The post Stewart Hagestad earns Masters invite with Mid-Am victory appeared first on Golf.

The post Stewart Hagestad earns Masters invite with Mid-Am victory appeared first on Golf.

The 33-year-old punched his ticket to Augusta National with a win at the 42nd U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, contested this week at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. He won the 36-hole championship match 3 and 2 over Evan Beck, completing his triumph on the iconic par-3 16th overlooking the Hudson River.

“I’ve been like teetering on crying since we got done,” Hagestad said. “I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say.”

Hagestad led 5-up after the first 18 of the 36-hole final, and pushed the lead to 7-up multiple times. Over 118 holes of match play, he was 31 under, with just five bogeys and a double.

The win at Sleepy Hollow is Hagestad’s third U.S. Mid-Am title, tying him with amateur legends Nathan Smith and Jay Sigel for the second-most all-time.

“It’s anything beyond what I would have ever dreamed of,” Hagestad said. “When you’re a kid, you dream of playing in USGA events. I still remember my first one in 2008, and just the lights were so bright and the course was so long and the course was so hard, and to sit here and to look back and say that I’ve won three USGA championships, I mean, that’s unbelievable.”

The victory comes two weeks after Hagestad’s fourth Walker Cup appearance, where he went 2-1-0 at St. Andrews as he helped the Americans to a comeback victory over Great Britain and Ireland.

In addition to his third invite to play in the Masters, Hagestad’s victory comes with plenty of other perks as well. He’s exempt into the next 10 U.S. Mid-Ams, the next two U.S. Amateurs and next summer’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

“That hasn’t really hit me yet,” Hagestad said. “When I got the invitation for the 2022 Masters, I got it and immediately broke down in tears.”

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The post USGA names first-ever head coach of U.S. National Development Program appeared first on Golf.

The post USGA names first-ever head coach of U.S. National Development Program appeared first on Golf.

On Tuesday, the USGA announced the man who will lead the charge: Chris Zambri will be the program’s first-ever head coach beginning November 1.

Zambri’s appointment adds to his already impressive playing and coaching resume.

Zambri was a two-time All Pac-10 team selection as a collegiate player at USC, and competed on the Korn Ferry Tour for seven years. He qualified for two U.S. Opens and played in four PGA Tour events. Zambri then returned to his alma mater and spent 14 years on the coaching staff at USC, followed by a role as an associate head coach at Pepperdine, where he helped guide the Waves to an NCAA national championship in 2021 and a semifinal appearance in 2022.

“It is an honor to be named as the first head coach in the history of the U.S. National Development Program,” Zambri said in a press release. “This country boasts an incredible depth of golfing talent, and I look forward to playing a key role in developing and supporting the next generation of truly great American players.” 

Zambri’s duties will not only include oversight of the program and day-to-day coaching; he’ll also help develop a network of coaches across the country to help support the program’s mission to identify and develop talent.

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The U.S. National Development Program’s framework focuses on six different pillars: talent identification, access to competition, national teams, athlete resources, player development and relations and athlete financial support. Juniors, amateurs and young professionals will have access to three respective national teams, each with a dedicated staff and resources. Special efforts will be made to recruit players from underrepresented communities and a sustainable grant program will assist players with costs like entry fees, travel, coaching, golf course access, equipment and more.

Next year, the program will launch a Junior National Team, coached by Zambri, with an amateur national team and young professional national team to follow over the coming years. The program will begin with 50 funded juniors, a number that will grow to 250 in 2024, 500 in 2025, 750 in 2026, and 1,000 in 2027. Ensuing years will also see the creation of new teams and championships and camps.

“Chris has had an illustrious coaching career and boasts a proven track record of nurturing talented young golfers, helping them develop and take the next steps in their careers,” Heather Daly-Donofrio, USGA managing director, Player Relations and Development, said in the release. “Between his experience as a player and coach, coupled with his passion and leadership, we could not think of anyone better suited to help foster the next generation of elite American golfers.”  

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The post His name is Ben Hogan, and he’s really good at golf. Here’s what that’s been like appeared first on Golf.

The post His name is Ben Hogan, and he’s really good at golf. Here’s what that’s been like appeared first on Golf.

You’re looking for Ben…HOGAN? Ohhhkay.

Click.  

“They would think it’s a prank,” Hogan, now 42, said in a phone interview earlier this week.

