‘This is crazy.’ Inside Alex Ross’ head on the day he shot 57

Sean Foley will bring his unique perspective, and the insights he’s gained from a decade on PGA TOUR practice tees, to Golf Channel in 2018. The network announced this week that Foley will host an instructional show, Playing Lessons, and serve as an analyst during the coverage of golf’s biggest events. Foley still instructs several prominent professionals — Justin Rose, Si Woo Kim, Danny Willett and Cameron Champ – while teaching out of the Foley Performance Academy near Orlando, Florida, and producing content for Revolution Golf. “You could easily say that this is part of my evolution,â€� Foley said of his new role with Golf Channel. He spoke to PGATOUR.COM on Wednesday about his new role, an old student (Tiger Woods) and working alongside colleagues who have been critical of his teaching methods. (Interview has been condensed and edited.) PGATOUR.COM: What excites you about the new role? FOLEY: There’s a lot of instructional content, but very rarely do we get to hear what players are working on, how they break courses down, how they practice, what they do. A lot of amateur golfers, they don’t have time to go to the range and change their swing a great deal. This lets them see how these pros do what they do. I’ve always liked hanging out with golf pros and seeing how they go about their business, and showcasing some of the good young men and young women out there is a win-win. And I’ll do some stuff where I’ll be sitting with say Notah (Begay) and Brandel (Chamblee) live from the Masters in the evening, just to give my insight as an instructor and someone who has been around the game. I have a good relationship with a lot of the players out there, and I know their coaches and know what they have been doing for years together. I think I can provide the viewers with a unique insight as someone who has spent the past 10 years on the range and traveling with these people. PGATOUR.COM: They say one of the hardest adjustments is learning to criticize your peers. How do you think you will handle that adjustment? FOLEY: That won’t be my job. I’ll never be that guy. I’ll never do that. Look, say I’m doing on-course commentary and I see a guy back off the ball three times, I’ll tell the viewers before he hits that this may not go too well, but I would never be (overly critical). I think there’s enough people with different personalities who do their thing, and they do it well. I’ve always been typically in a good mood, I’m pretty caring, so I’ll probably approach it more from that standpoint. Getting people to understand that that guy didn’t choke. How are you going to go 72 holes without going bogey-double at some point? It’s just unfortunate that some guys do it on 16 and 17. But if they do it on 2 and 3, they never say it’s choking. There will be an adjustment, like there is with anything. Trying to say something in a certain time frame, being more economical with my words. Just staying true to myself, and to the game and to the players. The game is better when we get more insight from the players. When we have a better relationship with the players, the fans get more out of it. The last thing we want to do is have less ability to have dialogue with players because we are pushing them away. PGATOUR.COM: Brandel Chamblee has been critical of modern golf instruction, including some of your teaching. What do you imagine that dynamic will be like when you are sharing a set? FOLEY: I get along with Brandel fine enough. I don’t really take any of that stuff personally. It’s just business and people doing their job. He has the right to his opinion. He studies and looks at it. He’s a sharp guy, a thoughtful guy. When there’s no dialogue between two people, it becomes easy for people to perceive or hallucinate what they think is going on. I’m sure I’ll agree with some things Brandel says and disagree with other things and I’m sure he’ll do the same with me, or with Gary Koch or Notah Begay. You want to have diversity in life, and on the set. The world has become a little too polarized. People are astounded when they see me hanging out with someone who I disagree with on almost everything, and they’re like, ‘But you don’t agree with that.’ It doesn’t mean I don’t like the person. We’re allowed to have disagreements. I think it will be good. The guy played on TOUR, he played in the majors. He studies the game a lot. He does his homework, so I think it will be great. PGATOUR.COM: Here’s some early practice as an analyst. What are your thoughts on what you saw from Tiger at the Hero World Challenge? FOLEY: I thought the amount of times in interviews I heard him say the word ‘grateful’ was awesome, because I think from humility is when we recognize gratitude. He just looked fresh to me. He just looked good. He drove the ball – people will say the fairways are wide there, that’s whatever – with a 180-mph ball speed on average with a lot of swagger, which is fantastic to watch. If Tiger had an incredible year, or was Player of the Year, or won a major, or three events, how could anyone be surprised after all we’ve seen him do? I know that there’s been these years where he’s been injured, but we know what he can do when he’s 80 percent healthy. I thought he looked great. From