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Good Friday morning, golf fans, and a big thank you to our friends at Golf Guru for sponsoring today’s Morning 9.

1. McIlroy’s epic drive to clinch win

AP Report…”Rory McIlroy had every reason to love the long ball Thursday.”

• “Taken to the 18th hole in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, McIlroy unleashed the shot of the tournament. He smashed a drive on the 375-yard closing hole so magnificently that it pitched on the green and rolled out to just inside 4 feet.”

• “That all but clinched his 2-up victory over Denny McCarthy as McIlroy led a parade of top seeds into the final round of group play at Austin Country Club.”

• “It was good,” McIlroy said with a smile, which was like saying Michelangelo did a good job on the Sistine Chapel.”

2. Survey: “Serious” golfers oppose ball rollback

E. Michael Johnson for Golf Digest…”Golf Datatech a research firm based in Kissimmee, Fla., fits that description and has released the results of its first survey related to the proposed ball rollback.”

• …”The survey was conducted of 1,250 “serious golfers” (an opt-in group identified by company). The group was asked a series of multiple choice and open-ended questions regarding the MLR. While the opinions are predictably varied, those opposed outnumber those in favor by more than two to one.”

3. More Rory on rollback

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”One player, however, had a different take on the proposed model local rule — Rory McIlroy.”

• “The Northern Irishman, who has limited his availability to the media this week at Austin Country Club, outlined his thoughts on the proposed rule in a lengthy interview with No Laying Up.”

• “I think my opinion differs from my peers, and probably the PGA Tour as a whole,” McIlroy said in the interview. “This is just my opinion and I’m only one voice. But honestly, if I’m taking my PGA Tour hat off here, the major championships are already such a big deal in the game of golf, and if the major championships somehow adopt this ball change, and the PGA Tour doesn’t, I think it widens that gap between PGA Tour golf and major championship golf. Which, if anything, the PGA Tour is trying to make up some sort of market share, or trying to get a little closer to the major championships in terms of the interest that we create within our tournaments.”

4. Changes for Augusta

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Of course, he wants to play well this week at Austin Country Club and his opening 3-and-1 victory over Scott Stallings was an encouraging start. McIlroy would also like to put his missed cut at The Players Championship out of his mind and dial in a driver that hasn’t felt right since he traded in his previous gamer last month in Los Angeles.”

• “It’s hard because you look at strokes gained: off the tee and you would think that I’m driving the ball well or I have been driving the ball well. Then you look at my driving accuracy and it’s down around 50 percent, which is quite low for me,” he explained. “I’m hitting the ball a long way, so strokes gained maybe overvalues length sometimes, depending on the course.”

• “…In addition to his change off the tee, he also made one on the greens, switching to a Scotty Cameron Newport-style putter, similar to the one he used to win the 2011 U.S. Open.”

• “I just think what I’m trying to do with lining the ball up, the line on the top instead of on the flange matches up a little bit better for me,” he said.

5. LIV lawsuit latest: LIV claims Tour squashed media deal

Joel Beall for Golf Digest…”Attorneys for LIV Golf claim the Saudi-backed circuit had a signed contract with a broadcast network only for the network to back out once the PGA Tour intervened, according to the latest court filings in the antitrust lawsuit between the two leagues.”

• “Documents submitted late Wednesday night in U.S. District Court that were made available Thursday morning concern the deposition of PGA Tour executive Thierry Pascal, who is the managing director for the tour’s international media division. “Based on tour documents and other sources, LIV believes Mr. Pascal used illegal means to dissuade numerous broadcasters in international markets from signing broadcast contracts with LIV and even from reporting about LIV events in their news content,” LIV’s lawyers say in the filing.”

• “…LIV Golf claims that because of the interference it had to sign “with a secondary network, with LIV being its first sporting event.” The network being referred to is the CW Network, LIV’s only U.S. media partner.”

6. Why Justin Suh has been using the same putter model since eighth grade

Our Andrew Tursky writing for PGATour.com…”Justin Suh is not one of those players. He’s been using the same model of Nike putter since his freshman year in high school.”

• “The reigning Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year has been a Nike Method Core Mod-4w putter since grabbing the $50 club off the rack before a junior tournament.”

• “I rolled in every putt. I was like, ‘Dad, I need this,’” Suh told golfchannel.com in 2019. Suh shot 64 the next day.

• “Now that old Nike putter will be in use at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play after Suh snuck in as the 63rd seed. A strong stretch of recent play, including a T5 at The Honda Classic and T6 at THE PLAYERS earned Suh a spot at Austin Country Club.”

• “Suh retired the original after Nike sent him the same model with slight modifications. With Nike no longer making equipment, he also bought a third Method putter on eBay a few years ago.”

7. Average driving distance for golfers (via Arccos)

8. LPGA Taiwan event canceled

Beth Ann Nichols for Golfweek…”The LPGA and Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation announced late Thursday they mutually agreed to cancel the 2023 Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA, scheduled for Oct. 26-29, due to operational factors.”

• “The tournament hasn’t been held since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

9. Photos from the WGC Match Play

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