Tom kite1/13/2024 7, where swirling gale-force winds turned the 105-yard, downhill par-3 into an adventure. His most famous shot was holing a lob wedge for birdie on No. The final-round scoring average was 78.3, but Kite got up and down from everywhere en route to an even-par 72 to capture his first major by two shots. Open at Pebble Beach, when howling winds clocked as high as 47 mph turned Sunday into a train wreck for a lot of players. Kite got a another chance to flaunt his short game – and his lob wedge - in the final round of the 1992 U.S. And if you don’t have a really good short game, it doesn’t matter how you hit it.’ “ As Harvey Penick (his former coach and mentor) used to tell us, ‘If you’ve got a really good short game, it doesn’t matter how good you hit it. If you can chip and putt, you (can be successful). “It just shows you how important the short game is, at all levels, on tour or the amateur level. Now you don’t see anybody that’s not using at least a 60-degree wedge and Phil Mickelson and a few others have 64- or 65-degree wedges. “When somebody out here on tour does something that works, it’s amazing how many people start taking notice,” Kite said. And when his fellow pros saw how much success he was having with his wedge game, many of them also started carrying three wedges, including the 60-degree wedge that turned into his magic wand. “I never finished out of the top 10 (on the money list) for quite a few years,” Kite said. He did everything except win a major, but that would come. And in 1989, he won three tour events and another money title. He was also the only player to win at least one tournament title every year from 1981-87. In 1982, he won the Vardon again and finished third on the money list. In 1981, Kite won the PGA Tour money title, the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average and Player of the Year honors from the Golf Writers Association. In truth, the 60-degree wedge helped make him a star, separating himself from the talented tour pack, almost overnight. a much better player,” Kite said modestly. “That one club allowed me to go from a pretty good player to. Kite said he put the 60-degree wedge in his bag during the summer of 1980, back when the most-lofted club in anyone’s bag was a 56-degree wedge. “It changed my game and revolutionized the way the game is played, to some extent.” “In the late ’70s, Pelz recommended I put a 60-degree wedge in my bag,” Kite said Tuesday at the Balboa Bay Club, where he was the featured speaker at the annual “Breakfast With a Champion” event that kicks off Toshiba Classic week. He says he got the idea from short-game guru Dave Pelz, a former NASA physicist who is credited with coming up with the concept of higher-loft sand wedges. That’s because Kite, a 2004 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, was the first known tour golfer to regularly use a lob wedge and carry three wedges in his bag. If you have one in your bag, it’s probably one of your favorite clubs, because it’s ideal for short high-lofted shots that land softly and stop quickly on the green.Īnd if your lob wedge saves you a lot of strokes, and helps you win more than your share of skins or other golf bets against your buddies, you should come out to the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club this weekend and thank Tom Kite. NEWPORT BEACH – Some people call it a lob wedge.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |