Equipment

17 Revealing Photos from the LPGA North Texas Shootout

Published

11 years ago

Apr 30, 2015

In this week’s LPGA Photos from the Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout, we get a different perspective on golf — one that’s fun, different and educational.

Nearly ever week on the PGA Tour, our photographer takes viewers inside the ropes to see the clubs PGA Tour players are using. The thing to remember, however, is that the majority of golfers shouldn’t be using the same clubs and shafts as PGA Tour pros. LPGA Tour players, on the other hand, have swing speeds more similar to average golfers, and compete on courses that are more similar in length to what the average male golfer usually plays.

04e7000e8e97020fe276bf7523b4ebe1 For example, how often do you play a par-5 that measures 510 yards? Pretty often, right? PGA Tour players usually play 510-yard holes as par-4’s, and golfers such as Dustin Johnson, J.B. Holmes and other big hitters regularly hit short irons into them.

Golf bags on the LPGA Tour are also more eclectic than PGA Tour bags when it comes to brands, and they’re more colorful, too, as you’ll see below. Would you ever see a PGA Tour player with pink paintfill on their irons? Or a player wearing a Ping visor with a ponytail hanging from his back.

Well, actually, those were bad examples. Sorry Bubba and Miguel.

Bubba Watson’s Ping S55 irons with pink paint fill

Miguel Angel Jimenez, a.k.a., the “Most Interesting Man in Golf.”

We hope you enjoy this week’s Revealing photos from the LPGA North Texas Shootout at Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas.

Gerina Piller uses a bunch of Scor 4161 “wedges”

Scor Golf’s 4161 series were said to be “scoring clubs,” not wedges, which is why they come in low lofts that are usually reserved for 9 irons and pitching wedges.

That explain’s Gerina Piller’s the 42-degree “wedge.” If you ever hear an announcer say she’s hitting a wedge from what seems to be too far, you’ll know why.

Callaway’s Mack Daddy 2 wedge stampings on the LPGA Tour are electric

Certainly, the quickest way to make enemies is to have “Roll Tide” stamped on your wedges.

Lexi Thompson’s wedge stampings are dripping in positive energy

The “Nico” wedge stamping could be a reference to one of the following:

This “Nico, Smile” YouTube video
Nico, a German musician popular in the 1960s.
A possible nickname for her brother Nicholas Thompson, who plays professional golf on the PGA Tour.

Regardless, it’s tough not to keep a positive attitude with these colorful, smiley-faced Cobra Tour Trusty wedges.

Insider update: Nico is the name of her nephew, Nicholas’ son. I was close… kind of.

#ScarfLife

Based on the photos, it was cold and windy on Tuesday during the practice round at Las Colinas. Michelle Wie even broke out a scarf — and why it’s not volt-colored to match her driver, golf ball and visor, I have no clue.

Here’s a fun game if you’re bored; Count the number of Nike “Swooshes” you can spot in the photo above (my answer below).

Here’s Azahara Munoz, who’s also bout that #scarflife. Her Ping bag and umbrella are also showing off Ping’s new logo lettering that’s exclusive to the LPGA Tour.

Answer to Nike swooshes: I spot 9. Anyone beat me?

Odyssey’s Limited Edition 2-ball Bear putter cover

Chella Choi’s head cover looks snuggly, and fuzzy, and the only place I can find it online is here. Apparently, they come in three different colors.

Choi is also using Fourteen Golf’s new RM-21 wedges, with a trailing edge grind on her 52 degree wedge, which has 10 degrees of bounce.

Pulled it!

This is merely a reminder how hard putting is. Even with training aids from 4 feet, no putt is a guarantee. Don’t you just love golf?

Any guesses on what this guy is texting while Natalie Gulbis is teeing off?

My guess is he’s texting one of his buddies: “About to tee off on the first hole with Natalie Gulbis. Have fun at work, sucker!”

I’ll bet he used this emoji, too.

Lydia Ko is really good at golf

She’s 18 years old and already has seven LPGA Tour wins. She also has a Callaway Big Bertha Alpha with a custom pink Graphite Design Tour AD-DI 5R shaft in play this week.

Katie Burnett switched to Titleist Vokey TVD wedges with a custom “raindrop” finish

Note: Those are real raindrops.

If you see a wedge company come out with a custom finish called “raindrops,” just remember you heard it here first.

Someone needs to show Bubba Watson this photo

Hey, Bubba. Here’s some sound advice: Get an all pink rainsuit! #urwelcome

Laura Davies with top-heavy Lynx Parallax irons

While most iron designs look to achieve a center of gravity (CG) that’s low-and-rearward or low-and-forward, these are the opposite.

According to Lynk’s website, the forged cavity back irons have a higher CG for more penetrating shots. If you hit the ball high with too little spin, these irons could be something to consider!

(That one’s for you, gear heads).

Ping’s LPGA golf bags, while sporting the new logo, still have turbulators

Surely the caddies appreciate the added foot speed.

Find the reference here in a recent Revealing Photos story.

Um, where’s your face?

If you can’t tell, this is Sadena Parks who was a part of Big Break Florida, a reality TV series on the Golf Channel.

She’s also playing clubs from golf’s most mysterious company in golf — Parsons Xtreme. We don’t know much about the clubs, other than they will be very expensive when they’re released and have a bunch of screws for adjusting weight and CG.

It looks like Parks prefers the CG in her driver more rearward judging by the positioning of her screws.

Check out photos from the rest of her clubs below.

Hannah Arnold’s bag is all business

Mizuno JPX-800 Pro irons and a stealthy Piretti Cortino putter? While she WD’d from pre-tournament qualifying, she didn’t leave without making an impact on the WRX photo galleries. Awesome setup.

