Odyssey announces retail launch of new Stroke Lab Ten, Bird of Prey putters

Finally, Tiger Woods enters the Masters with positive vibes, which is all he can ask for at this point.

Click here to read the full article…

PARAMUS, N.J. — Tiger Woods failed to carry any momentum he had from his last tournament into the start of the FedExCup Playoffs. Neither did Sean O’Hair. That was only good news for one of them Thursday in THE NORTHERN TRUST. O’Hair missed the cut last week and saw his FedExCup standing slip to No. 121, meaning he has to play well this week or his season is over. His immediate goal is to advance to the third stage of events because the BMW Championship is at Aronimink outside Philadelphia, where O’Hair is a member. He drilled a 3-wood from 284 yards to 6 feet for eagle on No. 3. He hammered another 3-wood on the par-5 17th to 10 feet, settling for a two-putt birdie. That carried O’Hair to a 5-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Kevin Tway, Jamie Lovemark and Vaughn Taylor. “I’m obviously very disappointed that I’m not in a better position, but I’m kind of in charge of my destiny,” O’Hair said. “If I play good golf I’m just going to work into the next week.” Woods, playing for the first time since his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, had a pair of birdies, a pair of bogeys, a lot of pars and a 71. He was five shots behind and in a tie for 60th. After a rough start off the tee, Woods wound up hitting nine of 14 fairways. He just never got it close enough for good looks at birdie. “Just didn’t have the situations where I had the full club and I could go ahead and take a rip at it and start being aggressive and going after these flags,” Woods said. “I kept having to play a little defensive because I was taking more club, trying to shape it and take spin off. One of those days.” Woods is back in the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time in five years, and it was his first time at Ridgewood Country Club since 2010. Thousands came to watch him play, and they heard plenty of cheers from the group behind him. Dustin Johnson rimmed out a 6-iron on the par-3 sixth for one of his seven birdies to offset a triple bogey for a 67. U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka ran off four birdies and an eagle for his 67. FedExCup champion Justin Thomas had four birdies in his round of 69. Johnson could tell his 6-iron was close to perfect from the flight of the shot, where it landed and the reaction of the fans behind the par-3 sixth green as the ball rolled around left edge of the cup. Or were they cheering because Woods teed off on the hole ahead of them? “I was kind of debating whether they were yelling for me or him,” Johnson said with a smile. O’Hair isn’t alone in the urgency to play well. The top 100 advance to the second stage next week at the TPC Boston, with the top 70 going to the BMW Championship and the top 30 making it to East Lake in Atlanta for the TOUR Championship. Tway and Lovemark are in the mid-80s in the FedExCup, while Taylor is at No. 112. Tway began his week playing in a charity event with good friend Morgan Hoffmann, who is coping with muscular dystrophy. Hoffmann is a reminder of how far players can go with the FedExCup points quadrupled in the playoffs. “Morgan Hoffmann came in at 124 and went all the way to The TOUR Championship,” Tway said, referring to 2014. “That’s kind of the plan, try to play as good as you can and go as far as you can.” Johnson had no idea where his tee shots were going until late in his round, yet he still managed to pile up birdies. One wild drive cost him at the 17th, where the ball went so far left it wasn’t even worth searching for in the woods. Johnson made triple bogey. “I hit that ball 70 yards left of where I was looking,” he said. “If I’m trying to hit a high cut, if anything I’m going to over- cut it to the right. And it came off low and hooked. So I just laughed. Wasn’t funny when I made triple, though.”  O’Hair doesn’t sound like he’s playing under a lot of pressure. He had knee surgery last year that kept him from most of the fall events, putting him behind. He decided to keep playing until he had his card locked up, and then he was runner-up at the Valero Texas Open. “After that, I kind of just checked out mentally because I knew I was safe and kind of lost my drive a little bit,” he said. He took off the month of June, which he had never done, and hasn’t played very well since then. But he’s back to work, first on his long game and late on his putter, and he found the right formula on a rain-softened course at Ridgewood. It was a good start, nothing more. And while he would love to play on his home course in two weeks at Aronimink, he’s not obsessed with it. O’Hair said he came into the Playoffs with one eye toward next year. “It’s not like, `Hey, I need to do this to play Aronimink,'” O’Hair said. “I’ll play Aronimink after the tournament. I think I’ve got a member-guest the following week.”

