Twofer Tuesday: Wyndham Championship

Twofer Tuesday makes a trip home to NC, where the Wyndham Championship is only about a half-hour away.

Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro NC really is only a half-hour or so from my home. and I always look forward to this longstanding event which, back in the day, used to be known as the GGO (Greater Greensboro Open). Sam Snead won here 8 times in his career, the last just short of his 53rd birthday. It's a Donald Ross course -- par 70, 7131 yards -- with a lot of history.

Detroit Country Club last week is also a Donald Ross design, so players like one of last week's runner-ups, Taylor Pendrith, might do well here. Kevin Kisner is the defending champion.

This is the last week of the regular PGA Tour season. Next week the Playoffs start, so this is the last chance for players to play their way into them. So we should see some serious scrambling come Sunday afternoon.

My two picks are players with good records at this course. They may not do well this week -- that seems to be par for the course lately, especially with these old-style courses -- but let's give it a try anyway.

• Webb Simpson: His last five appearances in Greensboro are 3rd-T2-2nd-T3-T7. Not playing so well this year but if he's going to get back in form, this seems a good place to start.
• Kevin Kisner: The defending champ has four Top10s in seven appearances, and his scoring average in his last eight rounds in Greensboro is 65.88. He's been hit-and-miss this season but we'll see if good memories are what he needs.

GC's live coverage starts Thursday at 2pm ET. PGA TOUR LIVE's streams start at 6:45am ET (link to schedule here). I'm excited for this week. Let's go!

The Limerick Summary: 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic

Winner: Tony Finau

Around the wider world of golf: Ayaka Furue became the first Japanese player to win the Trust Golf Women's Scottish Open on the LPGA/LET; Sean Crocker got his first DP World Tour win at the Hero Open; Noah Goodwin won the Sothebys International Realty Canada Ontario Open on the Mackenzie Tour; Xiaowen Yin won the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship on the Epson Tour; Jaco Prinsloo won the FNB Eswatini Nkonyeni Challenge on the Sunshine Tour; Wenyi Ding won the U.S. Junior Amateur; and Minami Katsu won the JLPGA's Rakuten Super Ladies. [Thanks, IC!]

My Twofer Tuesday picks did pretty well this week. I had Will Zalatoris (T20) and Patrick Cantlay (T2). Almost a winner and both inside the Top20. I'll take it!

• Top10s: 23 for 82 (15 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 40
• Top20s: 36 for 82

Could he go back-to-back? After winning the 3M Open last week, Tony Finau was the favorite to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic this week. But last week his win wasn't a runaway, and for some reason only runaways are accepted as "definitive" wins these days.

Cam Young was expected to challenge for his first win this week, but the player grabbing the most attention was Taylor Pendrith, tied with Tony entering the final round. It would be a battle between those two... or would it?

In the end, Tony ran away to a 5-shot win while Young, Pendrith and Cantlay tied for runner-up.

Whatever has happened to Tony Finau over the last couple of weeks makes him a serious contender to win the FedExCup when the Playoffs start one week from now. But if you want to know what has changed in Tony's game, it seems pretty clear to me...

He picked off two Limerick Summaries in consecutive weeks. That'll improve your rank every time!

Though Tony’s not one to talk smack
And always appears so laid-back,
His clubs aren’t as quiet.
They simply ran riot
On those who thought Tony might crack.

The photo comes from this page at pgatour.com.

Feel Your Swing by Loading the Shaft (Video)

In this short video Mike Malaska explains exactly what it means to "feel" your swing. It's all a function of loading the shaft, and he shows you (with a flexible shafted practice club) how it works. Once you understand this, you'll understand why the proper shaft flex is important -- if the shaft is too stiff, it won't load and you won't feel it; if the shaft is too soft, it loads too much and you can't control it -- and how it affects your sequencing.

5 Course Strategies to Cut Your Score (Video)

Maybe the video calls these "swing tips" but PGA pro Alex Elliott is giving you 5 strategy tips to help you make better shot choices out on the course. Sometimes you don't need better technique... you just need to think better.

Learning Tempo and Flow in Your Golf Swing (Video)

Chances are you've seen this approach to practicing your swing before, but Chris Ryan does a good job of helping you understand -- and feel -- the sense of a flowing golf swing that was particularly noticeable back in the age of hickory. It still works today but most of us swing too hard too fast to feel it. Give these drills a try and see if they don't help your tempo!

