U.S. Open 2019: Gary Woodland just single-handedly kept an insane equipment streak alive

Did you know Wilson Golf has “more major wins than any other brand”? If the tagline sounds familiar that’s because Wilson has placed it in numerous advertisements over the years. When you can boast about major championship success, well, you scream it from the rooftops.

If the claim sounds a bit vague, it’s because Wilson isn’t boasting about equipment in general, but rather one specific piece of equipment: Irons. Before this week, Wilson was able to boast about an incredibly impressive streak that dated all the way back to the 1922 U.S. Open when Gene Sarazen joined the company’s advisory staff and immediately won the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

Sarazen remained connected to Wilson until his passing in 1999 and was instrumental in getting the streak started, winning seven of the club manufacturer’s first eight major titles.

Over the next 97 years, Wilson irons would win 61 majors, with the last coming at the 2008 PGA Championship by long-time staffer Padraig Harrington.

What made the 61 wins even more impressive was the fact that Wilson boasted at least one major victory in every decade since the 1920s. Streaks are meant to be broken, but for some reason, Wilson seemed to always find a way to get at least one win to keep the record intact.

But with just two major championships remaining in 2019, it felt like the run would expire in the next few months.

Then along came Gary Woodland to the rescue.

Woodland, if you’ll recall, became a Wilson Golf staffer back in January when he signed his first equipment deal since parting ways with Under Armour at the end of 2018. As part of the agreement, Woodland began using the company’s Staff Model Blades.

“Once we knew he was open again, we jumped at the chance to talk and he was receptive to trying some of our stuff out,” said Wilson president Tim Clarke. “It started with the prototype blades and kind of went from there.”

In fact, Woodland was the first player to debut the irons on tour during Tiger Woods‘ event in the Bahamas. He’s kept the irons in the bag since December and the rest, as they say, is history.

With the win at Pebble Beach, Woodland kept the company’s streak alive with only one major championship to go in 2019, ensuring Wilson will be able to boast about its 62 majors victories and impressive iron run on golf’s biggest stage for at least another decade.

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