Let the record show that your correspondent was not speaking with the Ben Hogan, the legendarily intense grinder and nine-time major winner who died in 1997 at the age of 84. No, the Hogan on the other end of the line was a retired police officer who has played golf — more proficiently than most — for nearly all of his life and last month qualified for his first United States Golf Association event, the U.S. Mid-Amateur, which kicks off Saturday at the dual host sites of Sleepy Hollow Country Club and Fenway Golf Club, just north of New York City.

When you scan the field for the Mid-Am — which always brings together an intriguing mix of players who this year includes Sam Straka, whose brother Sepp is playing for Europe in the Ryder Cup later this month; Travis Wadkins, son of Lanny; and Andrew Paysee, Scottie Scheffler’s brother-in-law — it’s impossible for Hogan’s name not to pique your curiosity, just as, say, a Yankees minor-leaguer named Babe Ruth might raise an eyebrow.       

Hogan gets it. Ever since he’s been old enough to answer questions about his name, he’s been doing just that. The first query is usually, How’d you get it? It was passed down to him. Well, sort of. When Ben’s father Patrick was growing up in the 1960s and early 70s, his golf pals jokingly called him “Ben.” The moniker grew on Patrick — so much so that he christened his son with the name.

Features

Ben said he was 12 or 13 when the significance of his name first started to register with him. Sometimes he’d have trouble booking tee times under Ben Hogan, so he used his friends’ names instead. Other times — as he ascended the local junior ranks — he felt pangs of pressure. “People just assumed that I had to be really good at golf because of my name,” he said. “I was always having to validate my golf.”

And validate it he did. During his senior year at Midview High School, Ben finished third in the state championship. When he graduated in 1999, he was good enough to play college golf but felt campus life wasn’t for him, so he took a job at his childhood club. Soon after, he moved to the San Diego area, where his father had transferred for work, and that’s where Ben decided to make a run at a professional playing career.

As Ben bounced around the mini tours, questions about his name didn’t cease, nor did the sense that he needed to live up to his name.

“I always felt like I had to prove myself, just because I get a lot of media attention,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of reporters talk to me for 10 or 15 minutes and pretty much forget to ask me about golf or how I played that day.”

Is it possible, though, I asked Hogan, that the name also has been a valuable motivator? Asked another way, if he had been named, say, John or Michael, might he not have become the player he is?

“I don’t think so,” Hogan said. “I’ve been in love with this game as long as I could remember. If I would have been named whatever, I have a feeling I would still have a great passion for this game.”

That passion, though, took Hogan only so far in his professional career. By 2005, it was crunch time. He set himself performance goals for the season — greens in reg, putts per green, etc. Hit them and he’d keep playing. Miss them and he’d pull the plug. He missed them. But there still was reason for optimism, because Hogan had a Plan B.    

“What I really wanted to do my whole life,” he said, “was be a police officer.”

Hogan played his last professional tournament in September 2005. By December, he said, he was on the force with the San Diego Police Department. His dream job. The work consumed him. So much so that he barely had time for golf, save for the occasional work outing. (“I was very popular when it came to police and firemen scrambles,” he joked.)

Policing was rewarding but also dangerous. In 2011, Hogan was injured on the scene at a domestic dispute, but not as badly as his partner, who was shot in the head. The officer survived, but the incident shook Hogan, as did other on-the-job scares. Doctors diagnosed Hogan with post-traumatic stress disorder and recommended he take medical leave. “I didn’t agree,” he said. “I wanted to go out on my own terms.” Still, he acquiesced.   

With more time on his hands — he retired from the force in 2019 — Hogan returned to golf. “It was my therapy, being alone on the golf course,” he said. “It took my mind off other stuff.” His form returned, and, as a reinstated amateur, he began playing in and trying to qualify for high-level amateur competitions.

Before breaking through this year in his Mid-Amateur qualifier, Hogan said he had tried to qualify for “four or five” U.S. Opens (once advancing to sectional qualifying), two U.S. Amateurs and three other U.S. Mid-Ams. At a 2018 Mid-Am qualifier in Ohio, another familiar name was in the field — Nicklaus, as in Gary Nicklaus, Jack’s son. Tournament organizers whimsically grouped Hogan and Nicklaus together. (For what it’s worth, Hogan said he has never had any contact with anyone connected to the Ben Hogan’s family.)

