Equipment

Padraig Harrington discusses speed training (and his impressive maximum ball speed)

Published

1 year ago

Mar 28, 2025

Editor’s note: The following excerpt is from a piece our Andrew Tursky filed for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. In the larger piece, Tursky hears from the font of golf wisdom that is Padraig Harrington (look out for more from Padraig in coming weeks). You can read the full piece here.

…The topic of length was already discussed to start the week by the top two players in the world at Memorial Park Golf Course. With wet conditions on the way world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and FedExCup leader Rory McIlroy suggested extra yardage off the tee was needed for an already long municipal golf course that’s open to the public for most of the year. Because of this, Harrington believes recommends his speed practice to amateurs, too.

“It’s not a bad thing to swing something fast,” Harrington added. “That doesn’t mean you should always swing your driver fast, too. But I say to my amateurs, at least 20 balls a week, you should be swinging really hard. Really, really trying to push it up there, and then play within yourself. You don’t have to swing as hard on the golf course, but you should sometimes in practice just to get a feel for it.”

This practice of pushing his speed forward, however, does have a drawback: Cracked driver faces.

“I always carry two drivers,” Harrington says. “Not in the tournament, but I warm up with a backup driver because I don’t want to crack the face. So I’ve always got two drivers on the go because if they crack, you’ve got to have a backup there, especially because I do a lot of speed work. If you do speed work, you tend to mishit the club. So it’s not that the club cracks, it’s just that I’ve mishit it so much, going pretty hard at it, that I will eventually crack them.”

On Wednesday in Houston, Harrington also touched on the topic of averages. Stats such as average ball speed and average distance are discussed plenty among players, coaches, rule makers, club designers, and in the media – even right here on the PGATOUR.COM Equipment Report. Harrington, however, prefers to discuss the extremes. The topic arose when we asked Harrington about his record ball speed with the driver so far this year.

“This year, 189 mph, I haven’t gotten to 190,” Harrington said. “I reckon about 5 percent of the field will be able to go 190s here this week [in Houston]. You know, I laugh about them all talking about speed. … They all start talking about averages. These are engineers, some of these people, and I’m going, ‘Since when does an engineer ever use an average?’ Like, if you use an average for a building, the building will fall down. You use your extremes.”

For Harrington, it’s all about that top number and the most a player can get out of their swing.

“When you’re talking ball speed, you want to look at what guys are capable of getting when they open their shoulders on an appropriate hole,” Harrington added. “I think you’ll find seven people here this week that will break that 190 mph barrier.”

To Harrington’s point, the best way to improve speed is to continue pushing your top-end ball speed higher, and then “playing within yourself” on the course by trying to hit the center of the face more often. The averages take care of themselves.

Read the rest of the piece here.

Check out fresh photos of Harrington’s WITB here.

Equipment

Slab city on the Korn Ferry Tour — Lead Tape Report

Published

14 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

14 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

14 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.”