Tiger Woods is back in action, and here is how he is doing at the PGA Championship

ATLANTA, Ga. — Tuesday morning produced a curious scene on the practice range at East Lake Golf Club, as Bridgestone Golf’s Adam Rehberg stood a couple feet away from Bryson DeChambeau — a spray bottle full of water in his hand.  After each shot, Rehberg would bend over and spray DeChambeau’s golf ball with water; other times he’d spray not only the ball but club face and turf as well. To the casual observer, it might have looked like Rehberg had taken over duties as DeChambeau’s official club and golf ball washer. But when it comes to DeChambeau — arguably the most analytical player on TOUR — there’s a method to his unique practice routines.  On this particular day, DeChambeau was working with Bridgestone to understand how water — be it dew or light rain — affected spin rate on various wedge shots. During the 45-minute session, DeChambeau, who grew up soaking his golf balls in Epsom salt to determine the center of gravity, went through three different scenarios: dry club face and wet golf ball; wet club face and golf ball; as well as wet club face, golf ball and turf. “He’s looking to eliminate as many variables as possible,” Rehberg said. “In this case, he wanted to know how much water would affect not only spin rate and any potential hydroplaning but ball flight as well. “He and his caddie already are constantly taking into account adrenaline, wind, humidity and things of that nature. This is just another part of the equation that he was interested in. If there’s a loss in spin for a particular scenario, he can adapt for a flyer shot ” What DeChambeau learned from the session was that the difference in spin rate between a wet ball scenario and one where the club face and ball are damp was minimal. He’s also in the process of learning more about how turf types and wetness affect spin rate as well. It’s gotten to the point that Bridgestone has started ordering different turfs for DeChambeau to test on during his down time. To say he’s involved in the ball creation and design process would be a severe understatement. DeChambeau has a direct line to Bridgestone’s R&D department and stays in constant contact with them during the season. For example: The following day after winning the Dell Technologies Championship, the four-time TOUR winner was on the phone with R&D to discuss how the ball performed on the course that week. He’s also already gone through one full round of prototype testing on a golf ball that won’t see the light of day on retail shelves until 2020. “He’s R&D gold,” Rehberg said. “He’s feeding us info from shots he’s hitting under tournament conditions and trying to find a way to improve our ball. His information is invaluable, and the fact that he’s so hands-on only helps during the prototyping process.”

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Welcome to Numbers to Know, where we will dive into Jon Rahm’s triumph at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Rahm survived a tough Sunday to claim his fourth PGA TOUR win and moved to world No. 1 as a result. 1. MASTER CLASS: Rahm outperformed the field by +3.866 strokes per round from tee to green at Muirfield Village on the way to his win. It was the best Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green performance of his PGA TOUR career. The only other time he averaged over three strokes gained per round in a tournament from tee to green was the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open which he also won. Rahm is also the first player this season to gain over 15 total strokes (+15.46) from tee to green in a PGA TOUR event. 2. WINNING AS A HABIT: Rahm became just the fourth player to win at least once in each of the last four seasons on the PGA TOUR. He joined Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau with this honor. Technically, since Rahm got his card through the non-member FedExCup points list in 2015-16 where he played nine times, twice as an amateur, he has not won on each of his seasons on TOUR. However, in those nine starts he had three top 10s including a T3 at the 2016 Quicken Loans National and a T2 at the 2016 RBC Canadian Open. 3. NUMERO UNO: Rahm moved to eighth in the FedExCup standings, setting himself up for a run at the Wyndham Rewards title and the FedExCup itself. He would become the first Spanish player to win either of those titles should he do so. But the win at the Memorial Tournament also jettisoned him to world No. 1 at just 25 years of age. He is the fifth youngest player to reach world No. 1 and just the second Spanish player behind Seve Ballesteros. Rahm is the 24th player in history to be world No. 1 (the official rankings began in 1986). 4. BACK-NINE BANDIT: The back nine at Muirfield Village is the tougher of the two sides. At the conclusion of the tournament the front side scoring average was 36.831 (+.831 over par) while the back played to a 37.351 (+1.351 over par). Rahm’s win was helped by his stellar play on the tough side through the first three rounds. At the 54-hole mark Rahm was 9-under on Nos. 10-18, three shots better than Carlos Ortiz and at least four shots better than the rest of the field, including Ryan Palmer (-5) who would be his main rival for the title. Rahm had 10 birdies and just a lone bogey on the stretch in the opening three rounds. On Sunday, however, he shot 41 on that side of the course, helped by a two-shot penalty on the 16th hole. As such he was the first winner to shoot 41 on the back nine in the final round of an event on TOUR in the last 37 years (official events). He still finished the tournament as one of the best players on that stretch at a 4 under total, beaten only by Palmer (-5) and Matt Wallace (-5). 5. REGULAR SEASON RACE HEATS UP: With just four weeks to go before the FedExCup Playoffs begin Rahm made a huge step forward in the Wyndham Rewards race. He is no stranger to the bonus system for those in the regular season top 10, having finished 10th last season. But Rahm is one of just three of last season’s top 10 who are currently trending to be there again this season. Webb Simpson (second), Rory McIlroy (fifth) and Rahm (eighth) are well placed particularly given that last season, eight of the final top 10 in the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 were already inside the cut off with four weeks remaining in the regular season. Since 2009, only two players have been outside the top 25 of the FedExCup standings with four weeks to go and went onto finish the Regular Season inside the top 10 . Y.E. Yang did so in 2009 by moving from 28th to seventh and Simpson made a late run last year going from 26th to ninth. In the last 11 PGA TOUR seasons, McIlroy is the only player to finish first in the final regular season standings after being outside the top-three of the FedExCup standings with four weeks to go (he was 11th). Since 2009, with four weeks left, 22 players started outside the top-10 and played their way into the final top 10 of the regular season standings (most in a season is three in 2010, 2013 and 2014).