At this year’s Mid-Am qualifier in Ohio, Hogan was cruising. Then he double-bogeyed the 16th hole and bogeyed the 17th. Suddenly he needed a nine-footer for par at the last to get into a 5-for-1 playoff. He holed it, then holed a much longer shot — from 150 yards — on the first playoff hole to secure the last qualifying spot. “More dramatic than I wanted,” he said of the finish.

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But he was in. At 8:17 a.m. Saturday, Hogan will tee off at Sleepy Hollow in his first-ever USGA championship; if he makes the 36-hole stroke-play cut, match play begins Monday. The challenging host courses will ask him questions, and surely so too will the media — about his name.   

“I’m kind of ready for them,” Hogan said. “I’m not annoyed by it. I’m 42 now. It’s nothing new. And if I can get my story out there and help people with mental health — if I can help somebody, then that’s good enough for me.”

Here, Hogan began to choke up.

“It’s not the end of the world,” he said of confronting mental-health challenges. “It’s always going to be there, I know that. But it is something that’s completely manageable. You can still have a good life. Whatever you have in your life that brings you that peace or that calm — when you haven’t felt joy in a while, whatever you have that can do that, find it and take advantage of it. For me, that is golf.”

Hogan’s reclusive namesake was not one to discuss his mental health in public, nor just about anything else for that matter. For most of the OG Hogan’s career, even the mechanics of his fabled swing remained a mystery, spawning much speculation about his “secret.” Later in his life, Hogan dropped clues about what made his swing tick — his keys ranged from cupping his left wrist in his backswing to merely “digging it out of the dirt” — without ever fully disclosing his so-called secret in definitive terms.

But how about Ohio’s Ben Hogan? Might he be willing to part with the secret to his own golfing success?

“Whatever secret I have, it usually changes week to week,” he said, laughing. “My secret would be whatever’s working for you at the time, don’t fight it, embrace it. That’s my secret: Just play the best golf that you can on that day.”

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The post PGA Tour eyes ‘single rule’ for the golf ball. Here’s what that could mean appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour eyes ‘single rule’ for the golf ball. Here’s what that could mean appeared first on Golf.

In a memo to players, commissioner Jay Monahan left the door open to collaborating with the governing bodies and industry partners “to arrive at a solution,” but offered little in the way of concrete details regarding what a golf ball rollback might look like from the Tour’s perspective.

And with the Tour tackling bigger issues at the moment, it’s safe to assume a potential golf ball rollback will be put on the back burner until the future of the professional game is made clear.

In fact, Monahan and Tour executive vice president Tyler Dennis nearly made it through an entire press conference on Tuesday at the Tour Championship before a reporter asked for an update on the Model Local Rule, highlighting where it ranks on the priority list.

But don’t think for a moment the Tour is completely neglecting the future of golf equipment at the highest level.

As Dennis confirmed during the presser, the Tour is very interested in knowing where everyone stands after the feedback period — which allowed manufacturers and golf stakeholders to share their thoughts and concerns with the USGA and R&A on the proposed MLR — ended on Aug. 14.

“We haven’t had any update following the conclusion of the period,” Dennis said. “There’s a lot of constituents that the USGA and the R&A are hearing from during that six-month period. You’re aware of our position, what we’ve heard from our players and all of our constituents.”

While the Tour has already made clear its stance on the MLR, Dennis did include two words that likely piqued the interest of golfers at all levels of the game: Single rule.

Balls

“Our plan is to continue to collaborate around a single rule that can make sense,” said Dennis. “It’s what we’ve done really since 2003 when we made a statement alongside the R&A and the USGA about this. And there’s been eight rule changes that we’ve supported through that process. So we’re talking to the USGA and the R&A regularly and I know they’re evaluating that. So there will be more news in the coming months for sure on that.”

While Dennis didn’t expand on his “single rule” comment, it’s possible he’s alluding to the USGA, R&A and Tour getting on the same page. Think of it as unification. What that looks like is anyone’s guess. If the Tour does indeed want the same golf ball rules and regulations for all, it very well could mean expanding the MLR beyond the professional game. In other words, remove the possibility of bifurcation at the highest level of professional golf and require recreational golfers to play the same modified ball as well.

It’s important to note the original Area of Interest (AOI) rolled out in March 2021 and looked at making changes across the board for all golfers, but it was changed earlier this year to “elite championships” — there was no mention of specific events — with an MLR that could be put in place as early as January 2026. Better known as full-blown bifurcation.

