Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.
Gradual changes
Jordan Spieth is willing to shake up his equipment setup, but the changes don’t usually happen overnight.
The three-time major winner tends to do most of his testing behind the scenes — and even then there’s no guarantee a piece of gear will make the cut. His decision to immediately throw Vokey’s SM9 wedges in the bag at Kapalua was one of the few times Spieth has transitioned into a new product the same week it was released on Tour.
While we don’t anticipate Spieth adding a different piece of gear each week, he kept the trend going at Pebble Beach with a new Fujikura Ventus TR 7X shaft in his 15-degree Titleist TS2 fairway wood. Spieth currently plays Ventus Blue in a Titleist TSi3 driver and was intrigued by the new TR design, so he put the shaft through its paces during a testing session the week prior to Pebble Beach at the Titleist Performance Institute.
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The session revealed a few upgrades for Spieth, who noticed more control from swing to swing and a tighter spin delta on off-center strikes. Internal modifications were made to ensure the spin rate didn’t get too low for Spieth, but the overall build with Ventus TR proved to be an improvement over the original Ventus Blue 7X that was previously in the 3-wood.
The uptick in overall stability and control Spieth saw during testing can be attributed to a new Spread Tow fabric that Fujikura added to the midsection and handle of the shaft. Adding stability to a shaft can be accomplished by adding more material to the shaft, but doing so winds up altering weight and overall performance in a negative way. With Ventus TR, the fabric increases stability without the extra heft.
“When you talk about carbon fiber being in a toe, it looks like a strand of rope,” said Spencer Reynolds Fujikura’s product marketing manager. “And when you braid that together, you start to see seams and cracks where the resin can pool, and that can compromise the stability when it takes on stress.
“Now imagine taking every single strand of thread out of that rope and ironing it flat into something we like to call ‘a tape.’ Weaving those strands together into something more closely resembling a basket weave pattern — you’ve now eliminated where resin can pool, and the shaft material gets stronger in all directions.”
Getting a shot
Before Lydia Ko announced her intention to turn pro in 2013, her bag setup featured a number of different brands, including several clubs from a relative unknown called Fourteen Golf. Even when Ko was an amateur, she refused to play favorites with her equipment — something that was once again reinforced in January when she parted ways with PXG and opted to go the free agent route.
Ko embraced the opportunity to pick the best setup for her game and spent countless hours each day testing hundreds of clubs in an attempt to find the ideal setup. When she reemerged at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January, another relatively unknown equipment brand was positioned prominently in her bag.
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In a move that somewhat mirrored her decision to use Fourteen Golf during her amateur days, Ko chose to go the contrarian route, tapping Japanese-based brand Proto Concept as her iron of choice in the 6- through 9-iron over several more well-known equipment brands.
Working with Mike Kim, a manager at JesseyJames Golf in Orlando, Fla., Ko narrowed down the field of would-be options to three brands during testing: Proto Concept, Mizuno and Srixon. In the end, Proto Concept wound up being 2-3 yards shorter than Ko’s PXG irons, but the dispersion and carry yardages were consistently tighter in the mid and short irons.
Ko wound up selecting a cavity-back Proto Concept C07 Forged 6-iron and C05 Forged 7-9 irons.
“She doesn’t make any modifications to the head,” said Masashi Kamoda, Proto Concept’s Tour rep, who previously worked with Fourteen Golf. “There are straight from our consumer line. We don’t have anything specialized, meaning tour prototypes, for the tour players. If someone wanted to buy the same clubs Lydia is playing, they could do that.”
Proto Concept may be new to the tour scene — their website debuted one year ago — but the brand is far from a small fish in a big pond. The equipment manufacturer is a collaboration between Endo forging house and Golf Partner — better known as the biggest golf retailer on the planet.
The new iron setup won’t be going anywhere anytime soon after Ko won her 17th LPGA title in just her second start with the irons.
Moore of a good thing
Taylor Moore sought a higher launch and spin rate with his Ping Blueprint irons (4-PW). Working with Ping Tour reps, Moore found True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid X100 shaft to be a game-changer during testing.
According to Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates, Moore added almost a full degree of launch with 200 to 300 RPMs of additional spin and 10 to 12 feet of overall height. The shaft also slightly reduced the amount of curve on his shot.
The numbers Moore saw during testing matched up with the profile True Temper added to Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid. Instead of stripping weight from the shaft to increase launch, the midsection was reinforced and the taper rate altered in the tip section to induce a higher launch. True Temper confirmed golfers will see roughly 10-15 feet of additional peak height at the same weight (130 grams) as the original Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100.
Staying power
Tommy Fleetwood didn’t change putters in Saudi Arabia, which might make you wonder why he’s being featured in this week’s notes. After changing putters in his last two starts, Fleetwood appears to have found a fit in Scotty Cameron’s Tour Only Masterful. The Anser-style putter sports adjustable heel-toe weights and a fully milled face. A graphite LA Golf TPZ putter shaft remains part of the build as well.
Fleetwood closed with a 73 to finish T8 at the Saudi International.
I’m first
Tom Hoge became the first player this season to win with Titleist’s Pro V1 Left Dot golf ball, joining Tony Finau (Northern Trust) and Daniel Berger (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) who logged victories with Left Dot in 2021. The Left Dot version was a Tour-only offering until Titleist released the model in limited quantities last year. Sleeves were selling for upwards of $50 in early November on the secondary market.
Compared to Titleist’s retail Pro V1, the Left Dot has 36 fewer dimples (352 for the Left Dot, 388 for the Pro V1), as well as a different core formulation and casing layer. With the mid irons, golfers can expect to see a shallower descent angle and roughly 200-400 RPM less spin with Left Dot.
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“Tom really likes the lower flight of Left Dot,” said Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Golf Ball R&D Consultant on the PGA Tour. “Having played a lot of his golf in Texas, he’s always been focused on being able to flight the ball properly especially into cross and head winds. He feels Left Dot gives him the best ability to hit those shots consistently while giving him all the performance and control he needs in the short game.”
Quick-hitters: Mackenzie Hughes finished T16 with a 46-inch Ping G425 LST driver that allowed him to gain an additional 4-5 mph of speed. … Working with Odyssey Tour rep Joe Toulon, Min Woo Lee exchanged his Odyssey White Hot OG #1 blade for a Tri-Hot 5K Double Wide. … Adam Hadwin put a 9-degree Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS driver in the bag after the face cracked on his Epic Speed Triple Diamond DS. … Cameron Champ added Ping Glide 4.0 prototype wedges (52S, 56S, 60W degrees) to the bag. … 21-time Japanese champion Yuta Ikeda was unveiled as a Nippon shaft brand ambassador. He’ll use the company’s NS Pro Modus3 System 3 Tour 125 Prototype TX steel shafts in his irons and wedges.
Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.