Collin Morikawa, at 24 years old, won his second-career major championship on Sunday at the 149th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s Golf Club in England. Ahead of this week’s event, Morikawa made a number of impactful changes to his almost-all-TaylorMade equipment setup.
As GOLF’s Managing Editor for Equipment Jonathan Wall highlighted earlier this week, Morikawa changed out his previous TaylorMade P730 short irons (7-9) for the company’s P-7MC irons. Morikawa found the sole geometry of the P-7MC irons, which have a slightly sharper leading edge, to move through the turf better and help him find the center of the face more often. They also helped him dial in his spin to increase distance control.
TaylorMade Tour rep Adrian Rietveld provided GOLF.com with the inside scoop on Morikawa’s switch:
“It was interesting, as he was warming up, the sound off P730 was not Collin-like,” Rietveld said. “It’s unique to say this, but it was just fractionally different to what I’m used to hearing. Then he goes into the MC and you can hear the strike come back.”
“Let’s say a 7-iron spins at 7,000 RPMs and launches at 14 to 15 degrees, then when he hits the draw, which is a slightly lower window, he’d probably spin the MC about 6,600 RPMs. But with the P730, he was at 6,200 to 6,300 RPMs, which was too hot in the air. The spin in the MC was aiding his distance control. That’s something he really needs to know. Now he can go back to a draw that goes fractionally further.”
Aside from just the irons, Morikawa also made a slight putter change to deal with the slower greens this week, adding 10 grams of weight to his TaylorMade TP Juno putter. To achieve the weight change, he switched out his two 2.5-gram sole weights for two 7.5-gram sole weights.
Morikawa’s equipment changes may seem small, but his extra attention to detail helped him get dialed in for the week, and ultimately win the 2021 Open Championship. Below, we dive into Morikawa’s full bag setup.
Driver: TaylorMade SIM (Mitsubishi Diamana D+ White 60X shaft), 8 degrees
3-Wood: TaylorMade SIM (Mitsubishi Diamana D+ White 80TX shaft), 14 degrees
5-Wood: TaylorMade SIM2 (Mitsubishi Diamana D+ White 80TX shaft), 19 degrees
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4-iron), TaylorMade P7MC (5-9 iron), TaylorMade P730 (PW), all with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 (50 degrees), Titleist Vokey SM8 (56 degrees), TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 Hi-Toe (60 degrees), all with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts
Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno (SuperStroke Traxion Tour 1.0 grip)
Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP5 2021
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Cord
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