LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Open is a tough test made even tougher since most players in the field have never played Los Angeles Country Club under tournament conditions. With all of the game’s top players in one place, we scoured the range and equipment vans to find out from an equipment perspective exactly how players are getting ready to handle the host course.
1. Fresh wedges
Fast firm greens mean players need one thing — as much spin as possible around the greens. Many players, including Justin Thomas, have put fresh wedges into play this week. JT was working with a new Vokey T-grind lob wedge to test against his low bounce K.
Another player we spotted with a new wedge was Collin Morikawa who put a TaylorMade HiToe3 60 degree into play to help with open-faced shots around the green. This seems to be something he is quite comfortable with since he has used a HiToe model lob wedge at previous Open Championships and U.S. Opens.
Although it’s at the other end of his bag, Collin also recently added a new P770 to help add height and stopping power to his longer approach shots.
2. New irons with a Tiger connection
Why Tiger Woods is still part of this week’s U.S. Open gear conversation
Recent PGA Tour winner Jason Day has switched out his TaylorMade P7MCs for a set of P7TW blades this week at LACC with the hopes of gaining extra control into greens. The extra precision comes from the small jump in spin the irons generate compared to his previous set. Beyond the iron heads, his specs remain identical.
3. Putters, putters, putters
The early talk of U.S. Open week has been the state of Scottie Scheffler’s putting, and he has spent much time on the practice green comparing a new putter to his current model. The testing sessions have included messing with various weight configurations in the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Plus, but even with all the testing, it appears that a new putter switch will be a game-time decision.
Titleist Scotty Cameron Super Select putters
We also spotted a new Scotty Cameron putter for Hideki Matsuyama to test, which offered a very different look compared to his usual Newport 2 style.
Last but certainly not least we got an early look at a milled putter from what we suspect is an upcoming line from TaylorMade named Reserve. The blade-style putter has a grooved face, but we don’t have any technical information about the grooves beyond the fact they are different from the current PureRoll grooves.
4. More Titleist irons are showing up
A few weeks ago at the Memorial, Titleist released its newest T-Series irons into the hands of PGA Tour players. Now, more of the irons are showing up in players’ bags, including Justin Thomas’. JT has one T-Series iron (4-i) to help increase height and stopping power into the firm greens.
Other players with the new irons include Sungjae Im with a full set of T100, Tom Hoge with a T100 4-iron like Thomas and reigning Open Championship winner Cameron Smith with a set of blacked-out T100’s to go along with a new low bounce Vokey K-grind.
5. Phil mixing old with new
Phil is here at the U.S. Open looking to complete the career grand slam and he has brought a unique combination of clubs including a blacked-out original RBZ fairway wood and a couple of older Ping wedges to go along with his combo iron set.
6. A snake in the grass
One more cool piece of gear we found belonged to former U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland. It’s a baffler-style 7-wood with extended rails on the sole to help keep the club moving through the turf and longer grass. Considering Woodland’s length along with the length of the longer par 3’s, this club could be a major contributor if he is in contention.
7. Other notes
Other things we spotted on the course or in the bags of players include Sergio Garcia using a Titleist TSR3 driver during his practice round with Jon Rahm. Keegan Bradley using a new and extremely tacky Golf Pride grip on his clubs.
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