As a professional golfer, heading into one of the biggest weeks of your year isn’t normally the time to be tinkering with equipment but The Open championship is a common exception. With firm links turf, deep pot bunkers and usually a pretty stiff breeze, the players face conditions unlike what they play in for the majority of the year and so a lot of players will make gear changes to help hit the necessary shots out on the links.
As the players head out to start the quest to become the champion golfer of the year, let me run you through some of the gear changes some of the biggest names in the game have made and one club I seriously can’t believe is still in a former Open champions bag!
Tiger Woods
Tiger has made the switch into a 9° Driver head this week
The 'GOAT' has made some fairly large equipment changes heading into The Open this week. As we all know, Tiger has played his famous Scotty Cameron blade style putter for many years now but due to the greens running a little slower than usual and some inclement weather expected, Woods has added some lead tape to the back of his putter. Speaking to Golf Monthly's Matt Cradock in his press conference he said “I added lead tape to my putter just because the greens are so slow.”
Tiger Woods has added lead tape to the back of his putter to cope with the slower greens at Troon
Tiger has also added a new driver head into the bag this week. He played multiple practice rounds this week with a 10.5° TaylorMade Qi10 LS head, before opting to change to a 9° head in the same model heading into round 1. The loft sleeve has been set in an upright setting with the weight slid over to promote a draw, with the hope to cut through the wind and get the most roll out of the ball on the firm fairways at Troon.
Collin Morikawa
The two-time major champion spent a decent amount of time on the range this week with the TaylorMade Tour team in order to dial in a new long iron. He tested a secret new prototype 3-iron before eventually settling into a slightly more forgiving P.790 3-iron that’s actually been bent to 19° to play more like a 2-iron.
Shane Lowry
Shane Lowry testing low bounce wedge options before The Open
Playing the majority of his golf out on the PGA Tour and on bermuda grass, Lowry alongside most other golfers would use wedges with a touch more bounce on them to help the wedge get in and out of the grainy grass. The firm turf at Royal Troon has seen Lowry tinkering with new Cleveland wedges with much lower bounce, meaning the leading edge will sit closer to the tight turf and allow the club to slide under the ball a little easier.
Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Fleetwood ditches the 9-wood for a new 3-iron heading into The Open
As you may be aware, I tested a 9-wood earlier in the year and I’m a massive advocate of them. The technology in some of the best fairway woods these days mean there is so much forgiveness and the high loft on these woods allow for effortless launch. While Tommy has gamed his 9-wood for the majority of the PGA Tour season, he’s elected to swap this trusty weapon out for a P.7CB 3-iron to help keep the launch and spin down and hit those stingers into the wind we love to watch on the tracer!
Brooks Koepka
After switching into a Scotty Cameron 5.5 Tour Only putter at the Masters this year and having kept it in the bag since, Koepka has reverted back to his trusted Scotty Cameron Teryllium bladed putter. We’ll have to wait and see if switching back to his old wand can help Brooks produce some magic on the greens this week and lift his first Open Championship.
Henrik Stenson
While the majority of players are swapping in and out of product seemingly yearly these days, the ‘Ice Man’ is unbelievably still gaming his trusty Callaway Diablo Octane 13° fairway wood with an old school Graffaloy Blue Tour-X shaft. As someone who tests fairway woods for a living, it baffles me he hasn’t been persuaded into a model with newer technology but the Swede must be truly living by the motto “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Adam Scott
Adam Scott is another player who switched up his equipment before the Scottish Open last week where he went on to play some outstanding golf, narrowly missing out by one shot to Robert MacIntyre.
Scott spoke to the media earlier in the week mentioning he has been tinkering with his equipment all year saying "Well, I've been fiddling around with my equipment this year, and I tried to -- since about the Masters, I tried to keep things fairly consistent because I was getting bad looks from people around me about fiddling with equipment too much. Sometimes you know, I gave it a fair crack, and sometimes you know it's just not right."
He claims he has recently switched back to an iron shaft he was familiar with. He has gamed multiple sets of irons this year but transitioned back into some prototype 'AS' Miura iron before the Scottish last week and they will stay in the bag as he sets his sights on The Open this week.
