Singh leads Langer by a stroke at Senior PGA on Trump course

HONOLULU, Hawaii – A tree-laden quadruple bogey for former FedExCup champion Jordan Spieth has derailed what appeared a promising opening round at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Spieth was working his way towards the top of the leaderboard at Waialae Country Club at 4 under through 16 holes of his opening round before disaster struck. Playing the par-4 8th hole – after starting his round on the back side of the course – Spieth sat inside the top five. But his tee shot pulled left off the tee and collected with a tree, knocking it down into the rough. His next shot also hit a tree and was barely advanced, getting him just 18 yards closer to the hole and still in trouble. Incredibly his third also hit a tree and not to be outdone so did the fourth. Four shots, four trees. From there Spieth advanced the ball into a greenside bunker but was unable to get it up and down from the sand, eventually walking off with a quadruple bogey eight. A birdie on the final hole left him with a 1-under 69, six shots off the early pace set by Chris Kirk. Spieth’s collapse was made even more frustrating given he’d created a good score despite some average putting. He missed two putts inside five feet and needed 30 putts in his round with two three-putts. Spieth, who finished third at the Sony Open last season, declined to talk about his round but stopped with fans for a significant time signing autographs.

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It used to be easier to identify the brand of irons that a PGA TOUR player uses. These days, it’s becoming more difficult. In the current golf equipment landscape, ultra-personalized custom irons are growing in popularity among PGA TOUR players, whereas they historically would use irons that were available to the public on the retail market. The tide is shifting. In 2022 alone, Adam Scott debuted custom Miura Golf-made irons with his logo on them, and Maverick McNealy used a custom set of Callaway Apex prototype irons – a set that included an “11-iron” – throughout the year. Justin Thomas also has been using a “1-of-1” custom set of Titleist irons that meet his specs. There may be another big name added to that list soon. In a Halloween-day post on Instagram, former FedExCup champion Justin Rose revealed an equally mysterious set of irons, showcasing no other logos aside from his personal “JR” logo. The golf world was abuzz trying to figure out which equipment manufacturer designed and built the set. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long to find the answer. Rose revealed shortly after, in a comment on the GolfWRX Instagram page, that Custom Golf Works at Gatwick Studio custom-built the irons. He later confirmed via Instagram DM with GolfWRX that the iron heads themselves were manufactured by Miura, much like Scott’s custom irons. While Rose is not entirely positive if and when the custom “JR” irons will go into play, he’s giving them serious consideration. Most players do the bulk of their equipment testing in tandem with a company’s reps – often at tournaments, a company’s home office or the player’s home course – but Rose has used Custom Golf Works, an independent, off-site clubfitting facility, multiple times this year. They also helped fit him for the Titleist 620MB irons he was using earlier this year. The fitter boasts a decade of fitting players on the DP World Tour but also is open to the public. It isn’t affiliated with a single equipment brand. When Rose switched to Titleist clubs earlier in the year, it was simply because the irons won out over other brands he was testing. For Rose, changing irons wouldn’t be anything new; since becoming an equipment free agent in 2020, Rose has used multiple sets of irons in PGA TOUR competition, including TaylorMade P-730 irons, Mizuno MP-20 irons, TaylorMade P-7MC irons, and Titleist 620 MB irons. This time around, it seems Rose’s new custom “JR” irons are made especially for his look and preferences, so maybe his iron search has reached a finish line.

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