What remains to be seen is whether the USGA and R&A would even consider reversing course and going back to the original AOI in an effort to get the Tour on board, especially if it means negatively impacting distance (at certain swing speeds) at the recreational level.

In fact, the USGA has entertained doing the opposite in recent years by expanding the technology gap between the elite and recreational players that could allow for the “elimination of the MOI limit for recreational golfers” — if potential Model Local Rules were adopted. In layman’s terms: Clubs with even more forgiveness to make the game more enjoyable for weekend golfers.

With more than two years to go before an MLR could be in place, it’s all but certain the parties will continue to work together to find an acceptable solution. Whether that future includes the PGA Tour and its players is still very much up in the air.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2023? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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The post Alabama’s Nick Dunlap joins Tiger Woods in record books with U.S. Amateur win appeared first on Golf.

The post Alabama’s Nick Dunlap joins Tiger Woods in record books with U.S. Amateur win appeared first on Golf.

“Without him, there would be no chance I’d be standing here,” Dunlap said Sunday afternoon.

Where he was standing was Cherry Hills Country Club‘s 15th green, holding the Havemeyer Trophy. Dunlap made match play by two shots and rode the momentum all the way through the finals where he beat Neal Shipley 4 and 3 to win the 123rd U.S. Amateur.

“I can’t even explain it,” Dunlap told NBC after the match. “I’m at a loss for words.”

Dunlap, the 2021 U.S. Junior Am winner, caps an impressive match play run over the past two years in the format. Including this week, the 19-year-old has played in eight match-play events from an AJGA event, two U.S. Junior Amateurs, two college events and the prestigious North and South, and Western Amateurs over the time period and has compiled a 30-2 record. The only matches he lost were in his U.S. Junior Amateur title defense last summer and at the Western Am.

However, the 30th was by far the biggest, clinching him the biggest win of his career and an exemption into next summer’s Open Championship at Royal Troon. Both finalists had already earned exemptions into next year’s U.S. Open and expected invitations to the 2024 Masters.

With the victory, Dunlap joins Tiger Woods as the only players to win both a U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur title.

“Well I think it’s only a third of what he’s actually done,” Dunlap said, referring to Woods’ three wins in each event. “Just to be in the same conversation as Tiger is a dream come true and something I’ve worked my entire life for.”

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Dunlap, the No. 9 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, put up a torrid run to get to the finals. He kicked off match play by knocking out the top-ranked amateur in the world, Gordon Sargent, in the round of 64. The Tide sophomore eliminated two other SEC foes, including Florida’s Parker Bell in Saturday’s semifinal match.

Shipley, meanwhile had become the Cinderella story of the tournament. The 6-foot-3 Pittsburgh native with long brown flowing hair had a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the semis, going 3 Down through 10 holes before rallying to take the lead on 16 then spin a wedge back 30 feet on the 17th to tap-in range to seal the win.

The 22-year-old Ohio State graduate student let all of his emotions out, fist-pumping and high-fiving fans on his way to the green.

Both players brought those same fireworks into the 36-hole final with a combined 20 birdies, including splitting the opening hole with threes. Shipley later birdied the 18th hole of the morning round to go into the lunch break tied.

Dunlap took control during the second 18.

He pulled ahead, making back-to-back long-range birdie puts on the 21st and 22nd to open up a 2 Up lead. He then did it again on the 27th and 28th, this time for a tie and a win to go 4 Up.

He made a mistake on the 31st, failing to even get his fourth shot on the par-4 on the green. Then Shipley had a chance to cut the deficit to 2 Down on the 32nd, but he hit his second in the penalty area and made double.

Dunlap made par on the 33rd to cap off the 4 and 3 victory.

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The post I played in my first USGA event. Here’s what I learned (and tried to teach my caddie) appeared first on Golf.

The post I played in my first USGA event. Here’s what I learned (and tried to teach my caddie) appeared first on Golf.

So a potential 74 went to a 76 in a matter of minutes, and I could have very easily had a sour taste in my mouth following the round. After all, the human mind tends to bias memories based on how they ended. But I walked off the golf course, seven shots out of qualifying position for the U.S. Mid-Amateur, feeling pretty good.

