The Equipment Debrief: Lexi's 16-Year-Old Irons, Four Putters For Gerard And First Wins For Two New Drivers...

It was only a matter of time before TaylorMade’s new driver for 2026 recorded its first win - and it was Jayden Schaper who delivered at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.

We’ve been reporting on the TaylorMade Qi4D driver for a couple of months now, ever since it was spotted on the USGA Conforming List prior to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in November.

The top three players in the world - Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Tommy Fleetwood - have all had the new driver in the bag since, as have a growing number of other TaylorMade staff players.

For Schaper, it was a TaylorMade Qi4D (9° Std-1) that helped power him to victory at Royal Johannesburg Golf Club, win number one on tour for the new model.

Meanwhile, Lauren Coughlin recorded a first win for the new Ping G440 K driver at the Grant Thornton Invitational.

Playing alongside Andrew Novak in the PGA Tour-LPGA Tour team event, the 33-year-old has clearly taken a shine to what appears to be the next iteration of the popular G440 range.

The Ping G440 K, which we believe to be a high-MOI model in similar vein to the G430 Max 10K driver, also appeared on the Conforming List last month.

As much as we love to see new equipment on tour (we’re very much looking forward to the PGA Show in Orlando in January, when we’ll be getting a closer look at loads of 2026 products), we also enjoy seeing old favorites in play.

One of the latest players to stick an old driver in the bag is former World No.1, Jason Day, who played with a TaylorMade M5 during the Grant Thornton Invitational, a model that replaced the M3 in 2019.

The Australian was playing alongside New Zealand’s Lydia Ko in Naples, Florida, and he appears to have opted for a change at the top end of the bag, benching, for the time being at least, his Ping G440 LST.

Elsewhere, in the same event, Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson both switched to new equipment.

It was no great surprise to see the former make the move to the new TaylorMade Qi4D driver, and join the likes of McIlroy, Fleetwood, and Charley Hull as early adopters.

Thompson, meanwhile, has reportedly put a Cobra King Tec mini driver in the bag.

What's a mini driver? Come on, now - you've surely heard about the mini driver trend on tour.

This particular driver was first seen in the middle of 2025, and it’s a model that has clearly got the attention of the 11-time LPGA Tour winner.

The 30-year-old American is not one to swap and change equipment very often, with her Cobra Radspeed driver an ever-present since 2021.

The former Chevron Championship winner also still plays with a Cobra King LTD fairway wood from 2015 and an old (very old) set of Cobra S2 Forged irons from the back end of 2009.

Back to the latest releases, and some eagle-eyed gear fans may have spotted new fairway woods at the Grant Thornton Invitational.

Although we don’t have any further details at this stage, it appears that we’ll be seeing quite a bit more of the Callaway Quantum Max fairway woods in the near future.

If you’re a Callaway fan, you’ll no doubt already know about the brand’s new Quantum range, which have also appeared on the Conforming List.

A quick look at the week ahead, now, and we’re loving the report from SMS On Tour that Ryan Gerard - who has made the trip to Mauritius in an effort to make the world’s top 50 and qualify for The Masters - has taken four putters to Heritage La Reserva Golf Links.

According to SMS On Tour, the World No.57 made the 10,000-mile trip from America with a choice of flatsticks to see which one rolled best on the paspalum greens.

Whether that affected his weight allowance and incurred a fine, we’re not sure, but there are worse places to jet to at this time of year.

Choose wisely, Ryan. We hope to see you at Augusta.