NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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With new Bermuda greens at East Lake Golf Club that played exceptionally firm, the conditions proved to be a convenient reason for Akshay Bhatia to make the move to a softer golf ball.
Playing in his first Tour Championship, the 22-year-old Bhatia switched from Callaway’s Chrome Tour X ball to the softer Chrome Tour.
“I’ve wanted to make this switch for a long time. I feel like there’s no better reason to do it than this week,” Bhatia told GolfWRX.com at East Lake. “I mean, it’s kind of a free-for-all, and trying to get used to the golf ball and prep for the majors and some of the bigger events.”
Bhatia has observed how the major championships and some of the biggest events tend to play firmer than the usual PGA Tour stops, and his lower-spinning ball wasn’t as suited for those kinds of conditions. The newness of East Lake’s renovated course made the timing right for the emerging star to transition and be prepared for next season when he’s already qualified for all the majors and signature events.
“Obviously the greens are really firm this week,” he said. “Softer for me, like, you want to win major championships, you need to hit it higher and softer. And the golf ball I play is a lower-spinning ball, which is good, say, 16 weeks out of the year. But then you’ve got four majors and then, obviously, some signature events play pretty firm.”
Bhatia also added a Callaway Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini Driver to his bag in Atlanta, eliminating the inconsistency of his 3-wood and giving him a comfortable weapon to more easily shape a controlled draw off the tee considering how important it was to hit fairways to have any chance of attacking the greens.
“The mini driver gives me more options. It’s faster, but it spins a little more, so the consistency of the ball flight is tighter, and that’s what I need,” said Bhatia, who also put a new Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft on his Callaway Rogue ST driver to increase his speed by 2 mph.
In case you missed it during the final round of the BMW Championship, Matthew Fitzpatrick was frustrated by a ruling that denied him the opportunity to replace his damaged Titleist TSi3 driver that had a crack in it.
Fitzpatrick noticed the crack in his driver head and requested a replacement under Model Local Rule G-9, which states that a broken or significantly damaged club during the round by the player or caddie, except in cases of abuse, can be replaced with any club under Rule 4.1b(4).
But after a lengthy discussion with rules officials, the Englishman’s request was denied, and he was none too pleased about it.
“This is outrageous. It’s an absolute joke,” Fitzpatrick said to the rules official. “There’s an obvious crack there that’s causing a defect of the ball flight. … So, I’m going to have to use 3-wood the rest of the day?”
Why? Because apparently a crack does not fall under the definition of “significantly” damaged.
“In our assessment, not only with the first official but also a couple of others including myself, that threshold of being significantly damaged hadn’t been met,” PGA Tour chief referee Stephen Cox said. “Although there was a small crack in the face, there was no separation in the metals, and on that basis, that threshold wasn’t met, so his only choice in that case was to continue using that club. Now, if that club were to get worse, then we would obviously continue to reassess, and at that point he may have been able to have taken it out. But in his case, I think he chose not to continue to use it and proceeded with his 3-wood from then on.”
A perturbed Fitzpatrick proceeded to bogey the eighth and double the 10th before collecting himself and finishing a 2-under round that was not good enough to get him to East Lake for the Tour Championship.
Scott Michaux