Michelle Wie’s 90-degree putting stance…

… makes my back hurt every time.

It looks as though she took the popular instruction “get your eyes over the ball” way too literally, but then again, she’s putting better than ever and won her first major last year — the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open — with this seemingly back-breaking style.

Wie is currently using a Nike Method MC04W Center-shafted prototype putter with a SuperStroke Flatso 1.0 grip.

Is that a BioMech Tech Deck I spot?

These half-pipes are showing up in bags and on practice greens of both the PGA and LPGA tours. I’m beginning to think I should give one a try…

Just like Uncle Tiger, Cheyenne uses the Two-Tee putting drill

And is her index finger really long or is it just me?

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Andrew Tursky

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.

18 Comments

joey5picks

May 2, 2015 at 3:47 am

Call a 510-yard hole a par 5, a par 4, a par 3 or a par 6. It doesn’t matter. Lowest score wins whether it’s -10 or -6 (which is the difference between calling that hole a par 4 or par 5). I find the infatuation with what the “par” is on a hole amusing. Players are going to want to make a 4 on that hole no matter what its “par” is.

Reply Report comment
- Chuck
  
  May 2, 2015 at 1:39 pm
  
  Another 510-yard Par 5 is…
  
  … wait for it…
  
  …how many guessed it already…
  
  The 13th Hole, “Azalea,” at the Augusta National Golf Club.
  
  Reply Report comment
8thehardway

May 1, 2015 at 11:56 pm

Good move, great article. Looking forward to more.

Reply Report comment
snowman

May 1, 2015 at 10:36 pm

Lexi and I are still playing the 2010 Cobra S2 Forged Irons, a nice forged cavity back iron.

Reply Report comment
RG

May 1, 2015 at 3:02 pm

Best yet Andrew! Eclectic and colorful is why WRX should cover more LPGA and Champions than PGA. I’m just sayin’.

Reply Report comment
Brett H

May 1, 2015 at 2:03 pm

Fun Fact: I’m sort of related to Laura Davies and used to play with a set of her old irons that she just had put away in a closet. Had a really hard time learning on those…

I’ve been watching a ton of LPGA lately and really think the level of talent is just astonishing, a lot of fun watching them play right now.

Reply Report comment
brian d

May 1, 2015 at 12:26 pm

I am kinda digging those parsons irons…. very sharp

Reply Report comment
Mike

May 1, 2015 at 12:24 pm

Laura Davies’ irons look like some 15 year-old Lynx Parallax knockoffs! Seriously, how is Golfsmith not all over this?

Reply Report comment
Justin

May 1, 2015 at 7:38 am

“Sorry Bubba and Miguel.”

Reply Report comment
BustyMagoo

May 1, 2015 at 1:02 am

But can someone fix the css for paragraph text please? A bit heavy on the eyes in ALL BOLD letters.

Reply Report comment
BustyMagoo

May 1, 2015 at 12:59 am

Good article. Nice to see WRX going out on a ledge and covering things nobody else is. Well done and interesting read. And yah, it’s fun looking at pics of Michelle Wei. She’s quite easy on the eyes. lol.

Reply Report comment
mr.Smith

May 1, 2015 at 12:55 am

Golf has turned into such a lame look at me narcissistic batch o barf!

Reply Report comment
Chuck

Apr 30, 2015 at 9:41 pm

It hurts too much to watch Michelle Wie putt. I say that as someone who loves women’s golf and who loves to watch LPGA players play, and who is extremely interested in equipment news from the women’s tours. Thank you GolfWRX for continuing to bring us news and photos from the LPGA; keep it up. I’m just sorry for Michelle Wie, with her spectacular golf swing, being reduced to putting like a cripple.

Reply Report comment
- RG
  
  May 1, 2015 at 2:58 pm
  
  A cripple? That “cripple” will beat you like a drum ant day of the week and twice on Sunday. She went to that stance because she’s so tall and it helps her to see the line. Remember Chuck, it is better to be silent and be thought an idiot than to post comments and remove all doubt.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Chuck
    
    May 2, 2015 at 11:23 am
    
    Her results are fine; that much you’ve got right. She’s currently 29th on the ladies tour; putting (statistically) like… Lydia Ko!
    
    But as for being somehow forced into that unwatchable stance by her height… she’s 6’0″. (Being 6’0″ myself and having stood next to her, I don’t believe the 6’1″ listings in various places. I think she’s a shade over 6’0″.) She’s not taller than a number of other LPGA players with better-looking stances, and she’s nowhere near as tall as lots of male tour players with normal stances.
    
    Reply Report comment
Rich

Apr 30, 2015 at 9:23 pm

Yes it is verrrrrry long!

Reply Report comment
Brody

Apr 30, 2015 at 9:11 pm

Andrew,
Nice article!

Reply Report comment
greg

Apr 30, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Once again, great job AT. This one is your best one, so far. Look forward to seeing these each week. Best feature on GolfWRX.com

Reply Report comment

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Equipment

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

Published

2 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

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.

Equipment

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Titleist Vokey Proto Wedges 54M, 60T

Published

4 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Will Schube

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @Putt4Dough is selling some prototype wedges from Vokey Wedgeworks. These include a 54 degree wedge with the M grind and a 60 degree wedge with a T grind.

From the listing:

(1) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 54M with a Tour Issue DGS400 shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet (logo down). Standard length, lie, and loft. BB&F ferrule. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

(2) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 60T with a KBS Tour 130X shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet. Standard length, lie, and loft. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.