Equipment
Stanley, Watney sign with Nike Golf
PGA Tour standouts Kyle Stanley and Nick Watney have entered into a multi-year agreement with Nike Golf, according to company press releases.
Both players signed deals that includes clubs, balls, footwear, glove, apparel, headwear and accessories.
“I love the equipment, Stanley said. “I wouldn’t have switched if I didn’t think it was stuff that would take me to the next level.”
Stanley, 25, previously played Titleist equipment. He was the winner of the 2012 Waste Management Pheonix Open, and is one of the PGA Tour’s brightest young stars, earning more than $2.3 million dollars in 2012 and finishing 31st in the Tour’s FedExCup. He will make his tournament debut this week at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
Stanley said the hardest equipment change for him will be his putter. He played a 2012 schedule that finished at the Australian Open in early December, limiting his practice time with a Method prototype putter that Nike made him. He’s excited about Nike’s VR_S Covert driver and 20XI X golf ball, a combination that he said has given him a 5-mph increase in ball speed, a change that can result in as much as 10 to 20 more yards off the tee.
“I’ve always been a high speed player,” Stanley said. “The ball has a little bit of a harder cover and doesn’t spin as much, which will allow me to be more aggressive with my irons”
Stanley said he feels very comfortable with the equipment changes. In 2013, he hopes to get back in the winner’s circle and take “the next step” — contending in major championships.
Here’s a list of what Stanley plans to play this week in Hawaii:
Driver: Nike VR_S Covert — 9.5 degrees, set in neutral
3 Wood: Nike VR Pro Limited Edition — 15 degrees
Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo 2 iron, VR Pro Blades 3 through 9 iron
Wedges: Nike Pro 52-degree, 56-degree and 60-degree wedges
Ball: Nike 20XI X
Apparel: Nike Golf Tour Performance
Footwear: Nike Lunar Control II
Stanley attended Clemson University, where he broke 19 school golf records. He was the first player to earn both ACC Player of the Year and ACC Freshman of the Year, and was a three-time first team All-ACC and two-time first-team All-America Selection. He won the Ben Hogan Award, which is given to the top collegiate golfer in the United States, and was also a member of the winning 2007 Walker Cup team.
“Kyle is a solid player with incredible talent,” said Mark Thaxton, global director of sports marketing operations at Nike Golf. “He’s a terrific ball striker with incredible confidence. We know Kyle will shine as a Nike Golf athlete and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Nike family.”
Nick Watney, 31, has won five times on the PGA Tour, most recently at The Barclays in late August and at the CIMB Asia Open in late October. He is currently ranked No. 20 in the Official World Golf Rankings, earning more the $3 million on the PGA Tour in 2012.
Watney said he decided to join Nike Golf because he was pleased with the direction the company is headed. He said he’s also looking forward to being on the same staff with Tiger Woods, and is looking forward to picking his brain.
“Nike Golf is making huge strides and have shown a dedication to move forward with all their stuff,” Watney said.
Like Stanley, Watney moves over from Titleist, and will make his debut as a Nike athlete at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii this week. Watney said he is not a “launch monitor guy,” so he wasn’t able to provide data on the performance of his new equipment. But he said he likes the feel and sound of his equipment, particularly his 11.5-degree VR_S Covert driver.
“It looks like nothing else out there, but it feels very stable and sounds like a classic driver,” Watney said.
Watney called his 20XI golf ball “very consistent,” and said the transition from his Titleist AP2 irons to Nike’s Pro Combo irons will be his easiest equipment change.
“I’ve heard all the stories about guys changing equipment, and from my testing over the last couple months, I really feel like it’s not going to be as hard as I expected,” he said. “The guys down at The Oven are very equipped.”
Watney will be using Nike wedges, which aside from the stampings honoring his hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, are almost the same as his Vokey models. He said the Nike Method Prototype putter he will use is the same as his Scotty Cameron putter in every way, with the exception of the Method groove technology on the putter face, and that it feels very similar to his old putter.
Even though Watney won two tournaments in 2012, he said the first half of the season was “not what I was looking for.”
