Tag: Ryder Cup 2023

Jon Rahm used a prototype Callaway wedge to hole out three times at the 2023 Ryder Cup

Looks like it’s staying in the bag.

On a day when the European Ryder Cup team seemed to make one dramatic shot after another en route to taking a commanding 6½-1½ lead over the Americans at Marco Simone outside Rome, Italy, no one was better than Spain’s Jon Rahm. The 2023 Masters champion paired with England’s Tyrrell Hatton to beat Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns 4 and 3 in a morning’s foursome match, then he rallied from behind with Nicolai Højgaard to save a half-point in an afternoon’s fourball match against Scheffler and Brooks Koepka.

Dramatically, Rahm holed out from around the green three times on Friday, including this amazing shot at the 16th hole.

In addition to the Callaway Apex TCB pitching wedge that matches his irons, Rahm typically plays three Callaway Jaws Raw wedges — 52, 56 and 60 degree — that are all fitted with Project X 6.5 shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips. Here is what they looked like at the Travelers Championship in June.

Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm’s Callaway wedges and irons at the 2023 Travelers Championship. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

However, the lob wedge that Rahm used Friday was not his normal Callaway JAWS Raw 60-degree wedge, it was a prototype. As you can see in the photo above, Rahm’s JAWS RAW has four holes in the back, a Callaway logo on the toe and, per Jon’s preferences, the names of his children are stamped into his wedges. As you can see in the photo below, the club he used at Marco Simone looks very different.

Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm’s lob wedge Friday at the 2023 Ryder Cup. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

While the prototype club still has the Golf Pride MCC grip, we can clearly see it has a True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shaft instead of Rahm’s normal Project X 6.5 shaft. The wedge itself appears to lack a Callaway logo on the toe, but there does appear to be some identifying stamping on the back. There is moderate heel and toe relief, but significant, similar to the X Grind. With the extremely thick rough around the greens at Marco Simone, a high-bounce wedge would make a lot of sense and could make popping the ball out of tough lies easier.

According to Callaway, Rahm has used this wedge a few times, and adding it this week could definitely be a course-specific move. Upon seeing how a golf course is set up and what the conditions will likely be, many pros tweak their equipment setups, and in some cases, they use different wedges. At the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, where conditions were extremely firm and fast, Justin Thomas added a 60.5-degree, low-bounce Titleist Vokey Design T Grind wedge so he could get the leading edge under the ball without blading chips and pitch shots.

How do Ryder Cup golfers decide which ball to use in alternate shot?

Ryder Cup captains take a lot of factors into consideration when they create teams and partnerships for Foursomes.

Golf is a hard game, but when you introduce the pressure of potentially putting your partner in a terrible spot because of your mistake, it can get even harder. Maybe that’s why foursomes, a game in which two golfers alternate hitting shots until the hole is completed, is not played too much in America.

Ryder Cup captains take a lot of factors into consideration when they create teams and partnerships for foursomes. They often blend big hitters with elite wedge players, good iron players with outstanding putters, or sometimes opt to match up guys who have very similar styles in the hope that they blend together smoothly.

All the players at the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome, Italy, will be using their own clubs, but when they are paired together in foursomes (which is often referred to as alternate shot), whose ball do they use? The answer is, both.

“The One Ball rule is not in effect,” confirmed U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson during his press conference Tuesday.

Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Fleetwood may need to tee off with someone else’s ball in Foursomes at the Ryder Cup. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

Technically, what Johnson was referring to is Model Local Rule G-4, which states, “During an entire round, each ball at which the player makes a stroke must be the same brand and model as found in a single entry on the current List of Conforming Balls.” Simplified, that means when Model Local Rule G-4 is adopted by a tournament or event, golfers have to use the exact same type of ball throughout the round. You are free to use a Titleist, TaylorMade, Callaway, Bridgestone, Srixon or any other ball you find on the Conforming List, but once you hit it off the first tee, that’s the ball you need to use the whole time.

