Equipment

Dustin Johnson explains why he’s using a 9-wood at the 2022 U.S. Open

Published

1 year ago

Jun 16, 2022

Back in May, at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club, it was revealed on the telecast that Dustin Johnson was using a 9-wood for his tee shot on the par-3 8th hole. More specifically, as GolfWRX learned shortly after, the club was a TaylorMade Stealth 9-wood with a whopping 24 degrees of loft (roughly the same amount as a standard 4-iron these days).

In the past several years, 7-woods and 9-woods have become widespread on Tour, and they’ve even started sneaking into the bags of some of the game’s longest hitters and best ball strikers.

Prior to the 2022 PGA Championship, Johnson had already made the leap into the realm of high-lofted fairways, having used a TaylorMade SIM 7-wood and a TaylorMade Stealth 7-wood over the past few years.

But the 9-wood was new for him at the time.

Flash forward to Wednesday at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and Johnson still has the 9-wood in his bag. He still keeps a TaylorMade P730 “DJ Proto” blade 3-iron around for certain conditions and courses, but the 9-wood is a first-string starter in his gamer setup, and he has it in play this week at the U.S. Open.

Interestingly, TaylorMade has also confirmed that Johnson doesn’t have a 3 wood in the bag this week, instead opting for a driver-5 wood-7 wood-9 wood setup.

Curious about his thoughts on the 9-wood, and what benefits he sees from such a high-lofted wood, I asked Johnson himself on Wednesday at the 2022 U.S. Open.

Here’s everything he had to say:

“I like my 7-wood so much that I asked Keith (Sbarbaro, the VP of Tour Operations at TaylorMade), ‘Do we have a 9-wood?’

“He’s like, ‘Yeah, we got one.’

“So he got me one and he built it up.

“I started hitting it and it’s…I hit it a lot better than I can hit a 3-iron. More so if I have to hit it into a green; it’s a little bit easier to stop it. I still bring my 3-iron with me for golf courses where I need it off the tee. Probably at like the Open Championship I’ll use a 3 iron instead of [the 9 wood]. It just takes the place of my 3 iron, which honestly…there’s not much difference between a 3 and a 4 iron as far as carry wise. I think a 4 iron is a little easier to get up in the air. So, for me, it just fit really nicely in the bag.

I hit a nice high cut with it, but I can turn it over if I need to. It’s a little bit easier for me to turn it over if I need, especially getting it up in the air and turning it over if I have to. I mean, I can hit a low draw with a 3 iron. It’s gonna roll forever. But to hit one and stop it on the green is a little bit difficult.”

With that being said, I pose a related question to amateur golfers (regardless of handicap): If Dustin Johnson says a 9-wood is easier to hit than a 3-iron, and that his 3-iron carries about the same distance as his 4-iron, then why would any of us still willingly use a 3-iron? I’ll leave that up to the comment section.

DJ’s full WITB setup at the 2022 U.S. Open

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Related Topics:Dustin Johnson TaylorMade us open

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Tommy Fleetwood’s TF Proto “2.5-iron” at the 2022 U.S. Open

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Never bagging a hybrid? – GolfWRXers discuss

Andrew Tursky

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

5 Comments

Gordy3279

Jul 5, 2022 at 8:57 am

in all reality today’s 4 iron is a 4+ or a weak 3 iron. I have a solid 4 degree gap on all my irons from 50 degrees to 22 degrees. I do carry a 16.5 4 wood and a 13 degree 3 wood. On some courses there are certain tee shots when I need a good 220-230 shot off the tee so I carry an old 2 iron or in today’s golf a “driving iron”.

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Imafitter

Jun 17, 2022 at 11:46 am

Several centuries back I carried a Callaway 7 Heaven and Divine 9, as they were easier to hit than long irons, and hybrids didn’t exist. Today I go from driver to 5w then hybrids, starting my irons at 5. However, personally I find hitting out of the rough much easier with an iron than fairway wood or hybrid, but I am seriously considering replacing my 4h and 5 iron with a 7 & 9 wood. Just depends on the distances.

Reply Report comment
Justin

Jun 16, 2022 at 11:51 pm

I hit my 4 iron 210. I hit my 3 iron 230. 250 off a tee. That’s not about the same distance.

Reply Report comment
- birdiedancer
  
  Jun 17, 2022 at 7:09 am
  
  ok pro, but the article was about DJ’s bag.. so let’s put u and DJ 230 out, you pull your studly 3 iron, DJ pulls his 9 wood while you giggle the wimp is using a 9 wood lol….who hits the green?
  
  Reply Report comment
- Dan
  
  Jun 20, 2022 at 9:02 am
  
  You’re talking about total distance, DJ specifies carry distance. That’s what matters to them when hitting into greens, carry distance.
  
  Reply Report comment

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Whats in the Bag

Lydia Ko WITB 2023 (September)

Published

3 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

Lydia Ko what’s in the bag accurate as of the the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana GT 50 S

3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana PD 60 S

5-wood: Ping G430 Max (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana GT 60 S

Hybrid: Ping G430 (22 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD HY 65 S

Irons: Titleist T200 (5), ProtoConcept CO5 (6-9)
Shafts: AeroTech SteelFiber fc 70

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (46-10F, 48-10F @49, 54-10F, 58-08F @59)
Shafts: AeroTech SteelFiber fc 70 (46), AeroTech SteelFiber fc 80 (48-58)

Putter: Scotty Cameron TG6

Grips: Iomic

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

More photos of Lydia Ko’s WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

Spotted: Amy Yang’s T.P. Mills Fleetwood putter

Published

7 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

Brian Knudson

This week, we spotted Amy Yang with a rare putter in her bag at the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. The putter was made by legendary putter maker T.P. Mills and the head shape is called “Fleetwood.” If you are not familiar with T.P. Mills, the company was founded in 1963 by Truett P. Mills, Sr. who wanted to make a better putter than what was available. His original putters were crafted with basic hand tools in his garage out of of carbon steel. His son David is now crafting the handmade putters after many years learning and working with his father. The company still offers the classic Softtail, Huey, Ming, 8802, and many more putters from his shop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Fleetwood is considered heel-shafted and has a wide flange that blurs the line between blade and mallet. Amy’s Fleetwood features a single sightline on the wide flange and some “snow” stamping on the top of the bumpers. Those bumpers flare up at the toe and heel, pushing weight to the outside for added stability and a balanced feel throughout the stroke. The large back cavity has some snow stamping above “My Wand” text that is stamped and filled with white paint. The topline looks slightly rounded for a softer look and blends in nicely with the width of the putter. A half-shaft offset flow neck is welded to the head while the face features a shallow milling pattern and unique “Mills” stamping near the heel.

The “Super Bullet” sole contains a large oval cavity where material is removed to dial in the desired head weight of the putter. This main cavity is in combination with two additional round cavities out at the toe and heel area. Yang’s Fleetwood is milled from Swiss-German stainless steel, as that is what is stamped into the center of the sole.

A traditional chrome steel shaft is installed and the putter is finished off with a Rosemark 1.52 MFS (microfiber silicone) putter grip in a white and teal.

Check out the rest of our photos from the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship (LPGA)

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Equipment

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (9/27/23): National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground)

Published

9 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

Gianni Magliocco

At GolfWRX, 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 – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground).

From the seller (@cronejt): “Wedges: 50, 54, 60. Wedge heads. Don White Hand Ground. Raw finish, rust can be removed if desired. Highly Custom 1 of 1 stamping. Paid $1200 ($400 per head) for the heads alone. Took same time as iron set 1. Club build was done by Mike at TXG in Toronto. Asking $1000.”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground)

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