“I’d also like to get off to a better start this year,” Watney said. “As golfers, we’re all judged on winning. I’d like to get into contention as much as I can and win as much as I can.”
Here’s a breakdown on what will be in his bag this week:
Driver: Nike VR_S Covert — 11.5 degrees, neutral position
Fairway Wood: Nike VR_S Covert 3-wood — 14-degrees, Nike VR_S Covert 5-wood — 18 degrees
Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo 3 through PW
Wedges: Nike VR Pro 55-degree and 59-degree wedges
Putter: Nike Method Prototype
Ball: Nike 20XI
Apparel: Nike Golf Tour Performance Collection
Footwear: Nike Lunar Control II
Click here to see what people are saying in the “Tour/Pre-release equipment” forum.
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Equipment
Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (4/18/24): Ping PLD Limited Anser – 1988 Open Championship – #2 of only 88 Made
At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a Ping PLD Limited Anser – 1988 Open Championship – #2 of only 88 Made.
From the seller: (@DLong72): “Ping PLD Limited Anser – 1988 Open Championship – #2 of only 88 Made. ?: $1150. ?? 100% milled collectors item from the limited releases commemorating when Ping putters won every major in 1988 (88 putters made). This was the model Seve Ballesteros used to win the 1988 Open Championship. Condition is brand new, never gamed, everything is in the original packaging as it came. Putter features the iconic sound slot.
Specs/ Additional Details
-100% Milled, Aluminum/Bronze Alloy (310g)
-Original Anser Design
-PING PP58 Grip
-Putter is built to standard specs.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Ping PLD Limited Anser – 1988 Open Championship – #2 of only 88 Made
This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules
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As you probably know by now, Collin Morikawa switched putters after the first round of The Masters, and he ultimately went on to finish T3.
The putter was far from the only change he made last week, however, and his bag is continuing to change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage.
On the range of The Masters, Morikawa worked closely with Adrian Reitveld, TaylorMade’s Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, to find the perfect driver and 3-wood setups.
Morikawa started off 2024 by switching into TaylorMade’s Qi10 Max driver, but since went back to his faithful TaylorMade SIM – yes, the original SIM from 2020. Somehow, some way, it seems Morikawa always ends up back in that driver, which he used to win the 2020 PGA Championship, and the 2021 Open Championship.
At The Masters, however, Rietveld said the duo found the driver head that allowed “zero compromise” on Morikawa’s preferred fade flight and spin. To match his preferences, they landed on a TaylorMade Qi10 LS 9-degree head, and the lie angle is a touch flatter than his former SIM.
“It’s faster than his gamer, and I think what we found is it fits his desired shot shape, with zero compromise” Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the RBC Heritage.
Then, to replace his former SIM rocket 3-wood, Morikawa decided to switch into the TaylorMade Qi10 core model 13.5-degree rocket head, with an adjustable hosel.
“He likes the spin characteristics of that head,” Rietveld said. “Now he’s interesting because with Collin, you can turn up at a tournament, and you look at his 3-wood, and he’s changed the setting. One day there’s more loft on it, one day there’s less loft on it. He’s that type of guy. He’s not scared to use the adjustability of the club.
“And I think he felt our titanium head didn’t spin as low as his original SIM. So we did some work with the other head, just because he liked the feel of it. It was a little high launching, so we fit him into something with less loft. It’s a naughty little piece of equipment.”
In addition to the driver and fairway wood changes, Morikawa also debuted his new “MySymbol” jersey No. 5 TP5x golf ball at The Masters. Morikawa’s choice of symbols is likely tied to his love of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Not enough changes for you? There’s one more.
On Wednesday at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Morikawa was spotted with a new TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron in the bag. If you recall, it’s the same model that Rory McIlroy debuted at the 2024 Valero Texas Open.
According to Morikawa, the new Proto 4-iron will replace his old P-770 hollow-bodied 4-iron.
“I used to hit my P-770 on a string, but sometimes the distance would be a little unpredictable,” Morikawa told GolfWRX.com. “This one launches a touch higher, and I feel I can predict the distance better. I know Rory replaced his P-760 with it. I’m liking it so far.”
See Morikawa’s full WITB from the 2024 RBC Heritage here.
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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.”