Identical Lofts, Different Clubs... What's the Difference? (Video)

Michael Newton is testing two clubs -- one a rescue club (think utility wood), the other a hybrid (think utility iron) -- but both have the same loft, 19°. Do they travel the same distance? How do the ball flights and general behavior differ? Does one suit your game better than the other? These are things you should know when you're choosing to add a new club to your bag.

The Ladies Get Linksy

The men (old and young) did it, now it's the ladies' turn. Welcome to the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open.

The ladies will hit the links at Dumbarnie Links at Ayrshire, Scotland. And leading the charge will be defending champion Ryann O’Toole, who made this event her first LPGA win last year.

This will, of course, be the warmup for the final women's championship of 2022, the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield. I imagine it will be hard to get their minds off that upcoming event on that legendary track but, as Ryann proved last year, there's so much to be gained from this event that none of them can afford to lose sight of the prize this week.

GC's coverage of this event begins Thursday at 10am ET and we'll get four hours of coverage.We don't get to watch links golf all that often here in the States, so the prospect of getting two more weeks' worth is awesome!

Twofer Tuesday: Rocket Mortgage Classic

Twofer Tuesday motors into Detroit, because the highway to the Playoffs runs through the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

The North Course of the Detroit Golf Club is a par-72 measuring 7370 yards... and it's a Donald Ross design that's over 100 years old. It was updated before the Tour started teeing it up in 2019 and it's proven to be a great track for first time winners. Just ask defending champion Cam Davis.

Rickie Fowler will be an interesting watch this week. Although he made the cut last week at the 3M, he actually lost ground in his race to the Playoffs, falling from 129 to 132. With only two weeks left, the pressure is on!

As usual, I see a lot of players I think will do well this week... and most of them (at least the ones I pick) will fail to do so. So what the heck, let's go chalk this week.

• Will Zalatoris is still somebody I expect to win soon. At #9 in the points list he won't have the pressure on him that many of the other 'yet-to-wins' will, so I think he may have an advantage this week.
• Patrick Cantlay sits at #6 in the points list but hasn't won a solo event in a while. He's due... so why not this week?

GC's live coverage begins Thursday at 3pm ET, and PGA TOUR LIVE's streams begin at 7am ET the same day. You can catch the streaming schedule at this link. I'm really pulling for Rickie -- eventually he's got to put four good rounds together. But will it be this week? We'll have to wait and see.

The Limerick Summary: 2022 3M Open

Winner: Tony Finau

Around the wider world of golf: Brooke Henderson became the first Canadian, male or female, to win multiple majors with her victory at the Amundi Evian Championship on the LPGA; Darren Clarke became only the fourth man to win both the regular and senior OPENs at the Senior OPEN Championship on the Champions Tour; after years of rivalry, Karrie Webb beat Annika by four at the Senior LPGA Championship on the Legends Tour; Richie Ramsay won the Cazoo Classic on the DP World Tour; David Kocher won the Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; Danny Walker won the Osprey Valley Open on the Mackenzie Tour; Saki Baba and Yana Wilson won the stroke play and match play divisions (respectively) of the US Girls' Junior; Erika Kikuchi won the Daito Kentaku Eheyanet Ladies on the JLPGA; and A Yeon Cho won the Hoban Seoul Shinmun Women's Classic on the KLPGA. [Thanks, IC!]

My Twofer Tuesday picks didn't do so well this week. I had Sahith Theegala (MC) and Maverick McNealy (T49). But what you gonna do? Players don't play well every week.

• Top10s: 22 for 80 (14 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 39
• Top20s: 34 for 80

Sir Nick Faldo predicted the end of the 3M Open halfway through the final round. "Finau's gonna win it," he said... and it shocked everyone when he was right because Tony was five back of Scott Piercy at the time.

How dramatic was that back nine? It gave us an 8-shot swing from Piercy's lead to Finau's, complete with dramatic swings among all the leaders atop the leaderboard. Unexpected shots into the numerous water hazards turned into double-bogeys and triple-bogeys, and they were capped off by Tony's unexpected 'bank shot' on the 17th, where his tee shot caromed off the grandstand and came to rest just short of the water beside the green, from which Tony made par. All those mis-hits under pressure made that final stretch totally unpredictable.

To everyone but Sir Nick, that is.

And so Tony picks up his third PGA Tour win after a bunch of runner-up finishes, along with his third Limerick Summary. Hopefully he won't forget that while counting up that huge first-place winner's check!

From five down to three shots ahead;
On nine, Tony looked to be dead.
Then they hit the homestretch
Where it might seem farfetched
But he won it, just like Faldo said!

