A wee bit to the north and east of my hometown is a jaunty little ‘burg called Medina, NY. No one would ever consider it to be a golf mecca, but for this week at least, it is. Why? The 2024 Amateur Champion of the world, Melanie Green, hails from Medina. With a sense of regional pride, I salute #QueenMel, who emerged from 36-hole, medal qualifying and six head-to-head matches, to win 2-up in the 36-hole final at Portmarnock. Miss Mel won the last three holes, two with birdies, to join great USA winners like Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs, and Kelli Kuehne.

The winning moment for The 121st Women’s Amateur Champion ?

And what a way to do it ? pic.twitter.com/WSyXQQaNLF

— The R&A (@RandA) June 29, 2024

Now, let’s run down all the world’s tours this week. We followed a national championship (Men’s US Senior Open) from storied Newport Country Club, the PGA Tour at Detroit, the DP World in Italy, the LPGA doing the tandem thing around Michigan, and the Korn Ferry down Illinois way. We’re spoiled during these summer months, full stop. Might as well enjoy these riches.

PGA Tour @ Rocket Mortgage

The results that came out of Detroit Golf Club on Sunday caused a few heads to be scratched. Nowhere to be found were the mid-60s numbers that traced across the leaderboards like sunflowers in Carmona. Missing, too, as the sun waned in the sky, were the expected, clutch performances of golfers chasing victory.

We’ve grown accustomed to birdies down the stretch, and numbers like Bhatia’s 72nd-hole bogey, and Young’s closing five-five-five, seemed strange and unfamiliar. Bhatia’s take that he knows how to close tournaments, and that it simply didn’t happen on this day, was equal parts explanation and compensation. Teachers teach well, writers write well, and golfers put the ball in the hole. That’s the measure of victory.

The lifting of the tournament trophy was left to Cam Davis, who did what the others could not. He concluded play with 70 for -18 on the week, hoping for a second RMC in four years. On his heels, all tied for second at -17, were Davis Thompson, Min Woo Lee, Aaron Rai, and Bhatia. Beyond Akshay, none has tasted tournament success on the US PGA Tour. Davis posted birdie at 17, then waited. Thompson made a late rush, with birdies at three of his final five holes. He needed one more. Lee took five shots at the final hole; he needed one fewer. As for the two-gloved Rai, his even-par 72 on the day left him a shot away from playoff.

A classy up-and-down birdie for @CamDavisGolf.

He leads by one @RocketClassic. pic.twitter.com/HSrJuetSzD

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 30, 2024

USGA @ Senior Men’s Open

Any hope that Hiroyuki Fujita held for finishing off the US Senior Open at Newport, went distantly away, courtesy of two unregistered opponents: fog and rain. The golfer that had played so brilliantly over 3.5 days (16-under through 63 holes) was forced to consider the ramifications of his situation. The golfer whose five cuts made in regular-tour majors included zero, top-forty finishes, stood three shots clear of the field, with no tourist guide to bring him home. Sunday’s dawn proved that he was mortal, and the game was afoot.

No worse pursuer than Richard Bland might have appeared. The Englishman had won his last USA start, and it was also a senior major championship. Bland captured the Senior PGA Championship in late May, winning by three shots over Australia’s Richard Green. The SPGA runner-up was also among the chasers at Newport, but a top-five finish would once again be his destiny. As for Bland, he did what experienced winners do. Consecutive birdies at 14 and 15 on Monday served notice that there would be no easy stroll home for Fujita. The Japan Tour stalwart stumbled over the same stretch of holes, posting bogey on three of his first four holes on day five.

Precisely when it appeared that Bland would conclude matters in regulation, he posted bogey at the 18th and dropped back to 13-under par. Fujita found the same number, and the duo went off to the first, two-hole playoff in US Senior Open history, and the first overtime session since 2014 in Oklahoma. After two pars each in the regulation session, they went to single-hole elimination. Each made bogey at the 18th, but the fourth hole gave resolution. Bland was able to earn a sandy from the greenside bunker, while Fujita was unable to secure par. Congratulations to Richard Bland on a second senior major in 2024.

Richard Bland is making a charge ?

