Safeway Open: DeChambeau shoots 64 for lead

From an equipment standpoint, two bags more or less dominate the conversation: those of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The chatter and details around “WITBâ€� for the two can be found on multiple platforms; broad strokes are no longer a mystery for their fan. RELATED: How to watch: Capital One’s The Match | How it works: Capital One’s The Match | Deep dive into Tiger’s par-5 dominance However, Sunday’s The Match: Champions for Charity gives us an opportunity to compare and contrast not only their games, careers, and impact on the game, but also how each of these titans assembles his 14-tool belt. It’s a tale of starkly different strategies and few similarities … but both very much in line with the nature of each player. Similarities Where these two align is at the top of the bag – specifically, the driver. If you look at the profile of both drivers, each player prefers a low-launch, low-spin profile with an extremely stable shaft tip. What this equals precisely is speed without sacrificing control. One might think Phil with his “just hit bombs” mentality would throw dispersion into the wind in exchange for flat-out firepower, but that’s not the case. The Aldila Rogue Black profile is a shaft that keeps the ball speed up, spin down but offers stability. Tiger’s setup is the same in many ways. In recent years he has gone down 20 grams in driver shaft weight to build a little more speed, but the Diamana D+ Limited profile is as stable as any shaft out there. Hitting it a mile is fun … until you can’t find it anymore. Differences Basically, everything else in their setups is “Odd Couple” material. In a nutshell, Tiger’s setup top to bottom, from a spec standpoint, has changed very little over time. Shafts in all of his clubs have been the same, bag makeup has been the same, wedge setup, putter, lofts, lies, iron style, grips, and on and on. Mickelson, however, is all over the map. You never know what he will put into play each start until the bell rings on Thursday. The only real consistent element is his iron/wedge shafts (KBS Tour V 125), the wedge setup (54, 60, 64 degree), and, of course, manufacturer (Callaway for 16 years). Other than that, it’s anyone’s guess how his bag will look. Bottom line Simply, their respective setups fits the persona of each player perfectly, and we’re not suggesting control over chaos either. Both players are precise in totally different ways. Tiger is more or less joined to what has worked for his whole career. Phil seems to forgo that idea and is able to stay open-minded to new ideas as long as they do what he needs them to do. Make no mistake: For TOUR techs, both of these guys command their very best to get a club in play — the path to getting there is what separates the two. What’s in the bag: Tiger Woods DRIVER: TaylorMade SIM (9 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX 3-WOOD: TaylorMade M5 (15 set at 14.25 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX 5-WOOD: TaylorMade M3 (19 set at 18.25 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX IRONS: TaylorMade P7TW (3-PW) Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 WEDGES: TaylorMade MG2 TW/MT Grind (56-12, 60-11) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 PUTTER: Scotty Cameron GSS Newport 2 GRIPS: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord BALL: Bridgestone Tour B XS What’s in the bag: Phil Mickelson DRIVER: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (9 degrees) Shaft: Aldila Rogue Black 130 M.S.I. 60 TX 3-WOOD: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero 3+ (13.5 degrees) Shaft: KBS TD 80 TX 5-WOOD: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (18 degrees) Shaft: KBS TD 80 TX IRONS: Callaway X Forged UT (2-iron), Callaway Epic Forged (4-7), Callaway Apex Pro 19 (8-PW) Shafts: KBS Tour V 125 WEDGES: Callaway Mack Daddy 3 (54 degrees), Callaway PM Grind (60, 64 degrees) Shafts: KBS Tour V 125 PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot XG PM Blade Putter BALL: Callaway Chrome Soft X Triple Track GRIPS: Golf Pride MCC