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

Why Some Fast Swings Look So Slow (Video)

Ever wondered why some of the longest hitters look like they're not swinging hard at all? In this short video Peter Finch does a pretty good job of explaining why sequencing, not necessarily power, is the key to clubhead speed... and distance.

How to Putt Like Cam Smith (Videos)

There's a bit of humor to this video in that Ali Taylor can't seem to make a putt. (Give him credit though, he keeps missing on the same line so it may just be that this style doesn't suit him.) But he does give a good explanation of Cam Smith's putting technique.

And just for the record, here's Cam using that putting style back at THE PLAYERS. It does make you notice the details better after hearing Ali describe the technique, doesn't it?

The Winners of the Inaugural US Adaptive Open

I wanted to make sure I did a post about the US Adaptive Open, the first USGA event of its type which was held this week at Pinehurst #6 here in North Carolina.

Here are the overall winners, Kim Moore (female) and Simon Lee (male).

HISTORY MADE!

Kim Moore and Simon Lee are the inaugural #USAdaptiveOpen champions! pic.twitter.com/RRCznIKg8s

— USGA (@USGA) July 20, 2022

And here's the list of all the winners in all the different categories:

CATEGORY	MEN	WOMEN
ARM IMPAIRMENT	Conor Stone (IRE)	Cathy Walch (USA)
INTELLECTUAL IMPAIRMENT	Felix Norrman (SWE)	Grace Anne Braxton (USA)
LEG IMPAIRMENT	Chad Pfeifer (USA)	Kim Moore (USA)
MULTIPLE LIMB AMPUTEE	Jordan Thomas (USA)	Cindy Lawrence (USA)
NEUROLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT	Kipp Popert (ENG)	Ryanne Jackson (USA)
SEATED PLAYERS	Dennis Walters (USA)	Annie Hayes (USA)
SHORT STATURE	Kurtis Barkley (CAN)	Not contested
VISION IMPAIRMENT	Kiefer Jones (CAN)	Amanda Cunha (USA)

Golf Channel's summary of the event is at this link, if you want more information.

The USGA hopes this will help golf gain a place in the Paralympics, and it will be great if it does, but I just think it's cool that these players will finally be recognized in the USGA's Hall of Champions going forward. If we're going to say, "let's make golf inclusive," then we need to just go ahead and do it! If the rest of the world catches up to us, great.

If not, then let's blaze our own path.

And Now the Senior Major

Simultaneous with the LPGA, the Champions Tour plays their final major of 2022 -- the Senior OPEN.

We're treated to a second week of St. Andrews as the old guys get their own taste of history. [UPDATE: I don't know what I was looking at when I wrote this, but the Senior OPEN is being played at the Gleneagles course in Scotland. Wow, did I get this one wrong!] The defending champion is Stephen Dodd, but we've got some guys with experience playing at the Home of Golf -- including the 2018 Senior OPEN winner at St Andrews, Miguel Angel Jiménez.

This will definitely be a fun week.

As I suspected, GC's coverage is interwoven with the ladies' major at Evian-les-Bains. GC's Thursday coverage runs from 7am-9:30am ET, then again at 11:30am-2pm ET. It's going to be a very full week of televised golf!

Oui, Oui, Ladies!

The ladies' fourth major of 2022 is here, folks. Welcome to Evian-les-Bains, France for the Amundi Evian Championship.

Minjee Lee came from 7 back last year to snag her first major at Evian, and it set off a solid run that's given her a second major (US Women's Open), the Cognizant Founders Cup and a decent argument that she's currently the best player on the LPGA.

Of course the rest of the field won't let that go unchallenged. At the very least we can expect Jin Young Ko, Nelly Korda, InGee Chun, Lydia Ko, Jennifer Kupcho, Leona Maguire, LET up-and-comer Linn Grant and several rookies to make runs at her. (To the best of my knowledge, Lexi Thompson isn't teeing it up this week.)

The hilly quirky Evian course will throw curves at the field as usual, and we'll get to see the French flair that always accompanies this event. It's just fun!

GC's live coverage is divided into two windows starting Thursday -- from 5am-7am ET and again from 9:30am-11:30am ET. (I'm guessing there's some Senior OPEN coverage around it this week.) But it's great to get some serious coverage for a ladies' major again, and I'm excited to watch this one.

Twofer Tuesday: 3M Open

Twofer Tuesday enters the final stretch before the Playoffs with a stop at the 3M Open.

TPC Twin Cities is a par-71, 7431-yard track not far north of Minnesota's Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. It features lots of gently rolling terrain with lots of water to navigate. And last year Cam Champ navigated it better than anybody, posting his third PGA Tour win with a solid 66 in the final round.

