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ATLANTA — Ahead of the 2019 TOUR Championship, PGATOUR.COM took a look at what equipment the final 30 players had in their bag and were testing. Featured in the gallery below is the equipment of Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, Gary Woodland, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and more. Enjoy! 

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The most noticeable change is the inclusion of a moveable tungsten weight in the rear of the G410 Plus driver head. There are three weight locations – draw, neutral and fade – that Ping says allows for a difference of 20 yards between draw and fade. For further customization, the G410 Plus, and the more forgiving SFT (Straight Flight Technology) head, both have an eight-setting, aluminum/thermoplastic hosel that allows for more loft and lie options than previous Ping drivers. While the SFT head does not have a moveable weight, it does have a fixed tungsten weight in the very rear of the sole on the heel side to shift CG (center of gravity) rearwards and also provide a draw bias. At address, you’ll also notice a new “creased crown� design to stiffen the structure. This combines with Ping’s familiar, weight-saving “Dragonfly� technology that’s designed to thin out the crown to save weight from the top of the club and be moved lower in the head. You may also notice that the Turbulators on the front of the crown, designed to increase aerodynamic qualities, have been given a more aggressive look. The result of these technologies, according to Ping, is a faster look that also helps with alignment. While the bodies of the multi-material, 455cc constructions are made of cast Ti-8-1-1, the faces are made from forged T9S+ that are designed thinner in certain areas to increase flexibility and raise ball speed. The Ping G410 Plus (swing weight D3, loft options 9, 10.5 and 12 degrees) and the G410 SFT (swing weight D1, loft option 10.5 degrees) will come stock with an Alta CB (counter-balanced) Red 55, a Ping Tour, a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange, or a Project X EvenFlow Black shaft. They will each sell for $540 starting on Jan. 21. Ping’s G410 fairways, hybrids and crossover To go along with its 17-4 stainless steel bodies, the faces of the Ping G410 fairways, hybrids and Crossover are made from C300 maraging steel to allow for thinner constructions that yield faster ball speeds and higher launch, according to the company. “With maraging steel, we have a material that allows us to go extremely thin with the face to give us the faster ball-speed gains we’re seeking for more distance and higher launch,� said Ping president John K. Solheim. “The results have been amazing as we’re seeing face flexing equal to the thickness of the face.� While the G410 fairways – there’s a standard model, an SFT and an LST – have a fixed Tungsten weight in the low-back portion of the head for greater forgiveness, Ping says weight has been pushed more forward in the heads compared to the G400 models in order to “deliver more energy from the shallower face while providing greater stability.� Like the drivers, the fairway woods also have an eight-option adjustable hosel. The SFT fairway wood has heel-side weighting for a draw bias, and a head that is slightly larger for greater forgiveness, according to Ping. The new LST fairway wood option, which is new for 2019, has a lower and more forward CG (center of gravity) than the standard model for an overall lower spin and higher launch. The fairway woods (14.5, 17.5, 20.5, 23.5, 14.5 LST, 16 SFT, 19 SFT and 22 SFT will sell for $310 apiece. The Ping G410 hybrids (17, 19, 22, 26 and 30 degrees), which are adjustable for the first-time with the same eight-option adjustable hosels as the drivers and fairways, have larger profiles and back weight to increase forgiveness, says Ping. They will sell for $270 each. The Ping G410 Crossover clubs, now available in 17, 20 and 23-degree options, have 30-gram Tungsten weights in the toe portion of the soles to increase forgiveness. Also, compared to the G400 Crossover clubs, the G410 versions are shorter heel-to-toe and have narrower soles. They will sell for $247.50 each. Ping G410 irons Compared to the previous Ping G400 irons, Ping says the new G410 irons have smaller shapes, less offset and higher MOI (moment of inertia). Ping saved weight from the face and the back cavity with its next-generation COR-Eye technology, and placed the saved weight into the perimeter of the club heads, thus boosting MOI by 8 percent, according to the company. Ping also says the faces are more flexible, producing higher max heights and greater distances. “Our innovations like COR-Eye technology have allowed us to re-imagine the way we engineer an iron,� said Solheim. “By increasing ball speed as much as we have in recent models, our irons launch much easier and higher than ever. As a result, we can experiment with the size and shape of the head while improving the MOI properties so critical to consistent performance.� The G410 irons, compared to the G400 irons, have shorter blade lengths and 10 percent less offset. They have Hydropearl 2.0 finishes, aluminum/elastomer back badges to enhance sound and feel, and they have the same grooves used in Ping’s Glide 2.0 wedges. Ping’s G410 irons (4-PW, UW, SW, LW) are selling for $135 per iron in steel and $150 per iron in graphite. Building upon its popular G400 line of drivers, the Ping G410 Plus and G410 SFT drivers offer not only greater custom fitting options, according to the company, but also more overall ball speed and forgiveness. To accomplish this, you’ll notice a number of changes to the driver designs compared to their predecessors.

