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NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
It’s a rarity to find professional golfers using equipment made for recreational players – particularly when it comes to drivers and longer clubs in the bag – but that didn’t stop Louis Oosthuizen from trying something outside the box.
Intrigued by Adam Scott putting an AutoFlex shaft into play earlier this year, the 2010 Open Championship winner tested Ping’s Altra CB Slate, the stock shaft for anyone buying a G425 driver off the rack.
Oosthuizen is sensitive to sound when considering what gear he should play, and the new shaft created a higher-pitched noise off the clubhead compared to his G400 gamer. The solution was glue. The Ping Tour team added 8 grams of weight in the butt end of the shaft and put more glue on the bottom end of the shaft, helping with launching the ball slightly higher while also alleviating any sound concerns.
Using a stiff flex version of the counterbalanced shaft at WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession, Oosthuizen finished tied for sixth and ranked No. 18 in strokes gained off the tee.
Collin Morikawa is well known as a TrackMan darling. During his time at the University of California, his dispersion pattern with a 6-iron proved to be similar to what a PGA Tour player could accomplish with a wedge. That’s part of the reason why Morikawa recently broke up his set of TaylorMade P7MC irons, deciding to switch to P730 irons for 7-iron through pitching wedge. The P730s have smaller heads and he missed closer to the center of the face with each strike, convincing him to use the irons for some of the shorter, more controllable clubs.
So far, so good. Morikawa was nearly flawless in his win at The Concession and came into last week ranked No. 4 in the world.
Jordan Spieth put on a new SuperStroke Traxion Flatso 1.0 putter grip before the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a move that normally would garner no attention at all. However, an image of his old SuperStroke grip surfaced on social media – it was cracked down the middle, frayed on the edges and looked like it had washed up on an ocean shore.
Justin Rose, who had to withdraw Saturday from the Arnold Palmer Invitational due to injury, switched to a Titleist TSi3 driver with a Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Orange 75TX shaft. Using an A1 SureFit setting and an 8-degree head, the equipment free agent gained 2 mph of ball speed.
The Titleist TSi drivers are also picking up traction on the LPGA Tour. Nelly Korda (TSi1), Jessica Korda (TSi4) and Danielle Kang (TSi3) all recently switched into new drivers.
Keith Mitchell, the 2019 Honda Classic winner, announced a contract extension with Mizuno. Unlike virtually all other equipment contracts in golf, the length of the deal was actually disclosed – Mitchell is set for three years with the company.
Sean Fairholm