With the PGA Tour’s annual trip across the pond comes the usual bevy of changes to the top end of players’ bags.

Out with the high-lofted fairway woods, and in with a good old-fashioned driving iron to keep ball flights lower in the blustery conditions found on the shores of the United Kingdom.

Rory McIlroy, who opened the Genesis Scottish Open with a 5-under 65 at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, did just that, opting for his TaylorMade P760 3-iron instead of his Qi4D 5-wood, which has been in the bag most of the year. The P760 is the same model of iron McIlroy has regularly in play in his 4-iron, and actually what he used for his famous 18th-hole approach at The Renaissance, where he hit a 2-iron to just a few feet to win the tournament in 2023.

The addition of the driving iron wouldn’t have surprised many, but McIlroy’s change in lob wedge might have. After switching into the newly released MG5 lineup for his win at the Irish Open last year, he returned to the MG4 head for his trip to Scotland this week. With that also came a custom grind RM5.

It’s a grind, spotted before on Tour; McIlroy played it in an MG3 wedge in 2023, which McIlroy at the time said combined the best parts of previous Vokey and Nike wedges he had played.

The MG4 wedge this time around features less bounce than most at just 5 degrees, to help lower the sharp leading edge and pick the ball cleanly off the tight fescue grasses at this week’s Scottish Open and also The Open Championship next week, and what looks like plenty of heel and trailing-edge relief to help when opening the face.

Inside Tour Golf first spotted McIlroy’s wedge change.

Patrick Reed ditches the blade

One of golf’s longest-serving blademen decided to switch things up.

Patrick Reed, who has already won twice this year on the DP World Tour and has all but secured a PGA Tour card for next season, decided to join mallet mania.

Both his victories came with a Scotty Cameron Tour Rat 1.5 Proto, but for Scotland, Reed moved into a Phantom 12 with a welded slant neck.

According to the Golf Channel broadcast, Reed had played a mallet once before, but for most of his career has played either a Scotty Cameron or Odyssey blade.

During the two rounds in Scotland, Reed gained 3.7 shots on the greens.

For those worried about another blade putter taking a back seat, 3.7 is the same number of strokes gained by Jordan Smith during his second-round 63 that saw him vault to the top of the leaderboard. The Englishman did that with a new 009 center-shafted Scotty Cameron blade. According to Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy in over 1,000 rounds as a pro, it’s Smith’s fourth-best putting performance.

Fitzpatrick makes putter change … kind of

Another golfer who has won multiple times this season made a putter change in Scotland, although not as dramatic a swap as Reed’s.

Matt Fitzpatrick, a three-time winner on Tour in 2026, decided to put in play a customized Bettinardi BB1 Fitz Flow blade putter.

We first spotted the newer version of the flatstick at the Travelers Championship just a few weeks ago, featuring a honeycomb-milled sole.

With potential for baked-out greens on the links course over the next two weeks, Bettinardi told GolfWRX that Fitzpatrick wanted to have some texture on the sole to prevent it from sliding.

Titleist debuts Black Vapor

Titleist launched two new limited-edition lineups this summer with its “Black Vapor” T-Series irons and Vokey SM11 wedges, which bring a refreshing cosmetic update to the latest generation of Titleist iron and wedge technology in a durable, darker finish.

Starting with the T-Series irons, the “Titanium Carbide Vapor” finish will be available on the ’25 series T100, T150, T250 and T350 models. But what does this mean?

Titanium Carbide Vapor is a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) finish to the club head, where the material is vaporized in a vacuum and bonds to the club head to help with durability and smudge resistance.

It was spotted on-site at The Renaissance Club, with Justin Thomas testing a T250 2-iron in the finish. In a social post from Titleist, Tour rep JJ Van Wezenbeeck said that Thomas was looking to “try and bring the peak height on his 5-wood, which is around 120 feet, down to around 80 to 90 feet, which gives him a lot of control off the tee, but also allows just enough height for some of those downwind shots and into the longer holes.”

Spotted: First look at Srixon’s new ZXi RKT fairway woods and hybrids

Plenty was still happening Stateside at the ISCO Championship, with the first looks at Srixon’s new ZXi RKT fairway woods and hybrids.

Just a couple of weeks ago at the Travelers Championship, Srixon launched its new lineup of drivers on tour, with the ZXi RKT family taking full flight.

Plenty of changes came with the new drivers, including a new sole makeup along with the new-looking material labeled “Acousticore,” which could be a different design structure internally, stepping away from the Star Frame that Srixon has used in the past. At the Travelers, Srixon showed off four different models: A core head, LS, Max, and LS+.

Now at the ISCO, hosted at Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky, we have a first look at the new RKT fairway and hybrid lineup. GolfWRX’s Tour Photographer Greg Moore was out earlier in the Bluegrass State to get first-hand images of the new clubs, which are posted here.

Currently in the GolfWRX Classifieds, member AnOKgolfer has a multi-item head-only listing built around Avoda combo-length iron heads, a Ping S159 wedge and several items that have already sold.

The current title reflects a final price drop and shows the remaining highlighted pieces: Avoda Origin Combo Length 4-PW black heads, an Avoda W2 LW head and a Ping S159 58-degree E Grind wedge.

The thread is also a good example of how fast GolfWRX Classifieds listings can move, with multiple Ping, TaylorMade, Edel, and shaft items marked sold inside the same post.

• Avoda Origin Combo Length iron heads, 4-PW, listed at $600.
• Avoda Origin W2 LW head listed at $90, with the seller noting some rusting on the top and face.
• Ping S159 58-degree E Grind wedge listed at $95.
• Sold items in the post include Ping G440 LST and G440K heads, a TaylorMade R7 mini driver head, a TaylorMade Qi10 Tour 5-wood head, Edel wedge, Axiom shaft set and other gear.
• The seller notes prices are shipped with goods and services in the lower 48, with Canada, Alaska and Hawaii at buyer expense.

Entire thread: Final Price drop!! Heads For Sale! Ping S159 58* Wedge, Avoda Combo Length 4-PW Black Heads, Avoda W2 LW Hea

In our forums, member rooski asked a question that many good players eventually face: should a player force a predictable shot shape, even if the swing naturally wants to live closer to neutral?

@rooski described himself as a player whose handicap can range from plus-1 to around 3 depending on practice. Launch-monitor numbers often show a neutral path and face, but the driver can produce either a 20-yard draw or a 20-yard fade. On tight courses, that creates a hard aiming problem.

As a PGA coach, I would not want a player to force a shot shape just for the sake of having one. But I do want a player to have a stock window, especially off the tee. The most valuable shot shape is the one that removes one side of the course often enough to simplify decisions.

• @g_swell said to play what you brought that day, but also emphasized locking in a stock shape and varying trajectory more than trying to work the ball both ways.
• @GoGoErky pointed out that a perfectly neutral swing can bring a two-way miss into play and said a predictable shot shape can be a better long-term goal.
• @ShortGolfer brought the conversation back to dispersion, club selection and choosing landing areas that keep the ball in play.
• @RayPlan asked the right diagnostic question: what is the player’s most common natural ball flight?
• @vman added a strong practice idea: build a shot-shape intention, develop trajectories with that shape and test it on the course.

Entire thread: Should I force myself to play a certain shot shape?