It didn’t take Adam long… Rookie PGA Tour professional Adam Long stunned himself and the rest of the golfing world last week by beating Canadian Adam Hadwin and superstar Phil Mickelson to win the latest event on the PGA Tour, The Desert Classic. Amazingly his PGA Tour career had read, played four and missed three cuts this season but he is now a PGA Tour winner and played the last nine holes as though he had done it all his career. Under the pressure, a solid mid iron into 12 feet at the last and a dead centre putt gave the stunned Long the win. It now allows him to plan for three years, play Majors, The Players championship and gets a nice little trip to Hawaii next year for the Champion of Champions event that starts the 2020 year off. This was Phil "The Thrills" perfect course as it was wide open off the tee, had perfect putting surfaces and no wind. The Veteran hit so few fairways but putted the lights out. The first round saw him equal his best ever tour score of 60 but barely saw a fairway, pure Lefty! Mickelson used the new Callaway soft ball with 3 lines on and attributed more holed putts to that. He is loved in his home state and a third of his Tour wins have come in California. His driving will not survive on many courses, hence his outburst at the Ryder Cup of playing only courses that suit his game. Well Palm Springs was definitely in that category last week. In Europe there was a popular winner in Shane Lowry who opened up the Desert Swing by beating some "huge" reputations. Put in their places were the likes of Major winners Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka and desert specialists Martin Kaymer and Henrik Stenson. Lowry prepared for two straight weeks to get ready for the Abu Dhabi event, not quite as much as Leeds United’s manager mind you, who must have a player dossiers thicker than any Don Revie put together via spy gate. Opening with a 62, the Irishman played some stellar golf birdieing many of the par 3s all week, no one would have got a look in for the 2s club. The Arabian course was in amazing condition with perfect putting surfaces and when this happens scoring is going to be LOW! On the last day Lowry had to battle for the win by holing crucial putts down the stretch and making use of that immense short game skill he possesses to end Richard Sterne`s challenge. What a great start to the season! Another winner in the desert were Callaway, by winning the driver and fairway count. The new Epic Flash (used by Lowry) is a hit and Callaway must be clapping their hands with podium product success both sides of the pond and plenty of interest in their new ball which is in our store very soon!
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