View this post on Instagram
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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Primo
Jan 11, 2013 at 12:48 am
I’m loyal to Mizuno irons and switch between TM and Callaway woods. I am not a Nike fan and their shoes are sometimes stylish but don’t last. With that said, I spent the better part of a day swinging unmarked/masked clubs during a fitting. I reluctantly but honestly will state I had Nike products in the top 3 of every category. The masking eliminated some of the bias (I know a Ping, callaway, TM, Mizuno more or less without having to see the label). The weren’t the best according to the launch monitor for me, but weren’t far off. The pro felt mizuno and ping have the best production quality, but Nike has the most money and is going crazy with R&D and hiring top designers and engineers.
Judy Felton
Jan 7, 2013 at 11:01 pm
Such promising stars. They made the right decision in signing contracts for Nike because it is a very popular brand that can provide them with the gears and equipment they need to pursue their dream of going to the top.
Danny
Jan 5, 2013 at 3:17 pm
Nike has to spend billions for the weekend golfers who don’t know anything about great equipment. Fact is that most of these guys play Titleist by choice until Nike pays them to use their garbage. Titleist is one of only a few brands that guys play even when they are paid by another company.
old school harry
Jan 3, 2013 at 8:42 pm
Hey, “no love”, ever heard about those new machines that adjust loft and lie? He tweeks the gaps so he can dump an iron and pick up a scoring wedge. Pretty common, how else do you think Zach Johnson can hit a 180 yd. 7 iron in Florida during March?
pinhigh18
Jan 3, 2013 at 6:42 pm
With Nike (well many of the other OEMs as well, but maybe more so with Nike), it seems to me that there is a huge gap between their product lineup between what their pros use and what we see a lot of on the store shelves. I agree with Hipper above, I see something from Nike as a giveaway and it doesn’t get my pulse going at all because it is nothing like the pro lineup. Enjoyed everyone’s input, but for some reason, I kind of hate to see the Titleist stable moving to Nike.
Nate
Jan 3, 2013 at 5:38 pm
What is with all the hate for Nike? I wonder how many people that say how bad their product line is have even swung a Nike anything! I ditched my Titleist irons and driver because the Nike VR line is just better. The TW blades are unreal and VR Pro LE driver is a beast and so easy to hit. My AP irons were numb and the 910 D3 was just a dud. Worst $1500.00 dollars I’ve spent in my life. Bring on the hate, but if the Titleist stuff was better, I’d still be playing them and wouldn’t have spent the money to switch clubs.
Hipper
Jan 3, 2013 at 2:53 pm
Funny to read how the Nike product is so close to what both of these players played before. Maybe, someday Nike can produce quality products that players can use without getting big dollars for using. Nike is the King of Tee Prizes at Pro-Ams. Why? The stuff doesn’t sell and that is how Nike dumps their product. I play in many pro-ams on LPGA and Web.Com tours and Nike is always available. I have asked why to many tournament directors, and the answer is always the same…..Nike’s stuff is so cheap we can make it look like we are offing a great Tee Prize!
Ron Faldo
Jan 3, 2013 at 11:40 am
Do people really think that with all of the money and resources Nike has that at this point in the game they will put out inferior equipment? Rory changed and tweaked his new weapons in a day. It’s the amateurs and the hackers that try a new driver or irons and in 2 rounds say “oh these are garbage I can’t hit these” As a teaching professional and 2 handicap I se this everyday. I played Hogan blades, then Titleist, went back to Hogans because they were more precise and now to the Nike VR Pro blades because of the technology and feedback. I have already hit the Covert and it is solid. Nike will be the winningest brand on tour this year and oh yeah….Schwartzel back to back by more than 10 shots…….
Greg
Jan 3, 2013 at 10:13 am
With these kind of deals, it is not about the equipment regardless of what the players say. It is a money deal only, as it always is when players go to Nike. Nobody goes there because of the quality of the equipment – they go there in spite of the equipment. The switch occurs because of the mountain of cash Nile puts on the table. It is all about marketing with that company.
