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Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Rory McIlroy added a new TaylorMade club for Riviera

Jonathan Wall — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 15:30:58 +0000

Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.

Worthy options

The tight, tree-lined fairways of Riviera Country Club don’t scream bomb and gouge. With the Kikuyu grass adding another layer of defense, it’s no wonder some players in the field opted to shake up their equipment setups and add a “fairway finder” to the bag — Rory McIlroy included.

Depending on the course setup, McIlroy has two different 3-irons at his disposal. A steel-shafted TaylorMade P770 (Project X Rifle 7.0) is the most common option and ably fills the distance gap between his TaylorMade Stealth Plus 5-wood and Rors Proto 4-iron. With a forged, hollow-body construction, the P770 offers an uptick in forgiveness and ball speed when McIlroy wants to attack the par 5s.

On weeks where he needs another option off the tee, McIlroy employs a graphite-shafted TaylorMade P790 — a club he reinserted at Riviera for the Genesis Invitational. McIlroy has used P790 UDI 2-iron in the past but chose to go with a standard P790 3-iron (19 degrees) that required him to conduct shaft testing to find the optimal build.

What McIlroy learned during testing early on was that his standard Project X Rifle 7.0 steel shaft was “too soft for his liking.” Without a viable steel option, McIlroy chose to test out different graphite options at home.

“With that club, every steel shaft I tried had a bit of left in it,” McIlroy told GOLF.com. “They made four 3-irons for me to try with graphite. I tried a Graphite Design Tour AD, Fujikura 115, Project X HZRDUS and a Fujikura Ventus Black.”

Testing revealed Ventus Black HB 10X was the best option for McIlroy, who eliminated the dreaded left miss with the low-torque shaft.

“The Ventus was the only one that didn’t make the ball go left for me,” McIlroy said. “The Black version of Ventus is really boardy and a continuation of what I already play in my [TaylorMade] woods.”

The P790 3-iron likely won’t be an every-week option for McIlroy, but with the correct shaft in place, he can rest easy knowing he has two worthy choices.

“Deciding on one 3-iron over the other just depends on the course,” he said. “At least I have options, which is what you want when you’re seeing different setups.”

Picture of consistency

Morikawa and TaylorMade came to terms on a contract extension. Getty Images

Collin Morikawa won’t be changing equipment teams anytime soon. The world No. 2 put pen to paper on a new multi-year extension that will see him remain a TaylorMade staffer for the foreseeable future.

“I’m glad to partner with [TaylorMade] for another handful for years,” Morikawa said. “They’ve been great to me. I really have had them by my side forever and it’s always nice to have someone you can trust. That’s the biggest thing out here, how many people can you trust? I keep my circle pretty tight. As you progress along professional golf you add people to your group. As long as you trust them it makes life a lot easier and when you’re out there you just worry about playing golf.”

Morikawa, who finished runner-up at Riviera, has been a member of TaylorMade’s Tour staff since he turned pro in 2019.

A first time for everything

Rickie Fowler gave TaylorMade’s Spider GT Black putter a try. Getty Images

Rickie Fowler’s search for a reliable putter led him to try a TaylorMade putter for the first time in his career at the Genesis Open. The 33-year-old tapped a 35-inch Spider GT Black with a single sightline on the crown. Released earlier this year, the latest version of TaylorMade’s popular Spider putter is equipped with a lightweight 145-gram top plate made of 6061 aluminum AND two 90-gram steel side weights that push 82 percent of the putter’s weight towards the perimeter for more stability through the stroke and on off-center putts.

Fowler ranked 62nd in SG: Putting with the new wand.

Upping the difficulty

Thomas switched to a Vokey K-Grind at Riviera. Getty Images

Dislodging the ball from Riviera’s sticky Kikuyu grass requires a special set of tools. Justin Thomas was one of the notable names to change up his wedge setup to handle the unique conditions, replacing his 60.5-degree Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks lob wedge with a wide-sole K-Grind to keep the head from digging into the turf at impact. (Xander Schauffele also added an SM9 WedgeWorks K-Grind lob wedge.)

While Thomas chose to increase sole width and add bounce, others went the opposite direction, reducing overall bounce to allow the club to quickly extract the ball from the rough.

