News
Tiger’s driver: Major outlets report what you probably already knew
If you take a look at the golf news today, there are reports from almost every major outlet (thanks largely to the dissemination of an AP piece by Doug Ferguson) that Tiger Woods was using his prototype Nike Covert from last year in the third round at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
I guess Doug Ferguson and writers from the major outlets don’t read the GolfWRX forums.
Swopes30 started a thread July 31 at 1:34 p.m. titled “Tiger back to Covert 1 in practice round” and posted photos supporting the claim.
That’s right, Tiger has been using his driver from last year all week and no major outlet said anything until today. Yet a GolfWRXer posted about it Thursday.
And Ferguson, in his AP piece, seems to claim Woods just put the driver in the bag for the third round. If the photos readily available to all on Getty Images are to be believed, he used it in the first and second rounds as well.
I’m tempted to rant about the laziness of the mainstream golf media and their contentment in passing around the same half-baked stories from one outlet to another like a lukewarm potato.
Instead, here are photos of the two drivers.
The Covert prototype from last year Woods put back in the bag this week, below.
Tiger’s Covert 2.0 prototype from this year, below.
How’s it working? Not very well: Woods hit six fairways Saturday (42 percent).
And why the decision? As Woods said:
“I figured the lighter shaft should help me out a little bit, get some speed back, because I’m just not quite as explosive as I need to be. I haven’t done any explosive lifting. I haven’t done any of my fast-twitch stuff yet. As soon as I start doing my fast-twitch stuff, I can get my speed back up and then I can go back to my old driver.”
As for the shaft change, we spotted Woods with a Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Blue Board 93X the week of his return to competitive golf at the Quicken Loans National, and he is using a Diamana White Board 73X shaft that is 20 grams lighter this week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
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Equipment
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter
Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.
This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.
Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.
The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.
Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
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 Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.
Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.
Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.
According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.
He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.
Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.
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Equipment
Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship
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.
So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.
After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.
Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.
According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.
“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…
“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”
Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.
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Painter33
Mar 27, 2024 at 10:51 am
Being from tge future, I have a prediction: Nike will leave the clubmaking industry to pursue more time with its family…and because Tiger and Paul Casey are the only ones using their metal stuff. Their clothes, however, will continue to be overpriced.
gunmetal
Aug 4, 2014 at 11:39 am
Why not reshaft the Covert 2.0?
James
Aug 4, 2014 at 10:59 am
Why is this a big deal? if drivers added 15 yards each year we would be at 400+ by now…these companies are making a ton of money off the same shiny toy just made to look different
I can go back 15 years and hit those drivers just as far as i hit the new ones today
dot dot
Aug 3, 2014 at 12:59 pm
Yea, you scooped the mainstream media in the sport you specialize in exclusively reporting on. You don’t get kudo’s for doing your job. The mainstream media is supposed to turn to you little specialized guys for info that they then bring in a watered down version to a wider audience. Learn your place in the world GWRX.
ThinSoul
Aug 3, 2014 at 11:00 am
Does anyone know if Tiger’s driver is still around 44″? If so a 73g shaft is definitely on the light side. I think driver should stick to the short and heavy driver. Even if he loses 20 yards he can make it up hitting 5-8 irons in for sure.
ThinSoul
Aug 3, 2014 at 11:02 am
My phone made Tiger driver. Should read ‘I think Tiger should…’
Jericho
Aug 3, 2014 at 2:03 am
Ok just googled pedantic.. gonna be throwin this one around for sure ..lol
Jericho
Aug 3, 2014 at 1:54 am
..pedantic ..hmm ..better google that
db
Aug 2, 2014 at 9:07 pm
Considering Rory is absolutely BOMBING the 2.0 it definitely is the driver.
MHendon
Aug 2, 2014 at 8:09 pm
Hell the fact he’s had two prototype Coverts is news to me. I just wish they’d release the bonded hosel version to retail without that big swoosh on the crown, then I’d be interested.
kloyd0306
Aug 2, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Is it the driver, or is it Tiger?
If it’s the driver, the “oven” boys can’t figure it out.
Tiger drove it straighter when using a DG S300 in his King Cobra SS model.
Maybe it is still in the garage too?
MHendon
Aug 2, 2014 at 8:10 pm
It ain’t the driver!
Lukas
Aug 2, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Go easy on the mainstream media. Take them for what they are. The “main stream” doesn’t know what a Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Blue Board 93X is, nor do they care. Matter of fact I’d bet the majority would stop reading by the time they hit the second “i” in Mitsubishi.
Nick
Aug 2, 2014 at 6:13 pm
This article is unnecessarily pedantic.
Jwowzer
Aug 2, 2014 at 7:02 pm
I agree, shallow and pedantic.
MHendon
Aug 2, 2014 at 8:06 pm
Thanks Nick you just improved my vocabulary! Pedantic, lol?
Mj Martin
Aug 2, 2014 at 6:04 pm
Probably the same media whores that have reported that Dusti was suspended by the PGA.