He grabs the U.S. Senior Open lead after back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15. pic.twitter.com/5lOxI3EyEA

— USGA (@USGA) July 1, 2024

LPGA @ Dow Championship

Both Atthaya Thitikul (Thailand) and Yin Ruoning (China) will represent their nations in the 2024 Paris Olympic games. Olympic competition is individual-only for golf, which is a missed opportunity. Teaming to win medals for your country is the epitome of Olympic success. It’s a bit odd, then that the two would find success in a team-style, warm-up event on the LPGA circuit.

For most of the week, two golfers from the USA appeared destined for victory at Midland Country Club. Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho finished 36 holes in 128 strokes. They gave one back on Saturday, with 67, but came home on Sunday with a third 64 for the week. Despite an early passel of birdies, they were unable to save a single shot over the closing stretch. They finished at 21-deep for the week.

Paired with them, Thitikul and Ruoning were also finding par after par as they headed for home. At the watery 18th, Thitikul stuffed her tee ball inside fifteen feet, then read the surface flawlessly, and hit her mark. The putt broke slightly right, into the center of the cup. With that closing birdie, a playoff was avoided and a send-off celebration of Olympic calibre was in the works.

Team @jeeno_atthaya and Ruoning Yin fighting for the solo lead ?

Tune in on @CBS to catch the rest of the action! pic.twitter.com/Y4CkPBF7sc

— LPGA (@LPGA) June 30, 2024

DP World Tour @ Italian Open

16 months had passed since Marcel Siem last savored a DP World Tour win. His triumph at the Indian Open, in February of 2023, might have been a bit distant to leave residue of confidence. As he traversed the final arc of the Cervia golf course, his gaskets had unsealed and oil leaked everywhere. An outward 32 was undone by four bogeys from holes 11 to 17. The last one had dropped him from the lead, and only a majestic finish could return a chance at salvation. After he drove the fairway and reached the green at the closing trace, Siem assessed a 22-feet putt for birdie and found cup bottom.

In that moment, the round of 65 that England’s Tom McKibbin had fashioned, was no longer enough. He would need to do a bit more work, to secure a second Tour title. The duo returned to the final tee deck, and Siem once again faced a birdie putt. His approach was played brilliantly to about ten feet, but the putt drifted right. By the grace of gravity, it caught enough of the circle to fall downward, and a sixth career title belonged to the German champion.

The moment @SiemMarcel claimed his SIXTH Tour win ?#ItalianOpen pic.twitter.com/YysmH9FKAh

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 30, 2024

Korn Ferry Tour @ MHC by LRS

Max McGreevy has tasted the bitterness of defeat and savored delicious victory on the professional golf tours. He has lost a playoff on the PGA Tour, and now won twice on the Korn Ferry orbit. This week, McGreevey overcame a wee miss on the penultimate hole, to secure victory at green 72, with a xxx birdie putt. He and runner-up Steven Fisk each clinched a PGA Tour card for the 2025 season, based on 2024 peformance.

McGreevy eased a 36-yard pitch within two feet of the hole, at the par-five 16th, on Sunday. He converted the birdie putt and moved a shot lower than Fisk, with two holes to face. At 17, he played safely away from the tucked flag at the watery par three, and eased his 55-feet putt to precisely the same distance (26 inches.) And then, he missed. Gone was the lead, and present were the doubts.

As champions do, McGreevy refocussed and found his spot on the 18th fairway. His approach from 186 yards settled a dozen feet from the flagstick, and his read on the downhill slider was accurate. The putt dropped, and McGreevy avoided overtime.

Back to the winner’s circle ??@MaxMcgreevy brings home his second title @MHChampionship. pic.twitter.com/LIqPI1iXnO

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) June 30, 2024

 

