The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Justin Thomas’ surprise playoff gear change appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Justin Thomas’ surprise playoff gear change appeared first on Golf.

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.

Big things ahead

Putting is a game of inches — or half inches in Justin Thomas’ case.

Coming off a win at the PGA Championship with a relatively new Scotty Cameron T5 Proto, Thomas appeared primed for a big summer after finding a replacement (Scotty Cameron T5 Proto) for the Phantom X 5.5 that played a role in 13 Tour wins, including his first major title.

The big change for Thomas’ T5 was going away from a slant neck into a custom “knuckle neck” — the neck takes almost a day to weld, cut and sandblast the knuckle — that offered slightly less toe hang than his previous putter. While the neck improved Thomas’ start lines and closure rate, there was another potential alteration still being tested behind the scenes.

Earlier this year at the Genesis Invitational, Thomas tried out Scotty Cameron mallets in three different lengths (34.5, 34 and 33.5 inches) to see how they affected his setup. Thomas ultimately stuck with his usual 34.5 inches, believing it was the best length. Things seemed to be going well until Thomas started to notice his left shoulder was creeping up post-PGA, which prompted him to ask Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page for a 34-inch version of his current T5 Proto — a half-inch shorter than his previous gamer — in advance of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

On Tuesday of the BMW Championship, Thomas’ new 34-inch T5 putter (SuperStroke Traxion Pistol GT Tour grip) arrived, replete with a JT logo in the back cavity and thumbs-up stamp on the toe side. Thomas initially thought he might take the putter home, but after rolling putts with it on the green and noticing his shoulders level out, he chose to give it a shot.

“[A shorter putter was] something we looked at earlier this year and we were going to mess with this off-season, but I haven’t been putting great for how I feel like I should be, and it was just one of those things,” Thomas said. “I’m like, if this is going to be an easy adjustment that’s going to help me improve, then why wouldn’t I do it.”

As for why Thomas decided to have a new putter built instead of shortening his previous T5, Page said it came down to Thomas “not wanting to touch the gamer.” In other words, if the shorter length doesn’t stick, Thomas knows he has a 34.5-inch T5 sitting in the locker ready to go.

For the moment, however, Thomas doesn’t appear to be wavering in his decision to switch. Following Thursday’s opening round, he praised Cameron for building him a new putter that felt the same as his previous T5, but at a shorter length.

“I switched because it was the exact same feel,” Thomas said. “Scottie did an unbelievable job. It’s very difficult to make putters the exact same in terms of feel. They may be the same but none of them are ever the same in terms of clubs in general. But it feels identical, so getting adjusted and acclimated to the speed wasn’t difficult, but just being a little bit shorter was so much easier for me to get in a good setup.”

It also didn’t hurt that Thomas gained nearly two strokes on the field on the greens during the opening round. (The rest of the week was a mixed bag for Thomas, who lost nearly six strokes over the final 54 holes.)

“It felt great,” he said. “It was the best I’ve putted in an extremely long time. Every single putt I hit was exactly where I wanted, the speed I wanted it. It was nice. I hadn’t felt that in a while.”

As we saw at the PGA Championship, a hot putter makes Thomas extremely dangerous. If Thomas can find a way to replicate Thursday’s round on the greens, watch out.

Trusty rusty

Joaquin Niemann and Taylor Moore were among the first pros to take Ping’s Glide Forged Pro Raw wedges for spins around Wilmington Country Club. The latest iteration of Ping’s popular wedge features a non-plated finish that allows the head to patina, and eventually rust, over time.

Instead of breaking in a wedge or two, both Niemann and Moore chose to change out their entire wedge set — a good sign for Ping as it begins to seed the raw wedges on Tour.

Busy week

Ping Tour rep Dylan Goodwin spent a chunk of his time in Deleware dialing in putters for several pros who were attempting to advance to the Tour Championship, including Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira and Chez Reavie.

“Worked hard with Sebastian Munoz and [PGA Tour putting consultant] Stephen Sweeney,” Goodwin told GOLF.com. “Sebastian can get caught up on alignment so freeing him up to focus more on the read and where he wants to roll the ball over is key. Switching to a PLD Anser Milled with no sight lines had definitely helped and was in the bag for several months. Now he wanted something a little more stable but still visually subtle and not distracting, so we experimented with various mallets. We found the Oslo H was a great fit for him. Still has the Anser neck like his current gamer but in a more stable model of the Oslo. It’s all matte black with a small white topline.”

For Reavie, it was video work to check his contact point and lie angle with a Ping PLD Anser 2D. The session verified Reavie’s putter was good to go, and he was on his way.

Similar to Justin Thomas, Pereira only needed a minor length adjustment to get back on track. To keep Pereira’s shoulders from pointing left and affecting his stroke, Goodwin lengthened the putter from 35 to 37 inches, which allowed him to stand taller and reduce the tension in his shoulders and arms.

Quick-hitters: Viktor Hovland added a Ping Glide 2.0 58TS lob wedge (bent to 60 degrees). … Kevin Kisner was spotted with a 10.5-degree Ping G425 LST driver. … Collin Morikawa had TaylorMade’s original SIM driver in the bag.

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.

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The post Tony Finau has one piece of equipment that will blow your mind appeared first on Golf.

The post Tony Finau has one piece of equipment that will blow your mind appeared first on Golf.

Remove James Hart du Preez from the discussion and Tony Finau is quite possibly the tallest player on the PGA Tour. At 6’4″, the lanky three-time winner can dunk flat-footed and easily palm a basketball with his massive mitts. For most players on Tour who boast above average hands, midsize or oversized grips are the prudent choice.

There’s a noticeable performance benefit to using a grip that’s slightly larger in Finau’s case. If he were to use a standard grip, it would force the smaller muscles of the hand and fingers to work harder, causing an overactive motion through the ball. In other words, a smaller grip could make Finau handsy and cause the clubhead to release too quickly. Going larger can have the opposite effect by discouraging hand rotation and shutting the face on the downswing.

But enough about the science behind grip diameter — let’s get back to Finau’s grips. From afar, Finau’s handles don’t look all that different from a standard midsize, until you take a closer look. That’s when you’re greeted with arguably the biggest grips on the PGA Tour. And that’s saying something when you consider Bubba Watson crams 12 wraps of tape under the bottom half and 10 under the top of his Ping 703 Gold grips.

Finau actually has him beat. During a recent conversation with Finau about his gear, he revealed there’s 13 wraps under the bottom and 12 wraps under the top — an astounding number that makes his build one-of-a-kind. According to Ping, it takes at least one hour to regrip Finau’s clubs from scratch, assuming two Tour reps are on the job. (It’s less time if the tape wraps can be salvaged.)

Similar to Watson’s grips, Finau likes the firmer feel the wraps provide underneath the stretched rubber, as opposed to going to a larger grip that might have a comparable size but softer feel. Of course, there’s something most midsize options can’t replicate: the constant taper found throughout each of Finau’s grips.

As opposed to the grip descending in width as it approaches the shaft, Finau’s grips remain the same width from butt cap to the steel. There’s a valuable purpose behind the additional wraps.

“This is the size I like it and it fits my hands perfectly,” Finau said. “I’ve just always liked having a consistent thickness throughout. I don’t like to feel as if my right hand is coming off the club when I release it. I just want the same feel from one club to the next.”

Bottom line, feel is a top priority for most professional golfers, including Finau. If the club grip doesn’t feel right in their hands, something must be done to rectify the problem.

In Finau’s case, having a grip with a consistent feel allows him to go after it and release the club without hesitation.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

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The post 7 things I noticed while inspecting Viktor Hovland’s gear | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

The post 7 things I noticed while inspecting Viktor Hovland’s gear | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

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.

