Thomas catching up to his buddy Spieth

Back in May 2021, Sergio Garcia returned to TaylorMade’s TOUR staff with a multi-year equipment deal to use the company’s clubs, ball and bag. Garcia left TaylorMade in 2017 after being with the company for nearly his entire professional career, but he came back to the company after an intermission of nearly three years. This week, ahead of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, TaylorMade provided an in-depth look into the bag of the 11-time PGA TOUR winner, whose victories include the 2008 PLAYERS and 2017 Masters. Garcia also has 16 wins on the DP World Tour. Check out below what the 42-year-old Spaniard has in the bag this year, and why. GRIPS Arguably the most interesting tidbit about Garcia’s gear is the grip he uses on all of his clubs, except the putter. Garcia uses SuperStroke S-Tech grips in a blue-and-yellow colorway, matching the colors of his beloved European Ryder Cup team. It’s not just the color that makes them unique, though. Garcia has weights added to the butt-end of his grips to effectively counterweight the clubs and make the heads feel lighter. This provides multiple benefits. “Since 2004, I have extra weight – counterbalance, it’s called – on the top of my grips,” Garcia said. “It helps me do two things. It helps me have a heavier club, but … it’s not too head heavy. When I have a club that’s too head heavy, the way I swing, my shots get too spinny. So this way I can bring my spin down, and at the same time, it also helps me throw the club a little more on the downswing so it doesn’t get stuck behind me. Even though it’s still a heavy club, it comes out as a lighter (swing weight) overall, because the balance is closer to the middle of the shaft.” THE DRIVER After using a TaylorMade SIM driver throughout most of 2020 and 2021, Garcia upgraded to the new TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver (with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft) this year. “I love everything about it,” Garcia said. “I love the look of it, the performance, the sound. It’s just a great driver. To me, it’s like an updated version of the SIM driver, which is a driver that I loved. Probably, I thought, it was the best driver that TaylorMade has made until they came out with the Stealth. So I’m super happy about it, and I’ve been driving the ball well.” Garcia ranks fourth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee this season, gaining nearly eight-tenths of a stroke per round with his driving. Although his driver says “10.5 degrees” on the head, he actually adjusts the hosel for a lower loft (around 8.5 degrees). The adjustment helps the club face point more to the right at address so it doesn’t look shut to the target for Garcia. FAIRWAY WOODS As with the driver, Garcia also transitioned from TaylorMade’s older SIM models into the new Stealth Plus fairway woods this year. He uses a 3-wood and a 5-wood, and like the driver, he turns down the lofts using hosel adjustments in order to keep the faces from looking too closed. “I like having a little more loft and then turning them lower because that way it squares (the face) a little bit more and it doesn’t aim to the left,” Garcia said. He equips his 3-wood with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft to match his driver, and his 5-wood has a slightly heavier Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft in it. “There’s guys who like to have different driver shafts than their fairway woods,” Garcia said. “I like to have the same feel throughout. … I feel like that’s what works best for me. There’s no right or wrong, it’s just a matter of what you want to see and what you want to feel, and what works best for you.” IRONS AND WEDGES Garcia, who’s been one of the premier ball-strikers in golf for the past two decades, opts to use TaylorMade’s blade-style P-730 irons (3-pitching wedge). The P730 irons first hit retail in November 2017, and they’re forged from 1025 soft carbon steel with faces and grooves that are precision-milled. They’re designed with thin toplines, thin soles and a compact shape that elite ball strikers like Garcia prefer. He also uses just two additional wedges, TaylorMade Milled Grind 3 52- and 58-degree clubs. While many of his professional contemporaries use four wedges in total, Garcia uses just three. Having three wedges allows him to have two fairway woods, as well. “I’ve always had it like this,” he said. “This way the gaps between my wedges are good enough. Also, I have the 58, and if I feel I need more loft, I just open it up. If I go 60, and then 56, and 52, it just feels like there’s too much stuff. I always like to have my 5-wood in, so this wedge setup works.” Each of his irons and wedges are equipped with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 130X shafts. As with his driver and fairway woods, Garcia prefers to have the shafts of his irons and wedges match so the feel is similar throughout the set. PUTTER Although Garcia started this year using a new TaylorMade Spider GT with a red crown, he switched into an older TaylorMade Spider X putter with a silver-and-white crown at THE PLAYERS. Ahead of Wednesday’s first-round match, however, Garcia was spotted testing out a Ping PLD Anser-style putter with an all-black finish. It seems that Garcia is still unsettled with his putter decision, so it’s currently a work in progress. BALL For the only piece of equipment that Garcia uses on every shot, he opts for the 2021 TaylorMade TP5X golf ball. According to Garcia, he finds that the five-layered urethane golf ball offers both greenside control, and control in windy conditions. “I feel like it matches perfectly with my game,” he said. “I hit my windows perfectly with the spin and everything. I’m able to do a lot around the greens, but at the same time, even when it’s windy, I can bring it down and it doesn’t over spin or anything like that, so it works out perfectly.”