By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco. For comments: [email protected] Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Rocket Mortgage Classic gets underway. 1. Charlie Woods grouped with sons of other championship-winning dads at Future Masters Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Days after qualifying for his first USGA championship, Charlie Woods finds himself in a notable grouping at the one of the longest-running junior tournaments in the country.” “Woods, 15, who qualified last week for the U.S. Junior Amateur next month at Oakland Hills, will play in the Press Thornton Junior Masters, which begins Thursday at Dothan Country Club in Dothan, Alabama. The event, now in its 75th year, has seen the likes of Shaun Micheel, Stewart Cink, Hudson Swafford,Blayne Barber, Ollie Schniederjans and Robby Shelton win titles in the 15-18 age division.” “Woods will be grouped with Jacob Immelman, a Clemson signee and son of Masters champ Trevor Immelman; Liam Curtis, son of Open champ Ben Curtis; and Henry Kuehne, son of Hank Kuehne, a former U.S. Amateur champ who won twice on the Canadian Tour.” Full piece. 2. Open Championship qualifying fields set Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Final qualifying, which is 36 holes, will be held at four sites across the U.K. on Tuesday: Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Burnham-on-Sea, England; Royal Cinque Ports in Deal, England; West Lancashire Golf Club in Blundellsands, England; and Dundonald Links in Troon, Scotland, just north of Royal Troon.” “Highlighting final qualifying is Justin Rose, who played 14 straight Open Championships until missing the 2022 Open at St. Andrews. Rose was low amateur at the 1998 Open, where he tied for fourth at Royal Birkdale, and owns three top-10s in 20 career Open appearances. He tied for 22nd at the 2016 Open at Royal Troon.” “Also teeing it up are 16 current LIV players: Sergio Garcia, Carlos Ortiz, Marc Leishman, Jason Kokrak, Sebastian Munoz, Sam Horsfield and Kieran Vincent at West Lancashire; Graeme McDowell, Branden Grace and Eugenio Chacarra at Royal Cinque Ports; Peter Uihlein and Danny Lee at Dundonald Links; and Anirban Lahiri, Abraham Ancer, Jinchiro Kozuma and Laurie Canter (reserve) at Burnham and Berrow…” Full piece. 3. Dutch golfer denied Olympics by their own country despite qualifying Kent Paisley for Golf Digest…”The LPGA Tour posted on Tuesday that Dewi Weber had qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and that could have been the culmination of a dream for the Dutchwoman. Text messages poured into Weber’s phone congratulating her on the accomplishment, a fitting celebration just a week ahead of her wedding.” “However, Weber, 28, has had to painfully answer that, despite being eligible for Paris, the Netherlands will not allow her to play. Her homeland had four golfers eligible—Anne van Dam being the other golfer on the women’s side, and Darius van Driel, Joost Luiten for the men—but because of the nation’s separate qualification rules for golf, only van Dam will represent the Dutch.” “Our own country is saying we don’t think you’re worthy of being an Olympian, and you’re not worthy of representing the Netherlands,” Weber told Golf Digest on Tuesday. “And that, honestly, that hurts. We even asked them, ‘Hey, is this about money? Like, we will pay for it ourselves. Our Federation will pay for it.’ Full piece. 4. Charlie’s odd autograph Our Matt Vincenzi…”LPGA Tour player, Charley Hull, is one of the most popular women’s golfers on the planet. The 28-year-old is a great golfer, but recently has gained popularity due to the fact that she openly smokes cigarettes on the golf course during events.” “This past weekend, Hull was once involved with a cigarette on the golf course, this time signing one for a fan.” “A signed cigarette is quite the souvenir, and I’d imagine that one cigarette that will never be smoked.” Full piece. 5. Waugh to leave PGA of America CEO role AP report…”Seth Waugh is leaving the PGA of America after six years as CEO, a period marked by a sharp boost in golf participation and PGA membership and the move of its headquarters from Florida to a massive complex in Texas. “Waugh was the CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas when he joined the PGA of America board as an independent director and then was hired to lead the 30,000-plus members in 2018.” “His contract was up for renewal on June 30, and Waugh decided not to renew.” “It feels like the right time, not only personally but professionally,” Waugh said. “We’ve accomplished an awful lot in the six years. The game has never been in better shape. Participation is at an all-time high. It’s growing in all the ways we hoped it would.” “The fastest growth is women and people of color. We try to make the game look like the rest of the world, and maybe have the world behave more like our game.” Full Piece. 6. Photos from the Rocket Mortgage Classic Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event! Full Piece.

Back in 2021, GolfWRX wanted to learn more about the data surrounding Sqairz golf shoes’ bold performance claims. We talked with Terry Hashimoto, co-founder of BodiTrak, who tested (and continues to test) golfer performance when wearing the company’s shoes.

Hashimoto’s research showed the average gains for golfers wearing Sqairz shoes compared to the golfers’ previous footwear was an average of an 8-yard extra carry distance, 13mph increased ball speed, 11-degrees increase in hip rotation, and a greater smash factor of 7%. Sqairz wearers leveraged the company’s industry-leading ground connection for better balance, energy exchange, and weight transfer for better ball speed and carry numbers.

