Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the weekly gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.
Total throwback
Jeff Overton earned a spot on the Ryder Cup team in 2010, an accomplishment only a select few in pro golf can claim to have experienced in their career. It was a seriously big deal for the then-27-year-old, who was coming off the best season of his PGA Tour career.
Not only did Overton make the U.S. team, but he and Rickie Fowler made history as the first Americans to earn a spot without a Tour title to their name. Even without a victory, Overton’s three runner-up finishes were more than enough to qualify on merit.
Overton went on to earn two points during the biennial matches — the U.S. wound up losing to Europe, 14.5-to-13.5 — and became a viral sensation when he holed from the fairway and let out a “Boom baby!” that’s still remembered to this day. Golf fans were accustomed to seeing Overton on Tour leaderboards up until 2017 when he was forced to step away from the game due to complications from back surgery.
Overton made his return to competitive golf last season, at the 3M Open, and has teed it up in 10 events on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour this year, but nothing has clicked. Even still, the mere sight of Overton on the course after his health scare is cause for celebration.
Overton, of course, is a competitor who wants to get back to past form, and there are signs he could be headed in the right direction. At the Korn Ferry Tour’s Magnit Championship, Overton opened with a bogey-free 65 to claim the first-round lead. His stellar play on the course — he finished T23 for the week — turned out to be the perfect opportunity to showcase his one-of-a-kind equipment setup for gearheads.
In a video the Korn Ferry Tour released, Overton took Barstool Sports’ Dan Rapaport through an equipment setup that remains frozen in time — and that’s not an exaggeration.
As Overton revealed, most of the setup is from his 2010 season when he made the Ryder Cup team.
That’s right: Instead of returning with new tech in the bag, Overton is still bagging clubs that are upwards of two decades old. (He also doesn’t use headcovers to protect his weapons, which is truly wild.)
Some of the highlights include a 20-degree Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK (Fujikura Speeder 904 Hybrid shaft) he used to make birdie after hitting it out of bounds on the par-5 13th hole during the 2007 Travelers Championship. There’s also the Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter he’s been wielding since 2003, along with a set of 8-year-old Mizuno MP-68 irons.
Outside of a fresh Srixon ZX MKII Utility iron, the setup is a total throwback. Asked why he’s still playing clubs that are ancient by today’s Tour standards, Overton offered a simple — albeit brilliant — piece of advice for golfers.
“There’s a lot of great equipment out there,” Overton said. “It’s all about specing it out yourself. It’s always good to understand your equipment, and I understand it so why switch?”
Overton has one heck of a point. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Last-ditch effort
In 2018, Justin Rose won the season-long FedEx Cup title with a TaylorMade M3 440 driver in the bag. It’s worth highlighting the driver because it reemerged in Rose’s bag last week at the BMW Championship. Entering the tournament 118th on Tour in SG: Off-the-tee — and in need of a strong week to make the Tour Championship field — Rose went back to the same build he used five years ago, all the way down the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 70TX shaft and weight track setup.
In the end, the driver wasn’t enough to get Rose to East Lake. He finished the tournament 37th in SG: Off-the-tee en route to a T22 showing, putting an end to his season.
Scheffler’s Spider
Scottie Scheffler will start the Tour Championship in the driver’s seat after finishing two back of Viktor Hovland at the BMW Championship. The event marked Scheffler’s second start with a TaylorMade Spider Tour X SS Proto mallet that missed some key putts down the stretch, including a crucial six-footer for par on the penultimate hole that extended Hovland’s lead to two shots.
If there’s a gear story to watch next week, it would be whether Scheffler continues on with the Spider for another week. Looking strictly at the stats, he’s lost a combined 4.844 shots to the field with the putter in the last two events.
Scheffler hasn’t been afraid to shake things up this season when the putter isn’t working. Does he do it again during the most lucrative week on the Tour schedule? We’re about to find out.
Highs and lows
Similar to Justin Rose’s driver change at Olympia Fields, Cameron Young made two iron adjustments as he made a Tour Championship push. Young added a Titleist T150 4-iron at the top of the set to gain additional launch. He also swapped Nippon’s N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 130 X shafts for arguably the most robust offering on Tour — True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X7.
The heaviest and stiffest steel product in the Dynamic Gold family offers an extremely low launch and spin profile that fits only a handful of players, including Day and Cameron Champ. Rory McIlroy also tried out X7, in 2021, to help flatten out his ball flight.
While Dynamic Gold has been around since the 1980s, the stout X7 profile didn’t become a reality until 2005 when the first wave of strong, athletic players started joining the Tour. To fill the need for a stiffer overall profile, True Temper came up with X7 and kept it as a Tour-only option until 2016.
True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 Iron Shaft
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For Young, the goal behind using X7 was simple: Find a way to lower spin without affecting consistency. During testing Young, saw a reduction of roughly 750 RPMs across the board. That’s the good news.
The not-so-great news is Young ultimately ended up missing out on a trip to East Lake. He also finished the week ranked 47th in SG: Approach-the-green (minus-5.037) with the new iron build.
Quick-hitters: Viktor Hovland won with a Titleist U505 3 utility iron which he put in play for the first time at the U.S. Open. … Chris Kirk recently added Callaway’s 2023 Apex CB irons and an Odyssey White Hot Versa No. 7 mallet to the bag.
Want to overhaul your bag for 2023? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.
