YouTube sensation Woods wants this generation to play him at his best

It’s only right that the most patriotic of the majors – the United States Open Championship – is littered with red-white-and-blue themed custom equipment. Add in the history at Pebble Beach Golf Links, and it’s a recipe for a collection of awesome custom equipment for the 2019 U.S. Open. Below is a collection of the coolest equipment, gear and accessories made specifically for this week’s U.S. Open Championship. Did we miss anything? If so, reach out to @andrewtursky on Twitter or Instagram for a chance to see that product added to the list. TaylorMade’s 17-Mile Drive Staff Bags The iconic 17 Mile Drive is home to some of the world’s best golf courses, including Pebble Beach Golf Links, and breathtaking views. TaylorMade’s red-white-and-blue golf bags for the week, which will be used by select TaylorMade staffers, features a map of the Monterey Peninsula that highlights 17-Mile Drive with red stitching. Also, the bags feature the Cypress tree that stands near the 18th green at Pebble Beach. The bags and headcovers are currently available on its website. Odyssey Toulon Pebble Beach putter Odyssey’s premium Toulon Design putter brand – its putters are used by PGA TOUR pros including Francesco Molinari — made a custom 2019 U.S. Open putter, stamped appropriately. Toulon’s cryptic caption, “coming soon,â€� implies the putters could be made available for retail sometime in the near future. Ping’s Pebble accessories For its staffers, Ping designed a custom “Pebbleâ€� box that houses red-white-and-blue metalwood headcovers, putter covers, hats and visors to be used this week. This Twitter post also shows that the box fits ever so perfectly in the Pebble Beach lockers. Seamus stars and stripes Seamus Golf, a company that makes headcovers, tools and other accessories, designed a “U.S. Open Packâ€� of headcovers with stars stitched into the top sections of the blue-white-and-red headcovers. They also prominently showcase the 2019 U.S. Open Pebble Beach logo. FootJoy Europe represents for the USA FootJoy Europe unveiled a pair of limited edition FJ Flex shoes made for the U.S. Open. The spikeless golf shoes are currently available for pre-order on the FootJoy website. For more information on the FJ Flex shoes, check out the PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE. Callaway’s Clam Bake bags Callaway creatively gives a nod to history with Monterey Reserve Vintage Clam Bake and antique car designs on its staff bags for this week. Check out the Callaway logo and the “CLAM BKâ€� license plate on the red car featured in the second-to-last image of the Instagram post, and the green “17â€� zipper tags; a few nice touches, indeed.  Push Cut’s Pebble covers While you probably won’t see one of these covers during competition this week, that doesn’t make these covers any less cool. Push Cut Custom cooked up a leather Pebble Beach headcover with red-white-and-blue fleece lining on the interior. As per the Instagram post, the headcovers are currently available at auction. For more custom equipment from the 2019 majors, check out The Masters and PGA Championship editions.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood kept a clean card in the March wind, kept his patience and was rewarded at the end with three straight birdies for a 7-under 65 to set the early pace Thursday in THE PLAYERS Championship. The move from May to its traditional spot on the calendar brought green, softer conditions and more wind than usual. Even so, Fleetwood was among several early starters who managed to take aim on the TPC Sawgrass. Fleetwood had only one birdie on the slightly easier back nine, and finished with birdie putts from 15 feet, 30 feet and 18 feet. “If you’re in the fairway all the time, the course feels very, very different,” Fleetwood said. “And it’s a massive key around here. And then I just started picking a few shots up, and then you get on a run like 7, 8, 9, and it feels great after that. Just one of them would feel like a great round, so three of them … I’ll take it.” Byeong Hun An and Brian Harman were at 66, while Rory McIlroy also played bogey-free for a 67. Tiger Woods was among the late starters on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Of those playing in the afternoon, Keegan Bradley and Ryan Moore were the only serious threats to catch Fleetwood. Moore had a hole-in-one on the island-green 17th. Starting on the back nine, Bradley played No. 15 – 18 in 4 under to go out in 5 under. He kept a clean card on the front but couldn’t pull ahead of Fleetwood and will begin Round 2 tied with the Englishman at 7 under. Harris English had an albatross — the third straight year for one at THE PLAYERS — on the par-5 11th hole. The scoring wasn’t unusual, nor was the tight leaderboard. It was simply the way the golf course was playing — longer off the tee because the fairways aren’t quite as fast with rye overseed, softer around the greens. Charles Howell III holed out for an eagle from a fairway bunker on the fourth hole. Harold Varner holed out from the rough on No. 1. “Holing out from a fairway bunker on that hole, no, that will never happen again,” Howell said. “I used that up, so that’s done.” In May or in March, there’s generally no lack of excitement at Sawgrass. McIlroy was among those who approved of the calendar change. This was only the third time in 10 starts at THE PLAYERS he broke 70 in the first round. “I think the course over the last 10 years … it hasn’t lent itself to aggressive play,” McIlroy said. “It’s sort of position and irons off the tee and really trying to plot your way around the golf course. I hit drivers on holes today that I would never have hit driver the last few years. “I don’t know if the course is easier or not,” he said. “We’ll see what the stroke average is at the end of the day. But because I think it’s playing longer, it’ll play longer for most of the guys, and I think it should all even out. But I definitely like the golf course the way it is in March.” Whatever the month, the island green is still there. Moore used a 54-degree wedge for the first ace on the 17th hole since Sergio Garcia two years ago. It was the ninth hole-in-one on the most infamous hole at Sawgrass during THE PLAYERS. Paul Casey put two in the water on the 17th and made a quadruple bogey. English’s shot barely cleared the bunker and rolled softly into the cup for his 2 on the 11th hole, the first albatross on that hole since Hunter Mahan in 2007. It was the fifth in tournament history. Fleetwood, the 36-hole leader last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard until a bad patch on Saturday took him out of the mix, kept motoring along. He putted for birdie on all but two holes, getting up-and-down from 127 yards on the 14th hole and from just off the green at No. 4. “If you like golf, you should like this golf course, really,” Fleetwood said. “It’s just about as fair as you’re going to get a test. If you hit it well like I did today, you’re going to have chances and you can shoot a score, and people are shooting scores. But you can also get it the other way, as soon as you start struggling and start going the other way, it can easily go against you. It’s an amazing course for that.”

