Welcome to Detroit, a.k.a the Motor City, a.k.a. The D, a.k.a Motown a.k.a. The 313, a.k.a Detroit has a lot of nicknames, but we can move along now.

Detroit is home to some of the most passionate automotive gearheads in the world, but this story is for the golf equipment gearheads. Car people are still welcome to read, you’ll just need to hamper your expectations; this is about golf clubs.

As the PGA Tour headed to Detroit Golf Club for the 2022 Rocket Mortgage, GolfWRX was live on site during the practice round days to figure out what clubs the pros are playing, what changes they’re making, and why.

No sense wasting any more time on the intro, let’s dive right into this week’s Tour Report.

Tony Finau’s hilarious reason for switching up golf ball markings between holes

Tony Finau, fresh off his 3M Open win last week, spoke to GolfWRX at the Rocket Mortgage about his golf ball markings.

His unique markings are two-fold:

1. The five-line markings on the side help Finau with his aim, alignment and stroke feedback.
2. He marks the front of the golf ball with the initials of one of his five kids.

How does Finau decide which child he’s going to represent on his golf ball, though? His explanation is hilarious.

“I start with one (kid) and see how they perform,” Finau told GolfWRX on Tuesday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “If they’re not performing well, I just start switching them out. I’m pretty lenient, I’ll give them some time, but right out of the gate, if it’s lip-out and lip-out in a couple holes, it’s the next one up.

“The good thing is I have five kids, so usually one of them is working, at least.”

Read our full story about Finau over on PGATOUR.com

Webb Simpson switches back into classics

Simpson was in our equipment news in May thanks to his switch to Titleist T100 irons. The changeup was notable because Simpson has always preferred blade irons throughout his career, but the T100’s are cavity-backs.

Well, the change wasn’t for the longterm apparently, since Simpson switched out the T100 irons for his old Titleist 680 Forged MB irons, which were first released to the public all the way back in 2003. He told GolfWRX he made the switch a few weeks after the 2022 PGA Championship because the T100’s were simply too hot.

Find out why Simpson uses a “5.5 iron,” or see more photos of Simpson’s irons in our GolfWRX Forums

Rickie Fowler goes back to his “Tiger Woods” putter

After sending his classic putter to “timeout,” and a year of steady experimentation, Fowler has returned to his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS prototype putter.

He switched back to the putter at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, but we caught up with Fowler in Detroit this week to hear why.

“Just ran its course (with the previous putters) and ready to go back to the trusty,” Fowler told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday. “I mean, I’ve kind of done it through my whole career where I’ll have something for a bit, then go back to something different, change it up.

“She might have needed a little timeout, but hopefully she’s gonna heat up.”

Fowler first used the putter in 2014, and what makes the putter so special is it actually came from a stash of German Stainless Steel (GSS) putters that were stashed away for Tiger Woods. Yes, that means Fowler’s Scotty Cameron putter was made for Tiger, but with the proper permissions, Fowler was able to borrow one. Eight years later, it’s still in play.

Also, a quick moment of appreciation for GolfWRX photographer Greg Moore. The fact that he shot in-hand photos of Fowler’s original putter in 2014, and again in 2022, is a testament to how long he’s been providing GolfWRX with the best WITB photos on the Internet.

See more photos of Rickie’s new-old putter here

SPOTTED: Henrik Norlander’s PXG 0317 ST Milled blade prototypes

We had some breaking news this week at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic. Check out our TikTok post below for everything we know about the unseen irons:

@golfwrx SPOTTED: PXG 0311 ST Milled blade prototype irons, and why Henrik Norlander is using them at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic #detroit #golf #irons #prototype #new #spotted #golftiktok ? original sound – golfwrx

For more photos of the irons, check out our GolfWRX Forum thread here.

Geoff Ogilvy, a putter update

When I saw Geoff Ogilvy’s name on the field list for the 2022 Rocket Mortgage, I couldn’t wait to see what putter he had in the bag. Ogilvy is “scratching the itch” by playing competitive golf two times in the recent three weeks after taking a four-year hiatus.

GolfWRX hasn’t caught up with Ogilvy in four years, though, and we’ve always known him to have an awesome putter. He didn’t disappoint.

OK, so maybe it’s not AS cool as his rusted out custom Scotty Cameron he used back in the day…

But it’s still great to see Ogilvy back out on the PGA Tour, and rolling the rock with some Scotty Cameron heat.

Check out Ogilvy’s full 2022 WITB here!

Sahith Theegala tests out a…mallet putter?

On Tuesday, Theegala, who’s typically a blade putter user, was out on the practice greens hitting putts with a custom Ping PLD mallet putter with five different alignment lines on it.

“Hmm, that’s weird,” I thought to myself.

As it turns out, it actually is pretty weird for him. Theegala told me on Tuesday that he’s only used a mallet putter for two rounds in his entire life, and both rounds came at last year’s Korn Ferry Tour finals.

While he wasn’t positive on switching, he called it a 1-to-2 week experiment if anything. We’ll have to keep an eye on Theegala over the next few weeks to see what he ends up deciding.

See more photos of Sahith’s Ping PLD mallet putter here

And with that, we say goodbye to the Motor City. We’ll see you next week in Greensboro, N.C. for the 2022 Wyndham Championship.

Want more equipment news? Check out the following links:

• GolfWRX Instagram
• GolfWRX TikTok
• All of our photos from the 2022 Rocket Mortgage