Volume Three Hundred Seventy-Nine

Bay Hill turns to into “Survivor” on Sunday, Tiger’s back keeps him out, and we get a new meaning for the phrase “my golf game’s on fire.”

Hittin' the LinksDid you take a break from NCAA basketball to play or watch golf this weekend? After Saturday’s round at Bay Hill, we were thinking that Adam Scott had weathered his “bad round” of the week and would surely play better and win on Sunday. We were wrong.

The conventional wisdom about anchored putters is that they are better at shorter putts than traditional putters. That did not seem to be the case for Adam Scott Sunday. One stroke back with his ball laying two on the 16th green, Scott three-putted from about 15 feet for a par. On the 17th he missed a shortish par putt. Sunday on the PGA TOUR again looked like the players were just trying not to throw up on themselves rather than win. While the suspense level remains high for viewers, we’d rather see players make birdies to win than bogeys to lose.

Here’s more about Sunday at Bay Hill and eight-plus other interesting items from the week. Let’s hit the links.

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Volume Three Hundred Seventy-Eight

Daly goes big, Tiger testifies, and eight is a magic number, twice.

Hittin' the LinksThe Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is a tough course on a normal day. Throw in some gusty wins and the best golfers in the world struggle to make pars let alone birdies, especially as they navigate “The Snake Pit.”

Though it featured a B-list field, the difficult conditions bunched the leaderboard and made the Valspar a good watch (though we admit to frequent flipping away to the various conference championship games). There also seemed to be a lot of odd side stories this week, from Sabbatini’s sneeze to Daly’s 90. And that was just at one tournament. Elsewhere, plenty more was happening in the world of golf.

Take a quick break from filling out your brackets, and let’s hit the links.

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Tiger is Not Using Performance Enhancing Drugs… I Think

The evidence points to Tiger not being a user of PEDs, but as a fan are we only looking at the evidence we want to?

Thrash TalkWhile sitting in the grill room of my golf club during the final round of the WGC in Doral, the conversation sparked up again.

It has not been discussed near as much as in the past, but on occasion – especially when Tiger withdraws or plays poorly because of an injury – people start whispering about it.

This time the gentlemen said that in his opinion ever since the PGA Tour put their drug-testing policy in place Tiger has been injured more frequently than in the past. His insinuation was that Tiger was in the past taking performance enhancing drugs and now that the testing policy was in place he was beginning to show wear as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens did in the later part of their careers.

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Nine Holes With Jimmy Walker

There’s a three-time winner on the PGA Tour in 2014, and it’s time to get to know him.

ProfilesThanks to the PGA Tour’s new “wraparound” schedule that starts in the Fall, and some timely great play of course, Jimmy Walker is the PGA Tour’s hottest golfer. After spending years making his way up through the mini-tour and Web.com Tour ranks, Walker spent a handful of years as a winless journeyman PGA Tour player before breaking through last October.

Wins at the Frys.com Open, Sony Open, and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am rocketed Walker to the top of both the FedExCup points standings and the money list. Let’s find out where he came from.

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Volume Three Hundred Seventy-Seven

Luke gets mad, Elkington thinks he’s funny, and Reed is seriously good (unlike Tiger’s back).

Hittin' the LinksThe WGC-Cadillac Championship had a bit of everything, a stellar field, a wicked wind, a bad back, and 318 golf balls in the drink. What a week!

After the craziness of the WGC last week, we could use a breather. Lucky for us, the PGA TOUR is heading to the Innisbrook Copperhead Course next week. Sandwiched between Doral and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bayhill, means that the Valspar Championship gets a bit of a second tier treatment, with many of the big names taking the week off. The Senior Circuit is off to California for the Toshiba Classic and the Euros are playing in Morocco. The LPGA has the week off.

Let’s hit the links.

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Mizuno MP-54 Irons Review

Mizuno’s newest irons promise to give that legendary buttery feel in a package that is both workable and forgiving.

Last year, I was lucky enough to be able to review both the Mizuno MP-64 and MP-H4 irons. At the time, they were Mizuno’s two newest offerings in the MP line and each brought something different to the party. The 64s were all business and were a true players irons. They had a thin top line, compact head, and little in the way of forgiveness. The irons were sleek and beautiful to look at but if you missed the center of the face, they could be punishing. The H4 irons on the other hand were aimed at golfers who wanted to play an MP iron but may not have had the skill set needed to do so. While they did share the simple look of an MP iron, they carried a much larger footprint with thicker top lines and the long irons had more of a hybrid appearance. Forgiving they were, and while they had the soft forged feeling one has come to expect from a Mizuno MP iron, there was just something a little off about them. Enter the newest MP iron, the MP-54.

With the MP-54, Mizuno has crafted an iron that falls nicely in between their two previous sets. They aren’t quite as small as the MP-64 irons, but the slightly larger size along with some new design features means that they aren’t as punishing either. The previous MP-H4 irons probably offered just a little bit more forgiveness, but not by much. Does Mizuno finally have the best of both worlds with the MP-54 irons? Read on to find out.

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Titleist’s New 2014 NXT Tour, Velocity, and New Scotty Cameron Putters

Titleist is updating its ball line up with new versions of the NXT Tour, NXT Tour S, Velocity and DT Solo while Scotty Cameron rolls out new putters.

Bag DropWhile its undeniable that Titleist makes some great clubs, they are who they are because of the balls they make. As of late, they have gone into a pattern of updating their flagship ball, the Pro V1 and Pro V1x, every other year with updates to their other balls coming in between. This is one of those in between years and thus, there are updates to the NXT Tour, NXT Tour S, Velocity, and DT Solo balls. Also on the way are some new putters from the company’s acclaimed flat stick craftsman Scotty Cameron.

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Volume Three Hundred Seventy-Six

Rory Falters, Tiger Spasms, but Paula Delivers.

Hittin' the LinksAnd the winner is… the TV audience. If you missed the final round of the Honda Classic, you missed quite a bit of drama not usually seen in a March tournament not held at Doral or Bay Hill. There was a premature departure, one of the best three-wood shots under pressure that we’ve ever seen, and more than smidgen of major-caliber puckering. Still it wasn’t the Honda Classic that gave us the most compelling golf moment of the weekend. That occurred in Singapore while most of us slept. Do yourself a favor and watch the video of that moment in the first link.

Next week, we get our first look at Doral-by-the-Donald and the third WGC event of the year. If that’s not enough, you can round out your weekend golf watching with the Puerto Rico Open. But first, let’s hit the links.

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TaylorMade JetSpeed Fairway Wood Review

Can TaylorMade follow up the RocketBallz with JetSpeed? We find out.

TaylorMade JetSpeed Fairway SoleAfter several years of the RocketBallz woods occupying TaylorMade’s consumer-oriented lineup, TM released the JetSpeed line late in 2013. Eschewing much of the look behind the RBZ woods (white crown on black face, bold graphics) and building upon the recent hype of their own SpeedPocket technology, the JetSpeed is somewhat of a tuned-down design.

There’s no promise of a dozen extra yards here, despite what you might expect from TaylorMade. The JetSpeed isn’t adjustable in any way, and there’s no tour-level option. You won’t find #JetSpeed trending any time soon.

And yet, it’s earned a spot in my bag. Keep reading to find out why.

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