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Some of Tiger Woods’ most indelible career highlights have come at Pebble Beach. Now he’s planning on adding another, but with blueprints and bulldozers, not his golf clubs. Woods’ design company, TGR Design, and the Pebble Beach Company have announced plans for a reimagined short-course facility at Pebble, which will include a nine-hole par-3 short course, a putting course, and an indoor/outdoor food and beverage venue. “Everyone who plays this golf course is going to enjoy the playability of it,� said Woods, who has 82 career PGA TOUR victories. “Golfers will have the choice to play nearly any club off most tees and around the greens, which will make them think and channel their creativity. It will also play differently from day to day depending on the tee and hole locations and wind direction. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to play it.� Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach. Earlier that year he overcame a seven-shot deficit in nine holes to beat Matt Gogel at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He has plenty of fond memories there. The new short-course facility on the former site of the Peter Hay Golf Course, located directly between the Pebble Beach Pro Shop and Golf Academy, will feature one of the resort’s most stunning views. The new facility will also feature: • A short course comprised of nine par-3 holes ranging in length from 47 to 106 yards and measuring 670 yards in total • A 20,000-square-foot putting course that can be set up in a variety of different hole and routing combinations • A 5,000-square-foot food and beverage venue featuring a full kitchen and bar, indoor seating, and the resort’s largest outdoor patio positioned for expansive views of the short course, putting course, Carmel Bay, and Point Lobos “We are thrilled to elevate the quality of our short course to a level consistent with our other world-class golf courses,� said Bill Perocchi, Chief Executive Officer of Pebble Beach Company. “You can see the genius of Tiger Woods and TGR Design come to life when you walk the site, the way it all fits together. I expect all aspects of this new facility will be very popular for junior golf events, resort golfers, outings, resident hang-outs, and everything in between.� Woods has reoriented the routing to better capture the views, with four holes now playing directly toward Carmel Bay. He also aligned each hole’s yardage to correspond with a significant year in Pebble Beach history, with accompanying plaques on each tee telling a story and creating the sense guests are walking amongst Pebble’s rich championship heritage. The course’s second hole will be an exact replica of the famous par-3 seventh at Pebble Beach Golf Links. “Pebble Beach is such an iconic golf destination,� Woods said, “we want guests to feel the entirety of that spirit when they play this course. We also know not everyone who comes to Pebble Beach will have a chance to play the U.S. Open course, so we wanted to create the opportunity for all visitors to experience one of its most famous holes.� The grand opening is scheduled for the spring of 2021.

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