Connect with us

Equipment

What IS that on the back of Rickie Fowler’s Cobra King wedge?

Published

on

Rickie Fowler is no stranger to using wedges that are custom-made… and with wild, Oklahoma State-orange stampings on them.

Back in 2015, I spoke to Ben Schomin, Cobra’s director of tour operations, about Rickie Fowler’s special Tungsten-plugged Cobra irons and wedges. Schomin told me that since Fowler likes his wedges a half-inch short and at a swing weight of D3, Cobra developed a special fixture to mount the wedges in order to be able to insert conical Tungsten rods into Fowler’s wedges to make them heavier. He also said that each wedge took to 2-to-3 hours to make.

Flash forward to 2018, and Schomin has a bit different, more time-efficient process to add weight.

As we spotted in his recent WITB, Fowler has new wedges (56 and 60 degrees) with metal protrusions on the back cavities that look like caterpillars. To find out more about Fowler’s new Cobra King wedges, I again spoke to Schomin to get the lowdown. Here’s what he had to say.

“The grind is a specific shape I’ve been making for Rickie the last couple of seasons. Since he plays his irons 0.5 inches short, we need to add weight to those clubs to get the swingweight back up… Typically we’ve added tungsten internal weighting for both, but for testing purposes, I’ve added weld beads to increase weight over the years, which helps speed up the weighting process. Now I clean up the weld heat tint and re-blast the head to make it look good.” 

Here are the specs on Fowler’s new 60-degree wedge.

  • Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 Tour Issue
  • Length: 34.5 inches
  • Swing weight: D4.5
  • Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet .600 Rib 1+ .5 RH

Next time you see Fowler get up and down using a wedge, know that he has a bead-welded, torched caterpillar on it helping out.

See all of the clubs in Fowler’s bag here.

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

15 Comments

15 Comments

  1. sid

    May 9, 2018 at 10:19 am

    Cobra club designers must wince painfully to see all that ugly weld bead on the back of their beauties. It’s a total rebuke by Rickie that must really sting… lol

  2. William King

    Feb 2, 2018 at 11:21 am

    Is that club on the USGA and R&A approved list? No doubt the original is, but I think that the rules prohibit alterations to an approved club.

  3. Milton Gombo

    Jan 31, 2018 at 7:20 pm

    He used as little welding heat as possible, so as not to warp the club head. Weld will crack and fall off if not ground down and finished properly.
    Lesson learned: if you like a heavy wedge, look elsewhere.

    • George

      Feb 2, 2018 at 5:18 pm

      You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.

      • Milton Gombo

        Feb 2, 2018 at 5:51 pm

        Professional Certified Welding Inspector and consultant here.
        Heard we can all learn something from everyone. Please elaborate.

  4. M-Herd4

    Jan 31, 2018 at 5:38 pm

    If it doesn’t bother Ricky it doesn’t bother me. Most pros don’t care how pretty the club is as long as it feels right in their hands and they can hit the shots they need to on command.

  5. Blake

    Jan 31, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Did people not know this?

  6. farmer

    Jan 31, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    Not a very good job of welding. Ugly, but it works. No way to clean up those welds and make them look good.

  7. George

    Jan 31, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    It’s a tool. All these idiots that sit around looking at their clubs obviously have no idea how to use them.

  8. Piney

    Jan 31, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    “Now I clean up the weld heat tint and re-blast the head to make it look good.”

    If that’s your definition of “good”, please don’t ever touch my clubs. It looks ridiculous. Also, there’s physically no way that bead welding, then removing a finish, then re-blasting his clubs is faster than adding or removing a few strips of lead tape…

  9. Ed

    Jan 31, 2018 at 1:20 pm

    What’s wrong with a neat patch of lead tape? The weld bead makes the Cobra wedge fugly.
    Will Cobra provide me with a custom weld bead or do I have to go to a local muffler shop for a weld bead? 😮

    • deeo

      Jan 31, 2018 at 2:01 pm

      Maybe it‘s inefficient to use leadtape because of all the adhesive?
      I honestly don‘t know, but this torched caterpillar seems more … condensed than adding layers upon layers of lead tape.

  10. Zach

    Jan 31, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    Are those 56 and 60’s really those lofts? He has some 54 and 58 stamps on them that would elude one to think they are 54* 58*??

    • Brian

      Jan 31, 2018 at 1:55 pm

      They’re probably bent to 56/60 for bounce and/or offset purposes.

      • Zach

        Jan 31, 2018 at 3:55 pm

        Or is it the other way around? Looks to me like the stock on them is 56/60 and he has bent to 54/58?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

Published

on

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.

Continue Reading

Equipment

TaylorMade MySpider Tour and Tour X: More customizable build options now available

Published

on

TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.

The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.

One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.

Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:

MySpider Tour

MySpider Tour X

Continue Reading

Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

Published

on

In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.

Continue Reading

Announcement

Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use have been updated as of January 29th, 2026. Please review the updated policies here Privacy Policy | Terms of Use. By continuing to use our site after January 29th, 2026, you agree to the changes.

WITB

Facebook

Trending