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Brooks Koepka did not have many details to share regarding his upcoming post-Thanksgiving showdown with long-hitting Bryson DeChambeau – the newest addition to Capital One’s The Match series that will air Nov. 26 on TNT. Asked when conversations for such a mano-a-mano television event even began, Koepka smiled and answered, “You can ask Bryson.” But on the eve of competing in the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, Koepka did convey considerable respect for DeChambeau’s significant transformations, and had praise for DeChambeau’s surprising performance at last week’s Professional Long Drivers Association’s World Championship. DeChambeau made it through to the quarterflnals at the Long Drive, falling just shy of the four-man finale. DeChambeau achieved a swing speed of 219 mph and his longest drive on the grid was 412 yards. Kyle Berkshire eventually would win his second title (his winning drive measured 422 yards). A few of DeChambeau’s peers on the PGA TOUR could not help but take notice of his spirited march through the competition. Koepka said Wednesday that adding length has become a huge theme on the PGA TOUR, and will continue to have a big impact as younger players make their way out to the game’s top level. “I think you kind of saw it maybe coming out of COVID,” Koepka said at TPC Summerlin after playing nine holes in a pro-am. “I think you saw even other guys (other than DeChambeau) trying to hit it further. Swing a little harder, trying to maximize their distance. I think it’s going to change the game of golf forever, personally. If you’re going to hit it that far and you find a couple fairways, it’s tough to beat. It does get very difficult when you got wedge into hole where guys got 6-iron. Your odds are going to be in your favor. “That’s what he (DeChambeau) has done. It’s impressive to be able to actually change a body, change the way you swing, and yet still compete out here. I think that’s probably the most impressive thing. It’s one thing to do it and then just kind of mess around with it at home but not bring it to an actual tournament. So the fact he’s able to do that, the fact he did at the Long Drive, I don’t think anybody really thought he was going to get that far. The fact he did was quite impressive.” This new PGA TOUR season is but a few events old, but the driving average on TOUR thus far is 304.7 yards. A year ago, the average distance TOUR players hit their drives was 296.2. DeChambeau led all players in distance last season, averaging a record 323.7 yards through 83 rounds. Koepka doesn’t exactly bunt it off the tee; he averaged 310.7 yards and ranked 12th. Scottie Scheffler partnered with DeChambeau in two Four-ball matches at the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits two weeks ago, and knew DeChambeau was as excited about the Long Drive as he was about the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. “He was definitely pretty interested in it last week,” Scheffler said. ”We had a great time playing together. He’s a great (Four-ball) partner and he’s a great alternate-shot player as well because he’s such a talented player. We had a great time in the team room. “His performance in the Long Drive was pretty cool. I think he told us his goal for the Long Drive was to make it to the final 16, I think he said that would have been a really big accomplishment for him. … I’m sure he’s feeling really good about his performance. It was pretty fun to watch.” Koepka, 31, is playing for the sixth time at Shriners (he was a runner-up in 2017), and will play next week at THE CJ CUP @ Summit, a second event in Vegas. Koepka said his 2020-21 season, which was slowed by knee and wrist injuries, was a disappointment, and that this season he’d like to not only win multiple events, but stay healthy throughout. One aspect of his game that held him back last season: Green-reading. He said he has worked on integrating AimPoint into his routine to better read breaks on the greens, which hopefully will lead to better results with the putter. “I’ve fallen off, to be completely honest,” said Koepka, an eight-time TOUR winner and four-time major champion now ranked ninth in the Official World Golf Ranking. “I’ve fallen off going to World No. 1, injuries, all this stuff, and I haven’t been where I expected myself to be. I think that’s been the disappointing part, so I was kind of kicking myself and trying to figure out how to get better, and that (AimPoint) was just one of the ways. “… There’s some things where you’ve got to keep improving year after year. You look at it, traditionally, 30 or 35 is when guys have their prime out here, and I’m just kind of starting that prime at 31. So hopefully that holds true. But you got to find a way.” Koepka and DeChambeau, who bantered through social media through much of 2021, will partake in a 12-hole match on Nov. 26 at the Wynn Golf Course at Wynn Las Vegas. DeChambeau, ranked seventh in the world, was part of a previous version of The Match, joining NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers in taking down the tandem of Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. Koepka and DeChambeau were teammates on the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team two weeks ago, and, at the behest of U.S. team member Justin Thomas, even embraced in a playful embrace following the team’s final media session. As for more details on The Match? We’ll have to wait for those. “I think we’re excited,” Koepka said. “It’s going to be good. You’ll see it.”

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