Holmes and Glover Say the Bermudagrass Jumps

US Open champ Lucas Glover added a 64 degree wedge to his bag for The Players Championship to handle the Bermuda rough.

But he also made a change in strategy.

“I just tried to get the ball in the fairway because I'm not very good out of that four-inch Bermuda with our new grooves,” Glover said after firing a second round 65. 

He didn’t need it at Augusta National although he did need his three-iron and five-wood there.

He waited through Hilton Head and made the switch at Quail Hollow.

“I was having some trouble spinning it enough, even out of the fairway. So I wanted that for that,” he said. 

He discovered the importance of the 64 degree club while practicing.

“Working at home with it, around the greens, it's really an advantage because the ball gets up quick, and I think, and it downs soft,” he explained about the reason for using the club. “It's enabled me to spin it a little more around the greens. It's a fit. Now the hard part is finding that 235 club I like, 240, but we're working on it. I think I've got one.”

For Glover the 64 degree addition is to adjust for the V grooves.

“Some guys are going to treat it a little different,” he added. “Lower their loft because face angle of attack, different stuff.”

The other thing Glover did was to change his strategy around TPC Sawgrass.

“The way the rough is, and the way the groove is now, you've got to be in the fairway,” he said. “You've got to be in the fairway to attack the pins. And that's no secret. It's pretty much everywhere now with the grooves the way they are that's just the way it is. But here for me it's more.

“Other guys are different. I'm not as good out of the rough as some guys. But, you know, I've got to be in the fairway to get birdie putts, and that was my focus Tuesday and Wednesday when I played was to figure out what club I could hit in the fairway as much as possible, and it's been three-wood this week.”

Long hitter J.B. Holmes has made few club modifications.

“Bermuda jumps, but I didn't have to change irons,” he explained. “I've been playing V-grooves since I've been out on Tour, so I didn't have to change my irons. So I'm playing the same irons I did last year.”

He did change wedges. 

“I'm pretty used to coming out of the Bermuda with the V-grooves and the ball jumping a little bit,” he added. 

Like Glover, who realized that he had to hit to the places Pete Dye allows the shots to fall, Holmes keeps the driver in the bag most holes.

“I added a hybrid, like a 15-degree hybrid that went a little bit further,” he explained. “One year I was playing there, and on No. 16 I hit one 360 down the middle and I was so close to the green I had to hit a wedge to lay up because I was so close to the trees. There's no holes to take any advantage, and all the par-5s I can hit three-wood except 16 and get there in two. So I hit a lot of three-woods out here. I hit more three-woods probably than I do drivers off tees."