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TOUR REPORT: J.R. Smith’s purple Bettinardi, JT’s new 1-of-1 Scotty, and Ping Raw wedges spotted

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Welcome to Wilmington Country Club in Delaware, host site of the 2022 BMW Championship. While the golf media was abuzz this week over a secretive player meeting that Tiger Woods flew in to attend, I was busy checking out the equipment that BMW Championship participants had in the bag.

Unexpectedly for this time of year, there were plenty of interesting gear switches, new products spotted, and fresh custom one-off prototypes to hold us over until next season. Justin Thomas made a surprising putter change, we dove into former NBA player J.R. Smith’s golf bag to find an unbelievable (and very purple) 1-of-1 putter, and Ping unveiled fresh raw wedges.

Let’s stop wasting time and get right into this week’s Tour Report from the BMW Championship.

JT’s ultra-custom Scotty Cameron putter

 

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It seemed that Justin Thomas was perfectly content with his custom 1-of-1 Scotty Cameron Phantom T5 putter that he used to win the 2022 PGA Championship. That was until Tuesday at the BMW Championship when the Scotty Cameron rep delivered him another custom 1-of-1 T5 Proto with a custom black sole plate, his logo in the back cavity, a custom Tour Only “Thumb’s Up” logo and his initials on the outer toe, cherry bombs on the back bumpers, a knuckle neck, and a lightly milled face with some more cherry bombs on it.

Tough life switching from one custom Tour Only putter to another, huh?

The custom additions are undeniably awesome, especially if you’re JT, but the real purpose for the switch is the shorter length; the new 1-of-1 is 0.5 inches shorter than the old one. He’s switching from 34.5 inches into 34 inches.

JT explained his reasoning for the shorter length on Wednesday, saying his arms and shoulders sit more comfortably with a slightly shorter length.

 

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GolfWRX profiled the switch over on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report this week.

More in-hand photos of JT’s new putter here

Ping unveils new Glide Pro Forged Raw wedges

It’s been years since Ping has offered a raw wedge option, but with enough player demand on Tour, Ping finally delivered. This week, Ping unveiled a slew of Glide Forged Pro Raw wedge options for Tour players. Joaquin Niemann and Taylor Moore wasted no time putting a set of them in the bag.

According to Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates, the raw wedges will rust over time, so we’ll keep an eye on how long that takes and update with photos at a later juncture. Until then, enjoy the photos of Niemann’s wedges below, or check out the full lineup of lofts and grinds here.

NBA star J.R. Smith’s purple Bettinardi, and full WITB

 

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J.R. Smith showed up at the 2022 BMW Championship Pro-Am with dyed orange hair, a matching orange sweater, and a Rolex watch with the diamonds dancing. It was his putter that stole the show, though.

We went deep into the details of the putter over on PGATOUR.com, with comments from J.R. himself, so if you want more info than just the photos, I suggest checking that out. But if you get stuck fawning over the in-hand photos, I completely understand.

Between J.R. and JT this week, it’d be a tough decision which custom one-off putter I like better. I’ll leave that argument to the comments instead.

J.R. Smith WITB

Driver: Titleist TSi3 (8 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-IZ 6 X

3-wood: Titleist TSi3 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-BB 7 X

Hybrid: Titleist TSi3 (20 degrees)
Shaft: KBS Tour Hybrid Prototype 95 X

Irons: Titleist T100 (4-9 iron)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Onyx X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (46-10F, 52-12F, 56-10S and 60-04L)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Onyx X100

Putter: Bettinardi Inovai 6.0 “J.R. Smith” custom purple

No Laying Up co-founder Chris “Soly” Solomon makes an appearance

While some may argue Solomon needs a putter upgrade or re-shaft ASAP, I personally believe…well, you’re probably right. That being said, I love the look and character of old and used equipment so much that I’ll give him a pass. Plus, it takes some serious Tour Sauce to show up to a Pro-Am with that flatstick.

In case you don’t know who he is, Solomon is the co-founder and co-host of the No Laying Up podcast. He played alongside J.R. Smith and Tony Finau in the Wednesday Pro-Am, and he was flashing some really cool, old-school inspired headcovers.

Check out all the photos of Soly’s gear here 

Additional photos from Boise

While I was holding it down on the east coast at the BMW Championship, GolfWRX photographer Greg Moore was out in Idaho covering the 2022 Albertsons Boise Open.

And cover it he did.

Greg took 27 photo galleries full of WITB photos, as well as 5 other general galleries, and a forum thread of Scotty Cameron’s custom potato headcovers.

If you wanted Korn Ferry Tour photos, you definitely got them this week. Check out all of the photos here.

Cameron Young’s absurd driver numbers

 

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I’d be curious to know whether Cameron Young would be willing to trade driver launch numbers with me. I don’t have much else to add, those numbers are perfect.

And with that, we say goodbye to Delaware…and Boise. We’ll see you next week in Hotlanta for the Tour Championship where the big money is on the line.

See all of our photos from the BMW Championship and Alberstons Boise Open

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.

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Equipment

Details on Jason Day’s latest prototype Avoda iron setup

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Jason Day is back in his V3 Avoda prototype irons. That’s not new for him. He’s been switching between irons this year to help as he goes through phases of what shots he’s looking to hit. One set will shape the ball more naturally for the Australian, while the other helps straighten up his ball flight.

What is new this week at the 2026 Memorial Tournament, hosted at Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club, is the concept of progressive swing weighting through Day’s iron setup. Each head has now been weighted using lead tape through the longer irons to increase the swing weight.