As a refresher, here’s what we said about Sqairz golf shoe technology.

At the heart of the design behind the technologically advanced shoes is the patented squared toe. The interior design of the square toe allows the golfer’s toes to sit comfortably in the shoe, with a wider base and a heel stabilizer designed to provide enhanced balance and stability. The square toe also allows golfers a unique freedom for their toes to sit naturally with a full range of motion and a noticeable feel for the ground.

Sqairz testing found that added flexibility in competitive sneaker-like golf shoes promoted inversion, the foot (weight) moving to the outside of the trail foot. This is when the golfer gets stuck on the right side (for right-handed golfers) and not being able to shift the weight back to the lead side.

With the Sqairz golf shoe, golfers are provided with a structured upper material often used in sports such as football and soccer to provide structure for sudden weight shifts. Along with this upper material, the outsole and midsole have been optimized for the right amount of flexibility to promote efficient energy exchange and stability. In addition, Sqairz has engineered a heel stabilizer that keeps the heel down throughout the swing and prevents ankle roll-over injuries on all types of lies.

Sqairz shoes also feature the widest base and greatest amount of ground coverage of any golf shoe, which is proven to provide better balance and stability as well as offer efficient braking power. Braking occurs towards the end of the backswing and immediately before the ball is struck. Golfers shift the weight from the trail to the lead side and this optimized braking at the right time allows for increased swing speed.

To take the conversation further, we caught up with Hashimoto again, as well as Tyler Standifird, who is a Professor of Biomechanics and Kinesiology at Utah Valley University and a sports performance researcher.

GolfWRX: What is ground force, in simple terms, for the golfer who has heard it mentioned but doesn’t really understand what it is?

TH: How we use the ground during our swing to effect optimal performance.

TS: Ground reaction force is based on Newton’s 3rd law, which is the action-reaction law. Ground reaction force is the force exerted by the ground as a reaction to internal pushes, forces from our muscles and bodies. A desk won’t move on its own, it can only push on the ground at the same value, minute by minute year by year. But humans have the capacity to alter their interactions with the ground by using muscles to push on the ground to get altered forces from the ground that create motion in human movement.

GolfWRX: Why is ground force so important in the golf swing?

TH: Learning how to use the ground optimally will increase a golfer’s stability, range of motion, and lateral speed leading to greater ball speed, distance, and tighter dispersion.

TS: The ground is one of our two connections in the golf swing. It is impossible to create the motion you want in the golf swing without proper GRF. Just imagine swinging a golf club on ice, or in slippery conditions, it is incredibly difficult and takes out a key source of your power, the legs and the ground. GRF in the golf swing is what allows us to create efficient powerful swings, with forces that occur at the right time in the swing, in the right direction, and with the correct magnitude.

GolfWRX: Growing up, golf instruction rarely seemed to mention the ground — or “using the ground” — why is this? How are things different now?

TH: That’s so true. It wasn’t until we started developing portable pressure mapping systems, BodiTrak being the 1st and traveling all over the world with Top Coaches and Players on all tours were we able to see consistent common denominators for all the shots required…from the putting to chipping to short iron play, long irons, hybrids, fairway wood and ESPECIALLY in the Driver we’re we able to share with the world the most relevant applications of how to use the ground. But wait, there’s one thing to consider…

What initiates the backswing? Would you ever get in your car – put it in drive before you started your car? NO is the obvious answer and it turns out this answer has THE most effective change on the Kinematic Sequence

TS: I think it is due to a bit of progress in technology and the availability of researchers and coaches. It’s like a trackman or other launch monitor, a lot of it wasn’t talked about until we could collect data, see numbers, and start to understand how they work together. GRF technology used to be reserved for high-level research labs, most of which were not doing research related to golf. Now there are a number of great labs at research Universities, and coaches using force plates to measure GRF and understand how it can help a player improve. Because force is invisible, we needed to start measuring it to really truly understand what a golfer was doing as a result of data collection. We needed to understand the principle of GRF before we could be confident explaining it to students. Now that we know so much more about how it works in the swing, it is something that can be an awesome teaching tool for coaches.

GolfWRX: How does a player “use the ground” optimally in the golf swing?

