NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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The PGA of America went outside the box in picking a young (39 years old) U.S. Ryder Cup captain in Keegan Bradley. It did so again in picking the company to make its Ryder Cup bags.
The “often irreverent and creatively bold” Swag Golf got the nod to design the U.S. team staff bags, with creative input from Bradley himself. There’s a lot of American symbolism on the bag, and it will not go unnoticed that the seal on the bag is styled after U.S. currency.
In case anyone forgot, players will be paid in 2025 for the first time – $500,000 per player of which $300,000 will be donated to charities of the players’ choice, according to the PGA of America, with the remaining $200,000 being theirs to pocket as a stipend.
Among the design inspirations are landmarks (Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell and the U.S. Capitol), an eagle gripping golf clubs instead of arrows and tweaked expressions that say “In Keegan We Trust” and “Liberty and Justice Fore All.”
The bottom panel pays tribute to Bethpage Black’s “Extremely Difficult” warning sign that greets municipal golfers at the first tee. And inside the zipper pocket is an inspirational note to the team from Bradley.
A limited-edition collection offering consumer versions of the team bag, featuring similar artwork in either staff ($600) or stand ($400) styles, can be purchased along with other official Ryder Cup merchandise via the Swag website or at select Dick’s Sporting Goods or Golf Galaxy outlets.
In the final official European qualifying points event on the DP World Tour two weeks ago, Alex Norén collected his second Betfred British Masters title by holding off 2023 Ryder Cupper Nicolai Højgaard. His 11th DP World Tour victory tied Norén for the most for any Swedish player, equaling Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson.
Among Norén’s full complement of Callaway equipment were four of the newly released Opus SP Wedges (46, 50, 56 and 60 degrees). Callaway cites the Opus SP as “the best initial tour conversion for a wedge in Callaway’s history” since the Genesis Scottish Open in July where 32 players put the wedges in play. Among the converted are Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia and both Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard – the latter having snagged the last automatic spot on Team Europe for Bethpage Black.
Tommy Fleetwood’s breakthrough win at the Tour Championship had a couple of notable equipment nuances. Fleetwood utilizes a mini driver instead of a 3-wood, switching ahead of his heartbreaking loss to Bradley at the Travelers Championship this summer to TaylorMade’s updated R7 Quad Mini. He also deploys a 24-degree TaylorMade Qi10 9-wood.
Fleetwood also uses the same Tiger Woods signature TaylorMade P7TW irons that Scottie Scheffler has used for every one of his professional victories since seeing Tiger use them in the only competitive round they’ve ever played together on Sunday in the 2020 Masters.
Scott Michaux