NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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The concept of having a “mixed bag†that includes several brands is becoming fairly commonplace, but Bernhard Langer has taken that to the next level.
The two-time Masters champion and PGA Tour Champions stalwart competes with Artisan cavity-back long irons (4 and 5), along with an Adams Idea Pro Black 6-iron, three Artisan blades irons (7-9) and then a TaylorMade RSi pitching wedge. It’s rare for a professional to play multiple brands of irons in their normal tournament routine, but Langer has excelled with the evolving setup in the past couple of years, as evidenced most recently by a victory at the PGA Tour Champions’ Cologuard Classic a few weeks ago.
Langer long had sought to replace his Adams irons but is particular about two characteristics, which has made it difficult for him to transition. The first is that he uses irons with a tremendous amount of offset – a stark contrast to what the vast majority of modern pros like to play – and the second is that he has employed a Hogan Apex shaft for more than three decades and made it a mandatory requirement for any new irons that he would try.
Mike Taylor of Artisan Golf was up for the challenge.
“It was such an ironic set to do that work for him,†Taylor told PGATour.com. “It was a real honor, you know. But it was like, I spent my whole career knocking offset out of golf clubs for these guys and trying to make them look less offset, and (Bernhard) wants a lot of offset. We had blueprinted some of his (old clubs) and figured out where the specs were. Of course, he’s still playing an Apex shaft, which was developed by the Ben Hogan Company a zillion years ago. And we happened to have access to some of those. So between the needs to do the builds and the heads, we did some work for the man.â€
Another key belief that guides Langer’s club choices and made Taylor’s work far more interesting: Each iron is its own club, just like a driver is different from a putter.
“A few times before I had worked with guys that I felt kind of individualized the tools, but this man, seriously, a 5-iron is a 5-iron,†Taylor said. “He’s looking for 14 individual tools.â€
Given that belief, Langer wasn’t exactly going to switch to all Artisan irons after some light testing. Taylor considered it a victory when Langer put two Artisan irons in play at the 2018 Masters.
“Most people would (say), ‘Well Mike, that’s not that good if you made 16 clubs and you get two,’ †Taylor said in reference to the amount of clubs he made for Langer. “But, hey, to make the cut with a couple of them, that’s getting somewhere, right?â€
Now he’s made the cut with five clubs in Langer’s bag. Langer has held on to the Adams 6-iron – it’s the club that bridges the gap between his Artisan cavity-back irons and the blades – but don’t be surprised if Taylor can convince him to switch one day.
Sean Fairholm