News
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood with P-7TW irons
What’s that you have in your hands there, Tommy Fleetwood? That iron looks strikingly familiar to the “P-7TW” iron we featured in a Forum Thread of the Day last week…
What’s going on here? Well, as most WRX Members believe, the TaylorMade P-7TW irons will be Tiger Woods’ gamers in 2019. Woods had been playing a prototype TW-Phase 1 most of last year. TaylorMade hasn’t released any details or given an indication the irons will come to retail.
But what does this have to do with England’s finest head of hair? Well, Fleetwood, a former Nike staffer, has been clinging to his final set of Oven-produced Nike VR Pro Blades for dear life since the company exited the hard goods business in August of 2016.
Knowing the clubs can’t last forever, and apparently unable to compel Paul Casey to part with his similar weapons, Fleetwood looks to be looking to alternatives ahead of next week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, judging from the pictures below. It’s not surprising, then, given the apparent similarity between the P-7TW iron and Nike VR Pro Blade, that Fleetwood would opt to put the irons to the test early in the year.
We’ll keep an eye on the Englishman’s bag in Abu Dhabi this week. And of course, the presumed “TW” in the P-7TW returns to action at the Farmers Insurance Open in two weeks; we’ll be equally keen to see what he’s hitting approach shots with at Torrey Pines.
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Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
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
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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dixiedoc
Jan 14, 2019 at 2:09 pm
Must be a slow day for golf journalists.
T
Jan 14, 2019 at 10:49 am
Someone needs to clue Tommy in about the BST.. There have been a few near perfect sets of Pro VRs go through in the last few months
Stixman
Jan 14, 2019 at 6:04 am
What’s even more ‘awesome’ is Tommy has been ‘spotted’ using hickory shafted clubs.
Don’t suppose he’s going to play them at Abu Dhabi either.
CaoNiMa
Jan 14, 2019 at 3:03 am
The horror! How dare he! lol
Jamie
Jan 13, 2019 at 8:46 pm
Judging by just looking at the back of the head? That’s amazedly amazing!
Colin Joyner
Jan 13, 2019 at 8:19 pm
Those clubs look pure!
BettiBoop
Jan 13, 2019 at 6:48 pm
Kind of embarrassing playing irons with another competitor’s name on them if you ask me. I’d ask TaylorMade to do a different stamping.
Peter
Jan 13, 2019 at 9:23 pm
Not different than NBA players wearing Jordan Brand.
JHA
Jan 13, 2019 at 10:17 pm
Completely different considering Michael Jordan is not currently playing.
Rubit Onyaneck Jr
Jan 14, 2019 at 1:00 am
Either way, nobody will ever play irons with your name on em.
Khuntface McLabia
Jan 14, 2019 at 3:06 am
That is the funniest comment evah
Khuntface McLabia
Jan 14, 2019 at 3:05 am
It’s totally the same thing, as well as old guys wearing Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear shirts lol
Chris
Jan 14, 2019 at 10:19 am
Even players wearing Lebron or Kyrie’s shoes in the NBA currently
Benny
Jan 13, 2019 at 6:25 pm
Thats awesome. Nice work Ben!