Equipment
12 Revealing photos from the RBC Heritage and Lotte Championship
GolfWRX was live this week from the 2016 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, and we also had contributing photos (thanks tod071!) from the LPGA Lotte Championship at Ko Olina Golf Club on the Island of Oahu.
Make sure to catch up on all of the photos in the links below:
From South Carolina to Hawaii, GolfWRX was living the island life this week and providing some amazing photos from both the PGA and LPGA tours. Let’s throw those shaka fingas up and reveal some photos.
Jason Day’s preshot routine, gone awry
It appears that Jason Day’s preshot routine, featuring intense and long-lasting visualization, is sweeping the LPGA Tour. Except something tells me some of these ladies aren’t doing it right.
You’re not supposed to shut your eyes the entire round!
Ground control to Major Tom
Bryson DeChambeau working on the Air Traffic Controller drill to keep his head steady.
Looks about right.
The putter seen round the world
Surprisingly, Ernie Els is sticking with the same putter he used in his Masters 6-putt ordeal. Hank Haney was calling for him to putt lefty in his second round, so the fact he isn’t changing it up shows some gumption.
We can joke all we want, but that took guts from Ernie to not only continue playing, but actually taking a run at making the cut.
Those yips will forever give me nightmares, however.
Sea Pines vs. The Masters
Are the people at Sea Pines Montessori Academy trying to tell me their Pimento Cheese sandwich is $2.50 better than The Masters famous Pimento Cheese sandwich?! Blasphemous!
Actually, maybe they’re right.
The real Tour sauce
You don’t know Tour sauce until you literally have a graphic of pasta sauce on your golf bag.
Stayin fly on the links
Take notes, boys. This caddie rocking Baltimore Orioles’ mid socks and Nike Kyrie 2‘s in the White/Urban Lilac/Bright Mango/Hyper Jade colorway is how you bring the heat.
Michelle Wie has some decent kick game at the LPGA Lotte, as well. And her putting stance is looking more and more like Jack Nicklaus’ by the day.
She just needs to start wearing her glove.
Bro-in’ Out
Bro.
I don’t know what’s more chill, a man bun or 80 pounds of ice.
Tyga may have brought snapbacks back to the world, but Harris English is bringing cord hats back to golf. Nice lid, bro.
Bringing back the old style, I dig it.
LPGA Headcovers
PGA Tour players have some interesting head covers, like Tiger’s and whatnot. But the ladies on the LPGA Tour really go all out.
Check out the gallery below of awesome head covers, and some interesting club setups, too.
Is that a Callaway Steelhead X-14 iron? You can buy one here for $50… not one iron, the entire set!
Swag daddy
Someone smack me the next time they see me at golf course and I’m not wearing rainbow Skechers and skull socks, equipped with a ball retriever. Go hard or go home.
All corded up
Check out Jim Herman’s SuperStroke prototype cord grips.
So that’s how he held onto the lead so tight at the Shell Houston Open.
Harbour Town Golf Links
The course is diabolically tight off most of the tees.
But it’s an undeniably gorgeous track.
And I can’t remember the last time I saw someone make par on the par-3 17th (pictured below). I recall Jim Furyk making birdie last year in a playoff to win, but it seems as though everyone else just makes bogey or worse.
Zach Johnson’s PXG wedge is awesome
Wait. Why does Z. Johnson have Florida-Gators colored headcovers?
Wait. That’s not Zach Johnson’s bag.
Turns out Billy Horschel is playing Z. Johnson’s wedge? #PXGTroops stick together, including sharing weapons of mass par saves, apparently.
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- 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
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)
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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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
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.
View this post on Instagram
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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blindkarma
Jul 23, 2016 at 10:05 pm
Andrew Tursky graduated with a bachelor’s in Journalism from Rutgers. Yet he writes casually racist jokes about Asian women golfers with their eyes closed. Way to crush it and make your alma mater and professors proud of your career. To the publisher and editors of Golfwrx, would Mr. Tursky make jokes about hair or skin color if he was covering the NBA or professional boxing? But Asian females in his own sport, sure why not.
Mike R
Apr 21, 2016 at 2:39 pm
What’s happened in the last 5-10 years with the whole over-sensitivity and the whole “somebody somewhere might be hurt”. I work with a lot of East Asians and have never even thought about eyes closed thing, and Asians blink just like everyone around the world (apart from the people with some disease preventing them from blinking whom I obviously don’t want to hurt by writing this comment).
I just thought that this was the girl’s reaction to a bad shot somehow. It’s a a very common reaction around the golf course, just like the more offensive reactions like swearing or throwing clubs around. So what, captured on a photo and put in a different perspective to attempt humour (it’s not very intelligent kind of humour, but still…). I really don’t see the problem.
All of a sudden, it’s an Asian thing.
I’ll write “photos of East Asians with eyes closed” on an every expanding list of things that offend people these day. Hopefully, I won’t forget before I use one get castigated for being a racist.
