NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Before January, it had been nearly two years since Daniel Berger, ranked 25th in the world at the time, last played on the PGA Tour. Berger, who climbed as high as No. 12 in the OWGR, disappeared after the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline with a back injury, and his world ranking plummeted to 664th as he sat idle.
After 19 months of mending, Berger returned for the first time this season on a major medical extension to play in the American Express (T39), Farmers Insurance Open (MC) and WM Phoenix Open (T28) during the West Coast Swing. In his fourth start, last week in his south Florida backyard at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, the 30-year-old brought with him clubs nearly half his age.
Mixed in with the wide variety of new gear in Berger’s free-agent bag – Ping’s G430 LST driver, TaylorMade’s Qi10 Tour fairway woods, Titleist SM10 wedges and a Scotty Cameron Phantom prototype putter – is a 13-year-old set (4-PW) of vintage TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC irons.
TaylorMade no longer manufactures the Tour Preferred MCs, which debuted for retail in 2011, so Berger cobbles his set together from third-party online sellers.
“I’ve got a couple different sets, and they’ve come from all over the place,” Berger told GolfWRX in 2022 before his injury hiatus. “I bought one set online … just from some guy on the internet. He messaged me on social media. It’s a perfect set. I don’t know if he worked at TaylorMade at some point, but the box and everything was from TaylorMade … they were brand new.
“Then a lot of the other ones I’ve got have been just from people reaching out, and friends and family. But, yeah, it’s worked out. I’ve got plenty of backups.”
Berger says he prefers the irons he first started using when he was in high school. The TP MCs are a cavity-back design forged from 1025 carbon steel, offering forgiveness with a blade-like profile. The weight in the back cavity places the center of gravity in the middle of the iron heads.
When you’re trying to re-establish yourself as one of the best golfers in the world once again, a little comfort can go a long way.
The same old comfort wasn’t true for Anthony Kim, whose return from the void after 12 years as a recluse generated a lot of chatter. The former young superstar resurfaced with LIV Golf in Saudi Arabia last week sporting a “Girl Dad” T-shirt and gym shorts along with a full bag of new Titleist gear.
AK was a full-on Nike guy back before he disappeared from the PGA Tour in 2012. Like Kim, Nike got out of the golf biz, so the now 38-year-old needed some new tools. His LIV bag in King Abdullah Economic City included Titleist’s TSR3 driver, TSR2+ 3-wood, T200 (2), T100 (4) and 620 MB (5-PW) irons, Vokey Design SM10 wedges (50, 54 and 58), a Scotty Cameron T22 Teryllium Newport 2 prototype putter and Pro V1 balls.
Scott Michaux