Tiger Woods has played in just three tournaments since he won the Masters in April.
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Since the PGA TOUR’s 2018-19 season wrapped up, we wanted to celebrate by recapping the top equipment stories of the season. There was controversy, surprise switches, big-time players making big sponsor changes, and of course, Tiger Woods was in the spotlight for his equipment. The stories below are listed in no particular order, but they all had a significant impact and intrigue in their own right. Enjoy the look into the past season of equipment, and we look forward to seeing you back on the Equipment Report once the Fall season begins in just a few short weeks. Thanks for a great season! Spieth switches irons before The Open Jordan Spieth has used Titleist AP2 model irons throughout his professional career, but that changed right before the 2019 Open Championship. Instead of using AP2 irons, Spieth put Titleist’s new T100 irons in play at Royal Portrush Golf Club. While it may have seemed like odd timing to put new irons in play the week of a major, Spieth actually had a hand in the creation of the T100 irons. See what Spieth’s role was in the design of the irons, and what made him switch. Rickie Fowler changes up his golf ball Fowler shocked the equipment world when he announced that he was signing a golf ball deal with TaylorMade, instead of staying with the Titleist Pro V1 line of golf balls that he had been using since even before he turned professional. As part of the announcement, Fowler spoke with PGATOUR.COM to explain what made him switch, and which TaylorMade golf ball he’d be using going forward. Get the full Q&A with Fowler here. Xander fails CT test at The Open, and J.T. speaks out Before competing in the 2019 Open Championship, Schauffele’s driver was deemed illegal after random testing conducted by the R&A. Schauffele responded publically, calling the testing “unfair.� Fellow competitor Justin Thomas later spoke out on the matter, giving his opinion on who should be to blame and how to tackle the issue going forward. Check out the full stories regarding each player below: Xander’s comments Thomas’ comments Justin Rose signs with Honma While Rose had been a TaylorMade staffer throughout his long career, rumors began swirling at the end of 2018 that he’d be making a sponsor switch. While most speculated that he would eventually sign with Honma, Rose put the rumors to rest with an official announcement on New Years Day. On the same day, Rose also unveiled the “Rose Proto� Honma irons that he continues to use currently. Here’s more on the equipment deal and the prototype irons. Molinari wins in first event as a Callaway staffer After going on a tear in 2018 as an equipment free agent, there was major speculation whether Molinari would sign a deal, and if he did, which company he would go with. Molinari made the announcement that he signed with Callaway at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he sat down with PGATOUR.COM to explain why. Funny enough, Molinari went onto win that very same week. In the interview with PGATOUR.COM, Molinari also explained how his extremely rare prototype irons came about, and just how rare they are. Check out the full Q&A here. The young guns sign equipment deals Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa came onto the PGA TOUR with some of the highest expectations from rookie golfers in recent years. With golfers such as Brooks Koepka having success as an equipment free agent, equipment fans wondered whether the new young guys would follow his lead. As it turned out, each of them signed deals. PGATOUR.COM went in-depth about each their equipment setups in the stories below: Wolff in-depth Morikawa Hovland Ping club designer makes the cut at the PGA using equipment he designed There was no one at the 2019 PGA Championship who knew his equipment better than Marty Jertson. That’s because Jertson, who competed and made the cut at Bethpgae Black, worked as a Senior Design Engineer at Ping in recent years. Jertson currently works as the President of Fitting and Performance at Ping, and following his PGA Championship performance, he spoke in-depth with PGATOUR.COM on a number of topics, ranging from the difficulty of Bethpage to designing equipment. Don’t miss the full interview here. The Great One’s red putter Hall-of-fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky competed this year in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside Dustin Johnson, who’s engaged to Wayne’s daughter Paulina. Wayne was spotted using an all-red Scotty Cameron putter during the event, and PGATOUR.COM caught up with “The Great One� to get the full story behind the putter (it’s worth the read). Aaron Rodgers uses “That’s what she said� wedge NFL superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers has quite the sense of humor, and he expresses it on his TaylorMade wedges. PGATOUR.COM caught up with Rodgers at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am to get the story behind his hilarious wedge stampings, which includes a tribute to The Office. Gary Woodland’s butter knife The days of players using long irons made with a blade construction are waning, but fresh off his 2019 U.S. Open win, Gary Woodland used a Wilson Staff blade 2-iron that could send chills down the spine of nearly any golfer. As you’ll see in the story, PGATOUR.COM took photos of what the 2-iron looks like from address. Look at your risk. Tiger Woods switches to P-7TW irons (and so does Fleetwood), and Woods later reveals more info After using TaylorMade TW-Phase 1 prototype irons for much of 2018, equipment fans were eager to see if there would be a new iron for 2019. Speculation picked up when Tommy Fleetwood was spotted using “P-7TW� irons at the Abu Dhabi HSBC. Surely the “TW� wasn’t a coincidence. Woods did in fact switch into P-7TW Milled irons, but they looked a bit different than Fleetwood’s version. Later in the year, PGATOUR.COM spoke with Woods in-depth about his equipment, where Woods revealed more telling information about those very irons. Here’s the full Q&A with Woods. Tony Romo uses hand-me-down clubs from Tiger and Spieth Romo sent the equipment world into a frenzy when he was spotted by PGATOUR.COM using golf clubs at the 2019 Pebble Beach Pro-Am that were once used by Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods. We also got the scoop on exactly how those clubs ended up in his bag. Here’s the full story on Romo’s hand-me-down clubs.