Quick-hitters: Dustin Johnson replaced his TaylorMade Rescue with a DJ Proto 3-iron. … Sergio Garcia switched to a 10.5-degree TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver. … Maverick McNealy had a Callaway Jaws 60-08W lob wedge built with trailing relief for the conditions at Riviera. … Matt Kuchar added an 18-degree TaylorMade Stealth fairway wood. … Joaquin Niemann’s win with a Titleist Pro V1x made it 5 consecutive golf ball Tour wins — and 9 out of the last 10 — for the equipment manufacturer.

Zephyr Melton contributed to this week’s gear notes.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3v2f04nVqvIgIJneBCfki3?si=c0b19dcb77dc454a

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How golfers are like actors, according to Max Homa's acting-coach father

Michael Bamberger — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:01:31 +0000

As Max Homa was playing to the house, and the CBS gang was talking about Riviera as a home game for him, I looked up the dude. Turns out, his father is an accomplished Los Angeles acting coach who counts among his pupils Kirsten Dunst, Brie Larson, Michelle Williams and some menfolk, too.

When his long day’s journey into near-night was over, Homa, your Genesis Open winner, was ushered into the grand Riviera clubhouse for a session with the scribes, some in person, others Microsofting their way in. I asked Homa, who is bearded and 30 and (only because it’s uncommon in his line of work) Jewish if he saw a connection between acting and golf.

“I don’t think there are very many parallels,” said Homa, who graduated from Cal in 2013, where he studied Consumer Behavior. “But being raised by a man who teaches is always good and helpful, I feel, for a kid. [My father] knows his strengths, when it comes to teaching. And the moment I asked him about the golf swing, when I was a kid, he sent me to a coach.”

Lifestyle

How the power of positive thinking led this ‘happy dude’ to his second PGA Tour win

By: Rachel Bleier

The only other connection, between acting and golf, Homa said, is that “at times trying to act like I’m the best player in the world, when that may not be the literal case.”

Well, Sunday at Riviera he was.

A little while later, I sent an email to John Homa, posing the same question.

I also wrote to two actor friends who are deeply deeply afflicted with the golf bug. One is David Morse and the other is Rich Kind. David is about as thoughtful as anybody I have ever known. Here’s what he said:

“This may apply to elite golfers more than duffers like us, but it shouldn’t. When we are acting we are trying to be in a place of no thinking. Just being in the moment. Way easier said than done. But when we are there in the moment we are open to surprise and going with whatever we are given. We aren’t thinking about how to say our lines, or how to do what we are doing. We are just truthfully doing what we are doing as the character and living a fully alive experience. That’s what we strive for. It is life giving and life itself. It is thrilling.

Short Game

‘You’ve got to be an artist’: In Max Homa’s heroic shot, a short-game lesson for all golfers

By: Zephyr Melton

“How do we get so we can have that freedom? Preparation. Lots of hard work. Internal work. Physical work. In the Meisner technique you do your emotional preparation and leave it at the door when you enter the scene. We do all the preparation so we don’t have to think about it when the time comes to be in front of an audience, or a camera and crew.

“When we watch golf on TV we often hear commentators talking about golfers being in their heads or looking mechanical. You know those golfers are not feeling great or in the moment. They are not feeling free like they would like to. They practice for hours and hours and hours. They rehearse their swings. They visualize shots before they hit them. They are trying to keep their minds from going to negative places. They have an internal life on the course, like actors have an internal life in their work. We visualize our world in rehearsals. We visualize our characters. We do it so when we step up to the tee, or walk through the door, we don’t have to think about our swing, or think about how we are going to act something. We just step up and let it go.”

Let it go! Words to live by. You may have to read David’s answer more than once, there’s so much there.

Richard Kind sees less crossover between golf and acting… Getty Images

…than does his fellow golf-mad actor David Morse. Getty Images

Here’s what Rich Kind said:

“I know you’d love a correlation, and David may disagree with me, but there is nothing about being an actor that intersects being a golfer.

“I have performed live at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 15,000 people, and I get more scared on the first tee with two foursomes waiting and watching.

“When you do a movie, there are 30 to 70 people behind the camera watching you be intimate. And yet, while you’re acting, THEY DON’T EXIST. In golf, I am not so free. It is not my comfort zone.

“The true champion has a talent in between the ears that tells him he is the best. When I step up to a golf ball, I’m praying it takes the shape and flight I’d like. That I can be the best ‘Richard Kind golfer’ I can be. But I know I’m not the best.

