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New Equipment: Odyssey and Nike Putters, Plus Accessories

2012-05-16T08:59:28Z

Our latest roundup of new golf equipment arriving in pro shops leads off with a pair of putters: the Odyssey Flip Face and Nike Method Midnight. The Flip Face is as it sounds - the golfer can rotate the putter face end-over-end to switch to a different face insert material.

The gallery also includes irons, a remote-control cart for walkers, outerwear and apparel, plus a golf rules app based on some of the best "plain English" books about the golf rules.

View the gallery

New Equipment: Odyssey and Nike Putters, Plus Accessories originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at 08:59:28.

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Does PGA Tour Need to Crack Down On Slow Play?

2012-05-14T16:38:25Z

Should the PGA Tour crack down on slow play? Kevin Na's glacial pace at The Players Championship has set a lot of tongues wagging on the issue. Of course, Na has been a very slow player for years, as have quite a few other tour members.

The tour has slow play rules in place already that would probably speed up play if they were simply enforced - because enforcing them would lead to penalty strokes. As it stands, the PGA Tour hasn't assessed a penalty stroke to a player because of slow play in 20 years.

Is an individual golfer's pace of play even the main issue in overlong rounds? In comments made prior to The Players Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said no. Finchem said the issue is one of logistics: With 150-plus player fields, there are inevitable bottleneck areas on every golf course where play is going to back up.

We see that on the courses we play on busy days. Those par-5s where players wait to have a go at the green in two. On particularly busy days, just about any par-3. Those are places where recreational golfers on the local course will have to wait on a busy day, and they are places where the pros in a large field are going to wait, too. Finchem claimed that reducing field size to, say, 120 players, would solve the issue. But we all know there's zero chance of that happening (and Finchem wasn't proposing it, merely claiming field size and course logistics play a larger role in long tour rounds than the pace of individual golfers). But we've also all seen very long rounds in short-field pro tournaments, and "bottlenecking" can't explain 6-hour matches at the Ryder Cup.

In my opinion, absolutely nothing will be done about slow play on the PGA Tour until or unless one thing happens: until or unless the television networks state, or the tour comes to believe, that PGA Tour telecasts will be worth less money unless pace of play improves. Otherwise, there are too many players - probably a majority - who think, "I'm playing for millions of dollars, I'll take as long on a shot as I need."

Unless it starts to hit players and the tour in the pocketbook, slow play in tour events will be around forever. And so will complaining about slow play in tour events.

See also:
PGA Tour slow play policy
How recreational golfers can avoid slow play

Does PGA Tour Need to Crack Down On Slow Play? originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 16:38:25.

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This Week: Nelson and Match Play

2012-05-14T09:20:23Z

This week in golf features the HP Byron Nelson Championship on the PGA Tour, plus match play tournaments on both the European and LPGA tours.

On the LPGA Tour, it's the Sybase Match Play Championship, where the defending champion is Suzann Pettersen.

On the Euro Tour, it's the Volvo World Match Play Championship, a tournament that started as a showcase for golfers represented by a single agent. Luckily for fans, that agent represented the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

The defending champ is Ian Poulter, and others in the 24-man field include Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose and Charl Schwartzel. The format groups those players into threes, and each group plays round-robin. The top two in each group advance to the round of 16, where 18-hole knockout matches continue until a winner is crowned.

And on the PGA Tour, it's a quick turnaround for Players Championship winner Matt Kuchar, who headlines the Nelson field. If you want to have another look at Kevin Na's unusual waggling routine, you'll have to wait: he's not here. (But, then, we're used to waiting on Na.) The defending champ is Keegan Bradley, and others in the field include Jason Day, Jason Dufner, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott and Vijay Singh.

This Week: Nelson and Match Play originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 09:20:23.

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Why Kevin Na Doesn't Have to Count Those 'Whiffs'

2012-05-13T17:34:28Z

Kevin Na is driving the TV announcers and possibly his playing partners to distraction during the 2012 Players Championship with his very unusual start-and-stop-and-back-away-and-repeat pre-swing waggling. Sometimes, that waggling results in Na swinging through the ball, but lifting the clubhead up in order to miss the ball. Then he re-sets and starts (and sometimes stops) the process again.

It's generating quite a bit of discussion, especially given the fact that Na has been at or near the top of the leaderboard all week.

Should Na be counting those "whiffs" - the occasions he swings over the ball - as strokes? If not, why not? That's a question we've addressed before in one of our Rules FAQs. Check out "Does a whiff count as a stroke?" for the explanation of why Na hasn't been charged with strokes on those swing-overs.

See also:
More Rules FAQ

Why Kevin Na Doesn't Have to Count Those 'Whiffs' originally appeared on About.com Golf on Sunday, May 13th, 2012 at 17:34:28.

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Looking at TPC Sawgrass

2012-05-10T11:30:21Z

TPC Sawgrass has become one of the most famous courses in the world of golf, because of its position as the permanent host site of The Players Championship, and also because of that infamous "island green" at No. 17.

The TPC Sawgrass facility includes two courses: the Stadium Course (home of the Players) and the Dye's Valley course. We took at look at the history of TPC Sawgrass and the details of both its courses, and included a little trivia, in this course profile of TPC Sawgrass.

See also:
TPC Sawgrass pictures

Looking at TPC Sawgrass originally appeared on About.com Golf on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 11:30:21.

