Equipment
7 equipment takeaways from the PGA Tour Champions (including Bernhard Langer’s INCREDIBLE iron setup)
During most weeks, GolfWRX.com reports live from the practice rounds of PGA Tour events, but occasionally we check out the Korn Ferry Tour, LPGA Tour, and PGA Tour Champions as well. To be honest, I personally think most amateurs can learn way more from the equipment setups on the LPGA and Champions Tour, but that’s another story for another day. I’ll save the gear lessons and get right to the seriously cool, custom, and throwback equipment that I spotted recently at Phoenix Country Club for the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Below are my 7 equipment takeaways from going inside the ropes at the Champions Tour season finale.
More photos from the Charles Schwab Cup Championship
1) Miguel Angel’s fairway wood faces are DIMED out
Miguel Angel Jimenez uses three different Ping G425 Max fairway woods (14.5, 17.5 and 20.5 degrees), and each of them have similar wear marks directly in the center of the face – aside from the 7 wood, which has a slight skymark near the crown.
We also got a close look at the type of cigar that Jimenez smokes, if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s a Chateau de la Fuente Opus X Rare Estate Reserve from 1992, for those curious.
Miguel Angel Jimenez 2022 WITB (Charles Schwab Cup)
2) Stickers are a viable way to customize your clubs
Rocco Mediate customizes his Ping G400 driver using stickers, while his Artisan wedges are stamped the old-fashioned way.
See more of Rocco’s bag setup here
3) 50 Cent’s new favorite Champions Tour golfer?
Y.E. Yang’s custom “Yangsta” Vokey wedge deserves a remix of rapper 50 Cent’s popular “What Up, Gangsta?” song.
What up, Yangsta?
And, as always, his bag is so packed with hybrids that his longest iron the bag is a 7-iron!
More photos of Y.E. Yang’s bag, and more
4) K.J. Choi bag update
It’s always fun to see what clubs K.J. Choi is using, because he seems to switch it up so often. Most recently, he was using Srixon’s brand new ZX7 MKII irons, with a small strip of lead tape on the back cavity.
More photos of K.J. Choi’s bag
5) A TaylorMade xFT ZTP wedge spotted in the wild
When I was heading toward Padraig Harrington’s bag to see what irons and wedges he was playing these days, I was NOT expecting to see an old TaylorMade XFT ZTP 58-degree wedge from 2010. I can’t help but get nostalgic seeing old clubs like this still being used by professionals.
Check out more photos of Padraig’s setup here
6) Goosen’s putter
Retief Goosen’s gamer putter used to be an Odyssey O-Works 2-ball. I’m not sure you can consider it a 2-ball putter anymore, since the crown is completely blacked out with a single white alignment line. Now it’s just the Odyssey O-Works “Goose Proto,” as I like to call it.
7) Bernhard’s tools
Bernhard Langer doesn’t use iron “sets,” per se, because he mostly crafts his bag setup by selecting individual clubs that are tasked with specific jobs and yardages to hit. As such, most of his irons are custom built exactly to his preferences. He uses Adams Idea Pro hybrids, Tour Edge Exotics CBX Forged long irons, Artisan Golf 8-9 irons, and a custom Tour Edge Exotics BL Proto pitching wedge. It’s seriously fascinating to analyze his clubs.
If you want to know more about his process and his work with master craftsman Mike Taylor at Artisan Golf, check out this story I wrote a few years back for pgatour.com.
He also uses an Odyssey White Hot 2-ball, with a heaping of lead tape on the sole and a permanent markered thick black line on the crown. As for his grip on the longer putter, he uses two split Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips.
Incredible.
More photos from the Charles Schwab Cup Championship
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Equipment
Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (5/7/24): Mizuno 245 irons
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 Mizuno 245 irons.
From the seller: (@JB_007): “1. Mizuno Pro 245 – $1000 –> 950/obo
- Purchased brand new – they have 36 holes on them, with probably 10 premium range balls. Great set of irons, I just am looking to go another way right now.
- 5-PW –> stock L/L/L
- Project X LS 6.5
- Stock MCC Mizuno Grips.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Mizuno 245 irons
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
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Whats in the Bag
Peter Kuest WITB 2024 (May)
- Peter Kuest what’s in the bag accurate as of CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X
5-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (19 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 85 6.5
Irons: Srixon ZX U (2), Srixon Z-Forged II (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3
Wedges: Cleveland RTX6 ZipCore Tour Rack (52-MID 10, 56-MID 10, 60-FULL 9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Peter Kuest’s clubs here.
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Whats in the Bag
Kelly Kraft WITB 2024 (May)
- Kelly Kraft’s what’s in the bag accurate as of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Red 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X Denali White 70 TX
Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Synergy Blue
Irons: Srixon ZX U Mk II (23 degrees), Callaway X Forged Star (5-PW)
Shaft: Project X IO 6.0
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-08M, 60-08M)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Odyssey Versa 2-Ball Prototype
Grip: Odyssey Garsen Quad Tour
Grips: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Kraft’s equipment here.
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Donna Young
Dec 2, 2022 at 11:22 am
How about showing us what’s in the bags of LPGA players???? I had hoped you would at least share the LPGA players winners of the Majors bag set up. As you perviously stated the majority of readers could learn a great deal more from the set of LPGA Player’s and Champion tour players bag set ups.
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Benny
Nov 22, 2022 at 4:42 pm
so cool and well done. Thank you. Keep them coming please!!
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