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In the spirit of the Valero Texas Open celebrating its 100th anniversary, here’s a ranking of the top 10 Valero Texas Opens in tournament history. 1940 Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan drove from Phoenix to San Antonio in a two-car caravan — Nelson in a gleaming new Studebaker, Hogan in his old maroon Buick with many miles on the odometer — for the first Valero Texas Open of the 1940s. The two friends from the caddie yards of Fort Worth played thrilling golf that week at Brackenridge Park, which teemed with spectators trailing the marquee pairing before marquee pairings were a thing. Nelson birdied the 72nd hole to tie Hogan, who finished 66-66 on the weekend. Thousands followed the playoff between the two. Nelson beat Hogan by a shot to secure his 11th PGA Tour title. Hogan, who had won only once at the time, would finish second in the next two Texas Opens, in 1941 and ’42. 1981 Reigning Open Championship winner Bill Rogers, born and raised in Texas, crafted a final-round 63 that autumn at Oak Hills Country Club, forcing a sudden-death playoff with fellow Texan and longtime friend Ben Crenshaw, who had shot 64. Rogers birdied the first hole to win for the fourth time that season, his best on the PGA TOUR. “I’m excited about winning,” Rogers said collegially, “but there’s a little something taken away when I have to beat one of my best friends to do it.” 2021 The Valero Texas Open returned with tremendous fanfare after the global pandemic cancelled the 2020 tournament — and so did Jordan Spieth. The 27-year-old Texan, the winner of three major championships and eight other PGA TOUR titles, had gone a mystifying 83 starts since his last victory at the 2017 Open Championship. He ended that streak on a bright Sunday at TPC San Antonio. Spieth, who had been working that week to return to the swing of his youth, shot a 6-under 66 on Sunday at TPC San Antonio to win by two. “It’s been a road with a lot of tough days,” he said. That road had ended, and this was not one of those days. Spieth, who hasn’t won since, returns this week to defend. 1923 The great Walter Hagen, who became in 1922 the first American to win the Open Championship, shot a course-record 65 that January in the third round at Brackenridge Park. He and Bill Mehlhorn finished the tournament at 9 under par before a record gathering of 6,000 who came to watch the stylish club pro from Michigan. Hagen won the ensuing playoff by a shot. His victory vaulted the Texas Open into the consciousness of the American sporting public. 1962 Arnold Palmer struck one of the most famous — and most-watched — shots in the history of the Valero Texas Open at the 72nd hole at Oak Hills Country Club. His soaring 7-iron stopped a foot from the hole, giving him a birdie and his then-record third consecutive VTO title. More than 15,000 spectators witnessed the charge from Palmer, who beat four other players by a stroke, one of Palmer’s eight TOUR titles that year. 1955 A burly former Duke University football player name Mike Souchak amassed 27 birdies over four days at Brackenridge Park, which included a first-round, 11-under 60. He shot 257 for the week, a scoring record that stood for 46 years, and wore deerskin gloves between shots through a frigid final round when temperatures never rose above freezing in San Antonio. His 60 shared the TOUR single-round record until 1977, when Al Geiberger shot his celebrated 59 in Memphis. 1950 In a reflection of the growing popularity of the Valero Texas Open, more than 300 contestants entered the tournament, played that year at both Fort Sam Houston Golf Course and Brackenridge Park. Sam Snead won his second VTO over Jimmy Demaret with a final-round 63 in rain and, for a moment, pounding hail. The Slammer “came roaring down the muddy stretch with birdies flying off his warclubs like leaves off a tree in fall,” read a breathless account of his round in the San Antonio Express. His weekend of 63-63 set a 36-hole scoring record on TOUR. 1946 Byron Nelson played his last Valero Texas Open in 1946, when his longtime friend and rival Ben Hogan won the tournament for the first and only time. The victory — one of Hogan’s remarkable 13 titles that season — launched a streak of five consecutive starts in which Hogan won or finished runner-up. Nelson came in third and retired from competitive golf that year with 52 wins and five major championships in his career. Hogan went on to win at least once each year through 1953, including 10 titles in 1948. But he never again contended at the VTO. 2003 Tommy Armour III shot rounds of 64-63-62-65—254 at the La Cantera Resort Course to shatter by three the PGA TOUR 72-hole scoring record set by Souchak in 1955. Armour’s four-round total of 26-under 254 included no bogeys until the 10th hole on Sunday. He won by a stunning seven shots. Even Armour seemed bemused. “You only get one trip around life,” he told reporters after his epic performance at La Cantera. “Golf is something that I love to do. I don’t play for the money. I never have.” He won $630,000, which was easy to love. 1980 Lee Trevino of Dallas finally won the Valero Texas Open at the age of 40. He holed a bending 25-foot putt — a putt he simply was trying to lag — on the 72nd hole to beat Terry Diehl by a stroke. Trevino signed for a 65 that gave him $45,000 and 27 titles on TOUR. He had suffered many close calls in his 14 starts at the VTO, one of his favorite stops because so many in the Mexican-American community in San Antonio could identify with him (and he with them). Trevino sipped a beer with reporters after his round. “I love it,” Trevino told them. “This is what I live for.”

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