News

Morning 9: Xander the underdog | Incredibly, Cody Blick got his clubs back | New No. 1

Published

7 years ago

Jan 7, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

January 7, 2019

Good Monday morning, golf fans.

1. Meanwhile, in Hawaii…

PGATour.com’s Ben Everill on the underdog mentality that’s fueling Xander Schauffele, who fired a blistering final-round 62 to pip Gary Woodland by a stroke at Kapalua.

“Four PGA TOUR wins. One of them a World Golf Championship. Another the TOUR Championship. This latest one – against a stacked field of winners at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.”

“He’s a former PGA TOUR Rookie Of The Year. He currently leads the FedExCup. He’s moved to sixth in the world rankings.”

“But don’t tell Xander Schauffele he’s one of the big guns in world golf.”

“Kind of weird sound to it, honestly. I don’t know. I just still feel like an underdog,” he says.

“I feel like until you’re No. 1, you’re chasing. So guys like Bryson (DeChambeau) and Justin (Thomas), JT’s put together a ton of good years, Brooks (Koepka) has been crushing it.

Full piece.

2. Another new driver arriveth

Following PXG, TaylorMade, and Callaway’s releases last week, Mizuno leads off the second week of January with a driver release of its own.

In announcing its lowest spinning, most technology-packed driver in company history, Mizuno seeks to position itself as a company that has quietly innovated in the driver space for years, highlighting innovations such as the Ti100, T-Zoid, MP-001, and MP-600 in discussions around the launch of its latest drivers.

With respect to the specifics of the Japanese company’s most recent weaponry, the ST190 and 190G feature a forged Sp700Ti face (10 percent stronger than 6-4 titanium) with the company’s ultra-light Cortech structure, as well as a carbon composite crown. As with the ST180 series, Mizuno applies its Amplified Wave soleplate, which deforms on impact for better energy transfer between club and ball.

The weight of the carbon composite crown, 12 grams, allowed engineers to redistribute some seven grams of weight throughout the body of the club.

The Amplified Wave Sole effectively expands the ST190’s COR area for improved balls speeds across the clubface, according to the company, and better ball speed on off-center strikes in particular.

Mizuno fine-tuned the driver’s sound via Harmonic Impact Technology, adding internal rids for a more solid sound at impact.

Full piece.

3. A triumph of common sense

The AP’s Doug Ferguson…”Webb Simpson was searching for his ball in the weeds short of the fifth green Saturday at Kapalua when he stepped on a clump of grass and out popped the ball. Five days ago, he would have had to add one shot to his score.”

“Under the new Rules of Golf, he put it back where it was without penalty.”

“There has been plenty of talk about players putting on the green with the flagstick in the hole, and having to drop the ball at knee-high length instead of shoulder-length. This was the first example of the intent behind the five-year project to modernize the rules.”

“It’s all about common sense.”

“Under the previous code where a player is searching for the ball, who is the most interested to find the ball? The player,” said Stephen Cox, a PGA Tour rules official “Who do we penalize? They player, who then becomes the least interested in finding the ball.”

Full piece.

4. What an end to the saga

Andrew Tursky caught up with Cody Blick (you remember the saga of his stolen clubs, piecing a set together, and earning his card in Web.com qualifying).

Q: So this is an absolutely crazy story. Can you go through exactly how you ended up getting your clubs back?

Blick: Yeah, you know, it was probably three days ago now. And honestly, Titleist replaced every club in the bag except the putter, I’m still kind of having trouble with that one. It was from 2012, and I had been using that one ever since. They sent me a couple putters to try out, they tried to match the weight because I had the swing weight and the overall weight in my records. They were close, it just wasn’t the same. Everything was fine. So, at this point I had pretty much just accepted that I wasn’t going to see the putter or my old clubs again.

