Tiger Woods Makes Equipment Change Ahead Of PGA Championship

Tiger Woods will kickstart his PGA Championship in a marquee group with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth and he will do so with a host of new weapons in the bag.

The fifteen-time Major champion has opted to remove his TaylorMade M3 5-wood in replace of a P770 2-iron. This is a likely indicator into the course conditions at Southern Hills and the style of play Woods will be looking to adopt.

The 46-year-old famously took apart Royal Liverpool in the 2006 Open Championship using a 2-iron almost exclusively off the tee. The firm and fast conditions allowed Woods to maximise his game plan by staying short of the penal fairway bunkers. 

In a slightly more surprising move, Woods has also replaced his P7TW 3-iron and with a P770 3-iron. The P770 series is a forged, hollow-body construction designed for enhanced feel, distance and forgiveness. The speed pocket is engineered to protect ball speed across the face and improve playability, yet maintains a thin topline and limited offset.

Time will tell as to whether this is a permanent change or specific for the needs of Southern Hills. With Woods returning from a serious injury, it may well be a bid to increase ball speed and forgiveness at the top end of the bag.

There is also one perspective change at the lower end of the bag but not the trusted Scotty Cameron putter. Woods has been testing the TaylorMade MG3 wedges in his preferred 56 and 60 degree loft with his signature TW grind. He currently plays the MG2 model in the same loft setup. With runoff areas around the green aplenty at Southern Hills, Woods may well have his eye on fresher grooves and more stopping power with the shorter clubs. The rest of his club setup looks to have remained unchanged. 

Woods is making his second start of the 2022 season after surpassing all expectation in a sensation return to action at the Masters. The American opened with a round of 71 (1-under) and made the cut. 

Speaking of his preparation in the run to up this week, Woods revealed to GolfWeek: “I’ve gotten a lot stronger since the Masters". “It’s only going to keep getting stronger,” he said of his rehabilitated right leg, which he feared was going to be amputated following his horrific single car crash in LA last February. 

"The more I use it, the more strength it gains. Am I ever going to have full mobility? No. Never again. But I’ll be able to get stronger. It’s going to ache, but that’s the way it’s going to be.

“I’m excited about [the week ahead]. I’m not going to play that much going forward so anytime I do play, it’s going to be fun to play and to compete. There only so many money games you can play at home.”

Woods has won the PGA Championship on four separate occasions; most recently at this week's venue, Southern Hills, in 2007.