And for the Asians who wrote above, please consider that the people in West Asia (e.g. Pakistan) might get offended by your generalisations.
Jnak97
Apr 17, 2016 at 2:20 am
I feel like you people need to cool it with the racism card. Four different women being shown at four different times in the round that are not a pre-shot routine with their eyes closed was definitely not interpreted as racist by me.
ana
Apr 18, 2016 at 3:14 pm
>was definitely not interpreted as racist by me.
Well Jnak97, it was, by me – and i’m not even Asian.
blindkarma
Jul 24, 2016 at 12:33 pm
*was definitely not interpreted as racist by me* Why do racists or misogynists always think this is a defense?
Michael Lee
Apr 16, 2016 at 9:31 pm
Apology accepted, please think about what you said though. Some of your last comments really did hurt especially the last one.
Matt
Apr 16, 2016 at 7:56 am
Why are people so butt hurt about the eyes closed thing. You probably aren’t even Asian. Get over it. This is what’s wrong with America. Write what you want man !
Jack Nguyen
Apr 16, 2016 at 10:55 am
Hello Matt,
Just to let you know I am Asian and I came to America 6 years ago. When I attended middle school I got made fun of people would also ask me why were my eyes always closed and people said I would never pass my drivers test because Asians are bad drivers. So when you see a post like this it does hurt. Although this is America and free speech is allowed please be respectful about others. What if this post had something that offended you. You would feel exactly the same.
Cheers,
Jack
Matt
Apr 16, 2016 at 10:08 pm
I’m American. I don’t get butt hurt. I can call me what ever u want. Also theses women have their eyes closed so…..
Michael Lee
Apr 16, 2016 at 11:11 am
It does hurt sometimes Matt. Being Asian-American growing up a lot of those jokes do hurt over time, such as “open up your eyes” and you got the casual joke where someone goes “Ching Chong li long” to me it’s joke a I get it, but some people would get hurt even if they are not Asian because their looking at our point of view and find it offensive. I do agree this post is inappropriate but there is no racism at all in the post. Just a little editing would help! 🙂
Golfer1
Apr 16, 2016 at 6:00 pm
These comments are uncalled for and getting out of hand. The comment section needs to be deleted on this article and Andrew has some explaining to do.
Cyd2293
Apr 16, 2016 at 6:26 am
Will you metrosexual millennials quit with the cries of racism. Most of you spoiled, pampered brats don’t know what racism is.
12 may have been inappropriate but racist. No.
In other words lighten up ladies.
Dr Troy
Apr 16, 2016 at 9:53 am
110% agree. Lighten up Francis.
TMTC
Apr 16, 2016 at 10:25 am
I agree wholeheartedly.
Lighten up.
Schizo Smizzle
Apr 16, 2016 at 4:19 am
Clueless. Totally clueless. And not even funny. And no, none of your comebacks will even be as clever as those girls.
Jane
Apr 15, 2016 at 10:16 pm
12 is rascist. seriously.
Schizo Smizzle
Apr 16, 2016 at 4:18 am
Smizzle just doesn’t get it. He never will.
ATC
Apr 15, 2016 at 7:22 pm
The guy in #11 is a ramp agent. Not an air traffic controller.
cgasucks
Apr 15, 2016 at 4:44 pm
I wonder who’s bag had that X-14 3 iron?
mark
Apr 15, 2016 at 4:22 pm
asian eyes closed the entire round?! well done golfwrx in making fun of asian. what next? people with different colour? go ahead and i leave your website altogether.
Derek
Apr 15, 2016 at 2:41 pm
Asian women…eyes closed? Really?
JZ
Apr 15, 2016 at 12:47 pm
The Asian women with their eyes closed is completely inappropriate.
Mike Thomas
Apr 15, 2016 at 12:07 pm
#12 isn’t even funny… Please edit this post. I agree that the writer should have took 2 seconds to think about what he just wrote.
Mike Honcho
Apr 15, 2016 at 11:29 am
WOW!!! 4 pics all of Asian women with their eyes closed. I agree that the world has gone over the top with PC, but you gotta stop and think a second before you post something like that. Writer may have a Masters in Communications, but doesn’t even have a 2-year JUCO certificate in Journalism (sorry Rutgers).
Tyler
Apr 15, 2016 at 10:37 am
Lot of guys starting to play PXG. Horschel is a big loss for Ping.
Fred
Apr 15, 2016 at 2:31 pm
Two of the players using the PXG irons at the Masters (Zach Johnson (+8) and Chris Kirk (+9) didn’t even make the cut. Billy Horschel made the cut, but finished 17th at +4. Johnson wants us to believe that he gave up using the irons he won 10 tournaments with, because the PXGs are better. Will be interesting to see how many, if any, PGA and LPGA players win with these irons this year.
Mike
May 2, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Let’s be honest here – PXG wants you to think that’s what Johnson wants you to think.
But we all know Johnson switched because of the $$$$. That’s what drives 99.9% of equipment choices on Tour nowadays.