Equipment Roundup: Safeway Open

It’s standard for TOUR players to need at least a few weeks before feeling fully confident with a new club in the bag during a pressure situation. Apparently, Kevin Tway, Ryan Moore and Brandt Snedeker didn’t get the memo. All three had new gear in the bag during their sudden-death playoff at the Safeway Open, including a new PXG prototype driver, 3-wood, 5-wood and center-shafted mallet putter for Moore. Picking up 5-10 yards is almost unheard of for TOUR players due to the extensive testing they normally conduct on launch monitors to optimize launch and spin. However, Moore found a much better fit (launch and spin) in PXG’s prototype woods — to the point that he picked up 12 yards of carry with the driver and 10 yards with the 3-wood. Sneds’ new driver: Brandt Snedeker didn’t envision having to start the new 2018-19 TOUR season by testing a myriad of new driver builds at the Safeway Open. But when his Bridgestone JGR Tour B driver broke the weekend prior to arriving in Napa, the nine-time winner was forced to consider his options. Instead of sticking with JGR, Snedeker tested TaylorMade’s M3 460 on Tuesday and Wednesday before giving it the green light for the first round. Snedeker was able to draw the ball with regularity while keeping it within his normal spin rate range. He ranked 22nd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee with the new driver build. Mickelson opts for prototype: Phil Mickelson used the Safeway Open as an opportunity to put a new 34-inch Odyssey prototype putter and shaft through the paces. It’s unclear how the head differs from Mickelson’s usual #9 head shape, but the shaft is a shift away from the standard steel he’s used in the past. According to Odyssey, the two-tone shaft, which likely indicates a multi-material design, helped improve the consistency of Mickelson’s putting stroke. He finished 15th in Strokes Gained: Putting with the flat stick. Couples goes from dot to line: It was a minor change for Fred Couples that produced big results on the putting greens at Silverado Resort and Spa. Couples received four Bettinardi putters with different sight line options, within the last month, and chose to go with a sight line over his usual sight dot on the FCB Tour DASS model he’s used on a regular basis. Couples’ putter is slightly counterbalanced with a floating F.I.T. face and red, white and blue paintfill. Couples recorded his 500th made cut on TOUR en route to a T41 finish in California. Tway’s irons: Kevin Tway received Mizuno’s JPX 919 Forged and 919 Tour irons at the Dell Technologies Championship but chose to wait until Safeway Open to put them in play. The time spent at home getting the setup just right paid dividends for Tway, who left Napa with his first TOUR title. Made from two different materials, the JPX 919 Forged features a Boron-infused 1025E carbon steel that improves the overall durability of the head while allowing the face to be thinned out to a COR of .810 — an improvement of .10 when compared to its predecessor. With JPX 919 Tour, Mizuno’s HD grain flow forging process was used on the 1025E (Elite) carbon steel, which compacts more grain structure in the hitting area to improve feel. Louis’ Blueprint: Only two players have been given the opportunity to test out PING’s new Blueprint Forged protoype irons: Louis Oosthuizen and Bubba Watson.   With Watson taking the week off following the Ryder Cup, Oosthuizen became the first PING staffer to use the new irons that offer a compact, muscleback head shape and weight screw in the toe. Notes: PING rolled out new Sigma 2 putters. … Brendan Steele debuted Wilson Staff’s D7 3-wood. … Fujikura’s new Ventus shaft was used by Cody Gribble (driver) and Andrew Landry (3-wood) the first week it was released on TOUR. The tip-stiff shaft offers low torque through an extremely stiff 70-ton pitch fiber at 45 degrees in the bias layer. PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE: Buy equipment here

Click here to read the full article…