With the U.S. Open on tap, we’re switching things up with the weekly gear notes and taking a closer look at some of the clubs inside Viktor Hovland’s bag as he prepares to tackle The Country Club. Let’s get to it.

Small change, big difference

Hovland isn’t afraid to modify his favorite club in the bag — provided the tweak produces results. In February, Ping reps attempted to increase launch and combat a lower-than-comfortable spin rate on Hovland’s Ping G425 LST driver by removing the shaft tipping from his Fujikura Speeder 661 TR TX shaft to soften the overall build.

Head loft also increased slightly from 8.4 to 8.6 degrees and hot melt (three grams) was positioned in the toe to keep Hovland from overdrawing the ball since his path started moving more right. In the end, the changes resulted in a consistent launch around 11-12 degrees with roughly 2,300 RPMs of spin.

The tweaks provide another important benefit: Hovland doesn’t have to worry about spin dropping to dangerous levels on the occasional mishit.

Sharing is caring

When Hovland’s clubs were lost in transit on his way to Kapalua for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, arrangements were made to have a fresh set of Ping clubs built for him in the meantime until his gamers surfaced in Hawaii. A pro has to practice!

But what about the non-Ping clubs in the bag? It just so happens that Hovland and his caddie, Shay Knight, play the same 3-wood build — the only difference is a Fujikura Ventus Blue 7X shaft — all the way down to the Golf Pride New Decade MultiCompound grip.

Assuming it would have a temporary stint in the bag, Knight gave Hovland the 3-wood — and then watch as he got attached to the setup. When Hovland’s sticks finally arrive, he chose to keep Knight’s club.

Five-plus months into 2022, there’s no sign of Hovland giving it back.

“Far as I’m concerned, it’s his club now,” Knight told me earlier this year.

Clean it up

There’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple when it comes to the setup. Prior to the Memorial, Hovland was like a lot of Tour pros who adjusted their club makeup based on the setup and playing conditions. Depending on the situation, he’d regularly rotate between a Ping G425 Max 7-wood and long iron — either a 3-iron or utility iron — most weeks.

At some point along the way, Hovland decided to stop the constant game of musical chairs and begin the search for a club that could serve both roles and offers a high launch with a versatile profile. Working with Ping Tour reps, Hovland settled into a 19-degree Ping G425 hybrid that splits the difference between the 7-wood and long iron and still carries around 240-245 yards.

While some players prefer the wide sole of a fairway wood to extract the ball from the rough, Hovland found the hybrid to be a worthy option from the short and long stuff. It’s a club that’ll surely see a lot of action this week as he attempts to topple the U.S. Open.

Take notice

If there’s one thing you take away from this piece, let it be this reminder that one of the best players on the planet wields a set of irons with a profile that deftly toes the line between better-player and game-improvement. With a thicker topline and wider sole than Ping’s better-player offerings (i59 and Blueprint), i210 is geared for a wide range of players — from scratch to the mid-handicapper.

Hovland’s setup highlights the importance of trying other iron offerings before defaulting to what’s currently found on the professional circuit. In Hovland’s case, he found the i210 to be a good fit in the mid to short irons because of the lower, more controlled flight they produced. In the 4- through 6-iron, the wide sole keeps the head from needlessly digging into the turf.

What’s interesting is Hovland isn’t the only Ping staffer in the i210 camp. Lee Westwood and Tyrrell Hatton — two high-level ball-strikers in their own right — rely on the clubs as well. Maybe they’re onto something.

Cowboys and Norwegians

Hovland was born in Norway but chose to leave home for the states when it came time to attend college. More specifically, golf powerhouse Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Stillwater is your prototypical college town, which suits Hovland’s fun-loving persona.

Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he still resides in Stillwater and regularly plays out at Karsten Creek Golf Club — Oklahoma State’s home course — along with several other pros in the surrounding area.

In a nod to his Norwegian and Cowboy roots, Hovland carries headcovers featuring Pistol Pete, Oklahoma State’s mascot, and the national flag of Norway. In Hovland’s eyes, it’s important to always remember where you came from.

Fresh look

Hovland’s decision to add a Ping PLD DS72 mallet to the bag last season wasn’t made in an effort to shake things up. Hoping to stay in the shape he was playing during his amateur days, Ping created the DS72 in an effort to keep things consistent for Hovland. There was no reason to reinvent the wheel — with one exception.

Hovland’s putter features two alignment lines, one on the flange and another on the topline. It’s a small addition that’s made it easier for Hovland to achieve consistent alignment.

“I’ve had different putters with those [alignment] lines,” Hovland told GOLF.com. “One would have a line on the topline, one would have the bottom line. So that’s where it came from. I just asked the guys at Ping if we could add both. It’s an easy way to help me line up the putter. If the top line and bottom line aren’t aligned, I know something is off.”

Mix it up

Our Ryan Barath highlighted this yesterday while looking at the ascending weighting in Rory McIlroy’s wood shafts, but it’s important to point out that pros sometimes vary the weight in their irons and wedges as well. Going slightly heavier in the wedges can add a bit more control and feel around the green. In some cases, players will even go to a softer flex in their wedges when adding weight.

Hovland doesn’t prescribe to the softer and heavier recipe. In his case, he’s fine going up in weight while maintaining the exact same flex.

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.

The post 7 things I noticed while inspecting Viktor Hovland’s gear | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Why Billy Horschel’s irons are a gear unicorn appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Why Billy Horschel’s irons are a gear unicorn appeared first on Golf.

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.

Unicorn sticks

All that talk about how traditional muscleback irons exist in a confined box that cannot be altered? Billy Horschel doesn’t want to hear it. The recent Memorial winner blitzed the field at Jack’s place on Sunday with a Titleist-heavy setup that featured a set of 620 MB irons — better known as the blade model in the lineup.

Gearheads might have spotted the subtle strip of lead tape on each head, but let’s talk about something that really makes Horschel’s irons special, dare we say a unicorn on the PGA Tour. A closer look at the sole reveals a section that was ground down — a gear clue of sorts.

According to Titleist Tour rep JJ VanWezenbeeck, Horschel had to make some extreme modifications to get the 620 MB to fit his game.

“Billy already loved the look and feel of the 620 lineup and wanted a one-piece forged construction,” VanWezenbeeck told GOLF.com, “so we were part of the way there.”

The other part of the equation was getting the irons to match his preferred strike location. Bounce is a term that’s often thrown around when discussing wedges, but in Horschel’s case, modification needed to be made to the sole of each iron to not only ensure consistent contact but turf interaction as well. Too little bounce would cause the head to “catch” and go through the ground in an inefficient manner, affecting even the best golf swing.

To ensure the head sliced through the ground, Titleist bent each head a full club weak to achieve the bounce and offset Horschel needed to match up the strike location and spin rate. Adding a degree of loft increases bounce by one degree, which meant Horschel’s 8-iron was now playing like a 9-iron at a “full club weak.” (The modification added 3 degrees of bounce to each head.)

Club builders rarely endorse going plus-or-minus 2 degrees of loft with an iron or wedge, but in Horschel’s case, the desire to play Titleist’s latest blade was reason enough to make the adjustments.

To ensure Horschel and his caddie didn’t get the irons mixed up post-bending, Titleist Tour rep Peter Bezuk also ground off the original numbers stamped on each sole and hand-stamped them to match their correct lofts.

