NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Brian Harman is a prime example of equipment having a massive effect on a player.
Once a standout junior and amateur, Harman had grown up playing mostly Titleist gear. He deviated from that during his professional career, signing with TaylorMade. The results were positive as Harman never finished outside the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings in his first six full seasons, consistently racking up top-25 finishes.
But the two-time Walker Cupper felt as if he had more to give and was willing to experiment in order to find it. Heading into 2017, Harman made a call to Titleist rep Jim Curran asking for a set of 716 CB irons that were similar to the ones he played at the University of Georgia.
Harman, who eventually would graduate to the 620 CBs he plays now, immediately finished third at the CareerBuilder Challenge in January 2017 with his new sticks in the bag. It was a sign of more changes to come.
Three months later, Johnson Wagner, who played a Pro V1 golf ball, asked Harman, who was using a different golf ball at that point, if he wanted to partner for the Zurich Classic.
“He was kind of curious as to what ball we wanted to play,” Harman said. “I said, ‘I played Titleist balls in college and everything. We’ll just play your ball (in alternate shot), no problem.’
“We had a nice tournament… it got really windy. I was hitting some shots with Johnson’s ball, shots that I just couldn’t hit with the ball I was playing. After that round, I decided to switch to the Pro V1.”
The very next week, Harman captured the Wells Fargo Championship for his second PGA Tour victory. He was 93rd in the Official World Golf Ranking coming into that week, and he finished the year at No. 25.
“I just was never able to flight my old ball,” Harman said. “I had trouble controlling it, especially in the wind … the effects for me were immediate switching to this Pro V1. I mean, it’s been a complete 180. The way that I flight iron shots, the way that I control it around the green, it saves me, I don’t know how many shots it’s saved me.”
By the time 2018 began, Harman had gone all in on Titleist. When he won the Open Championship two weeks ago, 13 of his 14 clubs were Titleist. Interestingly, the only non-Titleist club is his TaylorMade putter. And judging by his remarkable performance of making 58 of 59 putts inside of 10 feet at Hoylake, that putter might be the most important club in his bag.
Harman has a 35.5-inch TaylorMade Spider OS CB, and there are several intriguing elements of the club. One is that Harman requested a putterhead that is about 13 percent larger than the standard model. Although he has used the putter since 2016, virtually no other tour players have tried it in competition.
Even more fascinating is that Harman’s putter has an odd connection to Jack Nicklaus.
The Golden Bear famously won the 1986 Masters using an oversized MacGregor Response ZT 615 that actually helped establish the USGA’s width limit. This was incredibly rare at the time. The ZT stood for “zero twist” as the putter’s larger profile allowed the head to stay more square through impact.
That putter was conceived by Clay Long, a club designer who worked on much of Nicklaus’ equipment over the years. Long believed in the oversized-putter concept and has continued to champion that throughout his career, including his design of Harman’s Spider OS CB. Nearly 40 years apart, Nicklaus and Harman won majors with oversized putters, which have become more common over the years, designed by the same person.
Would Harman have won a major with different equipment? It doesn’t sound like it.
Sometimes equipment really can transform a player’s game.
Sean Fairholm