The most consistent season of Rory McIlroy’s career culminated with his second FedExCup. He joins Tiger Woods as the only players to twice win the PGA TOUR’s season-long prize. McIlroy had three wins in 2019 – at THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open and TOUR Championship – and finished in the top 10 in all but five of his 19 starts. McIlroy gained +2.55 strokes per round on the field this season, the best mark by a player this decade and best ever by a player not named Tiger Woods. The PGA TOUR’s ShotLink team took a closer look at the numbers behind McIlroy’s incredible season. Here’s what they found: The TOUR Championship was the 17th win of McIlroy’s PGA TOUR career, by far the most of any player currently aged 30 or younger. McIlroy turned 30 on May 4. Most PGA TOUR wins: Players currently 30 years old & younger McIlroy’s 17 wins before turning 31 are the fifth-most on TOUR since 1970. Only Tiger Woods (54 wins), Tom Watson (25), Johnny Miller (18) and Phil Mickelson (18) rank ahead of him. McIlroy is the first player to win THE PLAYERS and FedExCup in the same season. McIlroy had seven consecutive top-10 finishes from the Sentry Tournament of Champions to the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. It was the longest streak of top-10s since Luke Donald had eight in a row in 2011. The TOUR Championship was his fifth win in the FedExCup Playoffs, giving him the most wins in Playoffs history. Most wins in FedExCup Playoffs history Strokes Gained: Total McIlroy is the fourth player to finish a season ranked inside the top 25 in all four Strokes Gained stats (Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green and Putting). Strokes Gained stats have been calculated since 2004. Three of the four went on to win that season’s FedExCup. Ranking inside Top 25 SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green & Putting in a season since 2004 McIlroy’s +2.551 was the fourth-best single-season Strokes Gained: Total since the Strokes Gained statistics started in 2004. The top three seasons all belonged to Woods. Best Strokes Gained: Total Since 2004 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee McIlroy led the TOUR in Driving Distance (All Drives), averaging 304.2 yards off the tee. That was 18.7 yards longer than the TOUR average (285.5 yards). McIlroy also led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee for the third time. Only Bubba Watson (four times) has led the TOUR in that statistic more times. No player hit more drives 320+ yards in the 2019 FedExCup Playoffs than McIlroy. He hit 57 drives 320+ yards, three more than the next best player (Dustin Johnson, 54). McIlroy hit 25 drives over 320 yards at the TOUR Championship. Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green McIlroy ranked 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the TOUR by +0.633 strokes per round on approach shots. McIlroy’s +0.633 Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green average marks the second-best season performance of his PGA TOUR career. He gained +1.002 strokes per round with his approach play in the 2012 season. McIlroy said his most important shot of the season was an approach from the right fairway bunker in the final round of the 2019 PLAYERS. He made birdie from the bunker en route to winning at TPC Sawgrass. From 177 yards, he hit his approach to 14 feet and made the putt. It was his fourth-closest approach from 170+ yards out of a fairway bunker in his career (on ShotLink courses). For comparison, the field at THE PLAYERS had an average proximity of 37 feet, 11 inches from that bunker. Players made birdie just 14% of the time from there. Strokes Gained: Putting McIlroy made a career-high 30 putts from over 20 feet this season. Rory McIlroy: Total putts made over 20 feet He finished 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.425), the third consecutive season where he’s improved that metric. The 2018-19 season marked his career-best performance in Strokes Gained: Putting. He was 159th in that statistics just two seasons ago. (-0.304). McIlroy has made every putt from 6 feet or less five times in his career (in ShotLink-measured events). He has won three of those events, including two this season (2019 TOUR Championship, 2019 RBC Canadian Open). Rory McIlroy: 100% putting inside 6 feet
Day 1 play at the Evian Championship was scrapped on Thursday after officials decided not to resume the first round following a weather delay of nearly four-and-a-half hours. The opening round in Evian-les-Baines, France was halted with no players having completed nine holes. Because of that, rules allow for all scores to be wiped out and play to begin anew on Friday, which is what will happen. The event, the fifth major on the LPGA tour this year, has been reduced to 54 holes. Jessica Korda (through eight holes) and world No. 1 So Yeon Ryu (through five holes) shared the lead, at 2 under, when play was initially suspended. On the opposite end, U.S. Women’s Open winner Sung-Hyun Park was 6 over
