Kenton Oates has received some oddball equipment requests over the years during his time as a Ping Tour rep. Wild grip builds. Unique iron grinds. Two drivers. Oates has seen it all. Or so he thought until staffer Sahith Theegala texted him with an ask that almost didn’t seem real.
After hitting two shots into the water on the par-3 14th hole during the FedEx St. Jude Championship with a Ping Blueprint S 7-iron, Theegala wanted to know if Ping could make him a 7-iron that didn’t have a 7 stamped on the sole. He was officially done looking at the number and needed to see something different in the bag.
“[Sahith] actually mentioned something pre-tournament about the [7-iron] being the worst club in his bag,” Oates told GOLF.com. “It was a curious comment. There’s no reason for the 7-iron to be worse than the others. Then he hit two in the water with 7-iron on 14 in Memphis.
“He texts me Sunday night after Memphis and says, ‘This is a ridiculous request, but I need a 7-iron that doesn’t have a 7 stamped on it.’ I had to think about it for a second and then remembered the [Viktor Hovland] irons with the grinds. When we grind on the sole, we end up having to screenprint the numbers on there.”
To accommodate Theegala’s request, Ping’s Tour department filled in the 7 stamped on the sole with metal, ground off a portion and then screenprinted an 8 on top. The painless process made it possible for Ping to overnight the club to Theegala at the BMW Championship for immediate testing.
“We worked on the club Tuesday of the BMW Championship and he’s been using it ever since,” Oates said. “He calls it the 8-Plus. It just shows you that pros are much closer to us than you might think. Even they have idiosyncrasies that don’t always make sense.”
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While Theegala’s 8-Plus is still a bonafide 7-iron, the number change on the sole has worked wonders for his confidence. During the Tour Championship, Theegala found himself in the mix during the final round and asked his caddie, Carl Smith, if he should “hit the 8-Plus” during several important situations. There’s no chance he’s uttering the word “7-iron.”
Asked if Theegala’s request is the most bizarre he’s ever received, Oates confirmed it’s right up at the top, along with a non-Ping staffer who routinely asks Tour reps to re-sleeve his Ping driver every three months because “he feels like the sleeve bends and moves flatter.” (Oates confirmed the sleeve doesn’t go flatter over time.)
“You want to accommodate all requests, no matter how crazy they sound,” said Oates. “Our job is to figure out how to make it happen. Sahith’s was definitely an interesting one, but it’s good to see him having success with the 8-Plus iron in the bag.”