Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

2 months ago

May 10, 2024

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Whats in the Bag

Marcus Kinhult WITB 2024 (July)

Published

18 hours ago

Jul 11, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Marcus Kinhult what’s in the bag accurate as of the ISCO Championship. Kinhult was deciding between 3-woods. More photos from the event here.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (9 degrees, B1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX 60 TX

3-wood: Titleist TSR2 (15 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana BF 70 TX

See more in-hand photos of Marcus Kinhult’s equipment here.

3-wood: Titleist GT2 (15 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 70 TX

5-wood: Ping G25 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana Blue 80 TX

Irons: Titleist T200 (4), Titleist 620 CB (5-PW)
Shafts: KBS Tour C-Taper 120 S

See more in-hand photos of Marcus Kinhult’s equipment here.

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 54-08M, 58-08M,
Shafts: KBS Tour C-Taper 120 S (50), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue 120 S400 (54-58)

Putter: Odyssey 2-Ball Ten Armlock

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

See more in-hand photos of Marcus Kinhult’s equipment here.

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Equipment

The equipment adjustments that made Davis Thompson a PGA Tour winner

Published

20 hours ago

Jul 11, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from an article our Andrew Tursky filed for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. You can read the full article here.

Thompson entrusts Craig Allan, director of Sea Island’s Golf Performance Center, who works with various PGA TOUR players on their fitting needs. Last year, Thompson informed Allan that something wasn’t right with his irons. He’d been striping his driver with a Titleist ’21 Pro V1 and Titleist TSR3 driver, but he was struggling with distance control with his irons due to low spin, while catching too many fliers out of the rough.

Allan offered Thompson three solutions: weaken the lofts of his current irons, test out some higher-spinning golf balls, and test out different iron heads and shafts. Thompson didn’t want to hit the ball higher with his irons; he wanted to address the golf ball instead. Initially, Thompson decided to change into a Titleist Pro V1 Star prototype golf ball that offers higher spin rates.

Although the ball change provided a nice solution for his iron play, his driver play suffered.

“(At the) Memorial (Tournament presented by Workday) last year, I started playing a spinnier Titleist golf ball, and it was great for my iron setup at the time,” Thompson said. “But kind of over time I saw my driver’s stats kind of go down, which is kind of a strong suit of my game. So we were trying to figure out after Valspar (Championship) this year how we can get the driver back going.”

Following the Valspar, Thompson and Allan got back to work in the testing center. Thompson was ready for Allan’s third option, which meant he would switch back into his previous Titleist Pro V1 ’21 golf ball, restore his driver dominance, and begin looking at different iron heads with weaker lofts and different shafts to gain spin and distance control.

After two weeks of testing different iron head-and-shaft combinations with the lower spinning golf ball, Allan and Thompson decided on the Titleist 620 MB irons (5-9) equipped with True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid Tour Issue X100 shafts, which offer slightly higher spin and launch compared to the True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts that Thompson was playing previously.

Head over to PGATour.com to read the full article.

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Whats in the Bag

Club Junkie WITB league night, week 12: We are back! (hopefully)

Published

23 hours ago

Jul 11, 2024

Brian Knudson

BK says: League play is back, weather permitting, and it feels like I have been away for years! We are going with a few brand new items in the bag this week as I try and figure out the 14 clubs I am taking on my golf weekend in a couple of weeks. Irons are the Ben Hogan PTx Tour, a progressive set that is built around multi-piece long irons and on-piece forged 9 and PW. The driver head isn’t new but the shaft is the brand new Fujikura Ventus Red with VeloCore+ technology. Finally the lob wedge is the Titleist Vokey Wedgeworks 60 A+ grand.

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Red 6x (2024)

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 Tour (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Red 7x (2018)

7-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (20 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8s

Irons: Ben Hogan PTx Tour (4-PW)
Shaft: KBS Tour-V 110 Stiff

Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (50.12F)
Shaft: Nippon Modus Tour 105 Stiff

Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (56.14F)
Shaft: Nippon Modus Tour 105 Stiff

Wedge: Titleist Vokey Wedgeworks (60 A+)
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold S200

Putter: Toulon Chicago
Shaft: Stroke Lab

Ball: Titleist ProV1x

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