NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
This past year of play poked more than a few holes in the argument that equipment tweaks don’t make much of a difference in professional golf. There were several instances where gear changes immediately paid off – particularly during major championships.
It started when Hideki Matsuyama, known for his putting woes, switched flatsticks two weeks before his breakthrough Masters victory. The Japanese hero had been using a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS Timeless since the 2020 BMW Championship, but switched to a 2012 Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Tour Prototype before Augusta.
Matsuyama likes a “loud” putter that offers a lot of sound and feel feedback at impact. The new putter, armed with a Lamkin Deep-Etched Full Cord grip and a stepped shaft, matched perfectly with his preferences and helped take away some of the short misses Matsuyama has struggled with throughout his career.
Two months later, a similar situation played out for Jon Rahm.
The world No. 1 benched his Odyssey 2-Ball Ten in favor of an Odyssey White Hot OG Rossie S at the Memorial Tournament, his last start before winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Unlike Matsuyama’s relatively subtle change in swapping Newport 2 designs, Rahm’s shift was dramatic. He went from a high-MOI mallet with a large head to a mid-mallet instead.
Rahm dislikes lines on his putter, so the Rossie S gave him a pure look while maintaining the feel and roll he fell in love with during testing. We all know how that ended up: Rahm made a pair of mammoth putts on the 71st and 72nd holes at Torrey Pines to capture his first major championship.
But it wasn’t just about putters in 2021. Phil Mickelson headed to Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship with a 47.9-inch Callaway Epic Speed driver that featured a custom head that effectively had 5 degrees of loft. Although he had used the longer shaft during the Masters, the PGA was his first week using the custom head.
The highly unusual combination led to a magical week off the tee for the normally reckless Mickelson and played a gargantuan role in his historic victory.
There were other non-major moments where gear changes took on a critical role.
Patrick Cantlay switched to a Scotty Cameron X 5 putter with an added sightline and authored the best putting performance in PGA Tour history for a single tournament as he outdueled Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff at the BMW Championship. He rode it all the way to a FedEx Cup title.
Also of note, Harris English went back to the trusty Ping Scottsdale HoHum he had used in college and for his first PGA Tour victory in 2013 at Mayakoba. The result? He won the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Travelers Championship while also making the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.
These guys are good. Sometimes they are just a small equipment tweak away from accomplishing something special.
Sean Fairholm