PGA to end weekly testing for COVID in late July

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LAS VEGAS – A year ago, following his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2018 Sanderson Farms Championship, Cameron Champ made a number of changes to his driver and iron setups. He began using new Blueprint Forged irons and a new Ping G410 LS Tec driver but later switched back into setups with which he is more familiar: Ping’s iBlade irons and G400 Max driver, each of which he used to win the Sanderson. Recently, Champ switched again into the new Blueprint irons and a G410 LST driver. The new heads are now equipped with different shafts that allow Champ to produce the ball flights and consistency he’s looking for – and it paid off last week at the Safeway Open, as he finished off an emotional week with his second PGA TOUR win. Also, as equipment fans may have noticed in his winner’s bag on Sunday, Champ uses two 4-irons, neither of which matches his other Blueprint Forged irons (5-PW). On Monday, PGATOUR.COM caught up with Champ’s club fitter and Ping TOUR rep Kenton Oates to find out more about why Champ switched his driver and irons, why he uses two 4-irons, his crazy-low ball flight, why golfers don’t necessarily need to use blade irons, and much, much more. PGATOUR.COM: Can you take us through Cameron’s changes? KENTON OATES: “The change that started all this was when he started wanting to look at G410 LS Tec drivers in Detroit, so we did a lot of work between Detroit (Rocket Mortgage Classic) and New York (THE NORTHERN TRUST). By the time he got to New York in the Playoffs, he wanted a driver that he could hit lower and hit little cuts with. So we went even shorter in length, from 44.75 inches to 44.5 inches. We also went into a shaft that’s really stiff in the tip, the Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green. Then he loved the driver. “That’s what kind of sparked us wanting to work on iron shafts. He played Blueprint irons after winning with iBlades (at the 2018 Sanderson Farms), and he actually statistically gained more shots with the Blueprints, but that change kind of came at the wrong time. So we reached out to him after the season was done, and we’re like, ‘Hey, the Blueprints were actually pretty positive. What did you like about them? What didn’t you like about them?’ “He said that he liked the shaft change to True Temper’s Dynamic Gold X100, but he felt like he wanted something stiffer the next time; maybe not as stiff as his KBS C-Taper 130X shafts. So we sent C-Tapers and True Temper Dynamic Gold X7s home with him in the Blueprint heads. Then we added our Cushin inserts into the shafts, which are 10-gram inserts that are basically plastic with ball bearings. The Cushin helps with vibration — but in this case, it was just for weight purposes. PGATOUR.COM: Where exactly does the Cushin insert go? OATES: “It depends on the shaft, but on the X7s, it goes about 12 inches down the shaft, right on the fulcrum point. So it doesn’t really change swing weight, it just adds overall weight. The whole goal with Cameron was to get him a stable club that goes straight or falls right, and the extra weight for him just makes it more consistent. We want him to hit 8-irons 181 yards, or whatever his number is, and hit that 20 times in a row. He doesn’t need any help with distance obviously. So, he tested the Blueprints out with the different shafts and showed up to Jackson (2019 Sanderson Farms) with the X7s with Cushin. He’s played two events with those, and in his second event with that setup, he won.â€� PGATOUR.COM: Is his natural ball flight a high-draw that he guards against? Or he just wants equipment that compliments his natural flight? OATES: “I think his natural ball flight is pretty low and straight, and he just knows that when he’s fading it, he can keep the ball in front of him a little bit easier. He can hit it both ways pretty easily, actually. He can naturally draw it pretty easily. He went through some swing changes last year where he was trying to hit it a little higher, and then he stopped doing that at the end of the season. Coming out in Jackson, he talked about how him and Sean (Foley, his swing coach) were working on getting back to just smashing it. He actually hits it pretty darn straight for how hard he hits it. The ball doesn’t curve much.â€� PGATOUR.COM: Can you put his ball flight in comparison to maybe a Bubba Watson, or some of the other long hitters that you guys work with? OATES: “It’s even lower. Bubba’s stock shot is an 8-degree launch, 2500-rpm cutter that looks pretty low, and Cameron’s drives would stay underneath that apex the whole time. Bubba’s far ball is then like four times higher, because that’s 14-degree launch and 2200 rpm of spin, and it’s something you can’t even put into words. “But speed creates height, and with the speed Cameron hits it … it’s just so low. He can control the face so well, and it’s like a stinger that carries 300 yards. … “You watch him hit his 4-iron and his flight doesn’t make sense. It comes out really low and it kind of stands up, and you’d expect that flight to carry like 215 yards, and it’s going 255 yards. I can’t even comprehend it.â€� PGATOUR.COM: It’s very interesting that he has two 4-irons. Can you explain the reasoning behind that? OATES: “Cameron plays an i500 4-iron that’s built to 3-iron length. The i500 has metalwood technology in the face, so that metalwood technology is going to allow for some more flex in the face at impact; that means higher ball speeds, higher launch, a little less spin. So you put that club in the hands of a guy with that type of speed — he carries that club about 275-280 yards (laughs). … “It’s basically a 4-iron that plays exactly like a 3-iron would play for him. Then he goes into an iBlade 4-iron. We sent him the Blueprints, obviously 4-PW, along with a 4 and 5-iron in the iBlade, but when he showed up to Jackson he told me when he looked down at the Blueprint 4-iron, “I can’t play this.’“ PGATOUR: Because it’s so small? OATES: “Yeah, just because of the size. The i500 is already a little bit bigger, as well, so the iBlade is kind of his progression club. The i500s have a medium size and medium offset, then the iBlade is a little bit bigger than the Blueprint.â€� PGATOUR: What’s the difference in loft between the two 4-irons that he has in the bag? OATES: “The stock loft on the i500, because of that metalwood technology, has to be a little bit lower because the face flexing adds so much loft, even for the average golfer. The actual loft is pretty close to standard, traditional 3-iron loft. I think the loft on the i500 4-iron is 21 degrees, and then his iBlade is 24 degrees, and his Blueprint 5-iron is 27 degrees. So it’s a 3-degree spread.â€� PGATOUR: That’s actually a pretty standard loft progression. When you see it as two 4-irons, it looks different than what’s actually a 3-degree spread. OATES: Yeah, for all intents and purposes [the i500 is] basically just a 3-iron for him. It has a little bit bigger head, produces a little bit more ball speed, probably hits it a little bit higher than a traditional 3-iron. And off the tee it can go because of that face technology. PGATOUR: Some golfers love playing blades, and the smallest head possible. Maybe it’s a pride thing, or impressing their group, but here’s Cameron Champ who’s a ball striker and one of the longest hitters in the game, but he’s still going with a mixed set because the 4-iron looks so small. OATES: “Exactly. His direct quote in the TOUR Van in Jackson, actually, was, ‘I think I’m fine with my Blueprint 5-iron, but I can’t play this butter knife 4-iron.’â€�

