Equipment
10 Revealing photos from the 2016 Memorial Tournament
GolfWRX was live this week from the 2016 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. If you missed any of the photos this week, make sure to browse the galleries below.
The Memorial Tournament is special for two reasons:
- It attracts a heavy-hitting field.
- It’s “Jack’s Place.”
The course itself is beautiful, but it makes it that much more remarkable for a golf fan that Muirfield Village is dreamed up and designed by Jack Nicklaus — either the best or second-best golfer of all-time, depending on who you ask.
We’ll reveal some photos below, but first, a video that honors the Golden Bear, and what he has done for and in the game of golf.
The longest yard
Next time you head to the practice green to work on your stroke, bring a yardstick. This is one of the simplest, effective and frustrating putting drills around. And if you get too angry, remember to snap the yardstick over your knee, not your putter.
New Srixons on the horizon?
Based on the irons in Hideki Matsuyama’s bag, showing Z765s, and the photo snapped below, showing Z965s, it appears that Srixon will be unveiling a new line of irons some time in the near future.
Refreshing simplicity
Much of Muirfield Village takes after Augusta National, so it’s only right that the course utilizes log-looking stakes as tee markers. Sure, it’s not as entertaining as FedEx trucks or John Deere tractors, but golf isn’t always about extravagance.
Camilo’s customs
In recent years, Camilo Villegas has had his irons bent to his liking, with a drawn-on reminder of the lofts. But his new PSi irons are unique in the fact that the soles have been ground, and stamped with new numbers, creating an awesome one-of-a-kind look.
A 40.5-degree 8 iron? That’s got to be one of the weakest 8 irons on the PGA Tour. The reason why? Camilo is a very low spin player, and needs the added loft to create optimal launch conditions.
Wedge stampings refuse to die
So, I proclaimed a stricter criteria for wedge stampings in a recent rendition of revealing photos, saying I had to be blown away to include a stamping due to overabundance on Tour. And I’m already eating my words over this super-creative Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde stamping. Brilliant.
Spieth’s decision
We’ve seen Jordan Spieth bounce back-and-forth between a Titleist 716 T-MB 3-iron and a 712U 3-iron for most of the 2016 season. After winning with the T-MB at last week’s Dean & DeLuca Invitational, it appears he’s made a long-term decision. He’s not even carrying the 712U during his practice round this week.
See Spieth’s Winning WITB from the Dean & DeLuca Invitational here.
A photograph-off
This is a photo taken by our photographer Greg Moore of GolfWRX Founder and President Richard Audi. So they’re taking a picture of each other taking a picture of each other. Did GolfWRX just explode in on itself? The guy on the right is mind blown, too.
Taking dead aim
Fun fact: Jonas Blixt once had dreams of being a hockey star rather than a professional golfer, but said he “never really got big enough or good enough.”
He seems to have some prowess with the wrist shot, but struggled to keep this shot on goal. Juuuust a bit outside.
Bryson is serious about his shaft testing
We spotted Bryson DeChambeau testing a few different fairway wood shafts on the practice range — and by a few I mean nearly every Oban, Graphite Design and Mitsubishi Rayon Tensei shaft in existence. It will be interesting what shaft the most-interesting-equipment-geek-in-golf decides on this week, and whether he sticks with it going forward.
Hole No. 1, 470 yards
Must be nice to pull a fairway wood with no worries, huh Rory?
Bubba went with a driver, but he was probably going for the green. And who could pull off a pink driver, pink shaft, and non-matching yellow glove like Bubba can? Answer: No one.
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Equipment
Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage
Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.
It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.
When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”
“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”
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According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.
Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:
“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.
“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.
“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.
“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.
“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”
So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.
His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.
See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here
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Equipment
Spotted: TaylorMade P-UDI driving iron
It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.
We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.
From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.
“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.
TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°
TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
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Whats in the Bag
Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)
- Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-TW11)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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Brandon
Jun 4, 2016 at 10:30 pm
Those Srixon Z9s look incredible!
OH
Jun 6, 2016 at 7:51 am
I cannot wait for more on those. Absolutely beautiful.
greg Moore
Jun 4, 2016 at 3:01 pm
I can’t believe the guy in the camo shirt and shorts didn’t make the top photos.
Andrew Tursky
Jun 4, 2016 at 6:08 pm
He must have blended in so well that I missed him!