While Horschel is likely one of the only players on Tour playing a set of this nature at the moment, he isn’t the first pro to bend a set of heads to this extreme. Back in 2020, Vijay Singh did something similar with a set of Mizuno MP20s, adding 3 degrees of bounce to each head in an attempt to get them to match an older set of MP4s.

“To be fair it was a bit of a guess hoping the bounce increase would get what we wanted,” VanWezenbeeck said. “Peter Bezuk nailed it [on the] first [try]. Now we use the original set as an example and match those.”

Split the difference

Viktor Hovland is like a lot of Tour pros who adjust their club makeup based on the setup and playing conditions. Depending on the situation, the Norwegian would regularly rotate between a Ping G425 Max 7-wood and long iron (utility or 3-iron) most weeks.

Hoping to find a club that would stop the constant game of musical chairs, Hovland worked with Ping Tour reps on a 19-degree Ping G425 hybrid that, according to rep Kenton Oates, “splits the difference” between the 7-wood and long iron with a carry hovering around 240-245 yards.

The versatile hybrid profile also makes the club a good option from both the fairway and rough. Hovland’s new hybrid is equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Blue 9X shaft at standard length (D8 swing weight).

Looking ahead

Speaking of 7-woods, Xander Schauffele’s latest club change helped solve a problem he was having with his high-lofted fairway wood. According to Callaway Tour rep Kellen Watson, Schauffele was seeing inconsistent spin on his go-to fade shot with an 18.8-degree (actual loft) Mavrik Sub Zero 7-wood.

His search for a club that generated 4,500 RPMs on the fade shot led him to test out an Apex UW with the exact same loft. During testing, Schauffele had no problem carrying it 220-225 yards with 4,500 RPMs of spin when he attempted to fade the ball.

“The club is really versatile,” Watson told GOLF.com. “Xander saw that during testing, and I think it’s a big reason why I could see him keeping it in the bag for the Open Championship. The spin is consistent, which is the most important thing, but he can also hit it low and high on command, too.”

Deal no more

Patrick Reed’s deal with PXG didn’t even last 6 months. The former Masters champion was spotted at the Memorial using a Grindworks prototype driver — he put the club in play at the PGA Championship — and wearing the company’s hat. Reed has been using Grindworks irons and wedges since last year, but his driver and hat were tied to a deal with PXG, who signed him to an agreement in January.

Reed hadn’t played a PXG driver since the beginning of May but continued to wear the hat. In wake of the split, GOLF.com reached out to PXG for comment but has yet to hear back.

You’re gone

Arguably one of the most bizarre gear disqualifications in the last decade played out on Thursday at the Memorial. Hideki Matsuyama was shown the door after the paint on the face of his TaylorMade 3-wood was deemed to be non-conforming by rules officials.

Paint in the grooves of a fairway wood — or any club, for that matter — isn’t grounds for disqualification. But since the paint substance could be felt above the face and out of the grooves of the club it was deemed non-conforming.

In a press conference with reporters midway through the round, Steve Rintoul, a PGA Tour senior tournament director, said that a member of his committee had been sent pictures of the club and was asked whether they had seen it.

“Another person in the world of golf,” he first said. “We don’t need to get into that.”

“Another person in the golf industry,” Rintoul said when questioned again.

“You’re not willing …” a reporter started. 

“I don’t think it’s important here,” Rintoul said. “It would have come across sooner or later. It was going to be on camera this afternoon.”

Rintoul said the message was received when Matsuyama and playing partners Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed were on the first green, and he met Matsyama on the fifth tee. There, after Matsuyama told Rintoul that he had used the 3-wood, Rintoul took pictures of it and rubbed his fingernail across the substance, then took his evidence back to rules officials and told Matsuyama to keep playing. 

“These equipment rules can get real finicky real quick,” Rintoul said. 

Rintoul described its texture as “White Out,” and rules officials determined that was enough to be a violation of Rule 4.1a (3).

Quick-hitters: Jason Day switched into a TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver (9 degrees) and P770 long irons (3-4). … Jordan Spieth tested two different Scotty Cameron putters, including a welded flowneck Teryllium Newport, but ultimately stuck it out with his 009. … Collin Morikawa used a TaylorMade Spider GT Rollback mallet after testing several different GT models. … Sahith Theegala went from a 35.25-inch Ping Karsten Anser 2 TR 1966 putter into a 37-inch version for better posture at setup. … Daniel Berger added three Titleist Vokey SM9 wedges to the bag. … Viktor Hovland inserted a Callaway Jaws Raw Prototype lob wedge. … Abraham Ancer replaced his black Odyssey White Hot RX #5 with a silver White Hot OG #5. … Mackenzie Hughes added exactly 6 grams of hot melt to his Ping driver and 3-wood (neutral location in the head) because he loved the sound of his 7-wood and wanted to match it up with the other woods.

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.

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The post How Adam Scott’s Jack Nicklaus-esque Miura irons came to life appeared first on Golf.

The post How Adam Scott’s Jack Nicklaus-esque Miura irons came to life appeared first on Golf.

Kevin O’Connell, Miura Golf’s vice president of sale, woke up to a text message on Tuesday morning from someone he wasn’t expecting to hear from — former Masters champion Adam Scott.

Unbeknownst to practically everyone on the planet, Scott has been working behind the scenes on a set of 1-of-1 irons with Miura that officially surfaced this week on the Aussie’s Instagram account. The irons are one of two prototype sets Miura made for Scott and took roughly 6 weeks to bring to life.

When the iron-maker shipped the custom sticks to his attention at Muirfield Village Golf Club — site of this week’s Memorial Tournament — they fully expected them to stay in the box.

But Scott had other ideas.

“The text said he was going to play them in a practice round [at the Memorial],” O’Connell told GOLF.com. “This totally surprised us. He spilled the bean a lot more than we expected him to. We’ve been working with him on these irons and sent them to Muirfield with the expectation that he’d not mess with them this week, play the Memorial and then test at home. That’s been his process. We’ve sent stuff to him in the past and he’s taken his time to test them. He’s a very precise player and knows what he’s looking for.”

One of the best ball-strikers in the history of the sport, Scott has rarely deviated from the script when it comes to his irons. Up until late last year when he used personalized Titleist 681.AS irons, his blade of choice for long stretches was a set of 681 Forged that debuted in 2003.

“I used them I guess when they came out, in about 2003,” Scott told GOLF.com. “I had some 681 irons, too, back then. Then I moved into AP2 irons for a while when they first came out, then I used the MB 710 blades – I actually won the Masters with the 710 blades. But as the MB irons progressed, they got a little further away from where my comfort level was, which is more in that 680 range. After the 710s, I fell back into the 680s. I guess I like offset, and they have a little more offset, a longer blade, a higher toe, they’re less boxy and less symmetrical.”

When Scott opted to go the free-agent route for his clubs — a ball, shoe and glove deal is still in place — he connected with Miura after a set of limited-edition Nicklaus x Miura blades caught his eye. The additional offset on the Nicklaus irons — a design preference Nicklaus and Scott both share — led the two sides to discuss the possibility of working together on a custom set built to Scott’s preferences.

“Adam would show us pictures of irons from the 90s and point out features he really liked,” O’Connell said. “I was taking a lot of that info and going back with the team at the Miura factory to match up what they could do with what he wanted — within the boundaries of our blade model.”

At first glance, Scott’s irons appear to have a lot of Miura’s MB-101 in them. But this wasn’t simply a situation where Miura took a 101 blank, slapped Scott’s logo on them and called it a day. (It should be noted Scott’s logo was added to the irons after he green-lit the idea at the WM Phoenix Open.)

