Equipment

Valspar Championship Tour Truck Report: DJ sticking with new flatstick, Kisner ditches the armlock

Published

3 years ago

Apr 28, 2021

With little margin for error at the Copperhead Course this week, it’s not surprising to see few major changes from the participants in this edition of the Valspar Championship.

That said, we’re still spotting plenty of interesting things in Florida, including the apparent end of Kevin Kisner’s armlock experiment and Dustin Johnson sticking with a surprise putter switch he made in the final round of the RBC Heritage.

Remember, you can check out all our photos from the Valspar here!

Titleist

Viktor Hovland is putting a 2021 Pro V1 in play after using it last week at the Zurich Classic. According to Titleist, he’s seeing higher ball speed with the driver and more control into the green.

Denny McCarthy is testing a TSi2 driver (10 degrees). He’s seeing more speed and better spin control.

Roger Sloan is testing a U500 4-iron, which he finds easy to launch and is able to work it both ways.

Byeong-Hun An put a Fujikura Motore X F3 6 X in his TSi3 driver.

Staffer Jimmy Walker tested a L.A.B. Blade putter before returning to this Scotty Cameron.

Callaway

Kevin Kisner moved from the armlock to a “very stable and consistent” 2-Ball Ten putter with a Red Stroke Lab double-bend shaft. SuperStroke Traxion 2.0 Tour grip. 34.25 inches. 3.5 degrees of loft.

Grayson Murray is testing a Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 X in a Mavrik Sub Zero 7-wood.

New to us since we last saw him, Phil Mickelson is going with a Callaway PM Grind ’19 “Raw” (52, 58, 64) setup.

TaylorMade

After putting it into play for the final round of the RBC Heritage, it looks like Dustin Johnson is sticking with a new TaylorMade Brandon 1 prototype putter and LA golf graphite putter shaft. If this putter seems familiar, it’s because we saw Tommy Fleetwood put something very similar into play a couple of weeks ago too (pictured below in photo from TaylorMade).

Ping

Andrew Putnam is testing a Fujikura Ventus Red 6 X shaft in his driver.

Scottie Scheffler (not a staffer) is decreasing loft in his Ping G425 LST driver.

PXG

James Hahn tested a Cobra RadSpeed driver with a prototype Aldila shaft.

SEG

Scott PUREd KBS C-Taper 125 Custom Black shafts for Gary Woodland and Project X 6.5 shafts for Jordan Spieth (3-PW, 6.0 in wedges).

Free agents/others

Justin Rose was spotted testing a number of grips.

Chris Kirk is testing a Cobra RadSpeed driver with a Mitsubishi 1K shaft.

Both Brendon Todd and Rory Sabbatini are testing Mitsubishi MMT iron shafts.

William McGirt is testing a Graphite Design Tour AD DI HB 95 S shaft in a Callaway Apex Hybrid.

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Equipment

Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage

Published

12 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

Andrew Tursky

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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Equipment

Spotted: TaylorMade P-UDI driving iron

Published

13 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

Brian Knudson

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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Whats in the Bag

Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)

Published

13 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

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

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

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)