Equipment

WRX Insider: Inside the bag of Kevin Chappell

Published

4 years ago

Oct 6, 2020

Over the past several years, equipment sponsorship deals on the PGA Tour have changed dramatically with more players opting to go the “free agent” route and not sign a deal that ties them to a single manufacturer. As this “use what works best” approach continues to pick up steam, Kevin Chappell has become the first tour player to officially partner with brand-agnostic club-fitter True Spec Golf, as it launches its Tour Department Program.

To dial in his new gear, Kevin worked with Tim Briand, True Spec’s Executive Vice President—who we should note took part in our GolfWRX’s fitter panel to help determine our “Best driver 2020“. Interestingly, Chappell went through the same fitting process any other golfer that chooses to get fit at True Spec Golf would go through; using launch monitor data alongside the company’s club component matrix.

I had the opportunity to speak with Tim about what it was like working with Kevin on dialing in his gear, any equipment preferences he had going into the process, and the areas where Kevin saw the greatest improvements.

RB: When you started working with Kevin, did he come in leaning towards certain clubs based on previous experience, or was he looking for a top to bottom overhaul of his equipment?

TB: When we started working with Kevin, he was 100 percent committed to the process of finding the best 14 clubs for him and his game. The one factor we didn’t change and used as a constant during the process was his golf ball—the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash. Kevin was really comfortable with its performance around the greens and the window it created on full shots.

Beyond that, it was game on from top to bottom in figuring out which clubs would ultimately end up is his bag.

RB: How did it work when you started the fitting process?

TB: Like with any golfer that comes to us at True Spec for a fitting, it all began with a conversation around what he likes, and any issues he felt he had with hitting certain shots, distances or trajectories, along with blueprinting his current clubs.

It was through those conversations that Kevin told us his favorite irons he had ever used were his old Nike VR Pro Combos. Since he had worn out and no longer had the short irons we blueprinted the remaining 4-iron from the set that he did have and used that as a testing baseline. For Kevin, that iron checked every box; feel, looks, ground interaction, flight window, everything. As you can see from his WITB, it’s a club he still carries, and in a way it further justifies our agnostic fitting process—if it’s not broken don’t try and fix it!

RB: With that in mind, let’s talk about irons. How did you narrow it down to the final set?

TB: The great thing is Kevin truly came in with an open mind to look at, and test everything. We basically laid out all of the available iron heads and began the process of elimination.

What started at roughly 20, quickly got chopped down to around 10 based on looks, and Kevin’s preferred head shape. From that 10 we started to test and hit balls to whittle down clubs based on feel and ground interaction. At that point, we had 4-5 irons that checked all the boxes, and then we began the detailed process of looking at total performance to determine the best irons for him. The end result was as mentioned already, meant keeping his Nike VR Pro Combo 4 iron and going with a set of Wilson staff model blades from the 5-PW.

RB: Let’s move into the longer clubs, specifically the fairway woods. Looking at his final setup, he has non-matching fairway woods from 2 different OEMs. Did he start with a matching set?

TB: When we started out, Kevin was using a matching 3 and 5-wood, but we quickly determined the 3-wood was underperforming in the areas where he needed that club for particular shots. Just like with amateur players, a 3-wood has to be extremely versatile since it is used in all kinds of scenarios, so just like with the irons, we started with every option before coming to the final decision.

The interesting note with his 5-wood is, it actually plays like what I would call a “6-wood”, to get the ball higher in the air and increase the descent angle to hold greens.

RB: Last but not least, since you just mentioned greens, did you do much work with Kevin’s putter, or was that another club that didn’t need any tweaking like the Nike 4-iron?

TB: Kevin came in with a putter he loved (custom weld neck Scotty Cameron) so we used Quintic to take a look at his launch conditions and made some minor lie and loft tweaks to optimize roll. He also ended up in a new grip.

Beyond that, we left it alone and worked with Kevin to send the new specs of his putter to the team as Scotty Cameron to produce a backup since its a total custom weld-neck and not something that could be easily replaced.

Kevin Chappell WITB 2020

Driver: TaylorMade SIM
Shaft: LA Golf Partners Trono

3-wood: Titleist TS3 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

5-wood: Cobra SpeedZone
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo (4), Wilson Staff Model Blade (5-PW)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 120 X

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (52, 56, 62 degrees)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Custom Circle T

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x (Left Dash)

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Whats in the Bag

Patrick Reed WITB 2024 (May)

Published

15 hours ago

May 16, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Patrick Reed what’s in the bag accurate as of the PGA Championship. More photos from the event here.

Driver: Ping G400 (8.5 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 125 MSI 70 Tour X

3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (15 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 125MSI 80 Tour X

Check out more in-hand photos of Patrick Reed’s clubs in the forums.

Hybrid: Callaway Apex Pro (18 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila RIP Phenom Hybrid 100 TX

Irons: Titleist 716 TMB (2), Grindworks PR-202 (4), Grindworks PR-101A (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Check out more in-hand photos of Patrick Reed’s clubs in the forums.

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore (50-10 Mid), Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (56-08M @55), SM10 (60-04T)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Odyssey White Hot RX Pt Customs No. 2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

More photos of Patrick Reed’s WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

John Daly’s $750 custom irons and 10 must-see gear photos from the 2024 PGA Championship

Published

15 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Andrew Tursky

Welcome to the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the last two PGA Championships held at Valhalla, Tiger Woods won in 2000 – when he famously pointed his golf ball into the hole during the historic duel with Bob May – and Rory McIlroy won the 2014 event, basically in the dark on the final hole.

The point is, history shows that Valhalla tends to produce top-tier champions and plenty of drama.

