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Insider info on Titleist’s new 2-wood + 10 interesting gear photos from The Players Championship

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Welcome to The 2024 Players Championship at the famed Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

TPC Sawgrass is home to one of the most exciting and nerve-racking par 3’s in all of golf; the Island Green at 17. It’s where dreams and nightmares come true.

The 71st hole of the event is sure to produce some drama, but there was also some early-week drama in the world of golf equipment in the lead-up to the tournament.

Titleist dropped a surprise 2-wood, SuperStroke unveiled a St. Patrick’s Day grip, Lucas Glover made a shocking putter switch, Taylor Montgomery took us into the new-age of green-reading technology, and much more.

Check out our top-10 equipment photos from the week below, and don’t forget to check out all of our photos from The 2024 Players Championship here.

1) Cam Young tests out Titleist’s new 2-wood

Last summer, Cameron Young and the Titleist design team began prototyping a new 2-wood to fit his eye, and provide a second option off the tee that produces about 8-10 mph less speed than his driver.

This week at The Players, Young finally got to officially test out the new creation. Although the 2-wood is still very much a prototype – with no certain sites on hitting the retail market – Young approved of the new design, and it might even make it into his bag for competition this week.

I wrote about Young’s experimental 2-wood in-depth over on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, but here’s what Titleist Tour rep J.J. Van Wezenbeeck had to say about the new prototype product:

“We had some discussion with Cam Young that he was looking for something that was a little more optimized off the tee,” Van Wezenbeeck told GolfWRX.com. “So, Tom Bennett – who’s the principal engineer for our fairway woods and hybrids – spoke with him. He had designed some internal prototypes of 2-woods in the past, and we went through a discussion of what type of volume (size) we would be looking for, what type of loft we would be looking for, and what type of performance.

“(Young) was looking for a certain ball speed and yardage gap from his driver. One of the things for him with the 3-wood is he wanted something with a little more volume that he felt more confident off the tee with, so he was looking for a little bigger footprint and something that was a little bit more penetrating than some of the 3-woods he’s played in the past. This will be a club he’ll hit 90 percent off the tee, versus the ground, so for the golf courses that set up for that, that’s what he’s looking for…

“This may or may not ever come to retail. It’s a chance for us to learn and put it in future products that may not be exactly this … It has forward and aft CG (center of gravity), similar to our TSR4, and we’re just seeing where that is shaking out, like do players prefer the forward or back CG? What setting are we ending up in?

“We had less than 10 heads this week. We’re truly trying to just learn about this product and who’s it for, and what type of performance variables do we want and need. The great part is this is the first week with it, and we’re getting lots of positive feedback on performance, on sound, on looks. All of those seem to be checking a lot of boxes.”

Click here to see more photos of the 2-wood

2) Taylor Montgomery tries out the PuttView X goggles

Taylor Montgomery, who’s currently ranked 7th in Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA Tour in 2024, tested out the PuttView X augmented reality goggles on the putting green this week at TPC Sawgrass.

Using special software and Microsoft’s HoloLens2, PuttView’s X visualizer glasses help golfers see things like the ideal line, setup lines, and contours.

If putting is a mix of art and science, this is certainly covering the science end of the spectrum. It’s cool to see one of the best putters in golf embracing technology like this, and it will be interesting to see if Montgomery continues to use this in the future, or whether it was a one-time experiment.

See what GolfWRX members are saying about the PuttView X goggles here

3) SuperStroke gets festive ahead of St. Patty’s Day

SuperStroke unveiled a custom grip design this week ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, which is on March 17, but be on the lookout before then for information on purchasing one of the grips for yourself.

Rumor has it that Irishman Shane Lowry received one this week; we’ll see if it makes it onto his putter, or if it remains a festive keepsake.

See what GolfWRX members are saying about the SuperStroke St. Patty’s Day special grip here

4) Scottie Scheffler speaks on his winning Spider

Scottie Scheffler blazed the field at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational during his first week using a new TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallet putter, after months and months of putter testing.

Click here to read my full breakdown of Scheffler’s new putter over on PGATOUR.com, or continue reading to see what he had to say about it on Tuesday during his press conference at The Players:

“I had tried a Spider during the playoffs last year,” he said. “It was a little bit of a different type of Spider than the one I used last week. At times last year I struggled lining the ball up in the middle of the face, so I lined the ball up on the toe sometimes, and I struggled with a tiny bit of a heel strike, and that was just — you know, just became kind of my miss. Like if I was fighting a duck hook off the tee, I was fighting a little bit of a heel miss with the putter…

“This Spider putter is really easy for me to line up. I don’t have to use the line on the ball. I line the putter up really well, and I line up in the middle of the face, and pretty much as simple as that. Kind of gives me just a really good visual…it’s good for me visually, and I like the way the ball comes off the face, and so it’s helping me just be more kind of outward with my putting than focusing on what’s going on right here, just focusing on the picture of the putt.”

See Scottie Scheffler’s full WITB for 2024

5) Ping unveils special-edition staff bags

New this week, Ping staffers (and their caddies) are using new special edition gold-black-and-white PLD staff bags in celebration of the success of the company’s PLD (Putting Lab Design) putters that continue to gain popularity on Tour and in the marketplace.

See more photos of the special edition staff bags here

6) Collin Morikawa speaks on his new Logan Olson prototype putter

Last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Collin Morikawa switched into a new Logan Olson prototype putter.

