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May 8, 2020 - 5:00 am EDT 4 years ago

The Pin Sheet – May 8, 2020

Chris Chaney Chris Chaney
The Pin Sheet – May 8, 2020

Welcome to The Pin Sheet, a quick guide for your day in golf that pairs beautifully with our Clubhouse Newsletter.

Between this daily aggregation and the Newsletter, you’ll find everything you need to know that’s going on in the world of golf to be the most well-informed player in your foursome.

Without further ado, now on the tee…


Today’s Clubhouse Newsletter

Massachusetts Becomes Last State To Announce Course Openings

Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker opened the state’s golf courses effective immediately on Thursday, becoming the final state in the union to announce its openings following closures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Ironically, Massachusetts — and Maryland and Vermont, the final three state-ordered holdouts — opened its courses before its neighbor to the north, New Hampshire.

Golfweek.com’s Jason Lusk reports:

Maryland and Vermont had been the most recent holdouts to announce the reopening of their courses. Both those states’ courses also were allowed to reopen Thursday, according to the National Golf Foundation. New Hampshire beat each of those to the announcement this week, allowing its courses to reopen May 11, making it the last to have it courses closed despite the earlier announcement.

Alaska is still closed due to seasonality, and some courses are still closed because of municipal or county mandate. Across the country, 79 percent of golf courses in the United States were open as of May 3, according to a National Golf Foundation update. That’s up from 58 percent the week before.

The latest NGF data shows that 66 percent of municipal courses, 83 percent of public daily-fee courses and 77 percent of private courses were open as of May 3.

Bryson’s Mind-Blowing Trackman Numbers

One of the interesting developments of this COVID-19 quarantine has been checking in on Bryson DeChambeau from time to time.

There’s Bryson playing Fortnite. There’s Bryson doing some sponsor equipment activation. There’s Bryson checking in at 240 lbs. There’s Bryson ripping a hole in his outdoor hitting net.

On Thursday, we got the latest set of numbers from DeChambeau, which the guys at No Laying Up succinctly summarized: DeChambeau’s 138.7 clubhead speed is more than 10 MPH than Tour leader Cam Champ and his 205 MPH ball speed is 15 MPH faster than Champ’s, again the Tour leader. 

DeChambeau’s formula to gain more distance is clearly working. Before the stoppage, he led the Tour in driving distance average at 321.3, about a yard longer than Rory McIlroy.

Wisconsin Couple Hits Back-To-Back Aces

Witnessing one hole-in-one is a thrill, but seeing two on the same hole by one couple is crazy. 

That’s what happened during a PGA Member best-ball event for husband and wife Steve Howe and Carolyn Barnett-Howe on the 158-yard sixth hole on the Dye Course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.

Mike Sherry of The Post-Crescent reports:

With COVID-19 safety guidelines to keep golfers from touching flagsticks, there were Styrofoam collars inside the hole which made it hard for the Howes to know if Steve’s shot actually went in the hole.

“You’re always not really sure because you can see the top half of the ball, but I’m like, ‘I saw that go down, Steve. I’m very sure you just made an ace.’ So we celebrated,” Carolyn said.

“In midair, he’s like, ‘Holy cow! Boy, does that look good.’ And it just landed perfectly and trickled and boom. He’s like, ‘You made it, too.’ We celebrated, but I’m thinking we’re going to get up there and mine’s going to be 6 inches behind the hole,” Carolyn said. “But when we got up there, they were just stuck together right in the hole.”

Celebrities, Tour Pros Team Up For Virtual Tour

It may have taken a little while to get the ball rolling, but before we get back to professional sports as we (relatively) know them, some interesting and entertaining action is coming down the pipeline.

The latest is a celebrity virtual golf tour featuring PGA Tour coaches.

Golfweek.com’s Adam Woodward reports:

Streaming exclusively on Twitch, T’d Up Golf has partnered with Group 33 for a one-of-a-kind virtual golf tour. The first “tour stops” feature celebrities Don Cheadle, Anthony Anderson, Darius Rucker and Chris Spencer being coached by the PGA Tour’s Pat Perez, Patrick Reed, Wyndham Clark and Kevin Na. 

Teams will be playing to generate revenue benefiting COVID-19 frontline workers, providing them with food and the necessary resources. Viewers will also be able to use Twitch’s chat feature to interact with the teams throughout the competition.