“I got a text, I actually got two missed calls from my mom and my dad. And then I saw a text from my mom and it was just pictures of the golf bag. The stitching was ripped out of my first name on the bag. And her comment was just ‘Is this your bag? We might have found it.’ And instantly I just got super excited and called her back. So this woman apparently, in Arizona, was I guess just walking down the street and she ran into this homeless man. I guess his sign said he was looking for money for a hotel room. Her story is that she didn’t want to just give him money, she asked if he had anything to sell. And so she claims that she then was taken back into his tent under the overpass. And there she saw the clubs and she said ‘OK, I’ll give you $75 for the set of golf clubs.’ Not knowing the story or that they were my clubs, just thinking she could resell the golf clubs.”

“She gets home, and my last name ‘Blick’ was stamped into the wedges, and I guess she thought that was the model number. She googled ‘Blick golf clubs’ and up came the story. And so at that point she said she went onto Whitepages to try and get in contact with us. She found my mom’s phone number and gave her a call. So we got in contact with her. Then my college roommate, Taylor, his parents just moved to Arizona in December. So he was out there for New Years. I called him and I was like ‘Hey man, we found the clubs. Can I Venmo you 300 bucks and you meet up with this random woman and get my clubs back for me?’ And so he said ‘Yea.'”

“So they met in front of some SuperMarket and he checked out the clubs, and they’re pretty beat up, but I’m just happy to get them back. Gave her the $300 and flew home the next day. Then I met him in the parking lot of an In-N-Out burger and got my clubs back.”

Full piece.

5. Speaketh the scientist

Kevin Casey at Golfweek...”DeChambeau was asked Friday about what rules change intrigues him the most. He offered the new drop rule, and his thoughts toward that change were none too flattering:”

‘”I think the knee drop one (intrigues me most). That you have to drop it from knee height is a bit absurd, unfortunately. I think that you should be able to go from knee height to shoulder height. There should be no issue with that, whatever you want to do, honestly.”

“He’s certainly not the only one curious about this rule change. Rory McIlroy has already sounded off here as well.”

Full piece.

6. “Hard to argue”

A strong take from Geoff Shackelford on some remarks from the commish.

“It’s hard to get past the above quote from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan made in a 2019 Sentry TOC media session and reported here by Golfweek’s Dan Kilbridge.”

“The Commissioner’s views on distance are no secret: he wants to hype younger and longer players because he believes that’s why people watch the game despite all of the grandstands being at greens and not tee boxes.”

“You can take your pick of reasons for a short-sighted stance that even his youth-obsessed predecessor never went so far overboard to make. But more alarming is the view that the sport is growing and thriving, so why change a thing?”

The quote….”We’re gonna be a party to all these discussions,” Monahan said. “We’re going to understand everybody’s perspectives as the USGA and R&A move forward with their Distance Insights project, but it’s hard to argue you should be changing anything right now because the sport is growing and thriving.”

Shack’s full take.

7. But also…gambling!

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard, first quoting the commissioner…“Where we are from a gaming standpoint, I’ll break it down to two points. We have for the last couple of years put all the systems in place from an integrity program to monitoring program to our ShotLink technology in place so we can be in a position to participate,” Monahan said. “The reason we would do it is because we think gaming leads to more engagement.”

“Monahan said he expects sports betting in golf to be what he called a “second-, third- or fourth-screen experience,” meaning fans would follow any potential bets as well as the traditional tournament broadcast.”

“The commissioner also said he had particular interest in The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in November, including the side bets the two stars made during and before the event.”

“The one thing that I thought was interesting was at their press conference when Phil challenged [Tiger] to a first-hole birdie wager,” Monahan said. “To me, I was really interested in that as much as I was anything else. Obviously, it was a match and it was between the two of them, but it was an interesting way to start out the day.”

Full piece.

8. Did Lucy Li violate Rules of Amateur Status?

Golf Digest’s Ryan Herrington on an interesting situation…

“But with her appearance in a newly released video from Apple on Twitter showcasing the company’s Apple Watch, might the 16-year-old, No. 9 in the most recent World Amateur Golf Ranking, have compromised her amateur status?”

