Some feel making a hole in one is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For Brian Harman on Sunday at the Barclays, it was a twice-in-12-holes thing. The left-handed Harman made his first ace of the day on the 184-yard third hole where he holed out with a 7-iron. Then on the 220-yard 14th hole, Harman hit a 21-degree hybrid that landed in front of the pin and tracked into the hole, making the 28-year-old former U.S. Junior champion only the third player in PGA Tour history to have two aces in one round (joining Bill Whedon, an amateur who did it in 1955, and Yusaku Miyazato in 2006). Harman is a TaylorMade staff player, and the clubs he used to hole the two shots are from the company’s 2015 product line. The 7-iron was a RSi2, and the hybrid was the company’s R15 with a Project X HZRDUS shaft. The ball was TaylorMade’s Tour Preferred X with the number 10 on it. Going forward he might consider changing that to simply a 1.
Mickelson is a Metal-X man
Phil Mickelson often is changing putters, even returning to flat sticks he has used in the past. Such was the case at the Barclays, where Lefty switched to an Odyssey Metal-X Milled 9 HT putter—a club he first used at the 2014 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. When Mickelson had that model putter, which features a high toe, in his bag last year, the club was 34 inches in length with a touch of offset bent into it. Mickelson felt that allowed the head to set up better at address. The heel-shafted model is toe weighted with adjustable sole weights. Mickelson finished T-50 in New Jersey, ranking T-19 in strokes gained/putting (0.918).
Spieth’s Playoff iron switch
Jordan Spieth is nothing if not secure. Having enjoyed one of the best seasons of any player in recent years, Spieth started the FedEx Cup Playoffs with a new set of irons, changing to Titleist’s yet-to-be released AP2 716 model at the Barclays. The clubs were introduced to the company’s tour staff at the Quicken Loans National earlier this month. Spieth, who missed the cut at Plainfield C.C., did keep something familiar in his irons, using Project X 6.0 steel shafts, the same model he had in his old AP2 714 irons. —E. Michael Johnson (@EMichaelGW)