the standpoint of, he just seemed more peaceful to me, he drove it nice, iron play was lovely, wedge play was lovely. I thought putting inside 10 feet was fantastic. PGATOUR.COM: What are your thoughts on his recent decision to work on his game on his own, using what he and Chris Como have worked on? FOLEY: I think he’s always done that. This guy is a savant. He would take some of what I said (when I was coaching him) and use it and not use other stuff, and I’m sure he did the same with Chris and everyone who coached him. I think he knows what to do. He’s Tiger Woods, right? Justin Rose does the same thing, Danny Willett does the same thing, Lee Westwood did the same thing. I’ve helped Justin build his swing, but he kind of understands it about as well as me now, so the advantage he has over me is that I’ll never know what it feels like when he hits it. I think it’s probably a good idea for (Tiger). I still believe that he has the ability to reach out to Chris with questions. It’s not like it’s a dead facture. Doing it on his own makes sense. He knows where he’s at. You can see it in his swing. He looks like he knows where he needs to be and how he needs to train and practice. I’m looking forward to this year because I think he’s going to do very well. PGATOUR.COM: Justin Rose closed the year with 10 consecutive top-10s, including three wins. He said this summer that you guys made some swing changes to take pressure off of his back. What were those, and did they contribute to this run? FOLEY: It’s really difficult to play professional golf for 18 years. Justin’s been a professional golfer for half of his life. All the travel, the golf courses, the funny lies, the four-hour range sessions. You’re not supposed to bend over and rotate every day. Also, you won’t get hurt if you swing it 2 mph, either. We had to put him more into neutral spine in his setup. He always was a little bit extended through his lower back. We put more overall roundness in his posture. He ends up being a little closer and a little taller (to the ball), and we made sure that in the backswing from the ankle, to the right knee to the right hip to the lower back all the way up to the neck, that there’s a lot of passivity and slack in the tissue. There’s no tension. We’re making sure that we’re loading the body passively. The lines, if you look, haven’t changed too much. We’re just trying to put it more into a position where there’s less pressure on the joints and trying to use the ground and the pelvis more in transition to generate the energy. It’s not like a swing change, so to speak, but it’s definitely a different setup. The whole blueprint is based on safety and longevity. As far as him having 10 top-10s in a row, Justin Rose is just an extremely great player. I think what happened is the more we worked on the swing, his body started feeling better so that turns into two hours more putting per week, two hours more of short-game and bunker work, more time in the gym working on physical conditioning. When we got the swing to where he was feeling good in his body, he’s not having to get treatment, treatment, treatment. He got to spend more time working on all parts of the game. In the last 10 events, he’s putted still not as well as I know that he is going to putt, but much better than he has been. If Justin holes 97 percent of his putts from 5 feet and in per week – he’s a beautiful putter from 15 to 25 feet – if he cleans up from 10 feet and in, and he hits it the way that he can hit it, we should never be surprised when he top-10s. There’s nothing we figured out. I wish we could say one day we did this or he said something to me and we had this insightful moment. I think what we did is kept showing up and just stayed open-minded and hedged on his skills because that guy is one of the best that I’ll ever see. 

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Another exciting PGA TOUR season recently came to a close. The team at ShotLink compiled some of the best stats from the season. Enjoy. Rory McIlroy closed the season by winning his second FedExCup. He joined Tiger Woods as the only two-time champions of the TOUR’s season-long prize. McIlroy’s win at the TOUR Championship was his third of the season. He also won THE PLAYERS and RBC Canadian Open. It was his third multiple-win season in the FedExCup era (since 2007), Only Tiger Woods (5) has more multiple-win seasons since 2007. There were 14 first-time winners in 2019. Only three seasons since 1970 have seen more players earn their first PGA TOUR win. Most first-time winners on the PGA TOUR since 1970 Justin Thomas suffered a wrist injury this season and struggled with his putting but he still finished third in the FedExCup with a win in the penultimate event, the BMW Championship. Thomas’ par-5 scoring average this season was the fourth-best since 1983. Only Tiger Woods has had lower single-season scoring averages on the par-5s. Best par-5 scoring average on the PGA TOUR since 1983 Sungjae Im was the only rookie to make it to the TOUR Championship. Im, the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, played a TOUR-high 35 events this season. His combination of endurance and skill helped him make the fourth-most birdies (480) in a season since 1980. Only Steve Flesch and Vijay