“I also don’t think an actor needs a good coach. A good director is a necessity. A golfer needs a good coach, as well as the natural talent to excel. The best golfers are elite in every way: eye-hand, [handling] pressure, strength. Etc. They’re in their comfort zone. Even when I am told, ‘Act like a golfer,’ I cannot. I had a friend who did golf imitations, who could mimic a swing. I’ve seen Tiger imitate Fred Couples’ swing. That’s acting.”

Peter Jacobsen is one of those people. He can imitate anybody’s swing. He also logged a lot of rounds with the late, great actor Jack Lemmon. I posed the same question to Peter, by email.

“I think the right now aspect of acting and golf are similar,” Peter said, writing back. “Although Jack used to say actors had it easier because they could do it again — unlimited takes! — where pro golfers don’t get do-overs, or even mulligans. We don’t have a director to say, ‘Let’s do that one again.’ In golf, you have one take.

News

Peter Jacobsen on Bill Murray, Tiger Woods and an old neighbor who’s back in the news

By: Michael Bamberger

“Jack once told me a story about shooting a movie outside and things hadn’t been running smoothly. The sun was setting and they had enough time for one last take. Jack said he sucked it up and nailed it. The director said, ‘That’s it.’ Jack said he felt better under the gun, with that pressure. That’s why he loved golf.

“The training actors get and the skill they have help them understand golf. Whether they’re good at it or not depends on their athletic skill.”

Jack Lemmon loved golf. He didn’t have much gift for it. Peter was in Tin Cup with Kevin Costner. Costner, training for the movie, became reasonably good reasonably quickly. Not because of his acting ability. Peter explained it in a more fundamental way: “Costner is a natural athlete.”

OK, here’s John. John Homa. He thinks there’s a great deal of connection between being an actor and being a golfer, starting with the opening bell. Golfers have tee times. The actors have call, or curtain. You have to do everything you can to be ready at both, John said. “I’ve seen actors come into the lot, hit the brakes, put out their cigarette and say, ‘I’m ready.’ They’re not ready. I’ve worked a lot with LeAnn Rimes. She would never start anything with doing a complete warmup. She knows what it means to be ready.” He said Max knows what it means to be ready.

I asked if he could predict what Max had said in response to my question about the relationship between acting and golf. He had not seen the post-tournament press conference.

“He probably said that he tries to act like he’s the best golfer in the world,” John said.

“That’s almost exactly what he said,” I said.

“Sometimes,” John said, “you gotta fake it ‘til you make it.”

He talked at length about how he coached actors going in for auditions. “I tell them, ‘Don’t walk in there with your hat in your hand, walk in there like you have the part.’”

John Homa and LeAnn Rimes in 2007. getty images

Homa first met David Morse, he said, 40 or so years ago, when they were both young actors in New York City. He coached an actor, Sarah Roemer, who had a lead role in Disturbia, as did David. Homa knows Rich Kind more from a distance. “Richard B. Kind,” Homa said. “His credits are longer than your leg.”

Rich plays at Lakeside, where Bing Crosby used to play and where Max Homa used to caddie. Rich’s father was a jeweler in Princeton, N.J. Max’s mother’s family, the Milsteins of Allentown, Pa., owned a floral business. You can draw a line from Allentown to Princeton. The line between Rich Kind and John Homa requires about two degrees of separation, if you’re doing the Kevin Bacon thing. Golf and acting both have a lot of that.

We touched about some odd, interesting comparisons. For instance: In the Riviera clubhouse, there are portraits of various legends who have won there including Ben Hogan, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson; at the Shubert Theatre in New York, there are portraits of various legends who have worked there, including Katharine Hepburn and Frank Langella and Jeff Daniels. But John took this conversation far deeper.

“Stillness is so important to both the actor and the golfer,” he said. “Not still rigid. Not stiff. You’re still and you’re relaxed. In both things, you find freedom through structure.” He spoke of golfers who have committed to memory every point along the way in a full golf swing, but can’t actually play. He said there are actors who do the same thing, they memorize what they are supposed to say and what they are supposed to do. The question to such actors, John said was, “Did the audience believe you?” This is kind of stretch, but if you’re faking it in golf, the golf ball knows.

Lifestyle

There’s a rich intersection between music-loving golfers and golf-minded musicians

By: Michael Bamberger

John says Tiger’s best work as an actor is when he’s selling a product he actually uses and believes in.

He said the golf coach and the acting coach perform the same role: “We’re the third eye.”

