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NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Equipment once played a rather infamous role in the relationship of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the two giants who squared off against each other Sunday with their respective partners, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
It’s a distant memory given the playfulness we saw on display yesterday, but tensions were running high between Woods and Mickelson in February 2003. Nike had just begun manufacturing clubs a year earlier, giving Woods the opportunity to replace many of his Titleist clubs in favor of a driver and irons from Nike. His decision to change gear during the middle of a dominating 2002 season didn’t seem to hurt much given that he won that year’s Masters and U.S. Open thanks in large part to success with his new 9.5-degree Nike Forged Ti driver. Although he used Titleist 681 Forged Blades in those victories, he soon changed to Nike Forged Blades that September and immediately set a scoring record at the WGC-American Express Championship. He also continued using a solid-core Nike ball, as he had started doing following the 2000 Masters.
Mickelson, who used Yonex clubs for his first eight years as a pro, went the reverse of Woods by adding a Titleist 975J driver, Titleist 731PM irons and the Pro V1x ball in 2001. As Mickelson got longer off the tee with his new gear, he judged Woods’ equipment “inferior” and suggested that overcoming such a handicap showed how brilliant Woods was as a player.
That moment overshadows a less-talked-about element of how Woods’ clubs evolved during the early years of his career, especially with the custom Titleist 681 Forged Blades. Those clubs were modeled after old Hogan Apex irons that had more camber from front to back and from heel to toe in the sole. And who actually manufactured them?
“His original long irons came from an old set of Titleist forgings that were made by Hoffmann Products that were out of Millington, Tenn., who had forged golf clubs in the U.S. forever, for years,” clubmaker Larry Bobka told PGATour.com. “We actually got the forgings from them in Tennessee before they shut down. So (Tiger’s) long irons, his 2-, 3- and 4-irons came from that. And then the rest of the set came from basically a set that we were working on with Endo Manufacturing out of Japan.”
When Woods switched to Nike irons, longtime craftsman Mike Taylor went to great lengths to position the club’s center of gravity exactly where Woods wanted it. He did so by inserting tungsten plugs into the clubs, a process that is now common in the industry. Despite that noteworthy change, the irons were nearly identical to what Woods had played while on staff with Titleist. There were other stars playing with their own versions of the Nike Forged Blades – David Duval won the 2001 Open Championship using them.
As for Mickelson, he won his first major at the 2004 Masters with Titleist equipment but then signed a deal with Callaway later that year. He won the 2005 PGA Championship with 12 Callaway clubs in the bag, including an FT-3 driver and Forged X-Tour irons. By 2006, he had a full Callaway bag that has endured to this day.
Currently, Mickelson uses a 9-degree Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero driver that offers more control with different types of shots. He plays two fairway woods – a 13.5-degree Mavrik Sub Zero 3-wood and a Mavrik Sub Zero 5-wood with an X Forged Utility 2-iron shaft. His 4- to 7-irons are Epic Forged and from 8-iron to PW he uses Apex Pro 19s.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Mickelson’s bag is his wedges. He has a 54-degree Mack Daddy 3 and two custom 60- and 64-degree PM Grind Wedges that he helped create.
Sean Fairholm