According to the USGA, the purpose of the One Ball rule is to, “prevent a player from using balls with different playing characteristics depending on the nature of the hole or shot to be played during a round.” In other words, the rule prevents you from using a distance-oriented ball on long par 5 and then switching to a spinny ball on short par 3.

So, when Johnson said that the One Ball rule is not in effect at the Ryder Cup, he is also revealing that teams in foursomes can, and almost certainly will, use different balls on different holes. Teams have to use the same ball throughout a hole, but they are free to switch any time a different ball before the start of a hole.

Collin Morikawa and Max Homa
Collin Morikawa and Max Homa practicing at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club on Tuesday. (Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports)

“With three practice round days, and arguably a practice round trip, there’s ways to get used to somebody else’s golf ball off the tee, and that’s really what it is, right,” Johnson said. “If we are playing together, I’m probably going to tee off with your golf ball, more times than not, so that we can have more control with your iron play or your wedge play or whatever it may be with your own golf ball. That’s kind of the unwritten rule, right?”

Indeed it is. Every player on both the American and European Ryder Cup teams uses a multi-layer, urethane-covered ball. From a performance perspective, the biggest differences between the balls will be seen on approach shots and shots hit around the greens. Some balls spin more than others and fly higher than others with irons and wedges, so teams want the player who will hit the approach shot to use his own ball.

So, if Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are paired together again in foursomes and Schauffele has to hit a tee shot on a par 3, expect him to use his own Callaway Chrome Soft X LS ball. If Schauffele has to tee off on a par 4, he will use Cantlay’s Titleist Pro V1x so Cantlay can use the ball he is accustomed to on the approach shot.

[pickup_prop id=”34163″]

Below is a complete list of the golf balls being used by both the American and European Ryder Cup teams:

United States

Sam Burns – Callaway Chrome Soft X
Patrick Cantlay – Titleist Pro V1x
Wyndham Clark – Titleist Pro V1x
Rickie Fowler – TaylorMade TP5 pix
Brian Harman – Titleist Pro V1 (2017)
Max Homa – Titleist Pro V1
Brooks Koepka – Srixon Z-Star Diamond
Collin Morikawa – TaylorMade TP5x
Xander Schauffele – Callaway Chrome Soft X LS
Scottie Scheffler – Titleist Pro V1
Jordan Spieth – Titleist Pro V1x
Justin Thomas – Titleist Pro V1x

Europe

Ludvig Aberg – Titleist Pro V1x
Matt Fitzpatrick – Titleist Pro V1x
Tommy Fleetwood – TaylorMade TP5 pix
Tyrrell Hatton – Titleist Pro V1x
Nicolai Hojgaard – Callaway Chrome Soft X
Viktor Hovland – Titleist Pro V1
Shane Lowry – Srixon Z-Star XV
Robert MacIntyre – TaylorMade TP5x
Rory McIlroy – TaylorMade TP5
Jon Rahm – Callaway Chrome Soft X
Justin Rose – Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot
Sepp Straka – Srixon Z-Star Diamond

Zach Johnson named United States Ryder Cup captain for 2023 in Italy

Johnson has represented Team USA five times as a player and twice as an assistant captain.

Zach Johnson has often referred to himself as just an ordinary man from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Family and faith are the pillars in his life. Polite as the day is long. Laid-back, approachable, considerate, charitable. A down-to-earth spirit that seldom leaves him, his Midwestern values, if you will, always at the ready.

But Johnson sells himself short, especially when it comes to the emerald stages across the world where he’s done his work. With a green jacket in a locker in the Champions Locker Room at Augusta National and a Claret Jug on his mantle, as well as 10 pieces of hardware saluting his other 10 PGA Tour titles, the word extraordinary would aptly apply in reference to Johnson.

When he won the 2015 Open Championship, he joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo as the only players to win the Masters and a British Open on the Old Course.

That certainly isn’t ordinary. Now add Ryder Cup captain to his resume.

Johnson, 46, was officially named the captain of the 2023 Ryder Cup for Team USA Monday at PGA of America headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Johnson has played in the Ryder Cup five times (8-7-2 record) and the Presidents Cup four times (10-6-1). He’s also been an assistant captain the past two editions of the Ryder Cup and will be the 30th captain for Team USA.