The father of the winner at Riviera doesn’t pretend to be his coach in any way. Just his father, his proud father. Every time our hour-long phone interview strayed from acting, it was because John wanted to talk about his son the golfer, his son the brother (Max has one sibling, a sister), his son the son.

We discussed the movie Annie Hall. Woody Allen plays a New York comedian and writer named Alvy Singer. Tony Roberts plays Alvy’s Los Angeles actor friend, Rob. But they call each other Max. It’s odd and funny.

Max Homa is funny, and a good writer. His full name is John Maxwell Homa. “His mother came up with Max,” John Homa said. “I don’t know where from but we always loved that name and always knew that’s what we would call him, just Max.”

He had a TV on behind him. It wasn’t Inside the Actors Studio on Ovation. It wasn’t Great Performances on PBS. It was a highlight reel from the tournament on local news.

“There’s Max,” the father said.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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Why the Genesis Invitational wasn't the best finish this year

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 19:00:53 +0000

There were some great shots executed down the stretch at the Genesis Invitational but Sean Zak and Dylan Dethier explain why this doesn’t rank as the best finish on Tour this year.

The post Why the Genesis Invitational wasn’t the best finish this year appeared first on Golf.

#AskAlan: Is Tiger Woods's conditioning a cause for concern?

Alan Shipnuck — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 17:46:31 +0000

Every week, GOLF senior writer Alan Shipnuck fields questions from the masses about hot topics in the golf world. This week, Shipnuck dishes on J.B. Holmes and his solution to slow play, Tiger Woods’ conditioning concerns at the Genesis, Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar’s apologies and much more.

Is J.B. Holmes the guy who asks the waitress to list all 45 beers and then orders the Bud Light? -@1159shadyave

So many excellent J.B. barbs this week, and this was my favorite. Yes, it was torturous watching Holmes bog down the telecast, but I, for one, am thankful for his, uh, deliberateness. In fact, I hope he contends every time he tees it up, because Holmes’s presence on the leaderboard may finally lead to a tipping point in the battle against slow play. J.B.’s plum-bobbing on two-footers is the golf equivalent of baby seals being clubbed to death; that is, a powerful image that unifies public sentiment against a grave injustice. Thank you J.B. for your invaluable service.

Tournaments

In defense of J.B. Holmes: Why the PGA Tour’s slow play problem has nothing to do with one guy

#AskAlan Do we all owe Rory Sabbatini a big apology for jumping down his throat after he left his slow-playing partner behind? Did he really have it right all those years ago? -@1beardedgolfer

Yes, Rory was clearly a man ahead of his time. When we write a revisionist history of the Tour he will surely be hailed as the hero we didn’t deserve. In fact, Sabbatini’s civil disobedience offers a valuable template for battling slow play. Golf fans and scribes can complain every Sunday on Twitter, but that is clearly not going to spark a revolution. Jay Monahan and his castrated rules officials have proven they don’t have the balls to deal with this issue. The corporate sponsors and TV networks want to pretend everything is hunky-dory. It is going to take vigilante justice from the players to affect change. We need alpha males like Tiger, Phil, Brooks, and R. McIlroy to start calling out and confronting the slow pokes in a very public fashion, and that may finally start to reshape the culture on Tour.

Hearing his comments after finishing the 4th round, is Tiger’s conditioning a concern or is age catching up to him a little bit? -Daniel (@68shooter)

Tiger is the world’s oldest 43 year-old. In fact, his age should be measured in dog years. He’s been grinding since he was two years old and his body has repeatedly broken under the strain. With his reconstituted spine there are simply going to be days when his body won’t allow him to play his best. Cold temperatures and rain and long days of starting and stopping is never going to be a good recipe for Tiger’s back, and he looked stiff and tired all weekend at Riv. Of course, it’s going to be a chilly year of golf and Tiger is going to have to find ways to stay loose and refreshed or he’s going to struggle in the biggest events. The Players in March could be frigid, Bethpage in May might be cold and wet, Pebble Beach in June is always foggy, and Portrush could be nasty. Yikes.

Tiger Woods had an outside chance to win the Genesis Open before four late bogeys derailed him.

Getty Images

#AskAlan Regarding Sergio and Kuch: A: whose apology was more sincere? B: whose apology was more effective? Bonus round: whose original sin was more egregious? -Oskar (@tallboy199)

A). Sergio’s felt like real contrition, while it appeared to take a team of crisis management experts to convince Kuchar to sort of say and do something like the right thing. Advantage Garcia.