“The ones he’s testing are definitely similar to our MB-101, but they still have some major differences,” O’Connell said. “They have some noticeable offset and that sharper, flatter Miura sole. The MB-101 didn’t have the offset — that’s something we added in — but the Nicklaus irons did.”

Irons

The initial prototype set Miura sent Scott checked the feel and turf interaction box, but the look at address needed to be refined. While the toe and flat sole profiles are decidedly Nicklaus x Miura, Scott wanted the overall blade length to look visually longer like 680 Forged, so Miura made subtle refinements to the par area to fit Scott’s eye at address. (The blade length on Scott’s Miura set and 680 Forged are identical.)

“We reshaped the topline into where it meets the hosel to match the look he was looking for,” O’Connell said. “It’s a small thing, but someone of Adam’s caliber notices things like that.”

The flat sole was also adjusted ever-so-slightly to match up to the firmer turf conditions he could see later this summer as the temperature starts to climb.

“[Adam] had mentioned the Open Championship where he thought the sole might benefit the most,” said O’Connell.

Instead of targeting the Open Championship, Scott has his eyes set on potentially putting them in play sooner at Jack’s place — a fitting spot to debut a set of blades that boast plenty of traits that can be found on the 18-time major winner’s own irons.

“He could have them in play today but not tomorrow,” O’Connell said. “Needless to say, we’re not sure where he’s going. For us, it was simply getting these irons in a good spot for him to test and if we need to go further and make adjustments down the road, we can do that. If he plays them this week and likes him, then we’re pretty close.”

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.

The post How Adam Scott’s Jack Nicklaus-esque Miura irons came to life appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: ‘Stubborn’ major winner finds instant success after making key change appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: ‘Stubborn’ major winner finds instant success after making key change appeared first on Golf.

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.

Stubborn no more

Webb Simpson is willing to admit when he’s wrong — and last week was one of those times. In preparation for the PGA Championship, the former U.S. Open champion started to contemplate the idea of shaking up arguably the best part of his game.

“I haven’t been hitting my irons great,” Simpson said. “Approach to the green is typically a strength for me; this year it’s been a weakness, and I’ve struggled out of the rough.”

Simpson wasn’t kidding when he called his iron game a “strength.” From 2015 to 2020, Simpson ranked inside the top 25 in SG: Approach before taking a noticeable dip this season to 84th entering the year’s second major championship.

Simpson is what you’d categorize as a blade lifer. He’s played “non-blade” irons for “a couple of short stints,” but nothing ever stuck. In the end, the familiarity and past success with blades eventually won out.

Gear

“I’m really picky with the iron look more than any other club in the bag,” Simpson told me in 2018.

No one is going to confuse Titleist’s T100 irons with 620 MB’s, but after being told numerous times that he might want to take the cavity-back irons for a spin, Simpson finally relented and found the cavity-back model to be noticeably better in a number of different areas beyond the obvious forgiveness benefit.

“I keep getting told that these irons I’m playing are better out of the rough, better with distance control, better with mis-hits, and so I guess I was being stubborn but finally listened and I really like them,” Simpson said. “They’re not a whole lot different than mine the way they look, but we’ve had good results with them so far.”

While Simpson found the T100 to be a superior performer out of the rough, he did notice a decrease in spin that resulted in him changing from a previous version of Titleist’s Pro V1 into the 2021 version to regain not only spin but control as well.

Simpson wound up finishing T20 for the week and put on a show during the third round with the new irons and ball — a five-under 65 in blustery conditions — while posting a season-best SG: Approach where he gained 4.541 shots on the field with his irons.

Sometimes it’s good to try something new.

Two for Tiger

Players provided there was no one way to attack Southern Hills. For Tiger Woods, it was a more conservative approach with multiple long irons in the bag. In place of the 5-wood he typically carries, Woods added a TaylorMade P770 2-iron to go alongside a P770 3-iron. In Woods’ eyes, long irons were the prudent play off the tee on a course that he said during his pre-tournament press conference “still puts a premium on putting the ball in play.”

While Woods rarely deviates from the equipment script — he still plays traditional entirely through the bag most weeks — he’s embraced more forgiving options, such as P770, at the top of the set in recent years, including a P790 UDI at the 2019 Open Championship and older model UDI in previous years.

Compared to Woods’ P7TW muscleback blades, the P770 offers a noticeable uptick in ball speed and forgiveness in a relatively compact head profile. Woods equipped both irons with True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid X100 shaft — a new addition to True Temper’s lineup introduced earlier this year at Torrey Pines.

From a launch standpoint, the Mid version generates roughly 10-15 feet of additional peak height at the same weight (130 grams) as the original Dynamic Gold Tour Issue in Woods’ irons. But instead of stripping weight from the shaft to move the launch window higher, the midsection was reinforced and the taper rate changed in the tip section to achieve the stated goal.

Going Rogue

Tony Finau’s Ping deal allows him to play several non-Ping clubs as part of the agreement. For at least one week, one of those non-Ping clubs was a Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond T 3-wood.

Finau has been playing the fairway wood since the Wells Fargo Championship. According to a recent writeup by Callaway‘s Johnny Wunder, the T fairway wood head has “similar DNA to the Epic Speed Triple Diamond T” with lower spin, extra camber in the sole for turf interaction and a neutral center of gravity.

Worn down

Matthew Fitzpatrick has added distance to his game this season, but the sheer length of Southern Hills still required him to execute plenty of long irons to stay in contention. One of those long irons was an older model Ping S55 4-iron that saw plenty of action — until it apparently gave out.

“My 4-iron was worn out today,” Fitzpatrick told Sky Sports following the third round. “I hit so many shots. I actually changed it before the round. I changed the model. I hit so many great shots with it today.”

Fitzpatrick wound up replacing his S55 4-iron with a more forgiving i210 that’s currently played by a number of Ping staffers, including Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton.

Multiple options

Justin Thomas’ Vokey lob wedge was busy last week. With the Bermuda grass and bunkers posing a unique challenge, the two-time PGA Championship winner arrived with multiple grinds before opting for a K-Grind to handle the conditions.

“The T comes out when it’s pretty firm and the bunkers don’t have a lot of sand,” said Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill. “This week was unique because we knew that the Bermuda grass would require a little more bounce and then the bunkers – they were just tough with very unique and coarse sand. I sat in a cart with him on Tuesday and he goes, ‘This sand, it’s really tricky, it’s very inconsistent and sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to get. Between the two models that I brought, the T and the K, the K is feeling the best and seems to be the most consistent out of this style of sand.’

“The K Grind is a wide flange sole, it’s a little wider than you’d see in a lot of other models, and it acts like a skid plate. It really is great for firmer conditions when you’re pitching and chipping off grass, because it sits really close to the ground. But where it really is strong is when you’re in the bunkers, because that added width of the sole allows you to open the face and increase some natural bounce. It’s a very forgiving style of sole and it just wants to pop the ball out of there easily and with spin.”

More loft

Most weeks, Johnson is content to navigate the course with a TaylorMade Stealth 3-wood (16.5 degrees), Stealth 7-wood (21 degrees) and Stealth Rescue at the top of the set, but after working with TaylorMade Tour reps on Wednesday, the group came to a general consensus that he needed a different “second shot” golf club to get himself in the best position to play offense.

Testing revealed Johnson could benefit from adding a 24-degree TaylorMade Stealth 9-wood (tipped 2 inches; D4 swingweight) that generated a higher launch and spun slightly more (4,200 RPMs) than the 3-iron it replaced.

With a 245-yard carry, the 9-wood wound up producing an almost identical distance to the 3-iron, which made for a seamless transition.

