Latest Golf News

Tiger Woods talks sports, shares memories with Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali

How did Tiger Woods decide to play a Bridgestone golf ball after Nike left the golf equipment business? GolfWRX writer John Wunder recently spoke to two key Bridgestone employees – Andrew Troutner, Test Site Operations Manager, R&D; and Adam Rehberg, Golf Ball Fitting, Events & Partnerships Supervisor – to get the scoop on Tiger and how Bridgestone built the current 2020 Tour B XS that Tiger has in his bag.

GolfWRX: Walk me through the testing process with TW to land on the 2020 Tour B XS.

ANDREW TROUTNER: In the initial test at his home club (The Medalist) in Florida, we brought eight different balls that we felt would be in the ballpark of what he prefers.Tiger is as sensitive and discerning as anyone in history, and the specificity of his equipment is a testament to that.The prototypes we brought were unmarked, and we didn’t tell him what each one did nor did he want to know. It’s pure feel.

ADAM REHBERG: Of the eight balls we brought, 99 percent of golfers wouldn’t see any difference between them, but this is TW. Some had core differences, dimple, cover etc. Only one of the balls we brought in that round of testing had our Reactiv cover. He immediately responded to the sound and how long the ball seemed to stay on the face.

The whole process took about three full sessions over the course of many months. We started with eight balls. For the second session, we brought four, and in the final, we had five that were all very close to each other. The B XS we all see now was the winner of that third session.

How well do you know the rules of golf? This video will test your knowledge with 20 questions covering everything from when a ball is out of bounds to broken golf clubs. The Golf Monthly Rules Quiz will help you get a better understanding of the rules regardless of how many questions you actually get right. Take the Golf Monthly rules quiz and let us know how many point you scored.

To our Waste Management Phoenix Open Community:

First and foremost, we hope this finds you and your family healthy and safe as we all navigate these difficult and unprecedented times. On behalf of The Thunderbirds, please accept our sincere thank you for your support of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. We truly recognize that our fans, sponsors, and volunteers make the WM Phoenix Open “The People’s Open"!

Sunday, February 2, feels like a distant memory. We just completed the 85th edition of the WM Phoenix Open and proudly crowned Webb Simpson as our 2020 Champion. During the tournament week, we announced that the WM Phoenix Open had eclipsed $160 million in legacy charitable giving, and that a record $14 million was raised from this year alone. These funds stay in Arizona to support the community that make the WM Phoenix Open what it is today.

Now more than ever, The Thunderbirds are focused on the future and our community. On March 19, the Thunderbird Council approved a $1 million Emergency Fund to support local community organizations that have been hit hard in these times. This Emergency Fund is in addition to the $14

The LPGA announced today that the 2020 Volvik Founders Cup, originally postponed on March 12 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not be held this year. The tournament will return to the LPGA Tour schedule in 2021 at Wildfire Golf Club at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort and Spa.

“First and foremost, the health and safety of the players and the greater Phoenix community were in our minds as we made this decision,” said Tournament Director Scott Wood. “As the entire LPGA Tour competitive schedule shifted later into the year, it became more difficult to find a suitable date. As we shift our focus to 2021, the tournament staff is already working tirelessly to ensure an incredible week of competition and fun next March.”

Refund details will be shared with purchasers via email within the next two weeks.

If you cannot sell winning or success to your fans, the next best thing you can sell them is hope. The PGA Tour is now dealing in the currency of hope, something we need in America as much as we have ever needed anything.

People are still getting sick, and people are still dying in hospitals while surrounded not by loved ones holding their hands but by heroic and masked strangers keeping a necessary distance. The families of the victims do not care about the resumption of sports, or the resumption of anything else, while they grieve over everything the coronavirus has stolen from them.

PGA of America Coaches across the country are uniting to flatten the curve to help bring the game that we love back as quickly as possible. Yet as we enter week four of the stay at home orders, PGA coaches are using this time to accelerate the use of Distance Coaching Technology (DCT) to support their students, clubs and their families.

Mark Durland, PGA Member for 17 years in Naples Florida coaches 2,180 players around the world that he has never met before.

“I tell the system how many hours I would like to coach a day and it sends me alerts when the player has submitted their golf swing.”

Using an AI assisted coaching tool it enables Mark to produce an immersive coaching experience for his students where only one metric matters: Their game improvement.

"When they get better then they come back more and more," Durland said. "I can deliver 10-15 sessions in one hour."

In this video, Joel Tadman runs through the 10 biggest problems only golfers can relate to. Whether it's temporary greens or leaving a club behind on the previous hole, we know how frustrating certain things can be to a golfer and we highlight them all here. Hopefully you haven't had to deal with too many yourself!

The Thunderbirds are reaching out to its many incredible charity partners over the next few weeks to discuss their important work and highlight the new obstacles they are enduring as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. We hope that by sharing their messages to the local communities they serve it will help rally support and secure vital resources needed to continue. They are on the front lines doing everything in their power to brighten the lives of so many facing overwhelming obstacles during these trying times.

Today’s check in is with Thunderbirds Big Chief Chance Cozby and Ash Uss, Advocacy and Partnerships coordinator from Andre House. Ash discussed the current challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Andre House’s immediate essential needs and how the community can rally together and offer support to Andre House and other local charities that are in dire need.

In this video, Neil Tappin talks to renowned golf course photographer Kevin Murray about some of the world's most beautiful golf courses. Kevin runs through a list of 15 of his favorite golf courses that he has photographed during his career. The pictures in this video illustrate the beauty of these stunning tracks and hopefully this provides some golfing escapism for all those stuck at home at the moment.

Since the Open Championship was first played in 1860, less than six months before the start of the U.S. Civil War, golf’s benchmark championships have reflected the successes and travails of human history.

Two World Wars shut down competition. But this year marks the first time in golf history that a worldwide health crisis – the COVID-19 pandemic – was the sole reason to disrupt golf’s major tradition.

Here is how golf’s majors navigated through previous uncertain times:

1943 was the last year no major golf championship was played.

The PGA Championship has been cancelled twice: from 1917-18, because of World War I, and in 1943, during World War II.

The U.S. Open was not played from 1917-18, because of World War I, and from 1942-45 due to World War II.

The PGA Championship and the Masters were the only majors conducted during the time of U.S. involvement in World War II.