After the whole group shook hands, my caddie, Ben, and I started talking about the round. Ben is a senior on the high school golf team which I started coaching last year and recently became the head coach of. The other two golfers played fairly well too, both shooting 77s, one struggling on the last couple of holes like I did too.

However, we all played fairly low-stress rounds. No one fired at pins. When we missed greens in tough spots, we took our medicine. We made solid putts when we had to.

Now Ben, decidedly, doesn’t play golf like that. He’s a player with a fantastic golf swing, like many on my team, and an overly cocky strategy, like ALL on my team.

“You guys made golf look easy today,” he told me as we walked off the green.

We did. And that was exactly what I wanted him to see.

My competitive golf history is far from spectacular. Despite holding between a 3 and a +1 Handicap Index since my junior year of high school, I never qualified for my state championship, I never won any significant events and qualified for only one state amateur.

This past year, my first full year at GOLF, I made it a point to play in more competitions for the first time since college. It’s been harder than I thought.

My first qualifier was for the Philadelphia Mid-Amateur in May and I showed up without having played a competitive round in two years. Three-footers become a whole lot longer when you HAVE to putt them.

I struggled on the green, missing several birdie looks inside of 10 feet and stumbled home with back-to-back doubles for a 84. The cut fell at 78, a score I’ve shot in competition a bazillion times.

My next try was for the Philadelphia Open, a tournament I had nearly qualified for while in college. This time, I had to play a quirky golf course with a ton of out-of-bounds near fairways that I have never liked. Through 15 holes, I was doing everything I had to. Missing to proper sides of greens, leaving myself tap-ins and, most importantly, keeping the ball on the golf course.

Then I miss-clubbed myself on the par-3 16th, hit it long of a back pin and made double before making another double on 17 and stumbling home to 79. I missed the cut by three.

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To recap, the first one I played scared and unconfident. The second I played well only to later distract myself by thinking about something other than the next shot.

I knew I’d be at a disadvantage because I couldn’t play in something every week or even every month. But such is life for a working young professional.

So was entering a USGA qualifier, the toughest and most prestigious of amateur events in this country, with so little recent competitive experience a mistake? Some could argue that. But I argue how can you get competitive experience at the highest levels without playing at the highest levels?

I only took the head coaching job at the high school, the same where I played nearly a decade ago, within the last week. When I found myself without a caddie for the event where walking is required, I saw it as a chance to not only help my own game but be a teacher.

Being a high school golf coach isn’t about helping the student-athletes refine the mechanics of their golf swings or make sure they’re properly fit for golf clubs. It’s more about thinking their way through a course and providing the team atmosphere that golf generally lacks.

In my first year as an assistant, I focused on strategy and short game.

These kids want to aim at every pin and hit the shortest possible clubs into every hole so they can tell their friends they hit 9-iron where someone else hit 7-iron. They don’t realize how detrimental that is to their scores. But neither did you and neither did I when we were 16.

My game plan was to take one of my players (and I’ll be taking another with me next week) and explain my decisions and strategy for every shot with him verbally. Not only does it explain to him how to think to score effectively, but it also helps me commit to practicing what I preach.

I felt great coming into the round. My swing felt as good as it had all year and my putting was still on a high coming off a recent trip to Scotland.

However, I had never seen the golf course and I couldn’t get a practice round either. Luckily, I had a friend who was a former member of the club who gave me some notes and annotated the pin sheet the Golf Association of Philadelphia released ahead of time.

There was no yardage book, but I wrote down numbers to and over bunkers and runouts of the fairways that I measured on Google Earth. I was about as prepared as I could have been.

On my first hole (the 10th), I roped a 3-wood into the fairway and we were off. That same hole was also the site of my first mistake.

I didn’t do what I set out to do and I pulled a club without explaining my thinking to Ben. I also, despite looking directly at the pin sheet, didn’t recognize it was a back pin.

From 138 yards, I hit a pitching wedge, my 140-club, over the green. I was dead and simply played beyond the pin and two-putted for bogey.

Could I have played a flop to try to give myself a better look at par? Of course, but if I left it short, that would have brought double-bogey back into play. Bogey I can recover from in one hole. Double-bogey, I can’t.

However, I was almost better for my mistake for the rest of the round. It shocked me and showed me how important my strategy would be for the rest of the day.

I steadied myself quickly and started playing boring golf. Middle of the fairway, middle of the green, tap-in two putts. When I got in trouble, I thought about where I wanted to play the next shot from, instead of trying to hit perfect golf shots.

