NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
As golf approaches the home stretch of the major championship season, mid-year equipment launches have been filtering their way into tour range sessions for weeks.
In May at Colonial Country Club in Texas and over in Belgium, Titleist began seeding the PGA and DP World tours with the new Titleist T-series iron lineup. Titleist reps were working with players to test the new T100, T150, T250 and T350 models as well as the new T250U and U505 utility irons.
“It’s years of research, player feedback, player testing,” JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s senior director of player promotions, said of the validation process. “To bring the product out, see it tested on the golf course during a tournament week and prove itself – it’s super exciting to see all that finally come to fruition.”
Lanto Griffin told GolfWRX of the new T100s: “I don’t notice much of a difference, other than they feel more solid. Maybe they launch just slightly higher for me. But just the overall look of them is incredible, so it’s an easy change.
“The new U505 is really sleek, they made it a little bit skinnier, so it’s not quite as wide, but then they moved some weighting around on the bottom to where it’ll launch just as high. So it looks a little bit more like a blade … but it performs just as good or better.”
Said Doug Ghim: “This year’s version of the T150 actually launches just as high as the T200 before, and that’s been a huge plus. Being able to have a smaller head that launches just as high as the big head, it’s obviously what everybody wants, and it makes workability a little easier with the smaller head as well.”
During the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago, GolfWRX.com spotted several new clubs getting a workout on the range at Muirfield Village.
Ping’s new i240 and iDi driving irons were circulating among players. Canadian Corey Conners, who games 2023-era i230 irons, was seen testing the iDi driving iron.
TaylorMade unveiled new wedge designs that were seen being tested at Memorial by the likes of Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Ben Griffin, Justin Rose, Nick Dunlap and Jacob Bridgeman.
Griffin, who used Mizuno Pro T1 (50, 56-10) and TaylorMade MG4 (60-SB) wedges in winning at Colonial the week before, put the new TaylorMade wedges into play in his runner-up effort at Muirfield Village. Fleetwood said he planned to as well as before finishing T16.
Callaway also launched new wedges with its brand staffers including Akshay Bhatia and Adam Hadwin at Memorial – the Opus SP60. The meaning of SP, which is marked onto the toe section of the back cavity, has yet to be defined by Callaway.
Scott Michaux