee? Perhaps your bread and butter will be on and around the greens. Professional commentator Luke Elvy and former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem will call the action throughout your career and the six difficulty settings mean you can take things easy and just swing away or test yourself down to the nitty gritty parts of golf. Shape the ball, deal with loft and angles, react to the lie, create specific spin and work on taking a little off or adding a little more with partial shots. The course design option is second to none. You’ll have all the tools the developers did at your disposal to build your dream course and once completed they can be uploaded to be played by all players across all platforms. It is user-generated courses from this feature that supplement the TOUR courses throughout the game. Developers picked their favorites from the last version of the game and added them to the stable. Of course as users get busy with all new assets things are going to get even better in PGA TOUR 2K21. Want 18 island greens? Go for it. Crocodile infested lakes? Sure. Snow on one hole, sun the next… why not. Want to try to replicate your local course? Have a crack at it. Others might have already done the hard work for you… and let’s just say there are some major recreation efforts in there. You can start your own or join an online society and play competitively against others from across the globe. Want to find the best player in your extended family… set up your own schedule and get going. Of course you can still take on your friends in all sorts or one off modes as well. Stroke play, match play, stableford, skins, alternate shot and now four player Scramble… set it up, grip it, and rip it. If you pre-order https://pgatour.2k.com/buy before the 21st you’ll also receive some custom adidas swag for your player – a signal green and core black look featuring adidas CodeChaos BOA golf shoes, and custom 2K/adidas CodeChaos polo, pants and hat, designed by adidas, exclusively for PGA TOUR 2K21.

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