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Morning 9: Ready for the Masters already | A golf writer gets apparel scripted | The perseverance of Haley Moore

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6 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

April 3, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.
1. Cue the Masters theme already!
Doug Ferguson penned a fitting articulation of what we’re all feeling at this point in the season…
  • He begins…“There’s nothing like the soothing sights and ground-shaking sounds at Augusta National to get minds off far too many contentious moments this year.”
  • “The opening act to the golf season has not been dull, just not always for the right reasons.”
  • “More than “Who won what?” too much attention has been on “They did what?”
  • “Perhaps it was only fitting that two players under the most scrutiny this year – Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar – would share the stage at the Match Play in a quarterfinal meeting that jokingly was dubbed the “Apology Match.”
Full piece, including a rundown of all things Kuchar, Garcia, and rules-related.
2. Myers gets scripted
Excellent stuff from Golf Digest’s Alex Myers as he went through the paces of apparel scripting for a major championship.
  • A morsel…”Players are asked who they look to for style inspiration, and that’s not limited to the golf course with names like David Beckham and Justin Timberlake coming up. I’m told that Xander’s fashion preferences have evolved a lot in a short time. Initially hesitant to wear even the subtlest of patterns, he’s now become one of the more adventurous golfers on the Adidas roster. This is both the result of Schauffele’s growing confidence and stature on the PGA Tour, as well as continually being pitched on new apparel.”
  • “They let us lead, they see us as the experts,” Adidas Golf president Jeff Lienhart said. “We certainly want the products we put on their back to reflect their personalities and their sense of style. And we have a diverse enough range that we’re able to do that with everybody.”
  • “I decide I’m going to let the five-person team surrounding me lead as well. I’ve always considered myself a pretty decent dresser on the course, but that’s not saying much when compared to my regular golf group (Sorry, guys). I also have a leg up on my friends having worked with Golf Digest’s Mr. Style, Marty Hackel, for a decade, and procured most of my best pieces through him. But as someone who thinks spending more than two minutes packing for my annual trip is a lot, I’m intrigued as to how it takes more than two years to pick out golf clothes at the highest level.”
3. U.S. Am championship match on 2 courses
Golf Digest’s Ryan Herrington with the news that both No. 2 and No. 4 will be used for the 36-hole U.S. Am final.
  • “Save for the eight years from 1965 to 1972 in which the U.S. Amateur was contested at stroke play, a 36-hole championship match to decide the winner has been a staple of the USGA’s oldest event. And each time the finale has been contested on a single course, playing the same 18-hole loop twice. But that tradition is set to change this summer at North Carolina’s Pinehurst Resort.”
  • “USGA officials announced on Tuesday that this year’s 36-hole championship match, set for Aug. 18, will be played over two courses: Pinehurst No. 4 for the morning 18 holes and then Donald Ross’ famed No. 2 course for the afternoon.”
  • “The departure from the past comes in the wake of architect Gil Hanse’s recent redesign of the resort’s No. 4 course. Since its re-opening in 2018, No. 4 has received near universal praise, leaving a strong enough impression to convince the USGA to experiment with using it to co-host the championship match.”
4. Speaketh the Shark
Greg Norman talked of nearly throwing down with fans at the ’86 U.S. Open on an appearance on Dan Patrick’s Undeniable.
  • Our Gianni Magliocco…“Norman also discussed a pivotal moment in his career, when he wasn’t able to close on a Sunday afternoon at Shinnecock Hills at the 1986 US Open. The Australian held a one-shot lead heading into the final round of the event, and Norman stated how he lost his cool with the abuse he was receiving from the fans that day, and how it was a significant learning experience for himself.”
  • “It was interesting with the crowd reaction. They were saying ‘Go home you effing Aussie’, ‘You can’t play golf’, ‘You’re a choker’, you’re this, you’re that, so it was very hard because they get you while you’re walking between the green and the tee, when you’ve got six foot of space, and they’re just yelling into your ear.
  • “So it was hard to focus on it, and I kind of lost my cool on one of the holes on Sunday, and I should never have done it. I went up into the gallery, and I knew who it was. There was this sea of faces, and I just swung to the right, walked right up to this guy, and I said ‘Look, if you want to say something to me, say it to me in the car park at the end of the round when I can do something about it.”
  • “I broke the sporting code of golf, and I should never have done it, but I just had enough. It was an education for me to tune yourself out or block things out a little bit better.”

