Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the weekly gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.
The new-new
Bryson DeChambeau’s equipment remains a fascinating storyline — even at major championships. The 30-year-old generated Masters headlines when he put a set of 3D-printed Avoda Golf irons in the bag — just two days before the first round.
As DeChambeau revealed, the last-minute iron swap wasn’t because he was unhappy with the previous sticks.
“I had been practicing with [the Avoda irons] quite a while before that,” DeChambeau said. “Last week I found out that they were, unfortunately — we didn’t think it was going to be non-conforming, but they were. Just the groove edge was just too sharp. Carter Rich, [the USGA’s senior director of equipment rules and conformance], was super helpful, and I have to thank him for getting those approved and going through the right process.”
Due to the 3D printing process, the USGA deemed the grooves were too narrow, rendering them non-conforming. Connor Olson, manager of DeChambeau’s BAD company, buffed and ground the grooves himself over the weekend to ensure they were conforming for the Masters.
“I started practicing from then on out and felt comfortable with them Tuesday and Wednesday, had no issue,” DeChambeau said on Friday.
As you’d expect, DeChambeau’s irons are anything but conventional. Tom Bailey, the owner of direct-to-consumer Avoda Golf, made the two-piece irons using a 3D printing process that allowed for something DeChambeau has been clamoring for since 2020: bulge and roll in an iron face.
The term “bulge and roll” is usually reserved for woods to describe the heel-toe curvature (bulge) and crown-sole curvature (roll) that’s added to the face to reduce gear effect on off-center strikes, allowing the ball to finish closer to the target line.
DeChambeau played coy when initially asked about the iron’s design but offered additional details on Friday that all but confirmed he’s implemented bulge and roll into the face. (He also confirmed “there is no backup set,” if something were to happen to the irons.)
“They have a different curvature on the face than other equipment,” DeChambeau said. “Most equipment is flat. These have a different curvature on the face that allows me to have my mis-hits to go a little straighter sometimes.”
(Click here to read the full report on DeChambeau’s new irons)
False start
Collin Morikawa kicked off Masters week with arguably the hottest putter on Tour in the bag — and then pulled an about-face.
In a move straight out of the Dustin Johnson putter playbook, Morikawa arrived with TaylorMade’s Spider Tour X — better known as “Scottie’s mallet” — and used it during practice sessions, the Par 3 Contest and an opening-round 71. The 71 looked good on paper, but Morikawa lost nearly four-tenths of a stroke on the greens, according to DataGolf, which resulted in a mid-tournament putter benching.
When Morikawa arrived on Friday, TaylorMade’s TP Soto was back in the bag. As some gearheads may recall, Morikawa made a few adjustments to the TP Soto during the 2023 Ryder Cup, including adding a one-off Mitsubishi graphite putter shaft.
“I came into this week not putting well or not feeling comfortable with the putter that I had in my hands. Went full 180, switched to the mallet, switched to the Spider, and was feeling great, to be honest,” Morikawa said on Saturday. “I felt really, really good. Felt better than I’ve kind of felt all year.
“But sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to feel in the tournament. Through that Thursday and then Friday morning round, it was just for me to finish the round, like I just wanted to get the putter out of my hands because I couldn’t get comfortable with it.”
The putter change resulted in an impressive charge up the leaderboard that concluded in a T4 showing on Sunday, his best finish in five Masters starts.
Along with the putter change, Morikawa also replaced his TaylorMade SIM woods with a 9-degree Qi10 LS driver and 13.5-degree Qi10 fairway wood. According to TaylorMade reps, Morikawa was seeking an uptick in spin that Qi10 provided.
Double up
It was a week of equipment headlines for Tony Finau. It started with Finau adding “putter designer” to his resume on Wednesday and continued with the inclusion of a second Ping G430 LST driver. Yes, that’s two drivers for those counting at home.
PING G430 LST Custom Driver
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In the search to optimize his performance off the tee, along with the second shot into par-5s, Finau began to realize how seldom he used 3-wood off the tee and ground during Masters week. The only hole he could come up with was No. 8, but it would need to be playing into the wind in soft conditions to make it a possibility.
“With that in mind, we felt it would be worth exploring a driver built to more 3-wood specs,” said Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates. “In other words, shorter with more loft.”
The same week Ping “supercharged” Finau’s 7.75-degree G430 LST gamer (45.25 inches) in Houston, Oates and the Tour team also built a shorter 10.5-degree G430 LST driver at 44.5 inches. (The shorter driver’s loft sleeve is set in the “little minus” setting, giving it 9 degrees of actual loft.)
Initial testing at Augusta saw Finau carrying it 285-290 yards with the little driver. To put those numbers into perspective, Finau generally carries the gamer driver 305-315 yards.
In Finau’s eyes, the combination of the shorter length with his added speed makes for a lethal combination, especially when he needs to hit a slight draw but doesn’t need to hit it over 300 yards. Since returning to the course in January, Finau has seen his ball speed increase from 175 mph to cruising at 183-185 mph with 190 in the tank.
Finau’s “little driver” was built to see plenty of action on the course, particularly on Nos. 2, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 18.
Koepka putter
Go back and look at Brooks Koepka’s major successes and you’ll notice some of the most important tools in the bag haven’t changed much. Most notably, the Scotty Cameron Teryllium Newport 2 putter he’s wielded with considerable success.
Up until a few weeks ago, Koepka had a particular look and feel he preferred on the greens. Then along came a Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 mallet to shake things up.
The putter initially surfaced in Koepka’s bag during a practice round with the Florida State men’s golf team, and then made an appearance last week for LIV’s event in Miami. Koepka went on to shoot 69-77-77 during the 54-hole event — a brief snapshot that led many to wonder if the 33-year-old would return to his reliable blade when he arrived at Augusta.
Koepka showed up with the mallet at the beginning of the week and quickly confirmed he wouldn’t be making any changes — even though he was photographed with two putters in the bag on Tuesday.
“Yep, same putter,” Koepka said. “I felt comfortable and changed for two weeks now. I’m comfortable with it. I just wasn’t seeing any putts go in. I felt like I was hitting a lot of lips and good putts, but nothing was falling. We’ll just stick with it and see how it goes.”
Koepka made the weekend but was never a factor with the new putter in tow, finishing T45 at nine over.
(Click here to read the full report on DeChambeau’s new irons)
Rory’s 4-iron
Rory McIlroy’s lone Masters gear change occurred the week before stepping foot on the grounds at Augusta National. But it was still made with the year’s first major championship in mind.
During a scouting trip to Augusta, McIlroy tried out a cavity-back TaylorMade Proto 4-iron that performed well enough to bump his P760 from the bag. McIlroy offered several interesting insights on the club during a pre-tournament presser.
“It’s just as fast as the 760 I was using,” McIlroy said. “Launch is a little higher, which was surprising, and it’s just sometimes I felt like when I hit my 5-iron in the blade and then the 4-iron in the 760 it was such a different feel. To go from a 5-iron now to that (new) 4-iron, it feels a little closer to what I feel in the 5-iron. So just a little bit more responsive, but didn’t lose any performance from it, which is great.”
The sight of TaylorMade’s newest prototype in McIlroy’s bag led many gearheads to wonder if something new is in the retail pipeline. It’s pure conjecture at this point, but TaylorMade has a history of introducing eventual retail products on Tour, so it’s conceivable we would see a full set of cavity-back prototypes for the weekend crowd in the future.
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