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Morning 9: Bryson: I feel like I can go faster…and I’ve found something for more accuracy | JT: No ball rollback needed | Ricky Barnes’ wild night in the ANGC clubhouse

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5 years ago

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1 “Feel like I can go faster”
David Dusek at Golfweek…”Three years ago, DeChambeau asked his trainer, Greg Roskopf, a question. “What is the end game in all of this, in all this neuromuscular training and working out?'” Roskopf replied that he wasn’t sure because no athlete had ever, “gone the distance.”
  • “To that, DeChambeau said, “I’m willing to go the distance, and we went the distance…”
  • “I truly felt like I started to become an athlete probably around December of this past year,” DeChambeau said during a pre-tournament press conference Tuesday. “I started moving weights up quite a bit, and when I was with Greg in Denver, we just kept upping the weight, and I’m like, ‘Man, I did not think I would be able to tolerate all these forces going through my body,’ and I kept recovering well after that.”
  • “I wake up every day and feel like I can go faster, I can swing it faster,” DeChambeau said with a smile on Tuesday. “Just last week, I got my 6-iron up to 112 miles an hour swing speed. My ball speed was 160, and that was me going after it. But I don’t know where the limit is on this, and I’m excited about that because I keep looking forward to each and every day to go down this rabbit hole to see how far I can go.”
2. Bryson has “figured something out”
Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner with a few of the mad scientist of golf’s latest #content gems…”I think I’ve figured something out in the golf swing that will hopefully help me hit it a little straighter,” he said Tuesday. “That would be nice.”
  • “His length, of course, has not been the issue since he added roughly 40 pounds of muscle over the past year. He currently leads the PGA Tour in average driving distance, at 323.9 yards…”
  • “So how, exactly, did one of the game’s bulkiest bashers work on his accuracy during the off-week? It’s a trial-and-error process in which DeChambeau said he “must have tried 50 different things” as he worked his way through the entire bag.
  • “It’s just a process of elimination going on,” he said, “and then finding a little nugget every once in a while going, Oh my gosh, it works with everything! And that’s what I felt this past week.”
3. JT on Winged Foot: Really hard, maybe his favorite course
Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner…“Thomas played two rounds at Winged Foot (alongside Tiger Woods) earlier this week in anticipation of next month’s U.S. Open.”
  • “And the verdict?”
  • “It’s really hard,” he said Tuesday. “I absolutely loved it. It’s one of my favorite, if not my favorite courses I’ve ever played. It’s right there in front of you. It’s not tricked up. Nothing is hidden. You just stand on the tee and you’re about 490 yards away and you have a really narrow fairway and a pretty severe green. There’s a lot of holes like that.”
4. Thomas: No golf ball rollback needed
Zephyr Melton, owner of the best name in golf journalism, with this for Golf.com…“That said, there is still a place in the game for plodders. In fact, of the four golfers who have won multiple times this season – Brendon Todd, Collin Morikawa, Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas – only Thomas ranks inside the top 100 in driving distance. Bombs might generate headlines, but (this season, at least) precision has proven to be more important.”
  • “I think the fact that three guys have won multiple times this year being outside the top 100 in distance just proves yet again that you don’t need distance,” Thomas said at The Northern Trust. “Yeah, it’s helpful, but it makes me cringe and it really bothers me when whoever says that, you know, the golf ball or everything needs to be rolled back because there’s plenty of people that are still performing well that don’t hit it as far.
  • “It is quite an interesting stat,” Thomas continued. “I loved it when I saw it because that just kind of proves yet again that length is not the answer. It’s just helpful. Still got to get the ball in the hole.”
5. Beware USGA email scam
…and no I’m not referring to the one where you send $10 and all you get is a bag tag… kidding. Kidding.
  • Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…”The United States Golf Association put a warning out on social media on Tuesday about an email scam soliciting part-time employment at September’s U.S. Open.”
  • “The USGA advises everyone that this is scam and those involved are not affiliated with the USGA or the tournament.”
  • “The USGA was recently made aware of a fraudulent email campaign in which persons are falsely posing as USGA representatives to offer job candidates part-time employment for use of their vehicles to advertise for the 2020 U.S. Open. Please be advised that this is a scam. This email campaign and the persons involved are in no way affiliated with or have any connection to the USGA or the U.S. Open. Do not respond to the email and do not provide any personal or financial information. If you receive any such email or solicitation, please email the USGA at privacy@usga.org. You may also want to notify your local law enforcement regarding this scam.”
