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