Nate Lashley, who won the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit last year, fired a 62 on the North Course at Talking Stick Golf Club in Scottsdale. He eagled the second hole and also had six birdies and no bogeys and has a one-shot lead.
Zach Smith shot a 63 after posting seven birdies in his round. He is a shot back. Steven Kupcho, brother of rising LPGA star Jennifer Kupcho, shot a 6-under 64 and is solo third.
The eight-way tie for fourth at 5-under includes the PGA Tour’s Joel Dahmen, Scott Harrington and Kevin Streelman as well as the recently retired Colt Knost. They all shot 65s, as did the Korn Ferry Tour’s Brandon Wu, Kevin Lucas and Andre Metzger. Also at 5 under is Brady Calkins.
Brian Urlacher, Michael Phelps and Nate Lashley on the first tee box prior to the pro-am for the 2020 Scottsdale AZ Open at Talking Stick Golf Club in Arizona. Photo by Golfweek
Another PGA Tour player, JJ Spaun, shot a 2-under 68 and is T-26, tied with Sam Triplett, who is the son of PGA Tour Champions player Kirk Triplett. Let the record show that on this day, son beat father by two shots.
Dahmen won the tournament in 2017, his last professional win, and actually came into this event as the favorite.
“Vegas says I’m favored,” Dahmen said before his pro-am round on Monday. “This is such a new territory. … I’m usually like the 15th guy on the list at 100-to-1.”
Dahmen came in as hot as any player, having shot a 58 at nearby Mesa Country Club last week.
The Scottsdale AZ Open is a 54-hole stroke play event with a field of 162 players. After 36 holes, there will be a cut to the low 50 players and ties. The total purse is $130,000 with $20,000 going to the winner.
This season 87 players are averaging 300 yards or longer, led by Cameron Champ (322 yards). In 2000, John Daly was the only player to do so.
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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – In his ever-growing social media presence, Phil Mickelson has billed himself as golf’s patron saint of hitting bombs. His obsession with length has led him to train harder than ever and as he approaches age 50 in June, Mickelson has gained an average of 11 yards a drive, to 305 yard per pop, compared to two years ago.
“So hitting bombs is flying the ball 315 and getting 182 ball speed with ideal launch conditions,” Mickelson explained ahead of his title defense at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Perhaps no golfer better illustrates the explosion in driving distance in the professional game and the importance of power than Mickelson. In his rookie year in 1993, Mickelson averaged 269 yards, which ranked 26th on the PGA Tour. In 2003, after the advent of the solid-core golf ball, Mickelson’s average drive rocketed to 306 yards, third-best on Tour.
How much has the definition of being a “bomber” in professional golf changed? Long John Daly was the only player to average more than 300 yards when he made “grip it and rip it” a catchphrase while leading the circuit in 2000. So far, this season, 87 players are averaging 300 yards or longer, led by Cameron Champ at 322 yards. Most weeks, accuracy has become an afterthought. Marc Leishman shot 65 and won the Farmers Insurance Open two weeks ago despite hitting just three fairways, tied for the fewest by a winner on Tour in the last 30 years. Vijay Singh turned the Bomb and Gouge philosophy into an art form, winning nine times in 2004, while ranking No. 150 in driving accuracy.
At the PGA Championship in May, Justin Rose recounted that about five years ago, he and his team came to the realization that to be one of the best players in the world, he had to fly the ball 300 yards in the air. They coined it Project 300.
“That seemed to be just a nice round number, obviously, but that was kind of I felt the metric that would kind of open up a few golf courses for me,” Rose said. “It would make a difference. And I guess the last few years, we’ve been able to achieve that through technique and through fitness and various other obvious factors.”
The numbers support Rose’s claim. He averaged 295 yards off the tee in 2014 and 288 a decade ago. As for last season? He averaged 302 yards, 21st on Tour, while ranking 129th in driving accuracy. Since Rose surpassed the 300-yard barrier, he has won an Olympic gold medal, the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus and reached No. 1 in the world.
Many players on the wrong side of the 300-yard mark have been left in the dust. Justin Leonard and Hunter Mahan are two former highly ranked players that jump to mind.