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On Monday, the PGA TOUR named Will Zalatoris as their Rookie of the Year for the 2020-21 season. The 25-year-old Wake Forest product finished in the top-30 on the official money list for the season, and in the top-25 in scoring average and Strokes Gained: Total. Zalatoris’ victory is the culmination of a two-year professional climb, from the Korn Ferry Tour (and outside the top-500 in the World Ranking) to burgeoning PGA TOUR star. Since the beginning of 2020, Zalatoris has racked up 18 top-ten finishes between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR. In that span, only Jon Rahm has had more official top-10 finishes worldwide, with 22 (Bryson DeChambeau is tied with Zalatoris at 18). Zalatoris’ persistent good play has made him an undeniable presence at the biggest events the men’s game has to offer. Here are the numbers that fueled him to the Rookie of the Year title, and positioned himself as a player to watch in 2022 and beyond. Elite Iron Play Zalatoris averaged +0.75 Strokes Gained: Approach per round, the 7th-best rate of any player on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21. That was the highest per round average in that statistic by a PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year winner since Trevor Immelman in 2006 (+0.76 per round). Immelman, of course, would employ that approach play prowess two years later when he won The Masters, hitting 71 percent of his greens in regulation along the way. Speaking of Augusta National, it was there that Zalatoris had his breakout performance, going from under-the-radar analytical darling to major championship contender. Zalatoris finished alone in second place, the first player to do that in his Masters debut since Dan Pohl in 1982. Zalatoris ranked 4th in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach. His combination of those two statistics – Strokes Gained: Long Game – was 3rd-best in the field, trailing only Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama. Zalatoris hit more than 73% of his greens in regulation for the Tournament, the 2nd-highest rate in the field. For the season, Zalatoris was especially stellar with his longer irons. On approach shots from the fairway of 200 yards or more, Zalatoris had an average proximity to the hole of 46 feet, 10 inches – 11th-best on TOUR and nearly five feet better than the PGA TOUR average. When in those situations last season, Zalatoris’ average score to par was -0.24, seven-tenths of a stroke better than the PGA TOUR mean. Take a look at what’s in Zalatoris’ bag. Un-Rookie-Like Consistency In 2020-21, Zalatoris ranked 9th on the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, an exceptional performance that positioned him between Viktor Hovland (8th) and Rory McIlroy (10th). While that lofty company is impressive in itself, it’s the consistency in which Zalatoris delivered that might be most impressive. In 20 tournaments in which Strokes Gained data is available, Zalatoris had a positive Tee-to-Green average relative to the field 16 times. Zalatoris lost strokes to the field with his ball striking in less than 18% of his total rounds for the entire season. Unlike the typical rookie, Zalatoris was able to avoid the big number on his scorecard. Zalatoris averaged less than 0.2 double bogeys or worse per round, ranking him among the leaders in double-or-worse avoidance for the season. More than 150 players accumulated at least 70 stroke play rounds in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. Of that group, only 9 averaged less than 0.2 doubles-or-worse per round, Zalatoris included. In overall bogey avoidance, Zalatoris ranked in a respectable tie for 24th place, dropping shots on less than 15% of his total holes played for the season. On the Horizon In recent seasons, being named Rookie of the Year has been a harbinger of good things to come. Last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, followed up his rookie campaign with his first Ryder Cup selection. Sungjae Im won the award in 2019, then picked up his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2020 Honda Classic. In 2017, Xander Schauffele was named Rookie of the Year – he finished 15th in the FedExCup the following season, and has become a mainstay in the top-ten of the Official World Golf Ranking. Zalatoris’ ball striking acumen makes him a strong candidate to continue his career ascent. As mentioned, Zalatoris finished the 2020-21 season ranked ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Nine of the top-ten ranked players in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in 2020 advanced to the TOUR Championship in 2021. Two-thirds of players ranked in the top-ten in that statistic at the conclusion of the previous three seasons made it to East Lake. Three of the four major champions in 2021 also ranked in the top-ten in that statistic the previous season. A worthy recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, Zalatoris figures to be a mainstay on PGA TOUR leaderboards for years to come.

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