NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Going just a little bit retro worked out well for Rory McIlroy at Augusta.
Having switched back to his TaylorMade Rors Proto irons at the start of the PGA Tour season after a dalliance with some P7CB cavity-back irons in several DP World Tour starts, he made another U-turn with a familiar club ahead of the Masters.
After months of playing with the newest TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood, McIlroy returned to his trusted TaylorMade Qi10 that he used to complete the career Grand Slam last year. You can’t argue with the results, and not only because McIlroy became just the fourth player to repeat as Masters champion. The Qi10 3-wood has been deployed by five consecutive major championship winners including Scottie Scheffler (PGA and Open championships) and J.J. Spaun (U.S. Open).
Rory McIlroy’s current TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter has a custom-torched finish.
CHRIS TURVEY, ANGC
That’s an even more dominant run than the TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter that McIlroy and Scheffler both use. When Golf Digest’s Jonathan Wall asked McIlroy why he preferred a custom-torched finish on his Spider Tour X, McIlroy said, “Thought it looked really cool. It’s how I end up in a lot of things, I just stumble upon them. It’s not really intentional.”
TaylorMade introduced a new line of putters during last week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, with four models available for pros to try and all featuring a new torched PVD finish. Tommy Fleetwood was among those to take a new Spider Tour for a spin during the Heritage. It’s similar to the version Fleetwood switched to earlier this spring with a slightly wider “pilot’s eye” alignment aid that has a single dot between lines parallel to the putter face.
“I haven’t played how I wanted to,” Fleetwood said in March as he lamented his early-season putting, “and sometimes it’s nothing more into it than you just need something different to look at, like a slightly different visual or something, just to change up your mindset a little bit. So that’s why I changed the sight lines.”
In addition to the Tour and Tour X models, a redesigned Tour V with a smaller head and an all-new Tour F were made available. Fleetwood tested the wing mallet Tour F in Texas recently, and Pierceson Coody put it in his bag at the Heritage.
GolfWRX forums spotted 2023 Open champion Brian Harman testing out some custom Titleist 633 “BH” CB irons at the RBC Heritage.
Scott Michaux