B). Sergio has always been petulant and he long ago lost the benefit of the doubt; the whole golf world will be watching for his next slip-up. I think Kuchar finally put an end to his sordid saga, so I’ll give him the edge. Barely.

Bonus round: What Sergio did was ridiculous, but I don’t think it had any real effect on the players behind him, other than irritating them. Grass grows, greens recover. But Kuchar revealed himself to be a scrooge and point-misser of epic proportions. Screwing over the little guy – and repeatedly blowing opportunities to make it right – is worse than losing your cool on the golf course.

On a scale of 1 to Steve Blass, how concerned are you about the state of Jordan Spieth’s mind? -Garrett (@gfordgolf)

Deeply. Also his putting stroke. And swing. Clearly Spieth is accumulating massive amounts of scar tissue with his weekend blowups. But the guy has always been resilient. Even his greatest triumphs have been fraught – think of the 71st hole double bogey at Chambers Bay or the epic recovery at Birkdale. Spieth is too tough and too talented to simply go away at the tender age of 25. But it’s a long way back to where he was. I’m looking forward to watching him battle through this.

News

Tiger Woods ran out of gas this week, but make no mistake: Riviera now belongs to him

How many weeks of this before Adam Scott starts taking the flag out from 3 feet and in? Obviously helping him on long putts but he’s been brutal on shorties. -Andrew (@Kitzmania)

Through the years Scott has actually been a pretty okay putter from mid- and long-range. It’s the short putts that have always been his bugaboo. It’s not the flagstick that is hurting him, we’re just all paying closer attention to him because the pin is in. But he’s awful from short-range with or without the flagstick.

If the CBS telecast were a person would they have dinner at 4:00 pm in a Bob Evans? Would they also wear a sweater in July in Boca Raton? -@HouseSacco

It’s true that the CBS telecast retains the sensibilities of Ken Venturi, who would now be pushing 90. I dare say that, except for slow play, nothing unites Golf Twitter like protestations about the CBS telecasts. The presentation and metabolism simply isn’t working with the modern golf fan. What’s interesting is that the PGA Tour knows it, because minions from the communications dept. have pushed back against some of the fiercest on-line critics. Perhaps all of this energy would be better spent helping CBS improve its product.

What circle of hell do they put audio of Ian Baker-Finch saying “kikuyu” on eternal loop? #AskAlan -Greg (@GBPackersFan)

Oh, c’mon, that’s one of my guilty pleasures! Next year we should all play a drinking game where we take a shot every time IBF uses that glorious word. We’ll all be dead by Saturday afternoon.

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In defense of J.B. Holmes: Why the PGA Tour's slow play problem has nothing to do with one guy

Dylan Dethier — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:15:43 +0000

Two days after golf’s tastemakers — in the broadcast booth, on social media, and in the media-media — collectively excoriated J.B. Holmes for grinding the Genesis Open’s final nine holes to a near-halt, I submit to you this simple idea: It is not his responsibility to play fast. He has little incentive to do so. Golf’s rulers have made it that way. And if they don’t like it, they’ll have to make a radical change — and they’ll have to do it themselves.

It’s important to note that in contrast to Bubba Watson, who joined the Tour the same year, Holmes never sought nor achieved the sort of cult-hero status that could easily have accompanied a brawny, long-bombing country kid from small-town Kentucky who’d made his high school team in third grade (yeah, seriously). Instead, despite winning in just his fourth start on Tour and going on to earn two U.S. Ryder Cup appearances, he has kept a relatively low profile. He has never begged for fans. He doesn’t do much on Twitter, save for the occasional sponsor plug or airline complaint. He hardly does commercials and has no Instagram account. He’s in the minority of Tour players who has eschewed The Scene in Jupiter for Bradenton, which is essentially the Midwest of Florida.

Why is this important? Because from his perspective, Holmes doesn’t owe golf fans much of anything. Inherently, being an entertaining figure isn’t a huge responsibility for him. His job is to shoot the lowest score while playing within the boundaries of the rules. And the rules, at least as they’ve been enforced, allow him nearly as long as he wants to play a shot. Right or wrong, that is the PGA Tour Holmes has grown to know and adapt to for the last 13 years, and unless he’s told he needs to, it’s unlikely he’ll change.

If you’re only mad at J.B. Holmes, you’re missing the whole picture.