Full piece.
5. Why Rickie likes to play the week before majors
JuliaKate E. Culpepper at Golfweek….”Fowler chose to compete in the Valero Texas Open this week, one week before the Masters, because he knows it will make him more confident when he arrives at Augusta National.”
  • “I like playing competitively if I can leading up to majors or some big weeks,” Fowler said Tuesday at his Valero Texas Open news conference. “So for me, like I said, I played Houston in the past leading up to Augusta. I typically play the Scottish Open into the British (Open). Sometimes into the U.S. Open or the PGA (Championship)… I have definitely seen it be beneficial to play the week before.”
  • “You know, you’re not far coming off competition when you tee it up Thursday morning in a major. It just makes me feel more comfortable, more confident.”
6. G-Mac and his 6-iron
Among Doug Ferguson’s assorted Tour notes is this bit on a pair of well-struck 6-iron shots in the career of G-Mac.
  • “Two of the most significant shots Graeme McDowell has hit in his career were a 6-iron, for different reasons and on entirely different stages.”
  • “The most famous was on the 16th hole at Celtic Manor in 2010 at Ryder Cup, which came down to the final match between McDowell and Hunter Mahan. McDowell had a 1-up lead when he hit 6-iron to 15 feet for a birdie that gave him control of the match and led to victory.”
  • “The other was Sunday in the Dominican Republic, where McDowell was trailing Chris Stroud by one shot with two holes to play. On the par-3 17th, the 6-iron was so pure that McDowell didn’t even watch, walking over toward caddie Kenny Comboy and looking up only when it settled 8 feet from the flag.”
  • “The Ryder Cup made him a hero….The birdie he made in Punta Cana restored his PGA Tour card.”
7. Haley Moore perseveres
Superb piece from Ryan Lavner at Golf Channel on the difficult path of Haley Moore (who tees it up at the ANWA this week)
  • “…SIX YEARS LATER, HALEY Moore is an NCAA legend, an invitee to this week’s inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, a graduating senior who expects to enjoy a long and fruitful pro career. But during that initial trip to Tucson, her family had its reasons for wanting – no, needing – Haley to be handled delicately. Her life hadn’t been as easy as her scores made it seem.”
  • “Hers was a classic case of teenage bullying: Bigger than kids her age and socially awkward, classmates stared and gossiped about her. She was always one of the last kids picked in gym class. She steered clear of extracurricular activities. Lunchtime was a necessary evil. “They’d say that I was fat and I was ugly, and I’d go sit down at a table at the end, and right when I’d sit down, they’d get up,” she says. “And I’d just be like, OK, whatever.”
  • “In sixth grade, a group of students stole her backpack, filled it with water and tossed it into the boys’ bathroom. Everything was ruined – her bag, her notes, her new Justin Bieber book. Haley was mortified, but the bullies weren’t punished. A hard lesson instilled early.”
8. Wie back from injury for ANA
….with fiance, and armlock putting stroke, too…
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell...”Michelle Wie played nine holes of practice Monday at Mission Hills and another nine Tuesday in preparation for the ANA Inspiration, the year’s first major championship.”
  • “She’s looking to make her first start since withdrawing in pain in the first round of her title defense at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore almost five weeks ago. It will be just her third start in five months, since she underwent season-ending surgery last fall to repair an avulsion fracture, bone spurs and nerve entrapment in her right hand.”
  • So far, so good.
  • “It feels pretty good, knock on wood,” Wie told GolfChannel.com on her way to the range Tuesday after nine holes of practice. “I should say no comment on that because every time I say I’m feeling pretty good, something else happens.”
9. Bounce breakdown 
If I might call your attention to the third feature from WRX’s resident “Wedge Guy,” Mr. Terry Koehler. This week, the former Eidolon and Ben Hogan CEO discusses a subject that’s very much in his fairway, if you will: wedge bounce.
  • “Very simply, “bounce” is the design feature of the sole of a wedge (or actually, any golf club) that helps it perform properly when it makes contact with the turf. A “worm’s eye view” of any wedge shows that the sole of the club has a downward angle from the leading edge back to the trailing edge. That angle, in relation to the horizontal line of the turf is what is defined as the “bounce angle”
  • “In general, the higher that angle (measured in degrees from the horizontal plane of the turf), the more the club will tend to be “rejected” by the turf upon impact. Conversely, the lower the angle the less “rejection force” will be experienced. But also realize that the width of the sole and the bounce angle combine to produce a certain playability. A wide sole with a low bounce angle might perform very similar to (but also very differently than) a narrow sole with a higher bounce angle. Bounce is just not a simple subject.”

 

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

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Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

Published

3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

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I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

Published

4 weeks ago

on

Jul 29, 2025

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

 

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BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

Published

4 weeks ago

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Jul 28, 2025

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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WITB

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