While the 9-wood is a club you almost rarely see on Tour — amateurs with slower swing speeds tend to gravitate toward the club in an attempt to induce a higher launch — it has surfaced in surprising numbers at recent major championships.

During the 2020 PGA Championship, Bubba Watson, Louis Oosthuizen and Matthew Fitzpatrick all added 9-woods as they attempted to find suitable options to extricate their ball from the rough with a towering launch and ample spin.

Quick-hitters: Patrick Reed was seen testing a 9.5-degree Grindworks prototype driver. Reed already has Grindworks irons and wedges in the bag, but he’s under contract with PXG for the driver and hat. … Dustin Johnson put a TaylorMade Spider GT Splitback mallet in the bag for the first round. He wound up going back to his old Spider Itsy Bitsy on Friday.

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.

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The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Putter change has Justin Thomas primed for PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Putter change has Justin Thomas primed for PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

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.

Putter power

Ranked inside the top-30 in five Strokes Gained categories on Tour, Justin Thomas has been the picture of consistency this season. He’s a perfect 12-for-12 in cuts made and has only finished outside the top-25 on three separate occasions — and one was a non-stroke play event (Dell Technologies Match Play).

Looking strictly at the numbers, Thomas should have at least a win or two this season. But he’s still stuck on zero. The one thing holding him back? A balky putter. Prior to the AT&T Byron Nelson, Thomas was ranked just inside the top-90 in SG: Putting and couldn’t seem to get on track, which prompted him to make a change ahead of the PGA Championship.

With a month to work on the putter at home, Thomas dug into his equipment closet and unearthed a Scotty Cameron that looked identical to one he tried last year during the Open Championship: a T5 with a custom “knuckle” neck. The neck was a significant change from the small slant neck on Thomas’ old gamer and more closely resembled what’s currently on a Newport 2 — Thomas’ putter of choice until several years ago.

The custom knuckle neck — which typically takes roughly a day to weld the neck, cut the shaft and sandblast the knuckle — offers slightly less toe hang than Thomas’ previous putter, making it a best of both worlds option for the former major winner.

Instruction

Thomas wound up going back to his Futura X5.5 gamer shortly after the Open Championship but offered feedback on the sound that Cameron used to create an updated version for Thomas that went into play for the first time at TPC Craig Ranch.

“The one he’s using is similar to the one he put in the bag at the British Open last year,” Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page told GOLF.com. “The only difference is there’s a plate in the back that was added to change sound. He wanted it to be a little bit closer to his old gamer. He told us the sound was a little hollow compared to his previous gamer, which had more of a tingy sound at impact. Little bit louder.”

To correct the issue, Cameron added an aluminum plate behind the back cavity — where the “cherry bombs” are usually located — to replicate the sound of Thomas’ gamer.

Besides the addition of the aluminum plate, Page said the other big change for Thomas was going away from the small slant and back into a neck that helped with his face closure rate.

“The putter helps his stroke a little more and gives him some stability. He’s able to see his start lines better, which is really important to him. It’s given him some added confidence. The neck helps with the open and closure rate — and he’s seeing that through the video work he’s done.”

Page confirmed the head material and alignment aid setup is identical to Thomas’ old gamer. The one thing that’s helped Thomas get comfortable with the putter is simply time at home on the practice green.

“For him, it’s just getting comfortable over [the new putter] in pressure situations,” Page said. “Those little putts you’re used to with your gamer that you’d rarely ever change. It’s just getting comfortable with that, and that’s what he’s had time to do.”

The time at home paid off immediately for Thomas, who finished T5 and ranked 20th in SG: Putting — a welcome sight for someone who’s expected to contend this week at Southern Hills.

Good to go

The putters found on the practice putting green at PGA Tour events are commonly referred to as “demo putters.” The different head shapes and alignment options give pros the opportunity to see what works.

Considering what’s at stake each week on Tour, you’d expect a pro would test a demo and then have it built to his specs. Only it’s the exact opposite for many of the best players on the planet.

“On the Tour side, they are just looking for something that works that week,” Ping Tour rep Dylan Goodwin told GOLF.com. “They’ll usually just slap their grip on it and go. We believe in fitting the putter to the player, but once a pro sees something they like on the practice green, it’s going straight in the bag.”

In Sebastian Munoz’s case, he shot 60 and finished T3 at the AT&T Byron Nelson with a Ping PLD Anser Milled that was straight from the Ping staff bag, minus a new grip (more on that in a moment).

According to Goodwin, Munoz had been locked into a 2021 Cushin 4 with an alignment line but felt as if he was becoming too reliant on the line at address, which prompted him to seek out a potential change at the RBC Heritage.

“He told me he wanted to get back to feeling the line of the actual putt itself and getting more married to the speed,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin walked Munoz through Ping’s lineup and offered up a few options that didn’t feature an alignment aid, including a PLD Anser Milled that came stock without a line.

“It was just one of my standard demo putters,” Goodwin said. “It’s 35 inches, 20 [degree lie angle] and 3 [degrees of loft]. I asked him if he wanted to adjust the specs and he told me he actually wanted to keep it as-is. The feedback he gave me was he felt like he had a lot of control over the putter face, and without having any lines, it freed him up to roll it and not get too caught up in the pre-shot routine, essentially.

The only change Munoz made to the putter was the addition of a Ping prototype grip.

“It’s essentially a larger version of the PP58,” Goodwin said. “I was just looking for feedback on the grip, but he liked it so much, that he decided to have it added to the putter.”

Munoz finished T11 in SG: Putting (plus-4.074) with the relatively new wand.

End of the road

In a sport where players change equipment to stay ahead of the gear curve (and their peers), Bubba Watson has remained steadfastly loyal to a multi-material Grafalloy BiMatrix driver shaft that True Temper first introduced in the late 1990s. Deemed a modern marvel at the time it was introduced, the shaft featured a steel tip section attached to a lightweight graphite body.

Geared for those with immense swing speed who required a stable part to pair with their driver head, BiMatrix still produced a high trajectory, making it a worthy option for modern low spin golf balls.

Watson found the shaft to be the perfect complement for every Ping driver he used, dating back to before he turned pro in 2002. Despite the hefty weight (80 grams), Watson had no problem leading the Tour in driving distance on five separate occasions, including three straight years from 2006 to 2008.

Accessories

Up until last week, Watson was playing the oldest driver shaft on Tour. But like all good things, there comes a point where even the longest hitters on Tour have to question if a piece of gear that helped them reach the pinnacle of professional golf is now holding them back. It’s a reminder that Father Time is still undefeated.

In Watson’s case, a decrease in speed was the impetus behind a driver shaft change last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At 43, Watson felt a move away from an 80-gram shaft into something lighter could help him gain back some of the speed he’d lost in the last year.

Watson requested several shafts to test at home, including a Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 60TX shaft that received a special shoutout on his social media feed. At 60 grams in weight, the HZRDUS Smoke RDX is a full 20 grams lighter than BiMatrix but still provided the necessary stability Watson requires to work the ball in his optimal launch windows.

(Click here to read the full story.)

Spy pics

Xander Schauffele debuted a yet-to-be-released 52-degree Callaway Jaws “Raw” wedge that should get gearheads excited. Unlike the previous version of Jaws Raw which was designed to rust all over, this Tour version appears to have a chrome body and raw face.

Callaway reps refrained from commenting on the wedge, but the addition of a plated finish would likely deter the head from rusting while producing a similar feel to the previous Jaws Raw.

In addition to Schauffele, Marc Leishman was also spotted using the same Tour-only Jaws Prototype wedges.