Obviously we won't see many -- if any -- of the big names this week. There are only three events left before the Playoffs and the big boys have already punched their tickets. They'll be resting up instead; Rory McIlroy said as much after THE OPEN on Sunday.

But there are still picks to be made and no real "chalk picks" to speak of. So here are my picks, given without any commentary except to say that I'm sure you'll recognize their names. I think you'll see the logic in my choice of both men.

• Sahith Theegala
• Maverick McNealy

Sahith may be tired after his flight back from Scotland, but I feel good about both picks.

GC's live coverage begins Thursday at noon ET and gives us SIX hours of coverage. And as usual PGA TOUR LIVE will have four different streams running, beginning at 7:45am ET; you can find their schedule at this link. Now it's down to crunch time for the guys who haven't locked up a spot in the Playoffs. This is when the competition gets real!

The Limerick Summary: 2022 THE OPEN

Winner: Cameron Smith

Around the wider world of golf: Chez Reavie won the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event; Paul Haley II won the Memorial Health Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; the team of Lizette Salas and Jennifer Kupcho won the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational on the LPGA; Ina Yoon won the EverCollagen Queens Crown on the KLPGA; and Yong-Joon Bae won the Honors K • Solarago CC One Prize Invitational on the KPGA. [Thanks, IC!]

My Twofer Tuesday picks were looking good until Sunday. I had Matt Fitzpatrick (T21) and Rory McIlroy (3). But like last week, given how many good players were in the field, one of two isn't bad.

• Top10s: 22 for 78 (14 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 38
• Top20s: 34 for 78

I don't even know what to say except... man, what a way to win your first major!

All Cam Smith did was rip off five birdies in a row as he rounded the turn, then drop one final bird on the 18th to blow all the other contenders away at the 150th edition of THE OPEN at St. Andrews. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than that!

Rory's putter was cold on Sunday and even a last second eagle from Cameron Young wasn't enough to deter Cam from his goal. Fans will be talking about his final round 64 for years. Not just a great final round in the 150th playing, but a St. Andrews record as well. And he joins Jack Nicklaus as the only men to win THE PLAYERS and THE OPEN in the same year. (Can I call it the ALL CAPS sweep?) And to make it even sweeter, Jack's 1979 OPEN was also at St. Andrews and, like Cam, Jack was T3 to start the final round.

But Jack didn't get a Limerick Summary for his win. You're one-up on the Golden Bear, Cam!

Cam posted one last 64
To burst through his first OPEN door.
The week was a grind
But he came from behind—
Now the question is… how many more?

The photo came from this page at cnn.com.

Putting from Less than Perfect Lies (Video)

Mike Malaska is teaching how to putt from less than ideal lies in this short video. PLEASE NOTE that he isn't doing this where the grass is short and smooth. Rather, while the grass isn't terribly high it isn't a smooth surface either! He teaches you three different ways to play this kind of bad lie... and you don't have to be on a links course to use them.

Playing Blind Tee Shots (Video)

Mike Malaska has a few tips on how to play blind tee shots, which are especially common in links golf and at THE OPEN this week. One quick note: the tips only take about half the video, the rest is about giveaways at Malaska Golf. But short videos are great when the tips are solid.

Is Ping's New ChipR Something Worth Trying? (Video)

We've all seen the chipper clubs that claim to solve all your chipping problems... but now Ping has actually created one of their own called the ChipR. Rick Shiels put it through its paces, comparing it to both a putter and a 9-iron (the ChipR has 9-iron loft) and tells you what it can and can't do. I found the video very informative and learned a lot about chippers that I didn't know before.

Another Alternate Format Event

This is the week for alternate format tournaments. We get team play on the LPGA and Modified Stableford at the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event.

The Barracuda is played in Lake Tahoe CO, 6000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains, so the nearly 7500-yard course won't play nearly as long as the yardage indicates. And that makes this venue -- the Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood Course) -- a near perfect spot for the points-based format of Modified Stableford. If you've watched this event before, you know that scores can change rapidly with as many as 8 points offered (for an albatross), pars gaining no points, and a worst-case -3 points for double-bogey or worse.

And this is the first time the Barracuda is a co-sponsored event, with 50 DP World players in the field. It all sets up to create a truly competitive event with a lot on the line for a lot of players.

GC's live coverage begins today (Thursday) at 6pm ET. And as with the LPGA event, this will be a great watch if you don't have Peacock to watch the late action at THE OPEN.