“In the 15-second video, Li is shown swinging a golf club with “Lucy L.” superimposed over her body. The video shows her practicing golf and hanging out with friends while wearing the Apple Watch, and it ends with a close-up on her face and the words “Close Your Rings,” which is part of an Apple marketing slogan.”

“Details of Li’s involvement in the video are unclear. Contacted by Golf Digest, Li said she had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Apple that prohibited her from discussing the video. Li’s mother, Amy, said via text message that Lucy and the family did not receive any compensation for being in the video. Inquiries with media relations staff at Apple had not been returned at the time of this post.”

Here’s the language from the Rules of Amateur Status…. prohibit amateurs from using their golf skill or reputation “to obtain payment, compensation, personal benefit or any financial gain, directly or indirectly, for (i) promoting, advertising or selling anything, or (ii) allowing his name or likeness to be used by a third party for the promotion, advertisement or sale of anything.” Under Rule 6-2, it specifically states that “even if no payment or compensation is received, an amateur golfer is deemed to receive a personal benefit by promoting, advertising or selling anything, or allowing his name or likeness to be used by a third party for the promotion, advertisement or sale of anything.”

The USGA is looking into the matter.

Full piece.

9. New No. 1

Apologies for burying the big news!

SkySports report...”Koepka needed to finish tied-eighth of better on the Plantation Course to remain world No 1, but ended in 24th spot despite carding a four-under 69 in the final round.”

Ergo: Justin Rose is your No. 1 golfer in the world.

Full piece.

News

Most birdies without breaking par – GolfWRXers discuss

Published

8 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Will Schube

In our forums, one user is wondering how many birdies other players have had in a round while still failing to break par. @Lalan45, unfortunately, asked the question after a unique experience of their own.

They wrote:

“Today I managed 8 birdies but still shot even par, could have been a round to remember! What’s the most birdies you’ve made in a round and still didn’t break par?”

Our members in the forum shared their own experiences with successful rounds that still resulted in a score over par. Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

kwcsports: “I’ve had 5 a few times, still shot 80+ haha.”
jda: “I played a course for the first time, had 8 birdies, 9 doubles and an eagle. The infamous no-par round. I kept the scorecard. Every shot had a creek that I did not know about, or I was within 8-10 feet for a birdie look. To this day, I have no idea if I should be really jacked up or mad about that performance.”
jvincent: “I think my record is either 5 or 6. Probably shot 75.”
Instron4204: “3 birdies and shot a 92…man I suck!”

Entire Thread: “Most Birdies Without Breaking Par.”

News

Best current stock shaft 2026 – GolfWRXers discuss

Published

8 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Will Schube

In our forums, one user is asking for thoughts on the best stock shafts offered in 2026. Stock shafts are the shafts included with a club when it’s purchased from retailers or OEMs.

@DTorres asked:

The last couple years has seen a lot of updates and additions to no upcharge stock shafts, which do you think is the best offering in 2026?

Im a bit of a shaft nerd and recently during my Members Testing with the Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond I found the updated Project X Denali Frost Black to be a fantastic stock shaft. I absolutely did not mesh well with the original Denali. Just curious what other people think are the current best Stock shaft offerings out with new models and stock Ventus options and LinQ options popping up here and there.

We were given the option for any stock shafts for our members review. I went with the 70g Black Frost 6.5 because it’s a shaft I don’t have, it’s an updated version of the original Denali and hear little about. I typically use a Diamana WB, GD VF or a HOF Raptor. I’m not saying it was neck and neck with any of those but it was a pleasant surprise I’m not accustomed to in stock shaft offerings.