Click here to read the full article…

Aloha 2021! And aloha 2020. After a U.S. Open contested in September and the Masters in November, I’m all for the normalcy of some tasty waves and cool buds, other fantasy players, to kick off the 2021 portion of the PGA TOUR schedule. I’m excited to hear Mark Rolfing’s facts about Maui and the Plantation Course at Kapalua. I’m excited to be jealous of the views, surf and weather in the dead of winter. I’m excited to complain about who I have on my bench and not in my lineup. Fantasy golf and real golf are back and I’m rested, healthy and ready to go! RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | The First Look Justin Thomas returns to Kapalua 2.0 to defend his championship one year after picking up the first win on the Coore-Crenshaw redesign and second overall. He’ll be joined by 41 others who will get four chances at the Plantation course to see who pockets the first $1.34 million winner’s check of the $6.7 million prize pool. The lowest total also adds 500 FedExCup points to the ledger for their triumph. Thomas will look to join Australians Stuart Appleby (three straight) and Geoff Ogilvy in defending the crown on Maui. Only Sergio Garcia and Daniel Chopra have won on their debut so that will give the seven first-time visitors hope! Playing almost 7,600 yards up and down the mountain, year 2 should give those an advantage who played the redesign last year. Before last year’s gusts and rain, the winning score hadn’t dipped below 19-under since 2008 so scoring is a must on this par-73. Only three Par-3 holes are on the card so tee-to-green play is the key this week. Wide fairways and massive greens will help in that department, plus there’s no water on the course. Hole the makeable ones and avoid the squares to contend! Recent Event Winners Stats Recent Winners and Notables 2020: Justin Thomas (-14, 278) Defeated Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele in a playoff to win for the second time. … Becomes the fourth multiple event winner. … 10th consecutive American winner. … Increased his victory total on the Pacific Rim to seven. … Led the field with 24 birdies. … In six visits he’s circled 20 or more birdies five times. … Worst birdie output is 18 in 2018. … Joins the list of the last five winners either first or second Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage. … Joins the list of the last six winners to finish top three Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green. … Entered the week on FIRE with two wins and five of his last six results in the top 10. Notables: 2015 champion Reed fired 66, the round of the day Sunday, and was the last man knocked out of the playoff on the third playoff hole. … 2019 champion Schauffele was bogey-free thru his first 43 holes; led after 36 and by one after 54 holes before being eliminated on the first playoff hole. … Patrick Cantlay (4th) posted 68, second best on Sunday, to cash his first top 10 in two starts. … Debutant Joaquin Niemann (T5) posted the co-lowest round of the week with 66 in Round 1. … 2018 champ Dustin Johnson (T7) streak of top 10 finishes is now at eight. … Collin Morikawa (T7) posted all four rounds in the red on his debut. … Jon Rahm (10th) hits the top 10 for the third time in three tries. … Only six players were 10-under or better. … Strangely, five of the top 14 were first-timers at Kapalua. … Preferred lies in play the final 54 holes. … Gusty NNE winds were on the menu all week and scoring was the worst since 2007. 2019: Xander Schauffele (-23, 269) Tied the course record with 62 in Round 4 to win by a shot on the last event before the redesign. … Sat five back of Gary Woodland (not entered this year) entering Sunday before posting his career best round … Holed out twice for eagle in the final round. … Posted 24 birdies (2nd) for the week. … Four of his five career victories are in limited field, no cut events. … Joins the last six winners by not finishing in the top 10 of Driving Accuracy. … Last of five consecutive winners to place in the top three in Bogey Avoidance. … Rolled into Maui after winning WGC-HSBC Champions and picking up T8 at Hero World Challenge. Notables: Justin Thomas (3rd) circled the most birdies on the week (25), fired 65 in the final round, but was still five back. … Johnson (T4) was the only player in the top 10 with a round above 72 as he posted 74 in Round 2. … Marc Leishman (T4) picked up his second consecutive top seven payday here. … In his second start, Bryson DeChambeau (7th) bettered his solo 26th paycheck from 2018. … The last time Webb Simpson entered he was T8 (-13). … Jon Rahm backed up his solo second from 2018 with T8. … Debutant Kevin Tway (not entered) shot 66 to lead after Round 1. … Debutant Rory McIlroy (T4; not entered) was the only first-timer in the top 10. … Winds were gusty before a perfect final round. … Top 15 players 10-under or better. 2018: Dustin Johnson (-24, 268) Trounced the field by eight shots to become the third multiple winner. … Sat one off the 36 hole lead before 66-65 blew the doors off the contenders. … Leading money winner and has made the most eagles in event history. … 65 and 66 were the best and co-second best rounds of the week. … At 33 he’s the only winner in the last six who wasn’t in their 20s. … Of the last six winners thru 2020, all have finished T7 or better in Par-4 Scoring. …. Won TNT and blew a seven shot lead at the WGC-HSBC Champions so he was in decent nick. Notables: Jon Rahm (2nd) made 21 birdies on debut. … Hideki Matsuyama (T4) closed with 66 for his third top five in three starts. … Marc Leishman (T7) led after 18 and 36 before coming undone with 76 in Round 3. … Top 14 players all 10-under or better. … Wind gusts of a minimum 30 MPH daily yet only five rounds from the top 20 finishers were OVER par. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Top 10 finish here since 2016 or past champion Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green 1 *Justin Thomas 2 *Hideki Matsuyama 3 *Jon Rahm 4 *Sergio Garcia 5 *Collin Morikawa 7 *Xander Schauffele 9 *Dustin Johnson 10 Scottie Scheffler (debut) 11 *Tony Finau 12 *Patrick Cantlay 15 Daniel Berger 16 *Webb Simpson 18 Harris English 19 *Bryson DeChambeau 20 Viktor Hovland (debut) 23 *Joaquin Niemann 26 *Patrick Reed Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage 2 *Webb Simpson 3 *Justin Thomas 4 *Bryson DeChambeau 5 *Patrick Reed 6 Daniel Berger 7 *Dustin Johnson 13 Scottie Scheffler 22 *Patrick Cantlay 24 *Jon Rahm 26 * Xander Schauffele 27 Cameron Smith 28 Sungjae Im (debut) 29 *Tony Finau Scrambling 1 Daniel Berger 2 *Xander Schauffele 3 *Brendon Todd 4 Kevin Na 6 Harris English 10 Abraham Ancer (debut) 11 *Jon Rahm 12 *Webb Simpson 16 *Kevin Kisner 17 *Bryson DeChambeau 19 *Hideki Matsuyama 21 *Patrick Reed 23 Lanto Griffin 25 *Justin Thomas 29 Carlos Ortiz (debut) 31 Sebastian Munoz

Click here to read the full article…