6. Ratings? 
Geoff Shackelford writes…”last week’s Wyndham Championship, won in compelling fashion by Jim Herman over Billy Horschel. It was soggy, hot, with an ok field, but sports television offered plenty of competition: NASCAR, NHL playoffs and MLB games across the country. Oh, and sports fans have lives that might have them doing other things, too, reportedly.”
  • “Yet the Wyndham held its own against the heavy competition. From ShowBuzzDaily.com’s roundup of sports ratings where you can see how the other sports fared…”
  • “The 1.62 edged out the Portland-Memphis NBA play-in game on ABC Saturday, which did draw a much younger audience, but just a 1.29. While this was not a true playoff game and the NBA/ABC combo is off 45% on average from 2012, this is still an eye-opening sight with golf facing tougher competition Sunday. (The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss looks at the NBA’s falling ratings here.)”
  • “Up 36% from last year’s Wyndham, the tournament at Sedgefield also held its own against 2019’s BMW Championship. That was won by Justin Thomas and contested on a similar weekend as the 2020 Wyndham, but with less TV competition and a better field…”
7. Mac Bernhardt
Michael Bamberger at Golf.com with the story of exiled agent Mac Bernhardt (who once represented Davis Love III and Justin Leonard) as he mounts a comeback…
  • “…In 2013, the company Barnhardt owned, Crown Sports Management, was bought out by Lagardère Sports, which has a golf division run by Steve Loy, Phil Mickelson’s agent. In May 2018, Barnhardt was, in his own candid telling, fired. That act triggered a noncompete clause. Barnhardt was pushed to the sidelines for a two-year period. Those two years have come and gone and then some. Which brings us to the comeback he is attempting.”
  • “…In the story of his business life, to turn our subject’s 58 years on this earth into a movie script, Barnhardt’s in the part of Jerry Maguire where Jerry (Tom Cruise) is trying to recruit the fictional NFL receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to be the first client in the new, we’re-humans-first agency Jerry wants to launch. In real life, Barnhardt settled on his Rod Tidwell last summer. That’s when he started focusing his particular brand of attention, with its curious blend of purposefulness and nonchalance, on Ogletree, a tall, lean golfer from Union, Miss., where his father owns a Piggly Wiggly grocery store….”
8. Ricky Barnes’ wild ANGC story
Told on the latest episode of Subpar, Barnes recounts getting locked out of Augusta National Masters Sunday following a night out at the bar to celebrate his low am honors…
  • “I get back to the front gate to get dropped off and the gate’s closed,” he said. “I’ll never forget it. I hop the brick stone wall, get over, and I’m jogging down Magnolia Lane thinking someone’s going to shoot me.”
  • “…I go upstairs, and they’ll kill me for saying this,” Barnes said. “[British Amateur champion Alejandro Larrazábal] is the only one still there. And it’s only us two. So we walk down the crow’s nest, and there’s a telephone booth and we walk left and we keep going around and there’s the champion’s locker room.”
  • “Then, Larrazábal slipped on a green jacket in a nod to fellow countryman Seve Ballesteros.”
  • “Alex goes right into Seve’s locker, and he’s got Seve’s green jacket on,” Barnes said. “He’s pouring drinks with Seve’s jacket on.”
9. JT peaking?
Golfweek’s JuliaKate E. Culpepper…“Thomas, 27, has plenty to be confident about entering the playoffs: he’s No. 1 in FedEx Cup points, the No. 2 golfer in the world ranking and has the most wins on the PGA Tour this season.”
  • “However, the 13-time Tour winner insists he’s just warming up…”I’m not trying to peak this week,” Thomas said Tuesday. “I’m trying to kind of start the upward climb to hopefully be peaking (at the Tour Championship) in Atlanta.”

 

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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.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. geohogan

    Sep 8, 2020 at 8:08 am

    BD is the real deal… Tin Cup

    He will keep pushing, the weights, until his proprioception is gone
    … and his fitness trainer admitted he doesnt know.

    Where has weight training got Koepke….damaged knee and hips?
    ask Jason Day.

    Reply Report comment

  2. Dat jurnolizm do

    Aug 19, 2020 at 10:23 am

    Great job missing the story about Charlie Woods crushing a US Kids event with Tiger looping for him.

    Reply Report comment

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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

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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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