By continuing to play slow, in primetime, in contention, Holmes and players like him have put the onus back on golf’s governing bodies to enforce the rules already on the books. It’s not like he snuck up on them with this latest bout of pokishness — last year, you’ll recall Holmes held up the Grammys (the freakin’ Grammys!) when he took four minutes 10 seconds just to lay up at Torrey Pines. Not only was the issue not addressed, the PGA Tour commissioner defended him afterward, and it’s clear they’ve kept Holmes blissfully unaware of the havoc he’s wrought on CBS’s final-round broadcasts.

“I was never even close to being on the clock all week,” Holmes said this past Sunday. “I mean, yeah, when I first got out here I was really slow, but I’ve sped up quite a bit.” That doesn’t sound like a man who’s been told to get his act together. And bear in mind the results of GOLF’s Anonymous Tour Pro survey, two questions in particular:

HAS HAVING A SLOW-PLAYING PARTNER EVER HURT YOUR ON-COURSE PERFORMANCE?

YES: 78%
NO: 22%

“A bunch of millionaires aren’t going to speed up by fining them 10K.”

DO YOU FEEL YOUR OWN PACE OF PLAY IS ACCEPTABLE?

YES: 100%
NO: 0%

Clearly, there’s an accountability problem here, and singling out Holmes does a further disservice of making it seem like he’s the only one. The culture of slow play is well-ingrained throughout golf’s professional ranks. Justin Thomas, who played alongside Holmes on Sunday, wasn’t setting any land speed records (and through it all, their group didn’t fall particularly behind, suggesting sloth-like pace throughout). Bryson DeChambeau is among those unmoved by any potential threat of penalty. “I mean, shoot, we’re almost put on the clock every week,” he said in January. He’s right to be comfy — the Tour has penalized just two players in 24 years.

You may also like What exactly is the PGA Tour’s Pace of Play policy? Here are the basics

There’s some movement afoot, of course, for faster play. Fans on social media and several members of CBS’s broadcast team were in open rebellion on Sunday. Even several Tour players have spoken out. Colt Knost called it “a huge deal.” Zac Blair was blunt in his suggestion: “Stroke penalties > fines.” Before the Genesis, Adam Scott offered to fall on the sword if it meant action. “Make me the victim,” he said. “I’ll take the penalty.” The collective exasperation felt like a grassroots movement, perhaps with enough momentum to effect change.

But on Sunday, at the end of a marathon 33.5-hole grind alongside Holmes and Thomas, Scott’s tone had grown more defeatist. “I’ll tell you, my thing on slow play is it’s never going to change,” he said. “I think it’s just — get over it. Until television and sponsors say no more money, slow play ain’t going to change.”

Golf’s conclusions are, in part, exciting because they’re slow. Tournament play crescendos to a big finish; suspense builds in the in-between moments. But the game is at no risk of losing that dramatic tension. What’s at risk is losing viewers before they get there. And pinning that all on J.B. isn’t going to help.

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J.B. Holmes skipping WGC-Mexico Championship for family vacation

Pat Ralph — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:31:48 +0000

J.B. Holmes’ one-shot victory at the Genesis Open on Sunday earned him a spot into this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec. But the 36-year-old isn’t planning on attending because he’s got other plans: family vacation.

After four consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, Holmes and his family are ready to get away from the golf world for a bit.

“I’m not going to play,” Holmes said after his victory at Riviera Country Club. “We had a vacation planned. I’ve been out four weeks, so it’s a long trip to Mexico. It’s an honor to be able to play in that tournament, but I’m tired. The kid’s been out, it’s been a long week, so we’re going to continue with the vacation we had planned next week and go do that.”

J.B. Holmes and his family will be going on vacation following his win at the Genesis.

Getty Images

It’s a well-earned vacation for Holmes, who won for the first time in four years on Sunday. His victory was the eighth of his professional career and fifth on the PGA Tour.

Holmes’ win also earned him a spot in the Masters at Augusta National in April. He won’t be skipping that one.

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Genesis Open Recap

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 18:56:04 +0000

Justin Thomas lost the largest 54-hole lead of his career as J.B. Holmes won the tournament.

The post Genesis Open Recap appeared first on Golf.

