Editor’s note: We filed this piece for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. 

At 7,643 yards, Torrey Pines was the longest course in major championship history when it hosted the 2008 U.S. Open.

So what was Phil Mickelson’s plan of attack for the first major at his hometown muni? Eschew the driver. With firm summer conditions and thick rough lining the fairways, Mickelson decided to start the week without a driver in his bag.

“I don’t really want to hit it past 300 yards on most of the par-4s because it starts running into the rough,” Mickelson said back then. “And I felt like with the fairways being firm like they were today, all I needed was 3-wood on the holes.”

Mickelson may employ a similar strategy this week. He expects to hit a 2-wood on about half his tee shots this week. But Mickelson, who’s made no secret of his pursuit of extra clubhead speed in recent years, also will have his driver in the bag.

“There’s a lot of holes where it kind of turns or tightens,” he said in his pre-tournament press conference. “That 2-wood, I’ll call it, seems to fit the right yardage on a lot of those holes for me.”

Mickelson’s 5-degree driver, the Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond driver with a Fujikura Ventus Black shaft, also will be in the bag. It’s the same club that helped him hit big bombs in his win at last month’s PGA Championship. Most impressive was the 366-yard tee shot he hit to set up a crucial birdie on the tournament’s 69th hole.

In 2008, Mickelson opted for a Callaway FT Tour 3-wood — a 13-degree version bent to 11.5 degrees and equipped with a 43-inch Mitsubishi Diamana White Board shaft – in lieu of his driver.

However, over the opening two days of the tournament, Mickelson struggled off the tee. On the brutally challenging and lengthy California course, Mickelson found himself not just in the rough for most of Thursday and Friday, but short too.

Read the full piece here. 

At GolfWRX, we love golf, plain and simple.

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 – buy and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a Taylormade SIM 2 Max 5 Wood w/ Ventus Velo Blue 7X SST PURE ($445 shipped).

From the seller (@edwardsr): “Taylormade 5 wood shafted with Fujikura Ventus Velocore Blue 7X SST Pure’d and built by True Spec Golf in Scottsdale AZ. True spec measured the head at closer to 16.5-17ish degrees loft and the lie angle to be about 58.5ish  Club plays right at 43 inches and the shaft is tipped 1 inch. OEM HC included!”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Taylormade SIM 2 Max 5 Wood w/ Ventus Velo Blue 7X SST PURE

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

The No. 1 golfer in the world is joining the reigning U.S. Open champion. Dustin Johnson, who put an LA Golf Prototype shaft in play at the PGA Championship, is now an LA Golf partner and member of the company’s board of directors.

As a refresher, the company, which rose from the ashes of Matrix Shafts, features a unique structure and not only offers ownership stakes to professionals but also relies heavily on the feedback of the best golfers in the world in crafting future iterations of its shafts.

Not surprisingly, DJ is switching to LA Golf’s wares in the pursuit of greater accuracy and distance, according to the company.

As we wrote for PGATour.com, when Johnson put an LAGP shaft in play at the PGA Championship, Reed Dickens, LA Golf’s CEO had this to say about Johnson’s prototype: “We custom designed a low torque shaft for Dustin for lower trajectory and have been iterating with him for a few months. We’re excited that the No. 1 player in golf trusts LA Golf enough to put our product in play for the first time at a major championship.”

Johnson himself had this to say about his testing and the prototype development

“I…have been testing the LA Golf shafts for months. I have been really impressed with how much more consistent my ball striking has been and really like the ball flight I’m seeing. I don’t swing hard often, but with the LA Golf shaft, I can really go after it and know I am going to hit the ball more consistently in the middle of the club face. My misses have also been much better…”

I am always looking for ways to get better and have been testing the LA Golf shafts for months. I am excited to not only be switching to their shafts in play but also become an @LAGolfShafts partner and join the Board of Advisors. pic.twitter.com/e8eBJjv0G1

— Dustin Johnson (@DJohnsonPGA) June 15, 2021

CEO Reed Dickens founded LA Golf in 2018 after a tenure as the founding CEO of Marucci Sports. The small-batch company boasts the distinction of being “the only shaft manufacturer where each structure is co-designed with players and built in the USA,” and it has a particular focus on building shafts that perform at the top end of the swing speed spectrum.

LA Golf counts dozens of golfers on world tours among its partners, and the company has seen an uptick recently, with more than 20 pros signing on in the past three months.

LA Golf’s board is an interesting one as well, featuring not only Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, but TV personality Amanda Balionis, entertainer Kelley James, Duck Commander’s Willie Robertson, and Marucci Sports CEO Kurt Ainsworth as well.