5. 14.2012
�timely switch matt kuchar alternated between a
taylormade and rife belly-length putter for most of the last
year. last monday a rife tour rep hand-delivered a new rife
barbados belly to kuchar and, after some practice, the club
went in the bag. “we made matt a barbados with a special
bend and bore angle that would fit his putting style better,”
said Jim barfield, rife’s vp of tour operations. kuchar used
the club (44½ inches long, 5 degrees loft) to win the players; his effectiveness on the greens was impressive. kuchar
ranked first in strokes gained/putting, first in putts per
round and third in putts per greens in regulation.
equipment// e. michael johnson
mcilroy’s ‘hybrid,’ garcia’s shafts, mickelson’s putter
�old school, kind of during
his pre-tournament press conference rory mcilroy noted he had a
2-iron in the bag for the players instead of his 5-wood. “i’ve never been
a fan of hybrids, so i always switched
between a 2-iron and a 5-wood,
depending on where i played, and
growing up playing amateur golf in
the u.k., you’re playing a lot of links
courses, so you would use a 2-iron
quite a lot,” explained mcilroy. thing
is, mcilroy added a titleist 503i
which is, in fact, an iron-like hybrid.
�weighty issue former players champ sergio garcia made a
big change to his taylormade tour
preferred mb irons and taylormade
atv wedges. installing nippon
ns pro steel shafts in both meant
taylormade techs had to insert
garcia’s precise counterbalance
weighting in the butt end of the
shafts. the re-shafted clubs were
ready on tuesday and went in play
thursday. garcia finished t-56 at
tpc sawgrass but ranked t- 12 in
greens in regulation.
�van insider phil mickelson
switched putters friday at the play-
ers, using an odyssey #9 style (with
a slightly larger flange) instead of his
prototype 8802-like gamer. despite
only taking 28 putts friday, mickel-
son went back to his gamer for the
weekend. the change to the #9-style
semi-mallet was to help his align-
ment. the club has a sightline on the
flange. … Jhonattan vegas was in
nike’s van early in the week having
his wedges worked on to produce a
sharper leading edge (which ve-
gas said worked better on the tight
fairway turf at tpc sawgrass). vegas
finished t- 7. … what is it with tiger
woods and his shoe eyelets? for the
second time in less than a year, an
eyelet broke in woods’ nike tw’ 13
shoes, requiring a replacement to
be run out to him on the course. …
several players have an extra wrap
of tape placed under their grips to
provide the proper feel, but lucas
glover went a bit further, using six
wraps (plus a layer of two-way tape)
on his nike fairway woods.
The PLAYeRS// winneR’S bAg
�in the bag
(Matt Kuchar’s lineup)
ball: Bridgestone Tour B330-S
driver: Bridgestone J40 (Graphite
Design Tour AD DJ- 6), 9. 5 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Burner, 14. 5
degrees
hybridS: Ping i15 ( 20, 23 degrees)
ironS (5-Pw): Bridgestone J40 CB
wedgeS: Bridgestone J40 (52, 57
degrees); Titleist Vokey Spin Milled
C-C (62 degrees)
Putter: Rife Barbados Belly
courtesy of rife; ap photo/scott a. miller
cover // contents // 10 things // zinger’s corner // pga tour // rank and file //EqUiPmEnt // tim rosaforte