His task in 2023? To end the USA’s 30-year drought on foreign soil in the 44th edition of the biennial matches against Europe at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy.

“It’s a great choice. Him being involved with the last couple of teams, being a player many times, is important. He’s a fierce competitor,” said Steve Stricker, who captained the Americans to a historic 19-9 win at Whistling Straits before spending weeks in the hospital. “As a player, he finds a way to get it done. He’s got a little bulldog mentality. All the guys know that about Zach. He’s a fighter. He’s the right guy to go overseas leading the team.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Up next: Ryder Cup heads to Italy for the first time in 2023

Italy’s presence in the event will grow in 2023 when Marco Simone Golf & Country Club plays host.

Italy has made its impactful footprint on the Ryder Cup through the years.

Costantino Rocca took down Tiger Woods in singles in 1997, and the country never had a prouder moment in the event than in 2018, when Francesco Molinari became the first player from Europe to post a perfect 5-0 record in a rousing victory over the United States in Paris.

Italy’s presence in the event will grow in 2023 when it plays host to the Ryder Cup at newly revitalized Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, built only 10 miles outside the city of Rome. It will be the first time the Ryder Cup has been staged in Italy.

The course has undergone an extensive redesign by European Golf Design, performed in cooperation with course architect Tom Fazio II, whose father, Jim Fazio, was the course’s original designer. Marco Simone will become only the third venue in Continental Europe to play host to the historic Ryder Cup matches, joining Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain (1997), and Le Golf National in Paris (2018). Marco Simone was originally scheduled to host in 2022, but the schedule moved back when the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits was shifted to 2021.

Work on the golf course at Marco Simone, aimed to better capture the drama of match play, began in 2018 and was completed in the spring of 2021. The layout will feature some exciting risk/reward decisions for players in a match-play setting, and will give spectators great views not only of the action on the course but of such historic Italian landmarks as St. Peter’s Basilica and the Castle of Marco Simone.

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome, Italy, will be the host site for the 2023 Ryder Cup. Photo by Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

“The assignment of the Ryder Cup to Italy is a source of pride for the entire national sports movement,” said Franco Chimenti, president of the Federazione Italiana Golf. “The incredible setting of Rome will enhance the event, making it unique. The project is what we always imagined, and above all what those who believed in this project imagined.”

The finish at Marco Simone should be exciting for matches that go the distance. The 16th hole can be set up as a drivable par 4, protected by water on the right and a creek that runs across the throat to the green. The 17th is a mid-length par-3 hole of about 180 yards that will yield birdies to great tee shots. The finishing hole is a long par 5 with water down the left side next to the putting surface and a sloping green complex.

Gian Paolo Montali, general director of the Ryder Cup 2023 Project, said those who knew the course from when it played host to the Italian Open in 1994 will find a venue that is “nothing like before.” Said Montali, “The Ryder Cup will be something else. In the beginning, we thought about a light restyling of the course, but it was completely redesigned with eco-sustainability in mind and the benefits of the work will also be enjoyed after the 2023 Ryder Cup.”

According to the European Tour, the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris attracted a record crowd for a Ryder Cup in Europe, with more than 270,000 fans in attendance. The event boosted the economy in France by an estimated 235 million Euros (roughly $275 million U.S.).

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome, Italy, will be the host site for the 2023 Ryder Cup. Photo by Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

The 2025 Ryder Cup is scheduled to be played at Bethpage Black on Long Island, New York, which has been host to two U.S. Opens (2002, 2009), a PGA Championship and twice was home course for The Barclays, a PGA Tour event.

The 2027 Ryder Cup will visit Ireland for a second time, played at The Golf Course at Adare Manor in County Limerick. Adare Manor which opened in 1995, staged both the 2007 and 2008 Irish Opens. The Ryder Cup made its first foray into Ireland in 2006, with the Europeans soundly defeating the U.S. side at the Arnold Palmer-designed K Club in County Kildare.

[listicle id=778053253]