Pair of eagles powers Tiger to strong third round at Genesis Open

Pat Ralph — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 22:45:55 +0000

Tiger Woods will head into the final round of the Genesis Open in contention for his first title at Riviera Country Club after a 6-under 65 third round to move to 10 shots back and 7-under overall for the tournament. Tiger’s round, which was his lowest score at the Genesis Open since 2004, was highlighted by a pair of eagles.

Tiger, who played his third round alongside Cody Gribble and Peter Malnati, began his third round from the 10th tee on Saturday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. local time. And he wasted no time getting to work, as he started off by going birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie on the first four holes.

Here’s how the first of two eagles in the round unfolded for Tiger. It took place at the par-5 11th tee.

5-wood to 6 feet. 🦅@TigerWoods is bringing the noise.#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/llrFnUsvvT

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 17, 2019

His birdies came at the par-4 10th, 12th, and 13th holes.

Tiger Woods is in contention heading into the final round of the Genesis Open.

Getty Images

Tiger would par the next three holes before play was suspended at approximately 5:45 p.m. local time when he and his group were at the par-5 17th hole.

After saying that he would get up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. local time the next morning for his Sunday tee time, Tiger and his group resumed play at the 17th tee at 6:45 a.m. local time. The 43-year-old Woods would par the 17th and par-4 18th holes to make the turn at 5-under 31 for the round.

Tiger’s strong play continued after the turn, as he nailed his second eagle of the round at the par-5 first hole. It was the first time that the 14-time major champion finished with two eagles in a round since the final round at the 2012 Honda Classic. It’s his 19th career round with multiple eagles.

🦅@TigerWoods is now 5 back. 👀#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/mdqPS36bC7

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 17, 2019

Tiger would then settle for par on the next six holes before his bogey-free round would come to an end, as he bogeyed the par-4 eighth hole. Tiger closed out the round with par at the par-4 ninth hole and tied for 13th.

The 80-time PGA Tour winner and his group of Gribble and Malnati are expected to begin their final round at 10:10 a.m. local time on Sunday morning from the 10th tee. Players will stay in the same groupings for both the third and fourth rounds.

The only thing standing between Tiger and a chance to win his first-ever title at the Genesis Open? A scorching-hot Justin Thomas. The 25-year-old Thomas, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the world, is 17-under for the tournament and 6-under through 12 holes in the third round. He’s looking for his first win on Tour since the Bridgestone Invitational this past August.

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Genesis Open: Total purse, payout breakdown, and winner's share

Pat Ralph — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 19:18:51 +0000

The Genesis Open continues on Sunday with third round action and likely the start of final round play at Riviera Country Clu b, where Justin Thomas holds a one-shot lead over Adam Scott. The purse for the event is set at $7.4 million, while the winner’s share is set at $1.332 million.

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2019 Genesis Open: Sunday final round tee times, TV listings, how to watch

The runner-up will walk away with $799,200, while the third-place finisher is expected to earn $503,200.

The payout breakdown for the top 70 in the field is below.

Justin Thomas holds a one-shot lead heading into Sunday's action at the Genesis Open.

Getty Images

GENESIS OPEN PAYOUT BREAKDOWN
1. $1,332,000
2. $799,200
3. $503,200
4. $355,200
5. $296,000
6. $266,400
7. $247,900
8. $229,400
9. $214,600
10. $199,800
11. $185,000
12. $170,200
13. $155,400
14. $140,600
15. $133,200
16. $125,800
17. $118,400
18. $111,000
19. $103,600
20. $96,200
21. $88,800
22. $82,880
23. $76,960
24. $71,040
25. $65,120
26. $59,200
27. $56,980
28. $54,760
29. $52,540
30. $50,320
31. $48,100
32. $45,880
33. $43,660
34. $41,810
35. $39,960
36. $38,110
37. $36,260
38. $34,780
39. $33,300
40. $31,820
41. $30,340
42. $28,860
43. $27,380
44. $25,900
45. $24,420
46. $22,940
47. $21,460
48. $20,276
49. $19,240
50. $18,648
51. $18,204
52. $17,760
53. $17,464
54. $17,168
55. $17,020
56. $16,872
57. $16,724
58. $16,576
59. $16,428
60. $16,280
61. $16,132
62. $15,984
63. $15,836
64. $15,688
65. $15,540
66. $15,392
67. $15,244
68. $15,096
69. $14,948
70. $14,800

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'Surreal, awesome and nuts': For Tiger's playing partner, Saturday round a dream come true

Adam Schupak — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 09:30:36 +0000

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — As Peter Malnati and Tiger Woods walked off the 12th tee at Riviera Country Club, Malnati asked the 14-time major winner if he was nervous about playing alongside him and informed Woods he wore a bucket cap to make him look less intimidating.