Another shot

Kevin Kisner gave Callaway’s Rogue ST driver a shot at the beginning of the year before going back to a Great Big Bertha. Some additional testing allowed Kisner to get back into a Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS at the Byron Nelson that matched up with the spin rate he was hoping to see.

“He was just looking for a couple hundred more RPMs of spin,” said Callaway PGA Tour manager Jacob Davidson. “It’s a 9-degree head that does the trick. We made a couple of tweaks and it should be good to go.”

Quick-hitters: Dustin Johnson returned to Fujikura’s Speeder 661X shaft in his TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver. … Henrik Stenson’s Callaway Diablo Octane Tour 3-wood was in the bag last week. … Sam Horsfield notched the first Tour victory for Bettinardi’s Inovai 8.0 putter. … K.H. Lee’s win at the AT&T Byron Nelson was the first for True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid iron shaft.

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.

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The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler’s gear changes have 1 thing in common appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler’s gear changes have 1 thing in common appeared first on Golf.

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.

Look over here

Rory McIlroy isn’t one to change the 3-wood on a whim. The club has to be better in every conceivable category before he makes the swap official — and even then it might not be enough. There’s a reason why he tends to keep his 3-wood for a couple of seasons instead of immediately adding the latest iteration to the bag.

After sticking with SIM for long stretches — we can’t forget the mysterious missing SIM2 3-wood at Liberty National — SIM received the bump in favor of a 15-degree Stealth at TPC Potomac.

For McIlroy, Stealth offered a touch more spin (3,100 RPMs draw, 3,600 RPMs fade) with the ability to work the ball both ways. In addition to the performance benefits, the four-time major winner found the 3-wood head sat squarely at address — something Masters champion Scottie Scheffler also pointed out when he made the jump to a Stealth Plus driver.

“This driver, to me, looked better than their older heads did,” Scheffler told GOLF.com. “There was more going on with the top of the driver with the older one — like different colors — and it sometimes looked open to me. When I set [the Stealth] down, it looks really square.”

Sure, Scheffler’s driver and McIlroy’s 3-wood are completely different clubs, but it’s interesting that two of the best in the game found Stealth to have better eye appeal in the address position.

A big reason for the high marks can be attributed to the all-black carbon fiber crown and titanium body. After years of going with a two-tone look, TaylorMade returned to a more traditional appearance with Stealth.

Based on Tour feedback from two of its best, the change is certainly working.

Old faithful

Jason Day and TaylorMade’s Spider Limited Red putter go together like peanut butter and jelly. The Aussie was the first pro to put the red mallet in the spotlight, at the 2016 Players Championship, before eventually going away from it in 2021 after years of use.

The shift to something different also coincided with arguably the worst stretch of putting in Day’s career.

“I remember a year and a half ago I put two tees between either side of my putter and I couldn’t stroke it between the two tees,” he said last week. “I was more concerned about the putting more so than the actual swing itself.”

When things go sideways, most pros revert to something that’s worked in the past. For Day, that meant pulling his Spider Limited Red out of the #timeoutcloset and giving it another shot.

While the start was promising, the weekend produced a mixed bag of results that saw Day gain nearly 3 strokes on the field with the putter through the first two rounds, before giving all of it back — and then some — over the weekend. In the end, Day finished 50th in SG:P at TPC Potomac.

Fresh look

For at least one week, Rickie Fowler appears to have fixed his putter woes. Ranked 161st in SG: Putting, Fowler asked Cobra Tour reps to build him a custom King Stingray-20 mallet at the RBC Heritage. In the weeks that followed, Fowler tested the putter at home to get acclimated to the Descending Loft Technology and new profile before officially adding it to the bag at the Wells Fargo Championship.

“He liked the putter from the start,” said Cobra Tour rep Ben Schomin. “Loves how it sets up, the long alignment line, swings great and has Descending Loft, which he loves.”

While Fowler’s Stingray-20 looks nearly identical to the retail version, Cobra 3D printed a version without the wings that are situated along the perimeter to give it a cleaner look at address.

Fowler ranked 10th in SG:P for the week, gaining a combined 4.337 strokes on the field with the flatstick.

T.O. to TM

It’s been a year of expansion for TaylorMade’s Tour staff. With Scottie Scheffler and Keita Nakajima in the fold, the equipment manufacturer announced the arrival of current British Masters champion Thorbjørn Olesen to the roster on Monday.

“I’ve been playing TaylorMade on and off for a while now and I felt that the best golf I’ve played has been with TaylorMade clubs. TaylorMade’s a great company to be a part of, it’s a great team with great players. I’m proud to be associated with TaylorMade and I look forward to the future together.”

According to TaylorMade, Olesen will continue using a Stealth Plus driver, P7MC irons and Milled Grind 3 wedges. He plans to test TaylorMade putters and golf balls in the coming weeks, in an effort to make a full equipment transition.

Too good

Recreational golfers have never complained about hitting the golf ball too solid. Professional golfers, on the other hand? That’s a different story. After switching to a new set of Titleist T100 irons at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, Steve Flesch noticed the ball was coming out too hot on approach shots.

Unsure how the irons would perform after two days of play, Flesch did the unthinkable and returned to a set of Srixon ZX7s for the final round in Atlanta.

“I had a brand new set of irons, they’re beautiful, but I put heavier shafts in them and honestly, I was hitting them so solidly that they were kind of going a little too far,” Flesch said. “When you kind of have been playing as long as we have, you have numbers in your head where your 8-iron goes a certain distance. Well, this 8-iron was going another five yards and that trickles down throughout your clubs. Yesterday I hit it over a couple greens and it kind of freaks you out. I just said you know what, I’ll put the other ones back in.”

Flesch’s son, Griffin, deserves credit for getting the ZX7 irons in his dad’s hands.

“I had Griffin FedEx some irons down to me last week in Houston and I used them down there,” he said. “Then I changed. I went home from Houston, picked up the set of irons I used the first two days here, but I brought two sets with me this week. You never know. Being left-handed’s kind of tough, I can’t just go pick them up somewhere, especially with the supply issues now. PGA Tour Superstore doesn’t have a whole lot of left-handed stuff.”

In the end, the final-round gear change turned out to be the right call as Flesch fired a 7-under 65 to finish one ahead of David Toms.

Quick-hitters: Rory McIlroy and TaylorMade agreed to terms on a multi-year contract extension. … Rory Sabbatini signed a deal to carry the eye-catching Decolt Grand golf bag.

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.

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The post 7 things I learned talking gear with Scottie Scheffler | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

The post 7 things I learned talking gear with Scottie Scheffler | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

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.

A week void of any significant gear news feels like the perfect opportunity to highlight last week’s one-on-one with the hottest golfer on the planet: Scottie Scheffler.

In a recent chat with GOLF.com, the recent Masters winner discussed his decision to sign with TaylorMade midway through the season, Tiger’s iron influence, and what really happened to the shaft on his Scotty Cameron putter. I highlighted some of my favorite insights from the conversation.

Smooth transition

I mentioned it following Scheffler’s win at the Masters, but TaylorMade’s brass deserves a lot of credit for getting Scheffler’s deal to the finish line. As he told me during our chat, he was “pretty much planning on staying a free agent just because, you know, I kind of like that. Being able to play kind of the best stuff for me is usually what’s worked.”

Instead of forcing Scheffler to alter his current equipment, TaylorMade inked the 25-year-old to a deal that only required him to add a 3-wood — he was already using the driver and irons — to the bag at some point. The Vokey wedges and Scotty Cameron putter were allowed to stay.