Courses

I played the next 12 holes even par. A couple of birdies coming home and I’d have a chance at making the cut, so I guessed. But that was half of my second mistake of the day. I lost my focus on the next shot.

And it led to the other half of my mistake. On a short par-3, partially because I hadn’t played the course before and partially because I didn’t pay attention to the terrain around the green, I didn’t realize there was a drop-off to the right side of the green. I thought I could miss it there. I ended up eight feet below the surface of the green in a penalty area. I didn’t get my second on the green and made double.

I made two bogeys and a birdie to finish, including the three-putt to post 76.

When Ben told me he thought I made golf look easy, I felt the mission was accomplished.

It’s weird for me to think about a 76 when I missed the cut by seven strokes (there was a 5-for-2 playoff at 69 for the last of the five spots available) and be happy about it. But even if I wasn’t trying to demonstrate smart golf, I still would have been happy with how I played.

It’s easy to identify the five strokes I gave away due to two poor decisions and two three-putts. From there it just came down to making more birdie putts. I missed good looks on my second, seventh and eighth holes. Two more on my 17th and 18th. Cut the three-putts, cut the shots lost to decision-making to one and make one or two more of the birdie looks and it gets much easier.

Obviously, not everyone, even myself, can hit the ball as well as I did Monday. Ben Hogan said he only expected to hit two perfect golf shots a round and I feel like I may have hit three, exceeding the quota.

But because I hit a perfect shot doesn’t mean I holed it. One of my best shots was a 9-iron that settled 30 feet left of the flag. I asked Ben how many times I put myself in situations when I needed to hit a perfect golf shot.

“Never,” he told me.

I made it easy for me and next time, now I know where I can save the strokes I need.

There are two more qualifiers I have remaining this summer. One is next week for the state mid-am where I’ll have another one of my players on the bag. I can only hope to show him the same things.

And, as I file this story from the first round of our team tryouts for the upcoming season, I can only hope they start putting into practice exactly what I did yesterday.

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The post Auburn’s Megan Schofill climbs to U.S. Women’s Amateur title at historic Bel-Air appeared first on Golf.

The post Auburn’s Megan Schofill climbs to U.S. Women’s Amateur title at historic Bel-Air appeared first on Golf.

After blowing her tee shot well right on Bel-Air Country Club‘s 14th hole, the 32nd of the 36-hole final, Schofill delicately climbed up a mulch-covered hill some 30 feet to play her second shot.

The 21-year-old just barely got her ball back to the rough next to the fairway below her and made a bogey to drop to 3 Up with four to play over LSU’s Latanna Stone. However, she came right back on the very next hole stuffing her approach from 165 yards to five feet, good enough to win the hole and the match 4 and 3 and claim the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur title.

“It’s definitely a dream come true, but I’d be lying if I wouldn’t say I’m still in shock,” Schofill told NBC Sports after the match. “I feel like I can’t put into words the emotions I’m feeling and it’s such an honor to be able to say that I won this year.”

She becomes the first player from Auburn to win a U.S. Women’s Amateur title and just the third female from the school to win a USGA title. It all came after the Monticello, Florida native, who will return to Auburn for a fifth season later this month, defeated potential future teammate Anna Davis in the quarterfinals.

Sunday’s 36-hole final began as a tight battle as both players birdied the opening hole and were still tied through 14 holes. But after Stone bogeyed 15, Schofill began her charge, making birdies at 16 and 17 to hold a 3 Up lead going into the second round.

“I felt like the momentum was on my side because I won 15, 16 and 17,” Schofill said. “18 holes, a lot of golf can happen … I just kept reminding myself that we were all square and just try to forget about the first 18.”

When the players came back out of the afternoon lunch break, Stone birdied the 19th and 24th holes to cut into the lead, but Schofill responded each time by winning the next hole, draining a long-range birdie on the 25th. At the 26th, both players reached the par 5 in two, but Stone three-putted after Schofill made her longer birdie putt.

Courses

Despite being hobbled, noticeably more as the match went on, by a right leg injury, Stone continued to give herself birdie chances with her irons and wedges, but couldn’t convert many of her four-to-eight-footers.

“I was walking really slow, but I was really trying,” Stone told NBC Sports. “I know I lost some power in my swing. Trying to get through the ball really hurt. That’s all I could have done.”