Woods chuckled. “Yeah, I’m terrified, but I’m handling it all right.”

Did he ever.

Woods played his first four holes in Saturday’s third round in 5-under for just the second time since 2003, but still has a lot of work ahead of him if he’s going to catch Justin Thomas when play resumes Sunday at the Genesis Open.

Thomas eagled the first hole to take a one-stroke lead at 13 under through 38 holes over Australian Adam Scott when play was suspended due to darkness.

It was a day that began bright and early for Malnati, who plugged his phone into an outlet that didn’t charge and left him lucky to wake up without aid of an alarm. But the rest of his day turned out to be unforgettable. Malnati, a 31-year-old journeyman with one PGA Tour victory to his credit, wrapped up a second-round 69 to finish at 1-under 141 and make the 36-hole cut and tracked the scores on his own phone with a hint of anticipation that he might be paired with Woods, his childhood hero, for the first time in his career.

Peter Malnati called it a dream come true to play alongside Woods on Saturday night.

Woods had to complete his second round early in the morning, when it was so cold that Thomas complained he couldn’t feel his toes and fingers for a bit. Woods made birdie at the final hole to shoot even-par 71. With two groups left on the course in the second round, Malnati checked the scores again and said that he and Woods were T-52. Next thing he knew, he got the tee time assignment for his threesome off No. 10 at 3:40 p.m. (Cody Gribble, who was 5 over for seven holes, dropping to last place among the 76 players to make the cut, rounded out the threesome.)

“Teenage me dreamed about that,” Malnati said.

But when Malnati arrived at the 315-yard 10^thhole, the best short par 4 on Tour, the nerves set in.

“All things considered, the 10th tee shouldn’t be terrifying. You’re not going to hit in a pond or out of bounds, but I was shaking,” he said. “It was the most awesome energy. It was so cool.”

Malnati described what happened over the next several holes as “surreal, awesome and nuts the way he played,” referring to Woods’s red-hot start of birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie, his best start since the second round of the 2009 Buick Open. Of the 5-wood Woods launched from 253 yards to inside 10 feet en route to eagle at the 11th hole, Malanti said, “That shot was super-easy for him.”

5-wood to 6 feet. 🦅@TigerWoods is bringing the noise.#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/llrFnUsvvT

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 17, 2019

More impressive to Malnati was the way Woods controlled his irons and flighted draws into the wind on 13 and 14.

“I could see that’s why the guy was so great,” Malnati said. “It looks like he’s never going to hit a bad iron shot.”

When Woods canned a 14-foot birdie putt at No. 13 to climb to 6 under for the tournament, the crowd erupted with glee. The group pressed on against the darkness, Woods, Malnati and Gribble playing like a group of golfers on a muny twilight rate, trying to complete as many holes as possible before they ran out of light. When asked if he wished he could keep going if not for darkness, Woods said, “Without a doubt. The way I was feeling, the way I was playing, I wanted to play as many holes as possible. Peter was great, he went over to 17 tee and teed off so we can get 17 in, so that was awfully nice of him to do something like that.”

Woods eventually elected to wait until the morning before playing his fourth shot on the par-5 17th from just short of the green.

His torrid start lifted him to T-14, but still seven strokes off the pace set by Thomas.

Play is expected to resume on Sunday at 6:45 am local time with hopes of declaring a winner by the end of day and avoiding a second straight Monday finish.

“That just sounds cold and dark,” Malnati said of Sunday’s sunrise start. “Can we get a second opinion?”

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Woods seconded that notion.

“It’s going to be a long one,” Woods said. “Up early and start working on it and staying loose and staying ready. It’s just going to be a lot of walking. And last couple of days, it’s definitely testing the body.”

But it didn’t take long for Malnati to realize the bright side of tomorrow’s marathon day of golf. He still had 10+ holes of the third round ahead of him with Woods and then a second 18 to learn from one of his heroes since they will not be re-pairing for the final round. Malnati noted that he spotted Woods a few shots — actually six — but cracked he had Woods right where he wanted him.

“I’m going to go kick his butt,” Malnati said. “You watch. He’s intimidated.”

Actually, Woods said it himself. He’s terrified.

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