Equipment

Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama make big gear changes in Napa

Published

4 years ago

Sep 16, 2022

Andrew Tursky was on site at the Fortinet Championship this week and got all he could handle in terms of new equipment news. There were new irons, drivers, and even headcovers all over the range, so we had to dig into two of the biggest stories out there on this week’s Two Guys Talking Golf Podcast (give us a follow on Instagram: @tg2wrx).

Rickie Fowler’s new irons

Rickie Fowler has been changing a lot of equipment in his bag as he has struggled to get his golf game back into shape. We have seen him with different drivers, shafts, irons, and putters throughout the 2021-2022 season. Fowler has typically played some form of blade during his career, and Cobra even made him some signature Rev33 blades that were beautiful, but razor thin and intimidating for us mortal golfers.

Rickie showed up to the Fortinet with some brand new, unreleased, Cobra King Tour irons. The King Tour irons look a lot like the current Cobra King Tour MIM irons, and we can only assume that the new Tour will replace the MIM.

The interesting thing about the King Tour irons is that they look a little larger than his preferred blades and that they might have a little more ball speed and distance built into them. From the images you can tell there is a little slot behind the face that might be filled with some type of polymer.

Rickie didn’t get into the tech of the new King Tour irons but did tell Tursky that he was gaining around 3-4 yards on shots that he stuck low on the face. He finished the first round of the Fortinet Championship in the top four, so the new irons have seen some success under pressure. I know many of us hope to see Rickie back to form soon, and maybe these new King Tour irons can be the catalyst.

Hideki Matsuyama’s driver change

The other big story comes from a former Masters Champion testing out some new drivers on the range, Hideki Matsuyama. Matsuyama is well known as a golfer who loves to test and tinker with new golf equipment. Each week there is a good chance that he will have multiple drivers, irons, and fairways in the bag searching for the perfect club that week.

Earlier this week, Hideki was spotted with some new, unreleased, Srixon drivers out on the range in Napa. We spotted a few pros testing the new Srixon ZX7 MkII and ZX 5 MkII LS on the range.

Andrew spoke to the Srixon reps and learned Hideki has been trying the new drivers and seems to have settled on a Srixon ZX5 MkII in 10.5 degrees of loft (and his trusty Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX shaft).

The ZX5 MkII LS looks to have an adjustable weight on the sole that is moved far forward —closer to the face — to possibly lower the spin. We haven’t heard anything specific from Srixon on the new drivers, but with their recent success, we would expect to see some solid performance out of the line.

Check out the full TG2 podcast, below

Equipment

Slab city on the Korn Ferry Tour — Lead Tape Report

Published

16 hours ago

Jun 10, 2026

Andrew Von Lossow

This week, we have our Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, on the ground at the OccuNet Classic at Tascosa Golf Club in Amarillo, Texas, for the 14th event of the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour season. With that, we see some great things in the Lead Tape Report as we roll into Amarillo.

Joel Thelen

Monday Qualifier, Joel Thelen is in the field this week. He has played on the Korn Ferry Tour for a full season in 2023, and he is back in action this week. A couple of clubs caught my eye this week in his bag.

First off: His trusted Titleist 816 H2 hybrid. This club came out in October of 2015, and it still remains strong in the bag. Also, take a look at this Odyssey White Hot OG 7, putting a capital S in the 7S model. This custom neck has some impressive lean for an arm-lock-style putter. The bottom of the putter is covered in tape for optimal weighting.

Mitchell Meissner

Taking a look at Mitchell Meissner’s bag this week, we have some great lead tape coverage. Top to bottom working from fairway metals, irons, and wedges. We can see on the short irons and wedges that there is tape at the base of the grip, adding a little counterbalance. Along with that, some tape on the short irons and wedges as well. Moving to his putter, he rolls the Odyssey 7 Bird putter. Meissner putts left-handed and strikes the ball right-handed.

Whats in the Bag

Bud Cauley WITB 2026 (June)

Published

16 hours ago

Jun 10, 2026

Will Schube

Bud Cauley had >14 clubs in his bag when photographed prior to the Memorial Tournament.

Driver: Titleist GTS2 (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: Titleist GTS3 (15 degrees, B1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro Red 70 TX

7-wood: Titleist GTS3 (21 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro Red 80 TX

Irons: Titleist U505 (3), Titleist 620 MB (4-9)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 8 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (48-10F, 52-12F, 56-14F), WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putters: Scotty Cameron Tour Prototype, Scotty Cameron GOLO 6.3 Prototype

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

See more in-hand photos of Bud Cauley’s clubs here.

Equipment

Name every set of irons you’ve owned – GolfWRXers discuss

Published

16 hours ago

Jun 10, 2026

Will Schube

In our forums, one user has offered up a prompt for the true sickos, inviting fellow forum members to share every set of irons they’ve ever owned. As to be expected, this is a lengthy forum topic.

@Lamosteve began:

Can you name every set of irons you’ve owned? Here’s mine

Spalding Dots
Spalding Eclipse
Ram Lazer FX
Lynx Parallax
Mizuno EZ Comp
Ben Hogans
Cleveland CG Red
Taylor Made R9s
PING i20
PING iE1
Taylor Made M6

Our members in the forum have been offering up their own collections. Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

macedan: “Started with a hand-me-down Golden Bear set from my brother when I was in high school, never really played more than once a year or got into the game until about summer of 2017. First purchased a set of Cleveland CG4’s (I actually really miss this set sometimes, soft & not terribly large for a GI iron), moved into Nike Vapor Fly’s by the end of the year. Those lasted until spring of 18 when I decided I wanted new, so I traded them in for TM Rbladez. Honestly, although I liked the Rbladez, poor decision on my part, I think this was really about the only time so far that after a week or two I was kicking myself for not staying with what I had. Rbladez stayed with me until late last summer when I switched to P790’s and (knock on wood) I am hoping this will be my longest lasting set.”
JimmyC59: “MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Triple Crown. Palmer The Standard. Still play these.”
jgrzask: “Tommy Armour 845u
Mizuno MP-32
Mizuno MP-33 (2 sets)
Bridgestone J33cb – still own
Srixon i-302 (2 sets) – still own
Tourstage X-Blades – still own
Mizuno Hot Metal – still own
Nike Forged Blades – still own
Titleist 714 AP1 – still own
Cobra Forged SS – still own”

Entire Thread: “Name every set of irons you’ve owned.”