Last week, former U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost missed the cut in Phoenix and announced his retirement at age 34, saying, “The game has just changed so much. Guys hit it so far, and I don’t.”
Yet, distance isn’t a pre-requisite for winning. Last week, short-knockers Graeme McDowell edged bomber Dustin Johnson in Saudi Arabia and Webb Simpson beat Tony Finau, who drove it 366 yards at No. 18, in a playoff in Phoenix. Both McDowell and Simpson pointed out that they had to pick and choose their spots because most courses tend to favor the bomber, with Simpson stating, “I, on purpose, stay away from certain places that I don’t think give me good chances to win.”
Webb Simpson holds the trophy for the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Photo by Michael Chow/USA TODAY Sports Network
McDowell noted that he hadn’t played the Waste Management Phoenix Open since 2006, “because J.B. Holmes won back-to-back there and I thought, ‘Well that’s the end of this place for me.’ ” (Holmes actually won in 2006 and 2008, not in back-to-back years.) But McDowell bumped into Adam Long, another “technician” who registered a top-10 finish in Phoenix and asked, “Can we, as in the mere mortals, can we get around Phoenix?”
McDowell looked at the leaderboard and it was chock-full of bombers – Finau, Holmes, and Wyndham Clark among them.
“Thankfully, there still is more to golf than hitting it 350, but there’s certain golf courses that you feel like you are two shots behind per round standing on the first tee because guys are going to be getting on (par) 5s that you can’t get on and you’ve got to do it a different way,” McDowell said. “It used to be there was only three or four uber-long guys; now there’s like 34 of them. So, it’s just, there’s just more guys hitting it a long way. But for me I feel like I’m long enough to compete 90 percent of the time. And that’s OK. I’m OK with that. There’s going to be 10 percent of the time where you’re just like, ‘Well, this is not really kind of my kind of a joint this week, I’m going to have to either putt the eyes out of it or I’m probably not going to have a chance to compete this week.’ ”
Length always has been an advantage, as it should be, but many players are concerned that the advantage is out of whack in proportion to the other skills required to be a champion.
“The difference between approaching the green with 5-iron versus a 9-iron is huge analytically,” Mahan said. “There’s a big group of guys who can do that. It’s becoming like the 3-pointer in the NBA. You have to do it.”
Golf’s distance dilemma has been debated for years. None other than Jack Nicklaus has been arguing for golf’s governing bodies to roll back the distance of the golf ball since 1977.
“I said, ‘Guys, look at this now because this is going to be a problem,’ ” Nicklaus said.
Leave it to Mickelson to sum up why hitting bombs matters more than ever.
“You cannot dominate the sport without speed,” Mickelson said. “You might be able to do it for a year or two, but you can’t out-perform everyone consistently without clubhead speed, because there’s no substitute for speed in this game.”
That’s why Brandt Snedeker is teaching his son to hit the ball as hard as he can.
“We’ll figure out how to hit it straight later,” he said.
Colt Knost, 34, retired from professional golf after missing the cut at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Colt Knost is putting his clubs in the bag.
Needing a win to retain his PGA Tour card, Knost announced his retirement from professional golf after missing the cut by one shot on Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
According to Golf Channel, the 34-year-old has accepted a position with CBS in addition to his radio show on SiriusXM.
“It’s been a hell of a ride!! Can’t thank all my family, friends, and sponsors for all of their support over the years!,” Knost wrote in a caption on Instagram. “I had the greatest job in the world for a very long time! Gonna miss competing out on the @pgatour with all my boys! Time for the next chapter!”
“I just don’t want to go play that other tour (Korn Ferry Tour) anymore,” Knost told Golf Channel. “It’s been fun, but I’m kind of over it even though I still love playing.”
Knost attended Southern Methodist University, won the 2007 U.S. Amateur and reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking before turning pro that same year.
A two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, Knost never won on the PGA Tour in 199 starts. He made a little over $4.3 million in tournament earnings since turning pro in 2007.
“The game has just changed so much. Guys hit it so far, and I don’t,” Knost said. “But you know, I’m excited for what I have ahead. It’s going to be fun. But, of course, I’m going to miss playing.”