TS: Golfers use what we call the kinetic sequence. This is the process of how they synchronize the forces needed to move the body in efficient ways in the swing. It starts with a laterally directed force around the end of the backswing, the rotational forces called torques come next early in the downswing, and then a vertical push that comes very last but has to come prior to impact with the golf ball (maybe arm or club parallel on the downswing) so energy can be transferred out to the ball. Creating the proper order, at the right time is important to a proper golf swing.

GolfWRX: Since your feet are your only connection with the ground, it follows that shoes are a not unimportant piece, or are they? How much does footwear matter in the golf swing?

TH: Although not well known I’ve been designing golf clubs, shaft fitting systems, really popular products used by golfers all over the world, and 1000s of top instructors worldwide, the thing that drove me nuts is how golf shoes are designed…

The trail and lead side of your foot have completely different needs and even though we designed the FJ many years ago, it wasn’t until I started working with Sqairz, that I started to get some of the stability, mobility, and combination of both answers.

TS: I love footwear. I have researched it a lot in other sports and it can make a big difference to athletes. The footwear first and foremost needs to be comfortable enough for the player to wear during their round. Without that comfort component, performance doesn’t really matter much. I’d say that I think potentially there are a lot of golfers who could benefit a lot from proper footwear. For example, some golfers lack the proper stability in the feet/ground due to a shoe that allows too much movement in the shoe. In order to really understand, I always encourage golfers to hit some golf balls in different shoes and look at numbers/data to see how they feel. I’ve seen athletes, including golfers, gain a lot from getting the right footwear for their body and movements.

GolfWRX: If a player wears, say, shoes without spikes vs some sort of wide-based, structured shoe with SoftSpikes or the like (eg, Sqairz), how much of a difference will s/he see?

TH: We’ve seen distance gains using Sqairz shoes all over from 7 to 20 yards. Now they have shoes designed for lateral, rotation, and combo swinger, and I can’t wait to see with what they come up with next…

TS: So the name of the game with the shoe/ground experience is friction. Creating the correct connection with the ground so that a player can confidently interact with the ground without slipping. Here is a good example, the trail foot has to push really hard into the ground and away from the target in the backswing, with a secure connection with the ground, the ground will push back with a GRF that is pointed towards the target, helping them to initiate some motion forward in the golf swing. Now if they go to push and they were on ice, the foot would just go in the direction of the movement and the foot would slip out from under them. A key component of friction is the coefficient of friction, I tell my students it is the idea of how sticky the two surfaces contacting are. This is where cleats/cleatless and where the cleats are placed can play such a key role. They can really give the student the confidence to push on the ground with as much force as they can without fearing losing balance and stability.

Some players who play in a spikeless shoe with little traction may work just fine. My only concern is what are they leaving on the table. Simple numbers. If my shoe allows me to push on the ground with 100 Newtons of Force, but in my swing, I only can produce 80, then I won’t slip and I am fine with that shoe. But if I have the capacity to do 120 newtons of force then I have an issue, I either push with over 100 and slip a little, or I just push with 90 even though I can do more. It might be that people have almost started taking some athleticism out of their swing, because of their shoes. They think they don’t alter their game, but in reality, they are leaving some on the table. Like a basketball player who knows they will slip if they move too fast due to a bad court/shoes, they just move more slowly throughout the game as a result. I think similar things could be happening in the golf swing.

GolfWRX: Can you give us some background on some of the research projects related to everything we’ve been discussing?

TS: I did a great study headed by two of my students. Blake Morrill and Trevor Nielson. We tested golfers, 7 came through the lab at the latest data analysis, and we compared the Sqairz shoe to a spikeless flexible golf shoe. We had golfers hit a series of drivers while we measured trackman data and Ground reaction force during the swing. The trackman data showed a 5.5 mph increase in ball speed which was statistically different even with the small sample size. This led to a significant increase of 9 yards of carry distance. In terms of the force plate data, the trail leg force that creates part of the rotation in the golf swing was greater by almost 6% and was approaching significance, this would show a player had more ability to create rotational force with the trail leg. It was a small group, but the data showed that shoes can make a difference when looking at force production and ball speed/distance. We are excited to keep this study going, we’ve also measured foot mobility with my Colleague Dr. Melani Kelly to see if the golfers’ foot capabilities itself might lead to different data.

In my mind, we have barely scratched the surface of footwear in golf and it will be exciting to see what the future holds in terms of how we can understand footwear and how it can help a player create a better golf swing and hopefully play better golf!