Cesar
Jan 2, 2013 at 11:51 pm
Whether a fan or not for the big swoosh, you have to give it to them. They have marketed extremely well and have taken a huge leap of faith into the golfing industry and have been extremely successful in doing so. Just like a current Nike player by the name of Tiger changed the golfing tour and paychecks some of these guys get, they are also changing the way other companies go about getting new and improved products out for its consumers. Like them or hate them, you have to love the fact that they are pushing your favorite golf gear company to keep up with all the technology out there, giving you the best available items out there.
Huge
Jan 2, 2013 at 7:49 pm
NIKE is certainly starting to do waht they said they would do…can’t wait to get my hands on the new COVERT driver…and yes I would take it even if I had to pay for it!
luke keefner
Jan 2, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Didn.t Nike start out as a sneaker company? My son and I have had several pairs of Nike golf shoes and they have all self destructed during the second season. My Foot Joys are the most comfortable shoes I own and they are still going strong after 4 years
luke keefner
Jan 2, 2013 at 6:32 pm
I always thought the Nike “swoosh” looked like a check. As in big paycheck. Won’t be no tinky sounding Nike driver in my bag. Nope
Mike
Jan 2, 2013 at 3:06 am
I dont see Rory picking up the latest Covert driver. Guess the VR gear is not that bad after all. However I will mot buy into Nike. Titleist will remain the best OEM
G
Jan 2, 2013 at 12:53 am
But in return, who did Titleist pick up? Titty must have picked up some players too, I bet.
Trey
Jan 13, 2013 at 5:30 pm
They lost Stanley, Watney, Woodland, and Rory. Also failed to pick up Ryo. Tough offseason for Titleist.
Dtowngolf
Jan 2, 2013 at 12:18 am
A 11.5 degree driver, must be one of the lowest spinning shafts on tour. Seems like a lot of loft for a tour player
ph84
Jan 2, 2013 at 6:32 pm
11.5 is nothing. guys out there have used 12, 13 deg drivers. all about high launch and low spin
tim
Jan 1, 2013 at 9:46 pm
great move for the swoosh!!!!! nike will hold 3 of 4 majors if not all in 2013!!!! been loyal nike player for 6 years now….gets better every year
Gerald
Jan 1, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Titleist: the new Wilson!
nick
Jan 1, 2013 at 6:34 pm
Whatever Mike, you’d take that nike equipment for any deal if they gave it to you.
Mike
Jan 1, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Don’t care how many players Nike will sign over next years. Non of this gear will go in my bag. Non of this red painted drivers nonsense for me thanks very much – won’t take it for free.
Brandell
Jan 1, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Kris… Are you suggesting that he looked any better before? Lol. At least now he can wear some colorfull trending apparel and not just plain white or black from Boss. Smart move by the “SWOOSH”to sign these guys. I think Nike will own the golf industry before you realize it. Product looks amazing.
kris
Jan 1, 2013 at 8:07 pm
I am just a loyal titleist player and hate to see them losing all their stars
kris
Jan 1, 2013 at 2:06 pm
Good for Kyle, Wish Nick would have stayed with Titleist, looking kinda dorky in the NIke SWOOSH
Rob
Jan 1, 2013 at 5:28 pm
+1
Wojtu?
Jan 1, 2013 at 2:02 pm
last year Kyle Stanley had iron set 4-9
so it is little bit surprising
and he had 13.5* 3 wood and now he will have 15*
will see how it work for him
BMoooooore
Jan 1, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Man Titleist lost a bunch of horses this year to NIKE. I will be interested to see the adjustment to new equipment and how that goes. Probably brought over their titleist stuff to NIKE and said copy that exactly and I am in.
No Love
Jan 1, 2013 at 11:45 am
3-9? No love for the pitching wedge? Is Nike gonna make him a 48*?
14 club rule
Jan 1, 2013 at 1:45 pm
He is looking to carry a 2 iron and 3 wedges… no room for the PW unless he ditches his putter…. 14 is the golden number.
chris
Jan 1, 2013 at 11:40 am
Not crazy about his swing…time will tell if this is a good deal for Nike.
Trey
Jan 13, 2013 at 5:29 pm
Which swing aren’t you crazy about? Tough to decide which one of these two guys have a swing that you can’t love…