NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
We enjoyed an avalanche of equipment headlines in 2022. Here are a few of the highlights that the gear nerds among us will remember.
Despite playing in three majors and no other official tour events, Tiger Woods still had our collective heads spinning with his gear maneuvering. His decision to wear FootJoy Premiere Series Packards shoes at the Masters – a move which he attributed to the lack of mobility in his surgically repaired right leg – made national news. It was the first time in his professional career that Woods eschewed Nike apparel. He continued to wear the shoes in his other major appearances.
It didn’t end there, however. At the PGA Championship, Woods took out his TaylorMade M3 5-wood and P-7TW 3-iron and replaced them with TaylorMade P770 2- and 3-irons that provided more forgiveness and a higher trajectory to combat the firm conditions. He also arrived at Southern Hills with new wedges, replacing his TaylorMade MG2 TWs with the MG3 TWs that are designed with micro-ribs between the grooves to add friction.
Two months later, Woods was at it again. He made four tweaks in preparation for the Open Championship at St. Andrews, including a move into a Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft for his TaylorMade Stealth Plus 9-degree driver and the insertion of a True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft in the aforementioned P770 3-iron.
If tinkering before major championships is good enough for the cat, it’s good enough for anyone.
Speaking of TaylorMade, Scottie Scheffler made the company quite happy by signing a multiyear deal amidst a dominant stretch of golf. Scheffler had been an equipment free agent throughout his pro career, but started to collect TaylorMade clubs, so the transition didn’t feel forced.
Announcements like these normally come in December or January, but TaylorMade inked Scheffler in March right after his wins at the WM Phoenix Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational. He would then win the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to reach No. 1 in the world before a sensational Masters victory two weeks later.
Scheffler was known for using a decade-old 13-degree Nike VR Pro Limited 3-wood that dated to his high school days, but that club finally came out of the bag before Augusta. A new 16.5-degree TaylorMade Stealth HL took its place. He had also been using a Ping G400 LST driver as of late 2021, but the gains he saw with the TaylorMade Stealth Plus (8 degrees set to 6.5 degrees) were too meaningful to ignore.
Although he’s officially in the TaylorMade stable, Scheffler still plays with a mixed bag. He carries two Srixon long irons, Titleist wedges, a Scotty Cameron putter and a Pro V1 ball. That combination certainly worked in 2022.
Scheffler wasn’t the only player to realize major success after some significant changes. Justin Thomas reignited his putting by debuting a Scotty Cameron prototype at the AT&T Byron Nelson the week before winning the PGA Championship. He had won 13 of his previous 14 tour titles with a Scotty Cameron X5 mallet but decided to go into a T5 – a similar putter with a few key differences. This T5 has a knuckle-neck construction, an aluminum plate on the back cavity to adjust the sound at impact and smoother milling marks on the face. The X5 putter head is no longer produced, which was part of the reason for the change.
By season’s end, Thomas actually received a new version of the prototype. This one is about a half-inch shorter, allowing him to keep his shoulders square throughout the stroke.
One more observation from the year: the new Titleist TSR and Ping G430 drivers came on strong in the back half of the calendar. Cameron Smith won the Open Championship with a 10-degree TSR3; J.T. Poston, Tom Kim and Will Zalatoris also were among those who won with a TSR3 driver. Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley and Séamus Power quickly won after putting a G430 in the bag. Players are perhaps more willing to experiment than ever before. If they see improvements, the club goes in the bag without much hesitation.
What’s on tap for 2023? As always, it’s time to be on the lookout for new signings and equipment testing. But remember, there is a new caveat moving forward: LIV’s impact on the gear world is still unknown. How manufacturers decide to handle players on the circuit will impact the tour’s viability.
So far, the OEMs have remained cautious and mostly unwilling to get involved. Players don’t even have brand-specific equipment trucks onsite, and no manufacturer has publicly supported LIV.
Will it stay that way? The answer could be the biggest gear story of the new year.
Sean Fairholm