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Despite having a reputation as a tinkerer, Dustin Johnson said he doesn’t change equipment all that much, stating in his pre-PGA Championship press conference, “I really don’t like to change clubs ever, but when one’s not working … I have to find something else.” This is, in a couple of senses, true. The centerpieces of his golf bag have been cemented for years (P730 DJ Proto irons, for example) and when he does make a change he often rapidly reverses course. Johnson is often spotted with multiple flatsticks on the putting green early in tournament weeks, but in recent years, he’s almost always stuck with his TaylorMade Spider Limited Itsy Bitsy once competition began. In fact, after putting a TaylorMade TP Bandon 1 Prototype in play two tournaments ago, he has returned to the Spider this week. At the other end of the bag, Johnson has bounced between TaylorMade SIM2 and SIM heads this season but he has always showed up to the first tee with a Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution 2.0 Tour X Flex shaft in his driver (with one exception, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January). In fact, the reigning FedExCup champion has played the Speeder 661 for the better part of five years — all the way back to the days of the TaylorMade M1. So it was big news in the equipment world, and shafts in particular, when Johnson was spotted with an LA Golf Prototype in a SIM2 Max head ahead of the competition at Kiawah Island. If LA Golf sounds familiar, that is because it’s the company that makes the shafts for all 14 of Bryson DeChambeau’s clubs, including his putter. Of course, given Johnson’s propensity for pre-tournament testing, it remained to be seen whether he’d put the combo in play at the PGA Championship. But when Johnson stepped inside the ropes shortly after 2 p.m. for his first-round tee time Thursday, he uncorked a 295-yard drive with the aforementioned TaylorMade SIM2 Max head with an LA Golf Proto shaft. Johnson shot 76 in the first round but gained +0.8 strokes off the tee. The shaft was back in the bag for the second round but that will be the only action it sees this week. Johnson will likely miss the cut after shooting 74 on Friday. He gained another +0.9 strokes off the tee in the second round but struggled with his iron play. According to TaylorMade’s Keith Sbarbaro, Global Vice President, Tour Operations & Sports Marketing at TaylorMade, the shaft is “a stiffer tip version with a lower balance point to help promote more of a fade,” which is DJ’s preferred ball flight. Adding further intrigue to the story, similar to the prototyping process DeChambeau and LA Golf have engaged in for the development of his wood, iron, and putter shafts, Johnson and LA Golf have been collaborating on the shaft design. Reed Dickens, LA Golf’s CEO had this to say about Johnson’s prototype: “We custom designed a low torque shaft for Dustin for lower trajectory and have been iterating with him for a few months. We’re excited that the No. 1 player in golf trusts LA Golf enough to put our product in play for the first time at a major championship.” After appearing almost unbeatable last fall – he tore through the FedExCup Playoffs before winning the Masters – Johnson has struggled in the spring and may be searching for answers. He is 26th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee after ranking in the top five of that statistic from 2014-19. Johnson entered this week gaining 0.44 strokes off the tee per round, which would be his worst performance in that statistic since 2013. He hasn’t had a top-10 on TOUR since The Genesis Invitational in February. He has just one top-25 in six starts since and withdrew from last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson with knee pain. Whether Johnson makes a return to his beloved Speeder remains to be seen, but for now, one of the longest-tenured shafts in pro golf has been bumped from its position.

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NOTE: If you play PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO, the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship begins on Friday. For my recommendations among notables in the field, scroll to the bottom of the page. With only the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship remaining in 2016-17, it would probably be easier to conduct a Q&A session to review your possibilities. Of course, you know I’m happy to do just that in the thread below, on Twitter (public or private) and via email (to [email protected]), but that’s the irony of the season. You need less advice and direction as your league championship hangs in the balance for you’ve likely whittled your choices accordingly. Still, simple reminders never hurt. For starters, make sure you have at least one guy available to burn at the TOUR Championship. The current points structure took hold in 2015 when points distributed in the Playoffs were reduced by 20 percent, but all of the top 21 in the FedExCup standings entering the BMW Championship advanced in all of the first 10 editions of the Playoffs. It’s not a guarantee for the top 21, mind you, but you need to draw the line somewhere to establish a plan. Reviewing the golfers in Future Possibilities below beside whom the TOUR Championship appears, only Jordan Spieth (1), Dustin Johnson (3), Paul Casey (8) and Justin Rose (17) are currently inside the top 21 in points. Conveniently, each has a terrific record at East Lake. Of course, if any are still available to you because you’ve mapped it out that way, then you already knew this, but anxiety still must be replaced by execution to pay it off. Others worthy of a look next week include Daniel Berger (11) and Kevin Kisner (14) for the sole reason that both will be putting on Bermudagrass. Once you’ve worked backward and selected your charge for the finale, the BMW presents like any other tournament. Both previous champions at Conway Farms don’t line up as favorably as we would have hoped. Zach Johnson (2013) and Jason Day (2015) are worthy