Scheffler dubbed it a “pretty seamless transition,” which might be the understatement of the century. Save for a T55 at the Players Championship, he hasn’t skipped a beat since signing the new deal. Not bad for a guy who opted to join TaylorMade’s Tour staff mere weeks before the Masters.

It never hurts when you’re able to keep it rolling with almost the exact same setup.

Aim small, miss small

Like most tour pros, Scheffler was never going to complain about more driver ball speed — especially the extra 3-4 mph he saw with TaylorMade Stealth Plus.

An increase of 4 mph is roughly 12 yards, which is a significant number when you’re talking about golfers who are already optimized for every club in the bag.

But for Scheffler, there was more to Stealth Plus than simply having one less club into the hole. A new level of accuracy allowed him to reduce a penalizing shot as well.

“I don’t really have like a crazy, big miss anymore,” Scheffler said. “I’m keeping the ball close to the fairway when I do miss — and I’m further up. I’m definitely having less club and a lot of greens and certain par 5s, and I’m not looking at bunkers that I used to look at. That’s really a testament to the speed that I picked up with the driver.”

During a winter testing session in Dallas, Scheffler put the driver through its paces in a 30 mph headwind to see how it’d hold up. The results left him believing it was time to make a change.

“It turned out to be a really good day to test drivers because I wanted to make sure it was just as accurate as my Ping,” he said. “And you know, it was with the gains from the ball speed as well.”

Scheffler has logged four wins since he made the driver switch. It’s safe to say the change was a rousing success.

That was a miss?

I’ll be the first to admit I got Scheffler’s 3-wood transition wrong. When it was announced he’d eventually need to get rid of his Nike VR Pro Limited — a club he’s used since high school — I fully expected the switch to be slow and methodical. TaylorMade wasn’t rushing Scheffler and with the Masters on tap, it seemed like post-major was the best time to start testing.

And then Scheffler went ahead and made the change to TaylorMade Stealth at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

Scheffler is the kind of player who needs to “get [the club] in competition and play it” before a final decision is made, but it didn’t take him long to pick up on significant improvements off the tee.

“[The Nike] almost wasn’t in the same ballpark [off the tee], to the TaylorMade, if I hit it on the heel,” he said. “If I heel it on the TaylorMade, I almost can’t even tell the difference between that and the middle of the face. When I heeled it with my Nike one — granted, it was an amazing club — it was a pretty significant loss of distance and I would overspin and fade it a lot.

“The TaylorMade one comes out a little lower and just a touch more spin because of the mishit, but it’s much more consistent off the tee. When I first used it in Austin, I was like, this thing sounds amazing. I tried it out that week just because the gains off the tee were so much better. And, you know, now I’m starting to notice that I really still have a lot of the same shots that I did with that old Nike one.”

Still hanging around

Even though Scheffler’s Nike 3-wood has been kicked to the curb, he confirmed the club is still hanging around at the house.

“I have a golf room in my house, actually, and so I got all kinds of I got all kinds of cool stuff in there,” he said.

Fan of the Nike fairway wood can rest easy knowing it’s receiving a proper retirement.

Tiger’s influence

Aside from the Tiger Woods Nike apparel he sported at Augusta, Scheffler logged the second Masters win for TaylorMade’s P7TW irons in the last four years. While some pros might not admit a peer played a role in a gear switch, Scheffler didn’t hesitate to credit Woods with his switch to the blades.

“I played with Tiger at the Masters in 2020, and he hits the ball so stinkin’ solid and just shapes it so well,” he said. “I got home after the Masters and I was like, I have to at least try these irons. I’ve always had a connection with Tiger through all the Nike equipment. And so when he switched over to [the irons], I was like, this should be a pretty easy transition. I’m used to playing clubs that he had a lot of factor in the design for.

“What I noticed when I hit them at home was I was able to hit different windows. So when I flighted it down, I could pitch it lower than I could the P730. And if I wanted to hit it up, I could hit at higher. I saw more variability in the shots and then the distance control was basically, you know, the exact same. I saw the benefits of being able to slide it down and keep it flatter and not have that overspin and just have a little bit more variety.”

Seeing double

After snapping photos of Scheffler’s gear during a trip to Torrey Pines earlier this year, I wondered why his 6-iron was the only club that featured a fat slab of lead tape on the muscle pad.

It didn’t take Scheffler long to point out a swing-and-a-miss on my part.

“So did you notice there were two 6-irons?” he said.

To be honest, I totally missed the second 6-iron. According to Scheffler, the one with the lead tape is a training club he uses to warm up before rounds.

“I have a form grip that I use [on the training club],” he continued. “And so obviously with all that rubber, it weighs more. And so to match the swing weight, I added a bunch of weight to the head to match the swing weight. That’s that’s the club that you’re seeing and it’s only in there for practice rounds when I warm up. Obviously, when I play in tournaments, it’s not in there because it’s a four-shot penalty.

Scheffler did admit he’s left the training club in the bag “once” during a competitive round. The penalty was the only reminder he needed to keep it out of the bag the next time around.

Putter surgery

As I highlighted in last week’s gear notes, Scheffler was forced to make a last-minute putter change after the shaft was dented at some point prior to the first round of the Masters. Scheffler confirmed he knew something off during Wednesday’s practice session, which prompted him to give Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page a call.

“I kind of looked at the shaft and the light was reflecting off of it kind of weird,” he said. “I couldn’t see a noticeable bend. It was just like one way when I put it, the light just refracted. And then when I was out on the course, I just didn’t feel right. I’ve been putting pretty good for a while, and all of a sudden I was just setting up with my putting mirror and the face is flaring open. I was like, my putter hasn’t done that before.”

After noticing something was off, Scheffler asked Page to take a look.

“[Drew’s] original thought was the metal on that putter is also really soft and could just bend over time. These things are a lot softer than the old model I used to use. And then he checked the shaft and it was like, ‘I checked the shaft and, actually, there’s a bend in there.’ I was like like, OK, just fix it up. And you know, he fixed it up. He had it to me an hour later and I grabbed it and I was like, looks good.”

The new shaft (and grip) wound up working just fine for Scheffler, who torched the field and made countless big putts down the stretch to stay well ahead of the competition en route to his first green jacket.

What’s in Scottie Scheffler’s bag

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft), 8 degrees

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth (Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft), 16.5 degrees

Utility: Srixon Z U85 (3-iron; Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X shaft)

Irons: Srixon ZX7 (4-iron; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50-12F, 56-14F degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts), Titleist Vokey Design 2021 Proto (60K degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS Tour Prototype

Golf ball: Titleist Pro V1

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

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.

The post 7 things I learned talking gear with Scottie Scheffler | Wall-to-Wall Equipment appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Scottie Scheffler was forced to replace a key putter piece at the Masters appeared first on Golf.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Scottie Scheffler was forced to replace a key putter piece at the Masters appeared first on Golf.

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.

Hidden in plain sight

Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page is used to doing loft and lie check the week of a major to ensure everything is in good working order.

Usage usually dictates whether a putter needs a minor loft bend or lie angle tweak. With Scottie Scheffler on site at Augusta National early in the week, Page took arguably the hottest wand on the planet back to the Titleist truck for a routine once-over before the tournament commenced.

This is the point where things took a bizarre turn for Tour rep and pro.

With Scheffler’s Scotty Timeless Tourtype GSS putter situated in Titleist’s loft/lie machine, it didn’t take Page long to notice something “felt off.” The loft and lie were off in a big way — to the point that Page started to look for clues as to why that might be the case.

“I put it in the loft/lie machine and it was significantly off – not by just one degree, but by multiple degrees both ways, which doesn’t happen very often,” Page said. “That’s when I checked the shaft and could see that it was bent.”