Singh made more birdies in a season in that span. Flesch made 493 in 2000, while Singh made 484 in 2004. Im also had the lowest score, in relation to par, of the season. Lowest score in relation to par on the PGA TOUR, 2018-19 season Rory McIlroy recorded four rounds of 63 or better, marking the most of any player during this season. Rory McIlroy’s rounds of 63 or better on the PGA TOUR, 2018-19 season Jordan Spieth made seven or more birdies in 15 rounds, the most of any player this season. Most rounds with seven or more birdies in a round on the PGA TOUR, 2018-19 season Spieth struggled with his ball-striking in 2018-19, but incredible putting helped him finish 44th in the FedExCup. This season, he had the highest make percentage of putts from outside 10 feet of his career. Highest percentage of putts made over 10 feet on the PGA TOUR since 2014-15 Cameron Champ was the only player this season to hit more than 300 drives longer than 320 yards. He hit 36.1% of his tee shots past the 320-yard mark. Champ is one of seven players since 2003 to hit 300 or more drives 320+ yards in a season. Most drives over 320 yards on the PGA TOUR, 2018-19 season Players with 300 or more drives 320 or more yards in a season on the PGA TOUR since 2003

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The Wells Fargo Championship returns to Quail Hollow Club outside Charlotte after a one-year hiatus hosting the 2017 PGA Championship. Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina, served as the host for the 2017 event that was won by Brian Harman. The data from last year will be worthless in preparing for the return to Charlotte. The data from the PGA Championship on the other hand, will have value. Quail Hollow Club has hosted annually since its inception in 2003. Both PGA TOUR Fantasy games are back in action this week plus this is the last chance to qualify for THE PLAYERS Championship next week. After a week of partner’s golf, it would appear things are back to “normal” in fantasy golf on TOUR. Not quite. Quail Hollow Club began its Tom Fazio renovation/redesign in 1996 that continued until the TOUR arrived in 2003. After a harsh winter in 2013, most of the bentgrass greens barely made it through the May event that spring. With the 2017 PGA Championship and 2021 Presidents Cup on the horizon the club replaced all of the greens after the 2013 event with Miniverde Bermuda, a grass more durable in heat and humidity. The Miniverde was used in the 2014-2016 events but was replaced with state-of-the-art G12 Champion Bermuda, just 15 months before the PGA Championship arrived. That was just the beginning of the preparation. The first five holes of the course were completely rerouted and redeveloped and No. 11 was extended to stretch out to 7,600 yards for the final major of last season. The par on the card changed from Par-72 to Par-71. The official scorecard for this year shows that at 7,554 yards and Par-71, Quail Hollow Club should continue its annual ranking in the upper echelon of most difficult courses on TOUR. One of the major changes before last year’s PGA Championship was eliminating the opening Par-5 hole that ranked as one of the easiest on the course. It’s now a 495-yard Par-4. Woof. I haven’t even mentioned “The Green Mile” yet!   TALES OF THE TAPE Usually I’ll start at the oldest event and work my way to through to the most recent winner but that’s not the case this week. After the significant changes made after the 2016 edition, I’m starting with the new normal. Last year Kevin Kisner tried to go wire-to-wire to win his first major championship but ran out of gas on Sunday. Hideki Matsuyama, looking to also win his first, played in the final group with him and never fired either. Instead, it was Justin Thomas who picked up the final major of the campaign. The 24-year old blazed home in 68 to win by two shots over Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen and Patrick Reed. Thomas posted 8-under-par 276 on the “new” Par-71 and played his final three rounds in 10 under. He was the only player in the championship to post three rounds in the 60’s. Molinari and Matsuyama shared the lowest round of the week with 64. 2016 Wells Fargo champion James Hahn collected T13. Please understand that Quail Hollow Club will not be set up like a major championship this week but those who have played the “new” edition will have a point of reference and a feel for the new grass on the greens. Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings will update you on who is back from last August. The three previous events before the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow were interesting in their own ways. The first year with Bermuda greens J.B. Holmes had 37 one-putt greens and made 48 putts inside three feet. He led the field in birdies even though his ball-striking was barely in the top third. Usually new putting surfaces favors the players who hit the most of them. Holmes entered that week 89th in SG: Putting and left with the trophy on 14-under 274. In 2015 McIlroy broke out the video game code to win by seven shots and setting too many records to list here. He became the first multiple winner of the event by setting the course (61), tournament (267), birdies (27) and margin-of-victory record (7). Perfect weather conditions didn’t hurt scoring and it was a list, again, of big boys off the tee occupying the top 12, who all finished 10 under or lower. For a big, bad course, there were only 10 rounds over par for the top 27 players for the week. Hahn became the final winner before the redesign as scoring calmed down after McIlroy’s trouncing the year before. Hahn kept it between the yellow lines as he didn’t sign for any crooked numbers on the week posting 9 under 279 for the win. He’s not the longest hitter on TOUR but he hit enough fairways and greens to point to that value here. I’ll also point out he was magic on the greens so when the entire bag is on point, these guys are ALL very good. His best finish in three previous attempts was T50 so that suggests course form isn’t a necessity. That will be music to the ears of those who didn’t play in the PGA Championship last summer. If that’s not enough, he MC in his eight previous starts entering the event. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 25-ish in each statistic on the 2017-18 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Finished inside the top 25 at the Wells Fargo Championship (since 2012), 2017 PGA Championship or is a former winner. Driving Distance (all drives) Rank Golfer 4 *Justin Thomas 7 Tony Finau 8 Trey Mullinax 8 Xander Schauffele 10 *Gary Woodland 11 Luke List 12 *Hideki Matsuyama 14 *Francesco Molinari 15 *Grayson Murray 16 Kevin Tway 17 Keith Mitchell 18 Tom Lovelady 22 Bryson DeChambeau 24 Phil Mickelson 24 Byeong-Hun An 27 *Rory McIlroy SG: Off the Tee Rank Golfer 3 Tommy Fleetwood 6 *Francesco Molinari 7 *Louis Oosthuizen 8 Luke List 10 Keith Mitchell 12 Byeong-Hun An 13 *Gary Woodland 14 Bryson DeChambeau 15 Xander Schauffele 16 Emiliano Grillo 19 Dylan Frittelli 21 *Kevin Streelman 22 *Rory McIlroy 25 *Lucas Glover SG: Tee to Green Rank Golfer 4 Tommy Fleetwood 5 *Justin Thomas 6 Luke List 7 Keegan Bradley 9 *Paul Casey 10 Adam Scott 11 Tony Finau 12 Bryson DeChambeau 14 Brendan Steele 16 *Hideki Matsuyama 17 *Kevin Streelman 18 Alex Noren 19 *Francesco Molinari 21 Byeong-Hun An 23 Adam Hadwin 24 *Tiger Woods 25 *Patrick Reed SG: Putting Rank Golfer 1 *Jason Day 2 *Phil Mickelson 3 Sam Burns 4 Greg Chalmers 6 *Brian Harman 7 *Kevin Kisner 8 *Tiger Woods 9 *Webb Simpson 11 Michael Thompson 12 Alex Noren 14 Seamus Power 15 Peter Malnati 16 Beau Hossler 17 Bud Cauley 19 Nicholas Lindheim 23 *Patton Kizzire 25 Johnson Wagner With 7,554 yards and Par-71, there’s no question that the winner this week will earn their 500 FedExCup points and $1.386 million. There are 60 white sand bunkers and two water hazards that will keep the players attention. The top 70 (and ties) survivors of the 156 teeing it up will play the weekend. Brian Harman is the defending champion at the EVENT, not this course, so please be aware of this any other non-PGA Championship results from 2017. This is a recording. There is plenty of meat on this bone and it’s hardly a surprise it rated as the most-difficult course on TOUR last year. Quail Hollow Club checked in at +2.468 strokes above par. It was not just the redesign (eliminating the easiest Par-5 on the course and replacing it with a 500-yard Par-4) or set-up for a major championship that increased the difficulty. Before the change it ranked the ninth-most difficult in 2016, 20th-most difficult in 2015 when 21 under won the event and 13th-most difficult the first year with Bermuda greens in 2014. There are nine Par-4 holes that measure 449 yards or better and five of those are greater than 480. The three Par-5 holes will provide minimum relief and the three finishing holes, “The Green Mile”, are annually the toughest three-hole stretch on TOUR. They stretch out at Par-4 506, Par-3 223 and Par-4 494 that all have water in play. Players expecting to come-from-behind late on Sunday aren’t going to find many chances for birdie in that stretch while the leaders will gladly sign for pars. The last two events haven’t produced a double-digit winner reinforcing that par is a solid score this week. Hitting fairways is a difficult task here but the above-average sized greens (6,500 square feet) will help. Players finding the sprinkler line and approaching the proper portion of the landing areas will have the most scoring chances. The problem is there aren’t many of them. As shown above, there are plenty of rounds at par-or-better for the top players annually. Those new greens should still be firm so find guys who will hit the most of them! This event rarely stands still but the only part that doesn’t change is the big hitter who keeps winning. I’m leaning with history and loading up on guys who rake from tee-to-green and can handle almost 7,600 yards. NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation. CONFIDENCE MEN Selected golfers with multiple cuts made sorted by rank on the tournament’s money list. BUILDING CONFIDENCE Sorted by best finish, selected golfers who are either finally finding form on the course or are still relatively new to the tournament but have enjoyed some success. OTHER SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE Sorted by most recent top 10s, selected golfers for whom it’s been a few years since their last.

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