Equipment

In-hand photos of Titleist’s new Vokey SM9 wedges (with insight from Bob Vokey himself)

Published

2 years ago

Jan 19, 2022

Titleist began tour seeding of its unreleased Vokey SM9 wedges at the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui two weeks ago, and players have already been switching in droves to the new models.

Although Titleist still isn’t yet commenting on the new designs (which will likely replace the company’s former SM8 models), GolfWRX got its first in-hand look at the new SM9 versions this week at the 2022 American Express at PGA West’s Stadium Course.

Check out our forum thread for all of the Titleist Vokey SM9 in-hand photos here.

In addition to the photos, I was also able to catch up with legendary wedge maker and SM9-designer Bob Vokey himself. While tech details are still under wraps for the time being, he provided some awesome insight into his two-year design process.

“It takes us two years to put a product together…what happens every time is you make an improvement based on feedback from all the players,” Vokey told GolfWRX. “This is my 10th iteration of launching over the years, and each one I’ve learned something, from my series 200s, to SM1s, 2s, 3s, etc., you learn a little bit each time.

“What happens is you don’t know really how to improve it until we get it in the players’ hands, like we’re doing now, and that’ll take a few months when the players first take it live. Because there’s things that may happen on a certain shot under the heat of the gun on the backside Sunday afternoon. They hit a shot and go, ‘Whoa, what happened?’ There’s certain little things that nobody could ever see at all, and we’ve done so much testing, but you can’t replicate the human element under the heat of the gun. Then someone will tell me something, or they’ll tell Aaron [Dill] something, and we’ll bring it back to the wedge team. We can change that, work on that, modify it, get it right, without mucking up all that we have. That’s how we improve. “

For Vokey, player feedback is extremely important, and it starts with keeping a similar profile from address. As Vokey says, you don’t want to “muck up” something that works.

“We sit there and scratch our heads and get together and say, something’s been working so good, it’s tour-proven for so many years, you know, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… retain the same profile, it’s so very important…a pro will come up and say, ‘What do you got Voke?’ Boom, they put it down right away. Then they hold it up and say, ‘What’s the bounce?'”

Speaking of bounce, and how the profile looks from address, GolfWRX got a look at a number of different lofts, grinds and bounce options at the 2022 American Express this week.

Below is a taste of what the Vokey SM9s look like in-hand, but make sure to click here for all of our photos.

Titleist Vokey SM9 52-degree F-grind

Titleist Vokey SM9 56-degree S-grind

Titleist Vokey SM9 60-degree M-grind

Titleist Vokey SM9 60-degree D-grind

Check out our forum thread for all of the Titleist Vokey SM9 in-hand photos here.

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Equipment

Rory McIlroy spotted testing a new TaylorMade “PROTO” 4-iron at the 2024 Valero Texas Open

Published

21 mins ago

Apr 3, 2024

Andrew Tursky

Now just what do we have here?

On Wednesday at the 2024 Valero Texas Open, GolfWRX.com spotted Rory McIlroy testing a new, mysterious TaylorMade “PROTO” 4-iron.

Clearly, the 4-iron is a prototype, but since it doesn’t say “Rors Proto” or “RM” on it, then maybe it’s a prototype for an upcoming iron release from TaylorMade. Or, maybe it’s an upgrade for a previous or existing iron model from the company.

For reference, the photo below shows what McIlroy’s previous P-760 4-iron looks like…

If the new prototype was an upgrade on the former P-760 design, that would certainly be a large design departure, aesthetically speaking. It’s not impossible, but the new proto definitely looks significantly different.

McIlroy’s new proto – aesthetically, at least – looks more similar to TaylorMade’s P7MC irons, a model that Collin Morikawa uses for his 5 and 6 irons, as pictured below.

The new proto is also reminiscent of TaylorMade’s old P-750 and P-770 irons:

So what could McIlroy’s new TaylorMade “Proto” be? Is it a one-off prototype for McIlroy? Is it a re-design of an older model? Is it a harbinger of a bigger release in the future?

What is it?!

Unfortunately, TaylorMade hasn’t yet commented publicly on the prototype iron, so for now, we wait. And enjoy the photos of McIlroy testing it on Wednesday in San Antonio.

Here’s what it looks like from address…

And here’s what McIlroy’s numbers looked like while testing it on the range…

Uhh, yeah. Those are pretty good 4-iron numbers.

Will McIlroy make the switch into the new prototype 4-iron this week? That remains to be seen, but it should be noted that it was the only 4-iron in his bag on Wednesday.

*We’ll update this post as further information becomes available

See what GolfWRX members are saying about the TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron here, plus more photos!

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