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This Week: The Players Championship

2012-05-08T12:28:22Z

Rickie Fowler set the golf world buzzing last week with his first PGA Tour victory, beating Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points in a playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Golf networks (and magazines and websites) would like nothing better than for Fowler and McIlroy to battle down the stretch again this week at The Players Championship. Except, perhaps, if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were part of the stretch battle, too.

But what kind of track records do Fowler and McIlroy have at TPC Sawgrass? Not good. Neither one of them has ever made the cut in the Players Championship. McIlroy missed the cut in 2009 and 2010, then skipped the tournament last year. Fowler missed the cut in 2010 and 2011.

TPC Sawgrass is a love it-or-hate it kind of course for a lot of tour pros. Woods, for example, won the tournament in 2001, but since then has finished in the Top 10 only once.

These days, however, we just don't know what we're going to get from Tiger. At the Players this week, just finishing the tournament would be an improvement: He walked off the course with injuries at the past two Players, and last week at the Wells Fargo Woods missed the cut.

Being the so-called "fifth major," The Players Championship of course has a stellar field. The only star missing is Bubba Watson, who withdrew in order to spend some quality time with his wife and their recently adopted baby. Good for Watson. His decision was probably made easier by TPC Sawgrass, since Watson is another golfer who isn't too fond of the course.

The defending champ is K.J. Choi, who defeated David Toms in a playoff in 2011.

See our Players Championship tournament page for more about the history of the event.

See also:
Winners of The Players Championship

This Week: The Players Championship originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 12:28:22.

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Fowler Scores His First PGA Tour Victory

2012-05-06T18:42:40Z

Rickie Fowler is a winner on the PGA Tour for the first time. But it's the second time Rory McIlroy has finished as runner-up to Fowler in a pro event.

Fowler won the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday with a birdie on the first playoff hole, beating McIlroy and D.A. Points in the playoff. Fowler finished regulation play first at 14-under. Points could have won it on the last hole with a par, but bogied; McIlroy could have won it with a birdie, but parred. Then, on the first playoff hole, Fowler stuck a wedge shot close to the hole. And when Points and McIlroy missed their birdie putts, Fowler made his.

Fowler did have one professional win prior, at the 2011 Korea Open on the OneAsia Tour. Who was the runner-up to Fowler there? McIlroy.

It's the second straight year the Wells Fargo Championship ended in a playoff (Lucas Glover won in 2011). And it's the third time in five years that a young hotshot scored his first PGA Tour win at Quail Hollow. Anthony Kim did it in 2008, McIlroy did it in 2010, and now Fowler.

Fowler has been on the short list of brightest young players since he left Oklahoma State University following two years of college golf. And he had come close to his first PGA Tour win a couple times before, including before he even joined the tour. At the 2009 Frys.Com Open, Fowler lost in a playoff. The following year, 2010, was his first year as a PGA Tour member, and Fowler had another near-miss with a runner-up finish at the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

There was no near-miss at the 2012 Wells Fargo. This time, there was a win.

Photos of Rickie Fowler's first PGA Tour win

See also:

On the Web:
2012 Wells Fargo Championship final scores

Fowler Scores His First PGA Tour Victory originally appeared on About.com Golf on Sunday, May 6th, 2012 at 18:42:40.

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Tiger Woods Misses Cut at Wells Fargo

2012-05-04T19:07:21Z

Tiger Woods missed the cut at 2012 Wells Fargo Championship on Friday. Woods carded scores of 71-73, even-par 144, which left him one stroke on the wrong side of the cutline. Also missing the cut were Bill Haas, Vijay Singh, Keegan Bradley, Lee Westwood and defending champ Lucas Glover.

But it's not news when those guys (or anyone else) misses the cut. Bradley, for example, won the PGA Championship and was named Rookie of the Year last year, when he also missed 10 cuts on the PGA Tour - more missed cuts than Woods has in his entire pro career.

This MC is Woods' eighth in PGA Tour events since turning pro. Woods' first missed cut was in 1997; his second wasn't until 2005.

The Wells Fargo Championship is the first tournament where Woods has missed the cut twice. The Wells Fargo has been a decidedly mixed bag for Woods. He won the tournament in 2007, and posted finishes of third, fourth and 11th in the other three years he played and completed all four rounds.

But Woods also has the two missed cuts; plus there have been two years when he had to withdraw due to injury, and a third when he pulled out due to his father's illness.

Nick Watney is the Wells Fargo Championship leader after two rounds at 12-under. See the PGATour.com leaderboard for scores.

See also:

List of Tiger Woods' missed cuts

Tiger Woods Misses Cut at Wells Fargo originally appeared on About.com Golf on Friday, May 4th, 2012 at 19:07:21.

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Photo Gallery of Olympic Club

2012-05-02T16:24:10Z

San Francisco's Olympic Club is the site of the U.S. Open this year; more specifically, the club's Lake Course. The club is home to three courses, 45 holes of golf, and all of them are in beautiful settings.

Take a look at the Lake Course with this gallery of Olympic Club photos.

See also:

Photo Gallery of Olympic Club originally appeared on About.com Golf on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 16:24:10.

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Review: Motorola MotoACTV

2012-05-01T16:26:36Z

What is a "MotoACTV"? The Golf Edition of the Motorola MotoACTV is a GPS unit that produces accurate yardages, plus records strokes and tracks stats for real-time and later in-depth analysis.

But it's also more than that. For example, it includes an MP3 player, plus fitness tracking. And you can, if you choose, wear it as you would a wristwatch.

Read the review

See also:

Review: Motorola MotoACTV originally appeared on About.com Golf on Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 16:26:36.

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