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Morning 9: Kiz gets it done | McGinley on Kuchar’s nice guy “facade” | More contempt for new match play language

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By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected])

April 1, 2019

Good Monday morning, golf fans.
1. Kiz gets it done this time
Ye official AP report on Kisner’s return to the finals for the second year in a row…”Kevin Kisner made it to the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play final for the second straight year, and this time he got it right.”
  • “A week that began with a loss ended with the biggest victory of Kisner’s career when he holed a 20-foot birdie putt to close out Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, in the chilly championship match at Austin Country Club.
  • “It was a long week. I prevailed. And I’m a world golf champion,” Kisner said off the 16th green.
  • “He became the first player to win Match Play after losing in the championship match the previous year. That one wasn’t close, as Bubba Watson raced out to a big lead and ended the match in 12 holes.”
2. G-Mac!
Philip Reid of the Irish Times on Graeme McDowell’s Dominican Republic win…
  • “You know that old adage about form being temporary and class being permanent? Well, Graeme McDowell proved it. After struggling with his form in recent seasons, the 39-year-old Northern Irishman rekindled much of that old magic of his to scoop a $550,000 payday at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic and, more importantly than the financial benefits, regained his full PGA Tour exempt status.”
  • “McDowell fired a closing round 69 for a total of 19-under-par 270 to claim a one stroke winning margin over American Chris Stroud and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes. The victory ended a three-and-a-half year drought on tour for McDowell, whose last win had come in the Mayakoba Classic in 2015.”
  • “The win catapulted McDowell from 119th in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings from 119th to 38th and moved him from 257th in the world rankings into the top-150.”
3. Gallacher bounces back
EuropeanTour.com report on Stephen Gallacher’s win in India…”Stephen Gallacher birdied three of his last four holes to produce a stunning comeback and win his first European Tour title in five years at the Hero Indian Open.”
  • “The Scot had shared the first round lead but a second round 74 saw him slip back and his chances looked doomed when he made a quadruple bogey eight on the seventh hole on Sunday.”
  • “The lead kept moving backwards on a windy day at DLF Golf and Country Club but as he stood on the 15th tee, Gallacher still looked an outside bet facing one of the toughest closing stretches on the Race to Dubai”

Full piece.

4. Nasa set to blast off? 
Apologies for the obligatory pun…John Strege writes that the winner of the Kia Classic now looks very much like a major contender.
  • “A form chart is not necessarily a reliable handicapping tool in golf, sans Tiger in his prime. Yet with the LPGA’s first major championship of the year on deck, a contender at least emerged on Sunday.”
  • “Up next is the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to which Hataoka will bring confidence and already a strong track record in majors, albeit with a small sample size.”
  • “The goal for me this year was to win a four-day tournament as well as a major,” she said via an interpreter. “I’m happy I’ve accomplished one of them. As a player it’s always great to see that what I’m practicing leads to results. It gives me a lot of confidence and will be a good flow into next week’s major.”
5. A blessing?
Steve DiMeglio is looking on the bright side of Tiger Woods’ Match Play loss…
  • “…But it could turn out that the surprising turn of events against Bjerregaard will be a blessing for the 43-year-old with a bad back who pulled out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational four weeks ago with a neck sprain.”
  • “The capital of Texas broke cold and windy on Sunday, with temps not reaching 50 until noon and the wind-chill roaming from the high-30s to the mid-40s. Not exactly ideal weather for a man nursing a bad back.”
  • “A victory in the semifinals and then a match in the finals could have meant 36 or more holes on the card for Woods, possibly stretching his total to 120 holes played in five days. Instead, Woods was home in Jupiter, where it was 80 degrees.”
6. Meanwhile, in Savannah…
Savannah Morning News report on the action on the Web.com Tour…”Dan McCarthy carded a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday to win the second annual Savannah Golf Championship by one stroke at The Landings Club’s Deer Creek Course.”
  • “McCarthy, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., had at least a share of the lead at the end of each round with scores of 65-67-71-69 for 16 under at the Web.com Tour event. Scottie Scheffler, who was in a three-way tie for the lead when the round started, was one shot back at 15 under (71-65-67-70).”
7. “A big facade”
Oh boy. Some bon mots from Paul McGinley in James Corrigan’s bit for the Telegraph.
  • …Paul McGinley, the former Ryder Cup captain, has already claimed that the saga has underlined that Kuchar’s nice-guy image is “a big façade.”
  • “It gives an insight into Matt Kuchar,” McGinley, the Sky Sports analyst, said. “You see the smiley, nice Matt Kuchar. You’ve seen the incident with the caddie. There’s a hardness about him. Don’t be fooled by him. I think we saw another illustration of it there. There’s a hardness, a toughness about Matt Kuchar that he puts a big facade up around.”
8. Tait hates…
…the new match play language promoted by the 2019 Rules of Golf…
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait is not impressed, and he sounds off accordingly…
  • With this…”There’s nothing wrong with “all-square” or “halve,” terms that have served the game well since two shepherds decided to play against each other with crooks and stones on the Fife coastline 500 years ago.”
  • And this…“Sadly, there is no mention of all-square in the new rule book. It’s been quietly deleted in the supposed attempt to make the game more accessible to new players. Maybe the governing bodies think the game’s going to become populated by morons incapable of understanding simple terms like all-square and halved.”
  • And this…“Can you imagine the uproar in other sports if ruling bodies suddenly started replacing age-old terms? Imagine if football commentators suddenly stopped using “touchdown” and replaced it with “six-point score”?”
Sidebar: a name for this phenomenon: Taitred?
9. On covering the ANWA instead of the ANA
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols discusses her decision to head to Augusta…
  • “For the past year people have asked which event I’m going to cover the first week of April. With the ANA Inspiration and the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur overlapping, there was a choice to be made.”
  • “I have covered the past 15 ANAs, but for all the girls like Shepherd who dreamed of one day competing at Augusta, and for those who couldn’t bring themselves to even think it, the choice was clear: Go watch history be made.”
  • “It’s going to be everything,” said Shepherd of what it would mean to win. “They’ll always be the first winner of what could be the biggest turning point in women’s golf.”

 

Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Jon

    Apr 1, 2019 at 11:43 am

    I couldn’t agree more with Alistair Tait and new language. The one not mentioned on this page that has me up in arms is replacing “hazard” with “penalty area”. To me this will be confusing for new players as they will think they have to take a penalty when in some cases it would be optional. What is wrong with keeping hazard in the vocabulary?

    • MattD

      Apr 1, 2019 at 5:25 pm

      Completely agree with you regarding the term “tied”. Drove me crazy all week. Sadly, the rules use this as the default term. Surely “all-square” and “halved” isn’t that hard to comprehend. Next they will change “birdie” and “bogey” for one-less-than-par etc

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Most birdies without breaking par – GolfWRXers discuss

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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.”

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Best current stock shaft 2026 – GolfWRXers discuss

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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.”

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

  • GolfWRX may earn a commission for purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you.

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