Tiger Woods shot 1-over-par 72 in the first round of the Genesis Open on Thursday, his return to his hometown event for the first time in 12 years.
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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.”
Tiger finds the fairway at the par-5 first hole, the group’s 10th hole of their second round, as he attempts to get a shot back here after bogeying two of his final three holes on his front nine. Neither bogey was particularly bad—the 18th hole is playing brutally tough right now uphill and into the wind with the rain, making it even more of a challenging hole. And his break at 16 was very unlucky.
DUBLIN, Ohio — Cameron Smith believes he is playing the best golf of his life, and it shows. He is in the lead at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, a tournament where the Australian doesn’t have a great history. Smith elicited one of the loudest cheers of a glorious afternoon Friday at Muirfield Village — another anomaly for this weather-plagued tournament — when he holed out with a downhill chip from beyond the green on the par-3 12th that carried him to a 3-under 69. He kept his one-shot lead over Denny McCarthy and K.H. Lee the rest of the day by doing what Smith does best. He holed a 15-foot putt for par on the next hole and twice made 6-foot par putts for bunker saves down the stretch. “I think I’m just happy with the way I stuck in there,” Smith said. “Really happy with where my short game’s at. I feel like I’m rolling the ball really good. Just need to sort out that longer stuff.” As for his history at the Memorial? In six previous appearance, Smith only made the cut twice and both times and finished outside the top 60. His best round was a 71. But this is a new Smith, the winner of THE PLAYERS Championship and the Sentry Tournament of Champions. So his rounds of 67-69 to reach 8-under 136 and be in the lead going into the weekend is hardly a surprise, even at Muirfield Village. “I think my game’s in a good spot. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be,” he said. “I’m playing some of the best golf of my life, and I feel I’m getting more consistent with the longer stuff. So just looking forward to everything coming up.” Billy Horschel putted for birdie on every hole and made four of them for a 68 that left him in the group two shots behind with Torrey Pines winner Luke List, PGA TOUR rookies Cameron Young and Davis Riley, and Jhonattan Vegas. Rory McIlroy had a 69 and was three shots behind. Defending champion Patrick Cantlay closed with two big par putts for a 69 and was at 3-under 141. The cut was at 2-over 146. Among those missing out on the weekend were Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English, both returning from injuries. DeChambeau (hand surgery) had not played since the Masters. English (hip surgery) had not played since the Sony Open in January. McCarthy’s name was mentioned prominently even before the Memorial began, and then he lived up to the praise. He took only 25 putts Friday — he only had 24 putts the day before — for a 3-under 69 that put him one shot behind. For those who don’t pore over the litany of statistics available on the PGA TOUR, it was a little surprising when McIlroy was asked earlier in the week whom he considered the better putters in today’s game. He mentioned Jordan Spieth. Everyone knows him. He was impressed with Sam Burns, a three-time winner over the last eight months. And he mentioned McCarthy. Told of McIlroy’s comments earlier in the week, McCarthy smiled and said, “I would like to drive it like Rory.” “Everyone has the best part of their game. Obviously, putting is part of mine,” said McCarthy, who is No. 5 in the key putting statistic for the season. “Driving the ball is the best part of his game. I’m no slouch around the course, like putting is not the only thing I do well. Everyone brings up my putter; yes, I’m a good putter. But I need to do good things to get to those putts.” McIlroy, meanwhile, has been picking up a little momentum since his closing 64 at the Masters for a runner-up finish. He finished four shots behind at the Wells Fargo Championship and three shots out of a playoff at the PGA Championship. McIlroy surged into the mix at the Memorial with a fairway metal that was high and true and into a freshening breeze to 6 feet for eagle on the par-5 fifth toward the end of his round. His momentum was slowed by a bogey from the bunker on the par-3 eighth, but his 69 left him in reasonable shape going into the weekend. Jon Rahm overcame a shank on the second hole — he made birdie on the next one — to scratch out a 70 without his best iron game. He was at 2-under 142, six shots behind. Rahm won in 2020. He was six shots ahead after three rounds last year until his positive COVID-19 test knocked him out of the final round.
