Welcome to Fully Equipped’s weekly Tour equipment report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if news warrants), GOLF equipment editor Jack Hirsh runs you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.
Collin Morikawa is using the same blueprint that won him the Claret Jug in 2021.
At Royal St. George’s five years ago, Morikawa benched nearly his entire set of TaylorMade P730s for a set of P7MCs.
The idea was to utilize the P7MC’s narrow sole geometry to minimize his turf interaction and get the club to enter and exit the firm links turf as quickly as possible.
This year, he’s employing the same strategy, but how he got there was a little unorthodox.
To test which irons he would use for this year’s Open Championship, TaylorMade sent both to Morikawa and he hit them off a cart path at home.
The first was a custom set of P7CBs with a unique sole geometry and leading edge grind.
“These changes were specifically designed to improve entry into firmer turf while maintaining enough effective bounce to prevent excessive digging,” TaylorMade Tour rep Adrian Rietveld said.
The other set was the MCs, which Rietveld said have one of the narrowest soles in the TaylorMade iron lineup. An iron with a narrower sole naturally presents less bounce and enters and exits the turf with little resistance.
“For players who deliver the club as precisely as Collin, this often creates a sensation of the club simply disappearing through impact rather than being redirected by the turf,” Rietveld said.
To decide between the two sets, he hit both irons off the cart path and then compared the marks on the sole with each.
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Part of the reason most pros moved from three- to four-wedge setups is that iron lofts have gotten stronger over the years and a desire to have more options from scoring yardages.
But at a firm links golf setup, where some pros like Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth have said 5- and 6-irons could run out to nearly 300 yards, Rose decided to add some extra precision to the top of his bag.
A hole that typically calls for a 3-wood or even a driver, it’s possible that a 2-iron might be too much in these conditions. By using the 3-iron, Rose preserves the ability to drive it as close to some of Royal Birkdale’s penal fairway bunkers without reaching them.
But while Rose is adding long-game options, Fleetwood is actually taking them away. With the extremely firm conditions and relatively light winds this week, Fleetwood said he removed the 3-iron he played last week and added his sand wedge back in.
“I feel as the course gets faster, I don’t really have a need for something that’s kind of hot, for me, so I took the 3-iron out this morning and put an extra wedge in again,” Fleetwood said after an opening-round 69. “Ended up being the same bag setup that I have normally.”
Links golf inspires many changes, but there’s always more than one way to go about it.
DeChambeau tinkers again
Bryson DeChambeau was at it again at a major championship, making big changes to his gear setup as he attempts to make his first major cut of the season.
The more notable change is that DeChambeau was playing with his TaylorMade Qi4D Proto 200+ driver for most of the week leading up to Thursday’s opening round.
It would have been hard to believe he would move out of that driver after leading the field in SG: Off the Tee at the U.S. Open through the first two rounds, despite missing the cut. But that’s exactly what happened.
After he was spotted with it a couple of times during the practice rounds, DeChambeau ended up moving back into his Krank Formula Fire Pro driver that he won the 2024 U.S. Open with. He put a Project X HZRDUS T1100 shaft in it instead of the Titan he played in the TaylorMade.
In his opening-round 67, DeChambeau hit just four fairways but led the field in SG: Off the Tee with 1.6.
That was far from the only move he made, as DeChambeau is finally gaming his custom 3D-printed irons bearing his own logo. DeChambeau has teased the irons he has been creating with his own team for months and even used a prototype 5-iron at the Masters.
He also went back to steel shafts, opting for the Dynamic Gold X7, one of the stiffest steel shafts available in his irons and wedges, abandoning the all-LA Golf graphite setup he’s employed for the last several years.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much insight into these changes as DeChambeau declined to speak to the media after his opening round Thursday and did not have a pre-tournament press conference.
Golf Pride dominates grip counts again
Golf Pride completed another sweep of the grip counts at this year’s major championships.
An overwhelming 142 of 156 players in this year’s Open Championship field play a Golf Pride grip, marking an incredible 91% usage at this year’s majors.
Check this out
This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. This week, check out Sam Burns’ Callaway Apex MB Prototype irons that he used to shoot 62 in Round 2.
Odds and Ends
Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.
Cameron Young switched driver shafts to a Mitsubishi Diamana Blackboard prototype … Mizuno launched its new Mizuno Pro S-4 cavity back iron … Marcus Plunkett replaced his mini driver with a Callaway Apex UW 15˚, becoming one of the first pros to add the unique loft option … Lucas Herbert played the opening round without a driver before adding it back for his second-round 62 … Cameron Smith switched out of his longtime Scotty Cameron 009M gamer for a new Phantom 3.5 mallet … Rickie Fowler’s fourth putter in four events is a Scotty Cameron Phantom 5 mallet … Ping had both the No. 1 driver model (Ping G440 LST) and iron (Blueprint S) … Si Woo Kim switched to a new Opus SP C-Grind lob wedge with 2 degrees less bounce … Michael Brennan added a Titleist U505 1-iron … Brennan was one of seven golfers, including Bud Cauley to go without any fairway woods … Cauley also added a Titleist U505 2-iron while Cameron Young, Alex Fitzpatrick and Patrick Cantlay added T250 3-irons and Patrick Reed and Jake Knapp added T250 2-irons … Matt Fitzpatrick has been using a new Bettinardi BB1 Fitz Flow with a Honeycomb sole milling to grip the green better.