She was far from the same player who defeated the Nos. 7, 10 and 25 players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, among other former USGA Champions, on her way to the final. In Saturday’s semifinal, she defeated 2021 NCAA Champion Rachel Heck.

Meanwhile, Schofill looked unflappable, making just one other bogey, besides the 32nd, in her final 23 holes Sunday. Both players were making their first appearance in the final match in their sixth tries at the event.

It was only fitting, that after Schofill missed her birdie try on the 33rd and Stone lipped out on her par attempt, Stone looked at her close friend since eighth grade, smiled and conceded Schofill’s remaining par putt. The two stood over the cup, sharing a long embrace.

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The post PGA Tour denounces USGA’s Model Local Rule golf ball, still open to ‘collaborating’ appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour denounces USGA’s Model Local Rule golf ball, still open to ‘collaborating’ appeared first on Golf.

But no matter how much players and manufacturers voiced their displeasure and concern, the general consensus was the MLR would eventually become a reality — even if it meant making significant changes to the ball’s construction to curb distance.

“I think no matter our view, it looks like it’s happening, so it doesn’t really matter what I think or not,” said Jon Rahm during his pre-tournament press conference at the Open Championship. “But if it can be at the forefront of a big company like Callaway who can get ahead of it and that could be invested a little bit earlier, that could be great.

“But yeah, it doesn’t really change. The USGA and the R&A are going to do what they want to do, no matter what I think.”

While it’s true the USGA and R&A can proceed with their proposed testing protocol changes and MLR golf ball, the PGA Tour won’t be embracing the changes — at least not in their current state. In a memo obtained by GOLF.com, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan made it clear that the Tour isn’t on board with the current proposals.

“Although there has been some level of support for limiting future increases, there is widespread and significant belief the proposed Modified Local Rule is not warranted and is not in the best interest of the game,” Monahan said in the memo. “Following a discussion on the topic at a recent PAC meeting, we have notified the USGA and R&A that while the PGA Tour is committed to collaborating with them — and all industry partners — to arrive at a solution that will best serve our players, our fans and the game at all levels, we are not able to support the MLR as proposed.”

News

The original Area of Interest (AOI) the USGA and R&A rolled out in March 2021 looked at potentially raising the test swing speed for the ODS from 120 mph to at least 125. A follow-up to the original area of interest, introduced in June 2022, proposed studying increased clubhead test speeds “between 125 and 127 mph and will include studies of the effects of these test speeds on the launch conditions and aerodynamics of the golf ball.”

Under the proposed new testing protocols, the governing bodies would test balls in the future at 127 mph clubhead speed with 11 degrees of launch and 2,220 RPMs of spin as the ball setup conditions. For perspective, the current control ball testing setup conditions are 120 mph (plus-or-minus a half mph), 2,520 RPMs (plus-or-minus 120 RPMs) and 10 degrees of launch (plus-or-minus a half degree).

The 127 mph proposed clubhead speed is 12.1 mph faster than the average clubhead speed on the PGA Tour. It also exceeds the average speed for the player with the fastest swing speed on Tour, Brandon Hagy, who currently sits at 126.06 mph. Testing balls at the proposed clubhead speed would mean essentially every ball now being played on Tour would be deemed non-conforming (The Equipment Rules, Part 4, Section 6), as the balls would exceed the 317-yard distance limit set by the governing bodies.

How significant will the difference be? One pro estimated a 300-yard drive might go 280-285 yards with the new ball, although it’s tough to estimate exactly given the number of factors involved.

Under the proposed testing standards, equipment manufacturers would’ve been forced to return to the drawing board to create a new ball to meet the new testing standards.

Shortly after the memo was released, GOLF.com reached out to multiple manufacturers who confirmed they were not aware of the Tour’s decision to denounce the MLR. In the aftermath of the Tour’s response, the USGA responded to a request for comment with the following statement.

“We remain in a Notice & Comment period, accepting feedback from voices from across the game,” said the USGA. “The PGA Tour is an important stakeholder and we appreciate the feedback they have contributed to this conversation.”

While the Tour left the door open to future collaboration, it remains unclear where the USGA and R&A go from here without the Tour’s blessing on the most recent proposal.

It’s important to point out that the MLR was initially slated to go into effect as early as January 2026, so there’s still time for both sides to come back to the table and agree on a suitable future for the ball at the highest level of professional and amateur golf.