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the pool where he trained a year ago in March, Tommy Hughson had to get creative. He had aspirations of swimming in college, and he had to stay in shape. So, during the week, the high school senior would run and ride bikes to work on his cardiovascular fitness. Then, on Saturdays, Hughson, who has competed at junior nationals since he was in ninth grade, would swim in the river near a friend’s house. One day they saw an alligator about 200 yards in the distance, and they did the only logical thing. “We swam the other way,” Hughson says matter-of-factly. Meanwhile, Julia Kubec and her mother were spending some of their free time in the early stages of the nationwide shutdown last April and May sewing personalized home-made masks and handing them out to medical workers at various facilities on Hilton Head Island. “I’m not the best sewer, but we made them by hand,” Kubec says. If it’s true, as playwright Oscar Wilde once said, that no good deed goes unpunished, though, Kubec’s gesture turned out to be one of them. In October, she tested positive for COVID-19, along with several other members of the Seahawk soccer team at Hilton Head Island High. It was the weekend before Kubec was set to return to in-person classes. “At first I was like really concerned, but I was pretty asymptomatic, so I wasn’t super worried about it,” recalls Kubec, who did lose her sense of taste and smell. “But in my house, like, my family would not even acknowledge me whatsoever. They would leave food like outside my door.” Later this spring, Kubec and Hughson will graduate from high school this spring with GPAs in excess of 5.0, heading to Duke and the University of Chicago, respectively. They are among 11 seniors from Beaufort and Jasper counties who were named Heritage Classic Foundation Scholars earlier this year. All were deeply affected by COVID-19. One of the recipient’s father was in the hospital for 11 days battling acute respiratory distress syndrome, viral pneumonia and sepsis. He survived thanks to a transfusion of convalescent plasma. Another family needed food bank donations after several members tested positive and had to stop working. One recipient worked at a local pharmacy and delivered medications while separated from his mom and sister, who couldn’t get back home from Nevada due to travel restrictions. Ten of those impressive students received four-year awards that ranged from $16,000-20,000 while the 11th was a one-year grant of $3,000. A total of 353 students have been named RBC Scholars and earned grants totaling $4.63 million since the beginning of the program in 1993. The Heritage Classic Foundation Scholars program is funded by members of the Tartan Club, who make a minimum family contribution of $1,000 year, and ticket sales. “It means a lot,” Hughson says. “It really means a lot. And it puts me again in debt to this Island. I’ve grown up here and I’ve gotten so much from this Island. I have so many great memories and yet again, I’m being helped along in my life by something amazing.” Kubec’s reaction was similar. “I feel like it kind of is a way for me, like, all the sacrifices and hard work that I’ve accomplished over the past few years finally feel like they’re being recognized kind of, because there’s just been so much that I’ve had to give up throughout high school in order for like my academics and athletics,” she says. “So. with this, it just finally feels like worth it.” Academic success, leadership and community service – three hallmarks of the RBC Scholar program — go hand in hand for Kubec and Hughson. Kubec was vice president of her freshman and sophomore class and president as a junior. She’s helped organize homecoming activities and food drives and donations for local animal shelters. The last year has been different, though, and milestones like graduation ceremonies and the prom are up in the air. “It’s just been crazy and I’m not like the biggest fan of like surprises, but everything with COVID just feels like new surprises showing up every week,” Kubec says. “It’s been really interesting, like kind of disappointing in some ways, because a lot of the things that we may have been like looking forward to this year, haven’t been able to go on. … “So that’s definitely been upsetting, but I feel like everyone, especially our school has been really good at like adapting to it. And they still like have tried at least to provide us with some of those things, which is positive.” Kubec, who will attend Duke in the fall and likely study economics, has also taken mission trips with her church to work at youth recreation camps in the Honduras and build houses in the Dominican Republic. She calls the experience “life changing. “Just seeing how different, life is in one of those countries and even just like the culture and the way that people interact,” Kupec says. “The communities are so close and everyone is just so like appreciative of everything. Especially when we worked with the children, just seeing how even despite like the language barriers and everything, we were just able to like form these close relationships with them. It was very heartwarming.” Hughson, who will swim for the University of Chicago next year, is president of the Model United Nations and French National Honor Society at Hilton Head Island High. If not for COVID-19, Hughson would be preparing to travel to a conference where students like him roleplay as delegates to the UN. This year it’s on-line. “You pretend to be a country or a representative from that country and you debate and argue and try to solve world issues such as maybe a hunger crisis in a country or a conflict over in another region,” Hughson explains. “So, you have to do it through diplomacy, and you have to make decisions and write the laws and bills. It’s really interesting.” Small wonder, then, that Hughson hopes to work in the State Department. As much as he’s interested in current events, though, the Seahawk swim team captain also loves looking into the past. Hughson has been interested in archeology since he was in preschool – “I’ve always liked old ruins, digging in the dirt and finding old stuff,” he says. His interest is so keen that the local archeological society has given him the opportunity to work on a native American shell ring that turned out to be 3,500 years old. Hughson started small, moving dirt, then screening through it to find artifacts. As he gained experience, he was able to operate some of the machinery like the magnetometer and spectrometer. He calls the opportunity “pretty cool.” “Growing up with the island, you only really know about the beaches and the tourists and all the big hotels,” Hughson says. “So, I didn’t really know we had such a rich history.”

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