🏌🏻Is This Drill Key To Schauffele's Success?

Good morning! A new image of Tiger Woods has revealed the horrific injury and scar to his leg, giving us a good idea of what he has been dealing with over the past several years.

The injury has been heavily guarded by Woods and his team as he has never been seen without a compression leg sleeve on his right leg until today - see it here.

Today’s Trivia: Who is the first player in PGA TOUR history to win as an amateur and a professional in the same year? Answer at the end of the email.

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship at the Old Course in St Andrews, beating Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff. It was his second major victory.

NEXT ON THE TEE
Tournaments This Week

PGA Tour: 3M Open

📍 When and Where: July 25-28, TPC Twin Cities
💰 Purse: $8.3 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Akshay Bhatia, Tony Finau, Keegan Bradley, Billy Horschel

LPGA Tour: CPKC Women's Open

📍When and Where: July 25-28, Earl Grey Golf Club
💰 Purse: $2.6 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Lilia Vu, Hannah Green, Lexi Thompson

LIV Golf: LIV Golf UK

📍When and Where: July 26-28, JCB Golf & Country Club
💰 Purse: $25 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton

ALBATROSS
Xander Overtakes Rory In World Rankings

Xander Schauffele is back up to a career-high of number two in the world following his Open victory, a move that sees him nudge Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut at Royal Troon, down into third. Schauffele hasn’t been outside the top 20 in the world since July 2018, and he’s been an established top-10 player for over two years.

The number one spot remains out of reach at present though - Scottie Scheffler’s six victories in 2024, which includes a second Masters title is enough to keep him No 1 for months to come.

Elsewhere, Justin Rose and Billy Horschel, who shared second at The Open, both made significant jumps - Rose moved from 67th to 34th while Horschel jumped 29 spots from 62nd to 33rd.

📌This Gear-Swap Helped Xander Win Two Majors: Of all the gear changes Schauffele made at the beginning of the season, switching from a prototype version of Callaway’s Chrome Soft X into Chrome Tour appeared to be uncomplicated.

Since the switch, Schauffele has won the Open Championship and PGA Championship. Schauffele’s trust in his Chrome Tour ball was on full display during the final round as he attacked Royal Troon with surgical precision.

Even the tough shots didn’t seem to bother the 30-year-old — like a 173-yard flyer on the par-4 11th. With the wind blowing off the left at 17 mph, Schauffele extracted the ball from the tall grass and watched as it cut through the wind and landed softly on the front edge before settling within a few feet of the hole for an improbable birdie.

📌This Drill Improved Xander's Driving Stats: Schauffele currently ranks 12th in strokes gained: off the tee, 11th in total driving, 38th in driving distance at 305.7, and sits 71st in driving accuracy. In those same categories last year, he was 47th, 101st, 68th, and 131st, respectively.

The improvement is a result of a step drill. To execute the drill, simply stand one step behind the teed up ball. Next, at the same time as starting your backswing, take one step forward and swing through impact — which is the feeling of a baseball swing meeting the Happy Gilmore swing.

Click here to watch the drill.

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TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Final Push For FedEx Cup Playoffs @ 3M Open

The PGA Tour’s 2024 major season is in the rearview mirror, and there are just two regular-season events left before the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The 3M Open takes center stage this week, after which, there is a break for the Olympics; followed by the Wyndham Championship - the final event before the three-tournament FedEx Cup.

The top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after the Wyndham Championship will qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The winner of this week's tournament will earn 500 valuable FedEx Cup points.

📍Who are in the Field? While most of the big names have skipped the event, a number of players who are in contention to make the playoffs will tee off at TPC Twin Cities.

Billy Horschel, who finished tied for second at The Open Championship and last week's Barracuda Championship winner, Nick Dunlap, are the headliners. Lee Hodges will look to become the first player to successfully defend the 3M Open title.

Former champion Tony Finau will look to rekindle some magic - he has made the cut in each of his five appearances at TPC Twin Cities and has notched back-to-back top-10s, including a three-stroke win in 2022. Akshay Bhatia, Keegan Bradley and Cameron Davis are some of the other star attractions.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news 

In Memoriam: Mark Carnevale, 64, a PGA Tour player turned golf broadcaster who worked a radio assignment as recently as two weeks ago, died unexpectedly on Monday.

Amateur: Charlie Woods struggled to a 12-over par 82 in the US Junior Amateur at the Oakland Hills North Course. Tiger Woods attended the event.

Rory's Vacation: Rory McIlroy's Open Championship was a disaster as he missed the cut by six shots, but he is now making up for lost time with his wife Erica Stoll and their daughter, Poppy - the family is vacationing at Almancil in the Algarve.

Bryson*Trump: Bryson DeChambeau will have former president Donald Trump on his Break 50 podcast on Tuesday for a special episode. In addition to Trump’s appearance, the golfer’s show will be donating $10,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project for every stroke they score under par.

LPGA Tour: The CPKC Women’s Open will celebrate its 50th Anniversary this week - 156 of the best players in the women’s game are making the trip to Earl Grey Golf Club in Calgary, Alberta where they’ll be competing for a purse of $2.6 million.

BIRDIE
Scheffler vs Schauffele: Who Had A Better Season?

Xander Schauffele has won two Majors this year, Scottie Scheffler has won six times including The Masters, but is the world number one the best player this year - let's see what the stats suggest.

⛳️ Schauffele has finished outside the top 10 five times while Scheffler only fell that far twice out of 16 events - neither has missed the cut.

⛳️ Scheffler's putting woes raised their ugly head again at Royal Troon and while Schauffele is 10th in Stroke Gained: Putting, the world number one is ranked all the way down in 86th on the PGA Tour.

⛳️ Scheffler still leads the way in Strokes Gained, which is even more impressive considering those putting numbers, and he's the best birdie maker on the tour too, with Schauffele in 10th.

⛳️ The diminutive Schauffele can knock it past his taller opponent off the tee though, with Scheffler's shoe-shuffling drives not quite making it as far down the fairway.

So, it now comes down to the wins column - Scheffler has six victories this season including that one Major at The Masters but also several other huge events including The Players Championship - the PGA Tour's flagship event. Schauffele has two wins, both being Majors.

Majors are why most players play the game but Scheffler is so good elsewhere, and has won so many other tournaments that, backed up by the stats, he can rightly claim to be the best in the world right now - but the gap is closing.

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DRIVING RANGE
Towel Drill To Gain Consistency

In today's video, we explain how to achieve a connected swing so your arms don't feel like they're flying all over the place.

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