finds in mid-September, but it’s likely that your opposition in pursuit will be on board more than front-runners. Both are in that rare positions as contrarians given all of the current variables. I shifted Day from this event to THE NORTHERN TRUST because I didn’t want him on the bubble at the BMW. It may prove to be the turning point of my season as he yielded a T6 at Glen Oaks but now sits 28th in points, while it also opened the door to slide Justin Thomas into place at Conway Farms. Thomas is fresh off victory at the Dell Technologies Championship. He won the PGA Championship and placed T6 at THE NORTHERN TRUST before that. While One & Doners often prefer not to choose the winner of the previous tournament, if you’re going to buck tradition, you want to do it during the Playoffs when there’s precedent for momentum. There have been five occurrences of a golfer winning consecutive tournaments in Playoffs history. Billy Horschel was the last in 2014. If you’re also chasing, it could be worth ignoring my advice of holstering Spieth, DJ and Casey in favor of a burning any of the three right now. (Rose would be your guy at East Lake.) Not unlike the ninth frame in bowling, your game can be determined in your penultimate performance. Positioning won’t mean anything unless you convert and put a mark on the board now. Two-man gamers who can still build a threatening lineup deserve the annual golf clap. Depending on your flexibility, you’re likely forced into reserving at least one of your spots for a long shot to advance. Snagging one from the likes of Patrick Cantlay (41), Charl Schwartzel (43), Chez Reavie (46), Keegan Bradley (48), Jamie Lovemark (58), Rafa Cabrera Bello (60) and Bud Cauley (68) would be timely. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2016-17. All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … BMW Paul Casey … TOUR Championship Jason Day … BMW; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … TOUR Championship Rickie Fowler … BMW Sergio Garcia … TOUR Championship Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … BMW (defending on a different course); TOUR Championship Zach Johnson … BMW; TOUR Championship Hideki Matsuyama … BMW Rory McIlroy … BMW; TOUR Championship (defending) Ryan Moore … TOUR Championship Justin Rose … TOUR Championship Charl Schwartzel … BMW Jordan Spieth … TOUR Championship Henrik Stenson … TOUR Championship Gary Woodland … TOUR Championship CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE NOTABLES Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship After its debut in 2016, Bear Mountain Resort’s Mountain Course in Victoria, British Columbia, is hosting again. It’s a par 71 with four par 5s (three on the inward side) and five par 3s, and it tips at 6,881 yards. The total prize money is $2.5 million, highest of the three remaining events in PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO. Golfers listed alphabetically. Rob’s serious considerations in bold. Stephen Ames … Lives in Vancouver, but he finished T54 last year. T19 at the Shaw in Calgary two weeks ago was one of four straight top 20s. Tenth in earnings with seven top 10s. Marco Dawson … Sneaky but inconsistent. Two top 10s in his last four starts but they’re also his only top 20s in his last eight. Tied for seventh here last year. Scott Dunlap … Disappointed us last week with a T44 at Narita, but worth the plunge again. He connected six top 20s prior to the trip to Japan and landed a T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Joe Durant … Stumbled to a T34 in Japan, but figures to rebound despite a T28 here last year when he settled for an even-par 71 in the final round. Bob Estes … Took last week off after a T10 at the Shaw. Timely wild card no matter your position. Steve Flesch … A T15 at the JAPAN AIRLINES Championship extended his top-20 streak to eight in a row. Has nine in 11 starts since turning 50 in May. Doug Garwood … A rare inclusion here but worth your attention after a T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Nine top 25s this season, including a T22 in Japan. Sits 37th in earnings. Todd Hamilton … Was poised to deliver on the Japan connection but drifted to T9 in the finale. However, he’s connected top 10s for the first time in his PGA TOUR Champions career. Lee Janzen … Loves himself par 3s but he’s just off the radar to warrant even a flier at Bear Mountain where he finished a steady T28 last year. Jerry Kelly … Answered his breakthrough at the Boeing with a T6 at the Shaw. Top 25s in 12 of his 14 starts. A brilliant option this late if you have the means. Bernhard Langer … Given the purse, if you’ve yet to burn him, it’s time. Shared seventh place last year, albeit needing a closing 63. Four-time winner this season. No. 1 in earnings. Tom Lehman … Bear Mountain debut, but he’s been in a funk in recent starts. After nine straight top 20s, he’s gone four straight without one. Scott McCarron … Opened last year’s P2 with a 62. Thrice a winner in his last seven starts entering this week. T2 at the JAPAN AIRLINES Championship. Colin Montgomerie … No-brainer. Prevailed in a playoff over Scott McCarron at Bear Mountain last year and beat McCarron and Billy Mayfair by one for victory in Japan last week. Scott Parel … Coming on a bit in the last month with four straight top 20s. T9 in Japan last week. Closed out a T12 here last year with a 7-under, 35-29=64. Corey Pavin … Sets up well for his debut at Bear Mountain and placed T9 last week in Japan. So hit and miss, though. Best suited for front-runners. Jeff Sluman … Continues to produce. T15 in Japan marked his 12th top 25 of 2017. T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Turned 60 years of age on Monday. David Toms … His T6 at the Boeing Classic is his only top 20 since May. Scott Verplank … Poor showings in his last two starts and a T57 last year. We need more promise at this point. Duffy Waldorf … T12 here last year, but rapidly falling out of favor for a spot with only one finish better than a T20 in his last 10 starts.

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