“We’ve seen that the majority of players, as the ball moves forwards in their stance, fractionally increasing the swing weight just helps delay the release a little bit,” said Tom Bailey, Avoda Golf Founder, when GolfWRX caught up with him to talk about Day’s newest endeavor. ” It gives them more time to get to that forward ball position.”

It’s a pretty simple philosophy for a company that does some really in-depth club concepts. Basically, the further back the ball position is, the more a golfer will need to release the clubhead earlier to square it up. Then, as the ball gets further forward in the stance, the time to release the club extends, and the golfer will need to do it later in the sequence. 

Bailey likes to think of it as Avoda’s own take on moment of inertia matching, where clubs are built to require the same amount of force.

“We just did some testing over the last couple of weeks and found that he (Day) does get along better with a progressively heavier swing weight,” Bailey added. “He gets fractionally heavier by about half a swing weight, so he gets a few swing weights through the set and then through to his woods; they continue progressing.”

Day’s scoring clubs start at around D3 in swing weight, and then, with a little Andrew Von Lossow lead tape action, he transitions up to D5 in his 4-iron, which works perfectly as Day’s 7-wood is D6. Bailey told GolfWRX that Day’s woods continue to progress up to D9 in his driver.

The progressive weighting isn’t the only new option in Day’s bag for Muirfield Village. He’s added a brand-new sand wedge, or should it say sand iron.

“He’s hitting his pitching wedge and his 9-iron and going, these just go through the turf so good, I wish I could have this in my wedges as well,” Bailey added. “… So, we started with making him an iron-head gap wedge. And he used that straight away instead of a wedge-head … He called and said, ‘I don’t really open the face of my sand wedge much either, so why don’t I just have my sand wedge the same as my irons.’ So we built him the exact same head shape, and sole as he’s got on his irons.”

The sand wedge in Day’s bag is similar to the blade prototype irons, which he used earlier this year at the RBC Heritage, if you’re able to keep up.

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Equipment

Odyssey extends Damascus Milled lineup with 3 new putters

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Odyssey Golf announced Tuesday that the already popular Damascus Milled putter lineup is getting more options.

Initially launched back in April, only in a Damascus Milled #7 head (in plumbers or double bend configurations), the family grows to four with a One Wide, Two and Rossie S shape, all available in the second limited-edition drop at retail on June 6th.

“Damascus Steel is a beautiful material, and the patterns tell the story, because every one is different” said Odyssey General Manager, Jacob Davidson. “But what stands out is that  as beautiful as these putters are, the feedback from Tour has been the exceptional feel of these putters. We wanted to deliver the most premium performance-driven putter we’ve ever done at Odyssey. When you look at this product, we have so much confidence because there is not one thing we’d do different. On this one we really took our time over  the last couple years to try to perfect the design.”

Created from a layered construction of multiple steel alloys, this Damascus Steel insert is forged, folded and pressed to create a unique, striking pattern in every piece. Think of it like a fingerprint. Each Damascus construction comes with its own 1-of-1 style pattern. No offerings will ever look the same.

The layered structure, combined with a specialized heat treatment, delivers a finely tuned, highly responsive feel different from other insert materials. The Damascus steel is audibly different compared to other inserts, potentially with slightly more feedback. Odyssey also uses AI-designed back contours to maintain consistent ball speed across the face, blending traditional craftsmanship with modern tech.

Each head in the line is precision-milled from stainless steel and features a blasted silver finish to complement the Damascus insert and sole plates.

With Tour feedback, Odyssey has also developed, in collaboration with Golf Pride, a grip featuring meticulously crafted edges, pistol shaping and a classic modern tour feel.

Odyssey Damascus Milled One Wide
Odyssey Damascus Milled Two
Odyssey Damascus Milled Rossie S
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Equipment

L.A.B. Golf launches new VZN.1i putter

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L.A.B. Golf has been the pioneer when it comes to Lie Angle Balanced putters for years now. When you talk to another golfer and zero torque putters comes up, as it will since it is the hottest thing in golf, the first brand out of their mouthes is L.A.B. Golf. Currently their putter line up has something for every golfer, wether your like blades or mallets. But the company has a new creation for golfers that we saw out on tour just a few weeks ago and is now available to us, the VZN.1i putter.

One of the big stories with the new VZN.1i putter is alignment in the form of the shape. L.A.B. has always given us plenty of alignment options in their putters with different line formations and shapes that can be laser etched onto the top of the putter. With this new design they used the shape of the head and the open cavity in the middle to help enhance the alignment for players. These shapes help players lock into their intended line to improve accuracy and concistency.

“VZN.1i was approached formulaically by combining everything we’ve learned from the success of previous L.A.B. Golf models into a familiar mallet shape that’s easy on the eyes and even easier to putt with,” said Cameron Day, Senior Vice President of Product at L.A.B. Golf. “Every L.A.B. putter is engineered to roll the ball on its intended line through Lie Angle Balance technology. With VZN.1i, we took things a step further by simplifying another critical aspect of putting: alignment.”

Like most of the other L.A.B. mallet putters the VZN.1i is machined from a solid block of aluminum and features a 303 stainless steel face insert. Steel face inserts on all L.A.B. putters not only enhance the sound and feel but they improve ball speed for better distance control. The new shaping also offers two ways of picking up your ball, using the sole or the rear flange can scoop up the ball. The company is offering the VZN.1i with a 1.5 degree forward shaft lean or a vertical shaft option in order to fit more golfers. Each VZN.1i is hand balanced and 10 other stages before it is complete and ready to ship. L.A.B. has its custom program where the golfer can select their length and lie but also head color, shaft upgrades, and grips to make their VZN.1i fit them perfectly.

The VZN.1i is available now starting at $499 for stock models and $599 for custom.

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