This week at The Players, we caught up with Morikawa to get his take on the new design. Here’s what he had to say:

“Yeah, I’ve switched putters my entire career, but, you know, just what we’ve seen, I like how it rolls off the face,” Morikawa said. “When you actually get the data, it’s incredible how much better it rolls, even though the TaylorMade rolled in insanely good. It’s nearly the exact same putter, the same look. We cleaned up a few things that I actually never looked at.

“What’s crazy about professional golf is that we have everything at our disposal. Like, you can change anything. You can change all this, change all that, and, you kind of go down this path sometimes where you’re like, it’s too much and you don’t really know what you need. And sometimes what’s there is good enough.

“But it’s cool. You know, we went through a lot of little tweaking here and there, seeing the face, not seeing it, the dot, and he just cleaned it all up. So I’m loving it … it’s been fun. He’s [Olson] incredibly smart. He has a knack for just asking all the questions on what you’re trying to see and what you’re trying to get out of a putter, and, it’s been awesome.”

7) Lucas Glover goes back in the LAB

After switching to L.A.B. Golf’s Mezz.1 Max broomstick putter last season, Glover reeled off two straight wins at the Wyndham Championship and the FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Well, as confirmed on Thursday at The Players, Glover has officially switched into a new L.A.B. DF3 prototype broomstick putter.

As the story goes, L.A.B. Golf gave Glover a DF3 prototype broomstick putter at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week to try out. The head is made with additional volume and weight ports on the sole to balance out the weighting of the longer putter.

Since the putter wasn’t technically meant to go into play yet, Glover’s version is made of 6061 aluminum, and doesn’t even yet have the typical anodized finish for durability protection. However, Glover liked the putter so much that he wanted to put in straight into play. While L.A.B. is putting the finishing touches on an anodized version of the head, Glover is busy using the prototype in The Players Championship.

See more photos of Glover’s new L.A.B. Golf DF3 putter here

8) Tom Kim might be going back to blade

Unfortunately, Tom Kim had to withdraw from the event due to illness on Thursday, but earlier in the week, we saw him yet again experimenting with a custom Scotty Cameron blade-style putter, after most recently using a center-shafted Scotty Cameron mallet.

Clearly, Kim is still in putter testing mode, so when he starts feeling better and gets back out onto the course, we’ll keep an eye on what putter makes in into his bag next.

9) Toulon’s new Small Batch – Texas

This week at The Players, we spotted a new Toulon Small Batch Texas putter, made of high-quality 904L stainless steel, with a brilliant black PVD finish and a super-fine double fly face milling.

The limited Small Batch putters are currently available for $1800.

10) Custom Players headcovers, with swag

Swag Golf consistently makes custom covers for big events on the PGA Tour, so of course they had Nick Hardy covered this week with some headcover heat.

Swag’s signature skull design got the full island treatment, and the putter cover is made in a gold colorway, in honor of The Players Championship Gold Trophy (which weighs 7.6 pounds and is made of sterling silver and 24K gold vermeil.

And, with that, we say goodbye to The 2024 Players Championship and the island green. We’ll see you next week on the Gulf side of Florida for the 2024 Valspar Championship at Innisbrook.

See all of our photos from The 2024 Players Championship here

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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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Whats in the Bag

Steve Stricker WITB 2024 (April)

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Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees, C4 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 7.2 X

3-wood: Titleist 915F (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX

Hybrid: Titleist 816 H1 (17 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 9.2 X

Irons: Titleist T200 (3, 4), Titleist T100 (5-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 (46-10F @55), Titleist Vokey SM10 (54-10S @53), Titleist Vokey SM4 (60 @59)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 w/Sensicore

Putter: Odyssey White Hot No. 2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Grip Rite

Check out more in-hand photos of Steve Stricker’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Alex Fitzpatrick WITB 2024 (April)

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  • Alex Fitzpatrick what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. 

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X

Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 TX

Irons: Ping iCrossover (2), Titleist T100 (4-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 9 TX (2), Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 56-12D, 60-08M)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X

Putter: Bettinardi SS16 Dass

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Check out more in-hand photos of Alex Fitzpatrick’s clubs here.

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Equipment

What’s the perfect mini-driver/shaft combo? – GolfWRXers discuss

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In our forums, our members have been discussing Mini-Drivers and accompanying shafts. WRXer ‘JamesFisher1990’ is about to purchase a BRNR Mini and is torn on what shaft weight to use, and our members have been sharing their thoughts and set ups in our forum.

Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

  • PARETO: “New BRNR at 13.5. Took it over to TXG (Club Champ but TXG will always rule) in Calgary for a fit. Took the head down to 12, stuck in a Graphite Design AD at 3 wood length and 60g. Presto- numbers that rivaled my G430Max but with waaaaay tighter dispersion. Win.”
  • driveandputtmachine: “Still playing a MIni 300.  The head was only 208, so I ordered a heavier weight and play it at 3 wood length.  I am playing a Ventus Red 70.   I play 70 grams in my fairways.  I use it mainly to hit draws off the tee.  When I combine me, a driver, and trying to hit a draw it does not work out well most of the time.  So the MIni is for that. As an aside, I have not hit the newest BRNR, but the previous model wasn’t great off the deck.  The 300 Mini is very good off the deck.”
  • JAM01: “Ok, just put the BRNR in the bag along side a QI10 max and a QI10 3 wood. A load of top end redundancy. But, I have several holes at my two home courses where the flight and accuracy of the mini driver helps immensely. Mine is stock Proforce 65 at 13.5, I could see a heavier shaft, but to normal flex, as a nice alternative.”

Entire Thread: “What’s the perfect Mini-Driver/Shaft combo? – GolfWRXers discuss”

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