Equipment
That one time Tiger switched driver shafts and NOBODY noticed
It seems like pretty much everyone on the planet has an idea of what clubs Tiger has in play at any given moment. Especially now in the age of social media. However, his bag was still analyzed and tracked immensely from the beginning of his arrival on the golf scene. Point is, when the guy switches anything out, the world will know.
But did you know that, during the 2002 and into the 2003 season, he switched driver shafts? It was a pretty substantial switch too, but it fell completely under the radar. As a Tiger junkie myself, I noticed it, but in those days 1) The internet wasn’t what it is today and 2) I was bartending in Newport Beach and didn’t have access to info like I do today. So, it went in my Tiger vault…until now.
Always known to have a True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft in his driver, Tiger and the Nike team wanted something a bit lighter, all while maintaining the stiffness profile of his X100.
We now introduce you to the 118-gram DGSLX100 Tiger Proto (a stock Dynamic Gold X100 shaft is 130 grams).
UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 28: Tiger Woods (Photo by Stan Badz/PGA)
A complete one-off made specifically for Tiger Woods. If you look at the pictures you will see an unfamiliar step pattern that starts off a bit wide towards the handle but gets progressively closer down towards the tip section. Basically, the step pattern (diameters) dropped lower to keep stiffness across the board.
“That’s the shaft we used to get him out of Titleist 975D and into Nike Blue 275cc driver in 2002.” – Anonymous Nike source
In theory, this was Tiger accepting the fact that he was going to have to get used to the feeling of a lighter shaft to begin the inevitable transition into graphite, which ultimately happened for good in 2004.
With the mystery of his bag completely gone these days with minute-to-minute reporting, I thought it kind of nice to still have a couple of nuggets to discover.
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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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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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- 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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Ronaldleacy
Feb 20, 2020 at 7:42 pm
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Dill Pickelson
Feb 18, 2020 at 7:31 am
I changed shafts last Thursday. I’ll check back in 2038 for you all to recollect.
dixiedoc
Feb 17, 2020 at 10:00 am
So much for the promoted fallacy that the public can play the same equipment as the pros.
Benny
Feb 16, 2020 at 4:59 pm
Great indo JW. Thanks for sharing and awesome comments fellas. Crazy!
MCoz
Feb 16, 2020 at 2:49 am
I noticed this back then. I reported it on another older golf site back then.
I was in LV at Butch Harman’s place at Rio Secco with he and Adam Scott. Butch told me about it and showed it to me. He had a duplicate set of TW’s clubs in his office. The stepdowns were closer together very similar to the old Rocket shafts of the 60’s/70’s. Butch wanted one for Adam Scott’s Titleist driver. True Temper insisted that TW give his okay for Scott to use one. At that time most had gone to graphite, but TW and AS continued to prefer steel, at least this shaft. Interestingly Scott seemed to hit a lot of drivers that drifted quite a bit to the right when I was with them.
MCoz
Feb 16, 2020 at 1:58 am
I can confirm this shaft. Butch Harmon told me about it and showed it to me. To everyone else it was just pushed off as an X-100 Dynamic. But in reality the stepdowns were more similar to the old Rocket shafts of the 60’s/70’s. I reported it on another old golf site about 15 yrs ago. Butch introduced me to Adam Scott in LV at that time. it was just the three of us and Adam was hitting his Titleist driver with that same “tiger” driver shaft. Butch told me that True Temper insisted that TW gave the okay for them to get that shaft for Adam Scott to use.
Mike Honcho
Feb 17, 2020 at 5:32 am
True story MCoz. I remember like it was yesterday! Tiger asked me if he should let Adam use it. I said to Tiger “who cares bro?” but we all know Tiger, ever the competitor, lol. Who really knows what the golf world would be like if it wasnt for me convincing Tiger to let Adam put it in play. So, Tiger threw me his phone and called True Temper to give the ok. Tiger and I still laugh about it to this day.
Ahh the good ol’ days..
Mike Honcho
Feb 17, 2020 at 6:00 am
True story MCoz. I remember it like it was yesterday. Tiger was asking me if he should let Adam try the shaft out and I said “sure, why not” so Tiger threw me his phone and I called True Temper and told them it was ok. Tiger and I laugh about that to this day. I can’t remember what we did after that. We may have went car shopping or something. Those were the good ol’ days!
TacklingDummy
Feb 16, 2020 at 1:00 am
Tiger has switch driver shafts many times the last few years. He was using a Graphite Design Tour AD DI, Tensi shaft, and probably several others. However, he keeps going back to the Diamana Whiteboard.
Christopher
Feb 15, 2020 at 7:47 pm
I think a lot of WRXers remember this, but I can’t remember if this one was linked to MacGregor, wasn’t there a steel shaft pulled or designed for one of their clubs?
Bruce
Feb 15, 2020 at 4:58 pm
One has to wonder if True Temper went ahead and marketed the DG 118g, or even a 105g steel. But then, I guess the writing on the wall with graphite.
Jo
Feb 15, 2020 at 3:15 pm
A lot of people noticed this.
Ty Webb
Feb 15, 2020 at 11:52 am
Other Nike staffers had that shaft in play to mostly in fairway woods. I personally built a Sonartec 3 wood for a staffer with that shaft.
Jbone
Feb 15, 2020 at 10:52 am
USGA and R&A clowns should reduce the head size and not mess with the ball. The 975J or D would be a good size to revert back to
Bacon Pants
Feb 15, 2020 at 6:22 pm
Not disputing your idea but these guys can still hit strong lofted 3 woods over 300 yards so IMO it wouldn’t do a whole lot just shrinking driver head size
Jbone
Feb 16, 2020 at 8:47 am
Maybe the elite distance guys get it out there 300 but not many. Crank the loft down and that size head gets a lot less forgiving.