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The post I finally got a USGA handicap. Here’s why you should, too appeared first on Golf.

The post I finally got a USGA handicap. Here’s why you should, too appeared first on Golf.

I played in high school and a lot during the summer growing up, but after moving to a city, I didn’t play as much. On the rare occasions I did play, my lack of a handicap always came up in conversation. As someone who often tees it up with golfers who are much better than me, I was pretty committed to just picking up on a hole when things got ugly.

But after playing more friendly matches against my coworkers and receiving some invites to play with other various golf pals, I realized I needed a handicap. For starters, it’s impossible to guess the number of shots you need without one, and I was making teeing it up with friends a lot more difficult for myself (and them) than it needed to be.

I equated getting a USGA handicap with getting a passport. I thought it’d be a daunting task with dozens of steps (and perhaps tears!) involved, but the USGA’s website makes it as simple as can be. It’s as easy as ordering something online — all you need to do is head to getahandicap.usga.org, enter your state, zip code and contact information, pay the $60 annual fee and you are good to go.

Once you’re signed up, it’s time for the fun part: playing golf so that you can enter scores, and of course checking in on celebrities’ handicaps through the USGA handicap website or app. (I also like playing around with the handicap calculator, because why not.)

So if I have what it takes to sign up, so do you. Here’s to a summer of entering scores!

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The post How far do you hit your 7-iron? The answer will tell you which tees to play appeared first on Golf.

The post How far do you hit your 7-iron? The answer will tell you which tees to play appeared first on Golf.

Deep down, you know this. But for whatever reason — ego, peer pressure, lack of better options — you wind up taking on more course than you can handle.

You are not alone. According to the USGA, in a survey of more than 700 PGA and LPGA professionals, 92 percent said that it is “extremely common” or “somewhat common” for golfers to peg it from too far back. And the evidence isn’t merely anecdotal. Scoring data shows that roughly 75 percent of female golfers and 50 percent of male golfers play from distances that exceed their abilities. 

The consequences? Aside from higher scores, rounds become a grind, and golf becomes less fun.

Over the years, several campaigns have been launched to address this problem (remember those TV spots in which Jack Nicklaus acknowledged that even he needed to “Tee it Forward“?). But when it comes to moving up a box, the game still has a ways to go. 

Which brings us to a new initiative, a data-driven offering from the USGA, aimed at helping golfers select the proper tees. It’s called — wait for it — Best Tees.

The gist is this: if you know how far you hit your 7-iron, the Best Tees system can tell you which boxes you should be playing. Hint: If you’re a typical male golfer, you should be playing from 6,100 yards; if you’re a typical female golfer, you should be playing from just over 4,400 yards.

More on those numbers in a minute.

But first, some background on the methodology.

The Best Tees system arose from several years of research that included analyses of World Handicap System scores and hitting-distance data, as well as surveys of golfer preferences. (In this work, the USGA collaborated with the American Society of Golf Course Architects; the National Golf Course Owners Association; the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America; and the LPGA and PGA).

To arrive at their recommendations, researchers defined a set of tees as being a good fit for a golfer’s abilities when “it allows them to comfortably reach the fairway on par 4s and par 5s, reach the vicinity of most greens in regulation, and allows them to hit a variety of clubs on their approach.” In surveys, meanwhile, golfers were asked to indicate when holes felt “too long”, “too short” or “reasonable.”

Gear

That definition and those preferences were then combined to create a system that can recommend a course length based on a single club as reference: the 7-iron. The 7-iron was chosen because most golfers have a decent handle on how far they hit theirs, and because golf instructors often use the 7 iron as a reference point in lessons. It’s the Esperanto of irons, with a language around it that most of us can understand. 

And that’s the point, really. To communicate important information clearly. Most golfers, after all, want to play the right tees; surveys show that. Course operators want that, too. But most say they lack an objective method for pointing golfers to the proper box.

The Best Tees system provides that. It is based on averages. The average male golfer hits his 7-iron 138 yards; the average female golfer hits hers 100 yards. Those numbers translate into par-72 course length recommendations of 6,100 and 4,437 yards, respectively. On average. But because not all golfers or courses are created equal, the system is designed to be customizable to any player at any property.

The system is currently being tested at 60 courses around the country. Feedback from that testing will be used to fine-tune the system before a wider rollout after 2023. 

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