Equipment

19 Revealing Photos from the 2018 PGA Show

Published

6 years ago

Jan 30, 2018

The PGA Show is a yearly showcase of new golf equipment where thousands of golfers, PGA professionals, industry insiders, media and golf equipment aficionados collect to check it all out.

Of course, GolfWRX was there to take photos of everything. We were also there writing about the new equipment, live Tweeting, filming video, and recording podcasts. It’s a busy week for us here at GolfWRX, but we’re happy to bring you all of the coverage we possibly can, because, like you, we LOVE new equipment.

There was an overwhelming amount of cool stuff, from training aids to the most expensive tech on the market, but in this article I break down 19 of the most interesting product photos (in no particular order) from the 2018 PGA Show. Enjoy!

1) Putt like a pro

Some call it cheating. Others call it information gathering. Either way, this new app from GolfLogix gives you access to green slopes, just like you’d see in the yardage books that PGA Tour caddies use every week.

2) All covered

While best known for his putters, Scotty Cameron has an unreal collection of putter covers — some more rare than others — and many of them were on display at the show. All of these covers in the photo are cool in their own right, but what’s better than the gold money sign on the green putter cover that’s two covers in from the top left? Straight cash, homie.

3) Da Kine-Fit

Areso never disappoints with its customizable, milled putters. The milling on this face is quite wavy — maybe that’s why it’s call “Kine” fit, since “Da Kine” is Hawaiian slang, and the islands are known for their waves.

4) Shhh, the fireman’s comin’

This fire truck-inspired golf cart, which Lil Wayne (aka the Fireman) would certainly roll up in, was just one of the awesome golf carts we spotted at the Garia booth. Usually you want to keep the fire going when your putter gets hot, but nonetheless.

5) Who needs a caddie

S we saw the phone app that shows you the slope of the green, well here’s the Full Swing VirtualGreen that actually shows you the break of the putt while you’re putting on the green. Somehow I think I’d still miss the putt, though.

6) Lynx has blades?

Don’t tell @ClubProGuy.

7) Where’s the CG at?

Exactly where is the center of gravity on your clubs? Well, here’s a CG Locator to point you in the right direction, and show you where the sweet spot actually is on the face.

8) Truvis bubble gumballs

Lucky for show participants who are in need of golf balls, Callaway’s new Chrome Soft Truvis golf balls in this gum balls machine were in fact golf balls and not oversized gum balls. You can still chew up the course with them, though.

9) The highest-spinning bottle opener ever

You can crack open a beer with the Cleveland CBX “Sip Groove” wedge, then get up and down with it. Save par and quench your thirst. Nice.

10) Bad weather, indoors

To show off its rain gear, Zero Restriction created hurricane conditions in this batting cage-like setup. Participants aimed at those white plates on the far right, and it made the loudest sound you’ve ever heard. Certainly an attention-grabber.

11) A club builder’s dream

A digital loft and lie reader, and one of the most stunning club-building machines ever. Somewhere, Ryan Barath is smiling.

12) The man of the people

The PGA Show attracts a small number of PGA Tour pros, most whom show up on the range at Demo Day to hit golf balls or put on a clinic. John Daly, however, just came to hang out with PGA Show goers, sign autographs and talk. Gotta love JD.

13) Bullseye!

At Table Rock, one of the most frequented and talked-about booths at the PGA Show every year, Titleist had a number of gold-plated replicas of winning putters from the past. This Steve Jones Bullseye putter from his 1996 U.S. Open win particularly caught my eye (pun). He won the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield, Michigan, which is a driver, a 3 wood and wedge (if you bounce the ball off Southfield freeway) from GolfWRX HQ.

14) Chi Chi!

The legendary Chi Chi Rodriguez showed up at Demo Day in support of Vertical golf, who recently released a new fairway wood with vertical grooves.

Give em the sword fight, Chi Chi!

15) Silence of the Tyson Lamb

Nothing but silence from me on the putter-cover combo. Just speechless.

16) Office putting made easy

The PuttOut, along with the special mat, shows how far the ball would have gone past the hole if the hole wasn’t there, so you can work on speed control while putting in the office or at home. Reduce three putts while passing time at work? I’m putting GolfWRX HQ on notice.

17) Bradley’s wooden putters

These impressive, and soft-feeling putters are made from different woods such as maple. Far from the highly-technological putters of today, but these have some tremendous bag power. There’s a Tiger “Wood” joke in here somewhere.

18) A “Filthy” hat

This Sherwood CC hat from Imperial was made specially for pop-star Justin Timberlake, who’s also an avid golfer. For those out of touch with current pop-culture, “Filthy” is the name of one of JT’s new songs. If you don’t like the song or the video, Cry Me a River!

19) Dry in any weather

This new Weatherman umbrella was designed to keep from turning inside-out, even in high winds. It also comes equipped with special pockets and designs made for golfers, and it has a Bluetooth. So if the winds are really high and your umbrella flies away, you can track it with an iPhone app. You just never know where that umbrella will fly off to, especially since it won’t turn inside-out to slow down its speed!

Check out ALL of the photos from the 2018 PGA Show here.

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Whats in the Bag

Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)

Published

11 hours ago

May 10, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Kevin Tway what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Tway’s clubs here.

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX

Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Tway’s clubs here.

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4

More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

12 hours ago

May 10, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Equipment

Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird

Published

15 hours ago

May 10, 2024

Andrew Tursky

With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.

On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.

Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?

Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’

So that’s why I went back.

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OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?

It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.

Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.

It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.

Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.

Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.

So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?

Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play?

Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.

There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.

It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.

Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.

And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?

Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’

If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’

My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’

I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”

And you’re going with it this week?

Hundred percent.

Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week.

Thanks, man.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

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