Luke Donald named PGA Tour Player of the Year

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Categories: European Tour • PGA Tour • Pro Golf
Tags: Luke Donald

Luke Donald - 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year

Not much of a surprise on this award. Luke Donald, world ranked #1 player and #1 money earner on both the European Tour and PGA Tour, was named the PGA Tour player of the year. Congratulations to Luke. Nice to see a player can win with accuracy and not power. Take a look at my post from yesterday which details some of Luke’s accuracy stats.

“That’s a great honor to cap off what has obviously been an amazing year for me.” ~Luke Donald

Speaking of stats, I’m sure Luke’s sponsors are happy. I’m sure we’ll see a pile of PR on that in about… too late.

TaylorMade Golf announces R11S drivers/fairways, RocketBallz RBZ irons/fairways/rescues/drivers

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf For Women • Golf Gear
Tags: TaylorMade

GEAR HEAD ALERT!

Big day in the press release department. TaylorMade Golf has announced their new gear for 2012. Below is a listing of the new gear, images/image llinks (what I could get at the time) and links to the TaylorMade full press releases.

TaylorMade R11S Drivers and Fairways

TaylorMade R11S Driver - click for more

The new TaylorMade R11S series is white, with a 5-way adjustable sole plate and 3° Flight Control Technology Sleeve (FTC).

For complete information, including pricing and availability refer to the TaylorMade R11S press release here.

TaylorMade RocketBallz Driver - click to enlarge

TaylorMade RocketBallz Irons-Driver-Fairway-Rescue

New for 2012 also is the interestingly named “RocketBallz” line. Here is the story behind the name RocketBalls.

The new line includes RocketBallz Fairway Woods and RocketBallz Rescues/Hybrids, as well as a RocketBallz Driver and RocketBallz Irons. The previous links go to the full TaylorMade press releases relating to each RocketBallz model.

TaylorMade RocketBallz Irons - click to enlarge

Product Reviews ASAP

I’ve talked to TaylorMade this morning and they will be sending in product for review when it becomes available. I’ll put them to the test as soon as possible and post my findings here on HOG so stay tuned.

Images

For you gear heads who want to drool over all these new 2012 model clubs from TaylorMade, check out the full Hooked On Golf Blog TaylorMade image gallery.

High Winds Change Golf Landscape In Northern Utah

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Golf Courses • Golf Life • Miscellaneous

Twice in the last week and a half we’ve had some severe winds here in northern Utah. This time of year these winds are funneled down the canyons and hit areas near the mouths of the canyons. The first set of winds hit farther north, up in the Davis County area with winds that were clocked as high as 102mph. Unfortunately there has been some heartbreaking damage to some beautiful golf courses up in that area.

One of two large pines taken down by high winds at Bonnevillie's 12th green

Davis Park golf course has lost some 450 trees, while I’d heard that Oakridge Country Club lost 100+. I do know that the pro at Davis is quite heartbroken about the damage and says that the course will never look the same. The tree lined fairways of both those courses are what gives them much of their personality.

One of my home courses, Bonneville in Salt Lake City, was also a victim. They only seemed to have lost a couple of trees. The two shots here are from my round on 12/11/11. The two trees are near the 12th green. Very sad to see these big pines go down. (more…)

#1 Luke Donald wins PGA Tour and European Tour money titles. Time for a major win in 2012.

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, December 12th, 2011
Categories: (British) Open Championship • European Tour • PGA Championship • PGA Tour • Pro Golf • U.S. OPEN
Tags: Luke Donald

Will Luke Donald win a major in 2012?

With the 3rd pace finish in the Dubai World Championship this weekend, world #1 ranked Luke Donald did what has never been done before. He won the PGA Tour AND European Tour money titles. First I’d like to congratulate Luke on a fantastic year and 2nd, ask him for a loan.

Anatomy Of Luke Donald’s Game

European Tour Stats:

Stroke Average: #1 at 69.12
Driving Accuracy: #1 at 75.6%
Greens In Regulation: #1 at 13.9 per round, or 77.5%
Putts Per Green In Regulation: #1 at 1.694
Sand Saves: #3 at 78.6%
One Putts: #4 at 6.84 per round
*Driving Distance: 145th at 282.8

*Threw that in for fun. It is now obvious that being the longest player on tour isn’t necessary to be the best.

PGA Tour Stats:

Top 10 Finishes: #1 (14 of 19)
Scoring Average: #1 at 68.86
Strokes Gained – Putting: #1 at .844
Sand Save Percentage: #5 at 59.09%
One Putt Percentage: #3 at 43.53%
One Putts Per Round: #3 at 7.9
Total Putting: #2
3-Putt Avoidance: #1 at 1.24%
Birdie Average: #2 at 4.24 per round
Final Round Scoring Average: #1 at 68.06
Bogey Average: #1 at 2.01 per round

I could go on, but these are enough to show that Luke really is the #1 player in the world right now, statistically. There’s no doubt.

Time For A Major Win

After winning both money titles, 4 worldwide wins (two on the PGA Tour and two on the European Tour) and being ranked #1 for quite a while, there’s some work to do. It is time for Luke to win a major championship. He is most definitely the current “best player to not have won a major championship.”

Looking at the schedule for 2012 I’m trying to see what would be a good fit for Luke’s game in the majors. The Masters can definitely be won by short hitters (Zach Johnson, Mike Weir), but bombers have the advantage there. The US OPEN is a tournament Luke’s game should really fit well. Luke is an accuracy player, hitting a lot of fairways and a lot of greens in regulation. The (British) Open Championship is being held at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Donald could have somewhat of a home field advantage there. The PGA Championship is going to be at Kiawah Island this year, rated as the toughest course in America. Accuracy once again could be quite an advantage.

It will be fun to watch Donald next season. Can he win a major in 2012?

2011 Franklin Templeton Shootout Final Results

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, December 12th, 2011
Categories: PGA Tour • Pro Golf

Keegan Bradley just put a final cherry on top of his fantastic 2011 season. What a year for him. Wonder if he’ll have sophomore-itis or if he’ll continue the great play.

Franklin Templeton Shootout Final Results
Place	Players/Teams	Round			To Par	Money
Place	Players/Teams	1	2	3	To Par	Money
1	Keegan Bradley / Brendan Steele	-9	-10	-13	-32	$375,000 each
T2	Rory Sabbatini / Jhonattan Vegas	-5	-12	-12	-29	$187,500 each
T3	Mark Calcavecchia / Nick Price	-9	-9	-11	-29	$187,500 each
T4	Charles Howell III / Justin Leonard	-4	-10	-14	-28	$102,500 each
T4	Jerry Kelly / Steve Stricker	-8	-7	-13	-28	$102,500 each
T6	Rickie Fowler / Camilo Villegas	-7	-9	-10	-26	$81,875 each
T6	Stewart Cink / Bo Van Pelt	-2	-10	-14	-26	$81,875 each
T6	Chad Campbell / Chris DiMarco	-4	-9	-13	-26	$81,875 each
T6	Kenny Perry / Scott Stallings	-5	-10	-11	-26	$81,875 each
10	Jason Dufner / Sean O’Hair	-6	-8	-11	-25	$75,000 each
11	Scott McCarron / Greg Norman	-3	-10	-11	-24	$72,500 each
12	Anthony Kim / Webb Simpson	-5	-9	-9	-23	$70,000 each