While inspecting the putter, Page noticed a slight dent in the shaft that could only be seen when the light hit it a certain way.

Gear

To confirm his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, Page had J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s director of player promotions, take a look at the shaft to verify he saw the same thing.

It didn’t take him long to spot the dent.

Page immediately texted Scheffler to relay the news and received the green light to replace the shaft on Wednesday morning, along with a new Scotty Cameron Dancing Cameron Cord grip.

“Getting his swing weight correct can be a bit tricky,” Page said. “But we got everything dialed in, and after a few minutes on the putting green he said everything felt great.”

It’s unclear how the damage occurred to the putter shaft in the first place, but it didn’t wind up mattering in the end. Scheffler didn’t skip a beat with the new build en route to his first green jacket.

Key club

Scheffler’s Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks K-Grind lob wedge (60.06) received a special shoutout after the win, thanks to a tournament-altering birdie chip-in from 29 yards on the par-4 3rd hole that swung the momentum back in the 25-year-old’s favor.

“I had a lot of nice up-and-downs,” Scheffler said. “If I was to pick one part of my game that excelled the most, I would say it was probably my lob wedge. Even today, I had some really good up-and-downs in the beginning of the round and then just kept myself in position.”

Scheffler, who ranked second in scrambling for the tournament (69 percent), has been playing a full set of Vokey wedges since early 2021 but didn’t have the K-Grind on the radar until he tried out Xander Schauffele’s Vokey 60K lob wedge late in the season. He made the switch to the wide sole 60K official at the 2021 Tour Championship.

“He’s been hooked ever since,” said Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill. “He loved how it popped golf balls out of the sand. He loved how when he was in the rough it felt like it was gliding through the grass faster than some of the other wedges he’s used.

“He sort of traps everything. If you look at how he hits shots, most of his shots are low with a lot of spin. So he has a lot of shaft lean. He’s got a descending blow, but I think for most shots, he just really wants to feel it cut, but also slide at the same time. And with a little bit wider sole, you get that sensation a lot of times. I think that’s really what he’s hoping for is just those two feels.”

Winning feeling

Charl Schwartzel was asked on Friday afternoon if he could attribute his strong Masters start to anything in particular. The former Masters winner had only logged two top-10 finishes in his last 11 Masters starts — and one of those was a dramatic 2011 victory that netted him a green jacket.

“I actually took two weeks off, and as the two weeks went by, my confidence grew in belief that I could win this tournament because I was starting to hit it very good and just looked at old footages, and it’s still there,” Schwartzel said.

Old footage, you say?

“Footage of winning here,” he confirmed.

Getting back to what worked in the past is a good way to reclaim your mojo. So, too, is returning to the set of irons that helped you get to the top at Augusta National.

While Schwartzel didn’t dust off his Nike VR Pro Blade irons for the 2022 edition, he did the next best thing, employing Mike Taylor and the team at Fort Worth, Texas-based Artisan Golf to create a set of custom blades meant to mimic the Nike set he’d used during his time as a Swoosh staffer.

Taylor and several other members of Artisan Golf were the heartbeat of Nike’s engineering and tour team up until the apparel giant chose to shudder its hard-goods business in 2016. If anyone knows what makes Schwartzel’s gear tick, it’s Taylor and Co.

It should come as no surprise that Schwartzel found his form with the new irons in tow. He ultimately finished T10 and produced one of the shots of the tournament with an eagle from the fairway on the par-4 10th hole.

Perfect pair

Min Woo Lee switched over to a 9-degree Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond S driver after a series of changes leading up to the Masters. It all started with a move away from Callaway’s Chrome Soft X golf ball into Chrome Soft X Star after coming to the realization that he needed more spin throughout the bag at Bay Hill.

“With how firm the greens were and where pins typically are during a Tour event, he felt like he needed more spin,” said Jacob Davidson, Callaway’s PGA Tour manager. “[The Chrome Soft Star] is the ball he originally played when he was on staff with us as an amateur.”

Switching to the Star ball created one problem, though: The additional spin was suboptimal for his driver characteristics. In an attempt to stay in Callaway’s Epic Speed head, Min Woo tried out Fujikura’s Ventus Black shaft in the head to lower spin, but the profile reduced his ability to work the ball on command.

Hoping to stay in the Ventus Red he’d been playing previously, Callaway Tour reps suggested he test Rogue ST Triple Diamond S — a Tour-only driver model that’s quietly been gaining traction on Tour. Better known as Xander Schauffele’s driver of choice, the pear-shaped head and deeper face proved to be a suitable option for Min Woo, who was able to pair the head with Ventus Red and the Star ball and not worry about a negative uptick in spin rate.

“In the end, he was happy because the Ventus Red has that familiar feel, and that was something he wanted to keep, if possible,” Davidson said. “Finding a head that fit that shaft was a win for everyone in the end.”

Your move, Nike

Tiger Woods confirmed to Sky Sports that he’ll tee at it up St. Andrew for the Open Championship in July. Whether he’s strolling the fairways in Nike or FootJoy footwear remains to be seen. Woods created a stir in the week when he arrived for a practice round sporting FootJoy Premier Packard shoes.

A member of Nike’s staff since 1996, Woods confirmed the decision to wear something sans Swoosh came down to needing the necessary stability to handle 72 holes at Augusta National.

“I have very limited mobility now,” he said. “Just with the rods and plates and screws that are in my leg, I needed something different, something that allowed me to be more stable. That’s what I’ve gone to.

“Nike’s been fantastic over the years of providing me with equipment and work, and we have worked, we’ve been working on trying to find something to allow me to do this and swing again. We’re still going to continue doing it, and hopefully we’ll have something soon.”

Assuming the Open Championship is indeed his next start, Nike has a full three months to create a stable shoe that checks all the boxes. The clock is ticking.

Minor tweaks

Not every equipment change has to be a major ordeal to earn a spot in the weekly equipment notes. Case in point: Viktor Hovland’s latest adjustment to his Ping G425 LST driver.

“He did a bunch of driver work on Monday night to limit curve and start his traditional cut a little more left,” said Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates. “After trying a few things, he ended up in a head with a little more loft that did the trick.”

In this particular case, Hovland went from a 9-degree head into a 10-degree that featured a more upright setting than he’s used previously.

“It’s a 10.5-degree head at 10 in the Dot, which is the most upright setting,” Oates said. “The LST head is already flatter, so it comes out to about one-degree upright for Viktor. That’s roughly two degrees more upright than what he had been playing.”

Quick-hitters: Rory McIlroy confirmed he switched to a different version of TaylorMade’s TP5x golf ball at the Valero Texas Open. McIlroy, who was most recently in the latest TP5x model, likely switched to a previous iteration. … The Masters marked Tiger Woods’ first official tournament with Bridgestone’s Tour B XS golf ball in the bag. … TaylorMade announced a multi-year NIL agreement with top-ranked amateur Keita Nakajima … To add more height around the green, Joaquin Niemann swapped his 60-degree Ping Glide Forged Pro S-Grind lob wedge for a T-Grind version. … Louis Oosthuizen replaced his Ping Blueprint 4-iron with an iBlade 4-iron that delivered a slightly higher launch with added heel-toe forgiveness. … Cameron Champ adjusted his lie angles one-degree flatter (3-iron through lob wedge) to ensure his start line was more right. … To produce a lower launch with maximum spin, Brooks Koepka tested a Cleveland RTX ZipCore lob wedge with a mid bounce.

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.

The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Scottie Scheffler was forced to replace a key putter piece at the Masters appeared first on Golf.