While much of the focus on Rory McIlroy’s bag this week has been on his driver, it’s another club he brought with him to Oakmont that caught some gear nerds’ attention.
It’s not surprising that McIlroy has a TaylorMade P760 2-iron with him at the U.S. Open as he debates whether to game that club or a 5-wood this week, where finding fairways is a premium. What is surprising is that McIlroy is one of just a few players toying with a driving iron this week.
Even as players have moved away from long irons in favor of hybrids and, more recently, higher-lofted 7- and 9-woods, driving irons have still found a place in pros’ bags during the summer months, specifically at the U.S. Open and Open Championship, when firm conditions lead to huge rollouts.
This week at Oakmont, with the club’s undulating fairways and brutally thick rough, more players are turning to 7- and 9-woods, surprisingly, over driving irons.
We saw this phenomenon play out at the PGA Championship, when players turned to higher-lofted woods to help extract the ball from the wet rough that week at Quail Hollow.
That’s also part of the story this week, as Callaway’s Kellen Watson told GOLF that Si Woo Kim was looking for a 4-iron replacement that could get him out of the rough. They settled on a Callaway Elyte 9-wood with a Ventus Black 10-X shaft at 40.5″.
“This 9-wood spins a ton, but with the combo of more ball speed and peak height, his carry is the same as a 4-iron, and he has a viable rough option,” Watson said.
Other pros poised to game a 9-wood this week include Taylor Pendrith, Erik van Rooyen, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Zac Blair and Tommy Fleetwood, who plays one just about every week. Typically, there’s only a single-digit number of 9-wood users on the PGA Tour, but this week there could be as many as 20.
PING G440 Max Custom Fairway Wood
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But another factor driving the increase in high-lofted woods this week is off-the-tee usage, something where the driving iron has typically been a useful tool. Because of Oakmont’s bending and undulating fairways, it’s better to hit clubs off the tee that spin more to minimize rollout.
It also goes to show how much the technology of modern fairway woods have improved to the point where pros can hit a ball as high as they want and not have it balloon, or flatten it out and get a lower, but still controlled ball flight from the tee.
Justin Thomas switches driver shafts
Justin Thomas made waves in April both with his improved putting that led him to break a three-year winless drought at the RBC Heritage, but also his blacked out Mitsubishi prototype shaft.
But a MC and a T31 finish at the Memorial, which saw Thomas shoot 80 in the opening round, had him searching again and this week, Thomas has not only changed shaft profiles, but he’s going to a completely different manufacturer.
According to JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s senior director of player promotions, Thomas was seeking something a little lower spinning as his speeds have gone up during the year.
He ended up going down in loft from a 10.0 GT2 head in the D1 setting (standard lie with -.75 degrees of loft) to a 9.0 head in the D4 setting (standard lie with +.75 degrees of loft) and a Fujikura 2024 Ventus Black Velocore+ 6-X shaft.
Fujikura Ventus Black Wood Shaft (Velocore+)
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Van Wezenbeeck said that combo kept enough spin on the cut but the bigger fade was down 200-300 rpm.
2024 drivers continue to get play
We here at GOLF dubbed 2024 the year of the driver, so even with OEMs introducing new product this season, it really shouldn’t be shocking that many players have hung onto their big sticks from last season, knowing they worked.
In addition to Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler soldiering on with their TaylorMade Qi10 drivers, Xander Schauffele, Si Woo Kim and Sepp Straka are among players still using Callaway’s popular Paradym Ai Smoke platform from last year.
Given their age and repeated use, it also wasn’t shocking McIlroy and Scheffler eventually had their gamers fail CT tests, with that coming at the PGA Championship for both players. But it’s also not shocking that both are still in the Qi10 this week at Oakmont.
McIlroy’s head is the same one he switched to at the PGA Championship, but while pictures of it show the absence of a “dot” by the loft number, usually an indicator of the Tour-only DOT model, we’ve confirmed that it’s the exact same model McIlroy used last season and won the Masters with. He’s also gone back to a 45 and 3/4″ shaft.
Xander Schauffele goes for Align Max
Speaking of Schauffele, last year’s two-time major winner has made a somewhat expected move into Golf Pride’s new Align Max grips.
Schauffele was a long-time user of the original Align technology, which offers a reminder ridge on the underside of the grip to promote proper and consistent hand placement. The new Align Max, released earlier this year, features a 25 percent larger ridge.
With this change, Schauffele chose the MCC +4 Align Max instead of the standard MCC, like he used previously, because he was using tape to take the taper out of the grip anyway and he liked the tacky feel of the +4s.
Titleist GT Metals remain a hot choice
Ever since Titleist’s GT metals lineup hit the PGA Tour last year, they’ve been among the most used drivers on the PGA Tour and the company has led the driver count every week this season.
That comes from a lot of use by non-contracted players.
This week, Dustin Johnson, Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose will all have a Titleist GT driver in the bag.
Titleist GT2 Custom Driver
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Johnson originally put a GT2 in the bag at the PGA Championship, but had dabbled with a Ping G440 since before re-inserting the GT2 this week.
And yes, it sure is weird seeing DJ in anything other than a TaylorMade driver, but these are strange times, friends!
Fitzpatrick is also considering adding a GT1 14.5-degree 3-wood to the bag this week.
The GT1 was added to the GT lineup earlier this year as a high-launch ultralightweight option, but thanks to the adjustable weighting, players are able to move the heavy weight forward and add weight to bring it to standard spec. The 14.5-degree GT1 fairway head is a Tour-only option.
Van Wezenbeeck told Titleist designers that he could utilize the largest Titleist fairway wood profile on Tour and other players like Doug Ghim have added it to the bag as well in a standard weight setup.
Titleist GT1 Custom Fairway Wood
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Johnny Wunder contributed to this report.
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