🏌🏻5 Golfers Who Disappointed In 2024

Good morning! Continuing what's been a worrying trend this season, viewing figures for Scottie Scheffler's Tour Championship and FedEx Cup victory were well down on last year.

There has been a 13% drop from the 3.1 million that tuned in to CBS to watch Viktor Hovland win last year's Tour Championship.

Fun Fact: The Solheim Cup switched to odd numbered years beginning in 2003. Another reshuffle of team golf events took place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Solheim Cup returns to even numbered years from 2024 onwards.

⛳ This day in history: Three US Amateur champions were crowned on this date, August 30: in 1969 Steve Melnyk won at Oakmont, shooting a 70 in the final round during a year the event was stroke play; 1987 Billy Mayfair won by defeating Eric Rebmann, 4&3, at Jupiter Hills, and in 1992 Justin Leonard was the champion.

ALBATROSS
Solheim Cup: Everything You Need To Know

The Solheim Cup will take place from 12-15 Sept., pitting the top 12 female European golfers against the 12 best American golfers. The tournament format sees the teams compete across three days with a mixture of fourballs, foursomes and singles to decide the winning side.

This year the match takes place at Virginia's Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, meaning it's Solheim Cups in back-to-back years for the first time in over 20 years.

Team Europe are the current holders after a 14-14 tie last year in Spain saw them retain the trophy after their brilliant 15-13 victory at Inverness Club, Ohio in 2021.

⛳️ What Is The Format? The match is played over three days and there are 28 points at stake. One point is awarded to the team that wins the match and in the event of a tie, both teams score half a point.

Unlike regular weeks on the LPGA Tour and LET, the format for the Solheim Cup is match play as opposed to stroke play. Players compete against each other in match play instead of in stroke play where their score is measured against the course.

⛳️ How Many Points Are Needed To Win? After all matches are complete, the team with the most points wins or retains the Cup.

Defending champions Europe must win 14 of the 28 points to retain the Cup - which is exactly what happened last time out in Spain where the match ended 14-14 for the first time ever.

For an outright win by either team, the magic number is 14.5 points.

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TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
How This Training Aid Helps To Make More Putts

If you see a tennis ball on the practice green, you might assume someone shanked it there with a racket from the nearby courts - but a tennis ball can be a great training aid.

Set up about three feet from the cup like you would for any other short-putting drill. But instead of rolling a golf ball toward the hole, use a tennis ball.

This might look unconventional, but putting with a tennis ball has a few great benefits.

After rolling a few putts with the tennis ball, you’ll start to get the hang of how you need to hit it to make it drop into the cup.

On your next series of putts, replace the tennis ball with your golf ball. When you look down at the ball and over to the cup, it’ll give you a renewed sense of the size difference between the cup and the ball.

If you can teach yourself to make a few putts with a tennis ball, you’ll be amazed how much easier it seems when you replace it with your golf ball.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

DP World Tour: Alex Fitzpatrick shot 7-under 63 and was tied for the lead with unheralded Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, ranked No 629, after Round 1 of the European Masters.

Curtis Cup: Days after helping Great Britain & Ireland win the Curtis Cup for the first time in eight years, two of its standout players, Sara Byrne and Mimi Rhodes, have turned professional.

Record Alert: In all events this year, Shane Lowry had 359 holes in a row where he did not three-putt once - no one else has been able to do that this year.

Women's Golf: LPGA star Brooke Henderson has announced a multi-year partnership with her hometown NHL team, Ottawa Senators.

BIRDIE
These Golfers Failed To Meet Expectations In 2024

There are several golfers who did not live up to expectations for how 2024 might look once the season concluded - it could be due to injuries, dip in form and a lot of other factors.

In fact, most of these players should rebound in 2025, but again, looking only at the past season, here are five golfers who did not thrive as expected.

🏌‍♀Jordan Spieth: Spieth had a frustrating year plagued by injuries and notably, it was rough to watch his iron play, normally the bread and butter of his game.

He ended the year losing strokes on approach play, one of just two times that has happened since he turned pro. Spieth had only three top-10 finishes in the whole season.

🏌‍♀Tom Kim: Kim's year as a whole was not a huge disappointment, but failing to advance past the first round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs stings. His short game was bad this year compared to where it normally resides, and he just does not have the firepower to make up for that right now.

Kim requires every part of his game to be operating at close to its apex for him to play at the level of a top 15 or 20 player in the world.

🏌‍♀Max Homa: Homa's post-Masters dip was outright bad. He had just one top 10 the rest of the season and posted by far the worst driving year of his career losing 0.2 strokes per round off the tee after consistently putting up +0.4 seasons for the last five years.

🏌‍♀Matt Fitzpatrick: This year was Fitzpatrick's worst since 2018, statistically, as he put together just three top-10 finishes. There is likely some injury stuff going on with him as well, but since winning the 2022 US Open at Brookline, he has struggled to meet the new bar he set for himself.

🏌‍♀Rickie Fowler: Fowler had a terrible 2024 - he did not have a single top 15 finish and only notched one top 20. He was a below average PGA Tour player statistically and put up his worst numbers overall since 2008.

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DRIVING RANGE
Golf Downswing Sequence

In today's video, we cover the transition from backswing to downswing, highlighting the role of hips, shoulders, and arms.

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