Our members in the forum have been offering up their own thoughts on the best stock shafts available in 2026. Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

rsballer10: “IMO – MCA Ka’ili White Darkwave, Tensei 1k Black/white, UST Lin-Q White. People are free to spend their money however they see fit, but for me personally the shaft catalogs these days have enough options that I don’t see the value of a $400 upcharge. I have never had a problem finding a no upcharge shaft that fits the bend profile and weight that I need. Whether the paint job is good enough or not is above my pay scale.”
bcflyguy1: “Project X Titan Black. I’ve had one in 60TX in my Quantum TD Max for several weeks now. Have to give Titlieist their flowers for finding a way to make it available as a featured option; very shrewd bit of business and one that I suspect will be duplicated by the other companies. TT/PX have a certified banger on their hands with Titan.”
CTG77: “Undoubtedly, it’s the Tensei 1K RIP shafts from Titleist. The Tensei line gives about 98% of the performance of a Ventus VeloCore+ shaft at a tiny fraction of the cost if you’re looking for a blue or red profile. The white is not an exact match for Ventus Black, but it’s closer to it than the non-VeloCore+ Ventus shafts that come from Callaway or formerly came from TaylorMade.”

Entire Thread: “Best current stock shaft 2026.”

News

GolfWRX’s Father’s Day Gift Guide (2026)

Published

2 days ago

Jun 9, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

A reminder from your friends at GolfWRX: Father’s Day is June 21. And as we do every year, we’re rounding up the best gifts for dad.

As we say every year, there’s no better golf-related Father’s Day gift than a round of golf with pops. Be it a country club or your favorite muni, take the time to get together to play 18 if you can.

Let’s get to the gifts.

Ghost Golf Qualifier Diamond Polo

We like the new polos that Ghost is offering, as the fabric and fit are so good. These new Qualifier Collection polos breathe well, are lightweight, stretch with your swing, and of course look great. You can wear them on the course, in the office, or just out at a casual event and they will fit right in.

Buy here.

STR8-Strip Grip Tape Remover

If your dad is an equipment aficionado and tinkers with his clubs, this tool works wonders. Removing grip tape has never been easier, just put a little head on the tape and the STR8-Strip peals it right off the shaft without any damage.

Buy here.

Why Golf: Putting Thing

When it comes to practice, it is good to have a purpose. This “Putting Thing” sure does it. We know from personal experience how challenging it can be and how rewarding it is on the practice green. This also provides some competition for your kiddo to see who will unload the dishwasher or do the next chore around the house.

Buy here.

OluKai Lae‘ahi Men’s Breathable Slip-On Shoes

Riding to and from the course in style and comfort is always a good thing. If you’re in a hurry, it’s a nice feature to slide into your shoes and get to the tee time. For the post-game shoe, at your locker or while putting your clubs away in the car. Nice to slide into a shoe that looks good anywhere. Pair that with meeting the family for dinner, no need to change!

Buy here.

Therabody Theragun Relief

A little wellness goes a long way. Keeping loose is a good way to go when it comes to the weekend game or treatment during the week. If there is a little ache or pain, the Theragun is there to help out. Help loosen up the back for a pre-game warm-up or cool-down.

Buy here.

World Cup golf apparel

Something for the soccer dads. Embrace the World Cup fever this summer on the course with custom gear to support the nation of your choice.

Buy here.

FootJoy Pro SL spikeless golf shoes

Give the old man a break and save his feet with the Footjoy Pro SL Men’s Spikeless Golf Shoes for some added comfort on the course.

Buy here.

Bushnell Wingman 2 GPS speaker

Combine all the hits as well as some game improvement with the Wingman 2 Golf GPS Speaker by getting audible distance readings from 38,000+ courses worldwide through the Wingman 2 remote or speaker.

Buy here.

Personalized Titleist Pro V1 golf balls

The No. 1 ball in golf is a safe bet, and the Pro V1 fits the largest chunk of the bell curve if you don’t know what ball pops plays. Add personalization for a, well, personal touch!

Buy here.