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‘I’ve never seen this before’ – Tour pro’s training aid confuses fans and analysts

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Playing on a sponsor’s exemption to the Mexico Open, KFT player Alejandro Tosti has certainly caught the eye this week, and not just via a top-30 finish.

The 26-year-old has recently been in the news as one of six players penalized two shots at the Lecom Suncoast Classic, after an unfortunate mix-up over a shuttle ride between holes, but this time caught the eye of PGA Tour viewers as well.

After an opening 69, golf content provider Matt Gannon tweeted a recording of Tosti using what I can only describe as a ‘pictures stick’, bringing it back and forth away from his eyes as if being tested in an optician’s surgery.

PGA Tour Live later discussed the warm-up, saying they ‘have never seen this done before,” although mentioned that Michael Campbell used a similar focussing method to win his only PGA title – the 2005 U.S Open – when beating Tiger Woods by two shots.

Among the forecast teasing were replies of scientific interest, with @GolfLegion commenting on the unique nature of the eyes of a professional golfer.

Another respondent explained that Tosti was “warming up his visual system with Vision Sticks Method,” which appears to be far nearer the truth, given those teaching such a move describe the practise as, “Eye change jumps, eye following movements, training of vergence or accommodation can be easily and efficiently trained with the Vision Stick. It also serves excellently as a visual target for your balance training.”

The method could take off judged on Tosti’s play for the rest of the week.

The world number 444 hit a four-under 67 on Friday, finished with an eagle three for level par for Saturday’s third round, and finished his 72nd hole, rounding off his tournament with a seven-under 64 to lie within the top-10.

Although he is likely to miss on automatic entry to next week’s Wells Fargo, Tosti is clearly an improving player to follow, and may well find plenty more invitations in the post.

Winner of two Latinoamerica tour titles – the first in 2019 when beating Justin Suh and Cameron Young, and then by eight shots on the Latinoamerica tour last August – Tosti found his way to Vallarta via a mini three-event KFT schedule for Latin players.

Tosti has made six cuts from eight KFT events tournaments this year, with what was a best of two top-10 finishes.

That was until this week, when he realised his dream and took full advantage.

Remember the name Alejandro Tosti, not only for the talent that he has, or for the vision stick.

There is more….

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19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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