This week at the 2024 PGA Championship, GolfWRX got its first up-close look at what some of the LIV Tour players have in their bags in 2024. We also caught back up with a few PGA Championship legends, such as Rich Beem and John Daly, and we dove into the bags of PGA Sectional qualifiers, too.

In total, we captured 47 different photo galleries this week, including 32 individual What’s In The Bag (WITB) forum threads. Click here to see all of our photos from the event, or continue reading to see my 10 equipment highlights from Valhalla.

1) Brooks Koepka’s new putter

Koepka was previously using a Scotty Cameron T5.5 putter with a slant neck, which he used to win at the beginning of the month in Singapore on the LIV tour. This week, however, he tried a T5.5 with a plumbers neck instead of the slant neck, and it’s immediately going in the bag. According to Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page, Koepka already loved the head, and now finds the plumbers neck a bit more familiar to the blade-style putters he’s used throughout most of his career.

See Koepka’s full WITB here

2) The lead tape king returns, with putting goggles

Phil Mickelson has always been one of the GOATs when it comes to lead tape usage, so it was no surprise to see his 64-degree custom Callaway wedge slathered with slabs of lead tape on the back.

The big surprise was that lefty was spotted using ProAim putting training goggles on Wednesday during his warm-up session.

The ProAim goggles are helpful to find center lines and ensure proper alignment to the target.

See Phil Mickelson’s full WITB from the 2024 PGA Championship

3) Dobyns’ old-school gamer setup

Speaking of lead tape, check out Matt Dobyn’s old Titleist 718 T-MB irons, which are so loaded with lead tape that the club is nearly unrecognizable.

Respect.

The head professional at Meadow Brook Club is making his sixth start in a PGA Championship, and he’s using a throwback Callaway GBB Epic driver with MOI-boosting lead tape and adjustable weight placements.

As GolfWRX Forum user “InTheBag” pointed out in our Matt Dobyns’ WITB thread, he has the type of setup that makes you want to hide your wallet: “I don’t know Mr. Dobyns, but one look at that bag tells me he can take your money,” writes InTheBag.

Spot on.

4) John Daly’s custom Sub70 irons and wedges

We first saw John Daly using $750 direct-to-consumer Sub70 659-CB irons and TAIII wedges at the 2023 PNC Championship, and he still has them in the bag, but he’s since stepped up the customization on the Sub70 clubs.

Does Daly ever NOT keep things entertaining?

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A true showman.

See Daly’s full WITB

5) DJ’s custom putter

Dustin Johnson has always been one to test multiple putters week-to-week, and he has a keen eye for different alignment lines and crowns. This week, he’s opting for a completely gray TaylorMade Spider Tour “T3.0” prototype with a short slant neck.

See the rest of DJ’s WITB from the week here

6) Patrick Reed still rocking GrindWorks irons

Patrick Reed knows his stuff when it comes to equipment, and he’s a prolific tester. Still, however, the GrindWorks PR-101A irons are squarely in the bag after his departure to the LIV tour.

The most notable new addition to Reed’s bag is this Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond 3-wood.

Click here to see Reed’s full WITB from this week

7) Beem’s Scratch set

Rich Beem, who won the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, came to the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla with a bag full of Scratch Golf irons, which are loaded with lead tape and equipped with some of the coolest custom ferrules in professional golf.

See Rich Beem’s full WITB here

8) Jon Rahm’s 10-iron

Before going to LIV, Rahm was using a Callaway Apex TCB pitching wedge.

Now, he’s using a Callaway Apex TCB “10 iron.”

He’s also since upgraded to three Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke metalwoods, and fresh stampings on his Jaws Raw wedges. Click here to see Rahm’s full WITB from the 2024 PGA Championship.

9) “Why so serious?”

Tyrrell Hatton, another LIV player in the 2024 PGA Championship field, channels his inner Joker to ask everyone, “Why so serious?”

See Hatton’s full WITB here

10) Block’s “Proto” iron, from address

As you probably know by now, Block switched out of his old TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC 2014 irons, and into a full set of TaylorMade’s new “Proto” irons. We’ve already seen the Proto 4-iron in the bags of Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa, but this is our first look at the higher-lofted irons in the set.

Here’s a look at the 7-iron from address:

See what GolfWRX members are saying about the Proto irons in our Forums

And, with that, we say goodbye to Louisville, and the second major championship of the 2024 season. We’ll see you next week at the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas after a champion has been crowned.

Until then, don’t forget to check out all of our photos from this week at the 2024 PGA Championship!

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Whats in the Bag

Club Junkie WITB, league night week 5: Another L.A.B. putter arises

Published

18 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Brian Knudson

We will be one quarter of the way through Thursday night men’s league season after this week. BK played much better last week, so he is hoping to continue that success and post another good score.

Here are the 14 clubs that will hopefully win him some skins!

Driver: PXG 0311 Black Ops (9 degrees, neutral setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 X (2024)

3-wood: Cobra Dark Speed LS Titanium (14.5 degrees, set +1)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-7x

Fairway: Callaway Apex UW (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura ATMOS Tour Spec Blue 8 X

Hybrid: PXG 0311 Black Ops 4h (22 degrees, Flat Setting)
Shaft: KBS Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype 85 S

Irons: TaylorMade P770 Phantom Black (5-PW)
Shaft: KBS Tour 120 Stiff

Wedge: PXG Sugar Daddy II (50-13 BP)
Shaft: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 Stiff

Wedge: PXG Sugar Daddy II (56-13 BP)
Shaft: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 Stiff

Wedge: PXG Sugar Daddy II (60-13 BP)
Shaft: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 Stiff

Putter: L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max
Shaft: Accra x L.A.B. White

Ball: Titleist ProV1 Enhanced Alignment

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