Equipment
That one time Tiger switched driver shafts and NOBODY noticed
It seems like pretty much everyone on the planet has an idea of what clubs Tiger has in play at any given moment. Especially now in the age of social media. However, his bag was still analyzed and tracked immensely from the beginning of his arrival on the golf scene. Point is, when the guy switches anything out, the world will know.
But did you know that, during the 2002 and into the 2003 season, he switched driver shafts? It was a pretty substantial switch too, but it fell completely under the radar. As a Tiger junkie myself, I noticed it, but in those days 1) The internet wasn’t what it is today and 2) I was bartending in Newport Beach and didn’t have access to info like I do today. So, it went in my Tiger vault…until now.
Always known to have a True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft in his driver, Tiger and the Nike team wanted something a bit lighter, all while maintaining the stiffness profile of his X100.
We now introduce you to the 118-gram DGSLX100 Tiger Proto (a stock Dynamic Gold X100 shaft is 130 grams).
UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 28: Tiger Woods (Photo by Stan Badz/PGA)
A complete one-off made specifically for Tiger Woods. If you look at the pictures you will see an unfamiliar step pattern that starts off a bit wide towards the handle but gets progressively closer down towards the tip section. Basically, the step pattern (diameters) dropped lower to keep stiffness across the board.
“That’s the shaft we used to get him out of Titleist 975D and into Nike Blue 275cc driver in 2002.” – Anonymous Nike source
In theory, this was Tiger accepting the fact that he was going to have to get used to the feeling of a lighter shaft to begin the inevitable transition into graphite, which ultimately happened for good in 2004.
With the mystery of his bag completely gone these days with minute-to-minute reporting, I thought it kind of nice to still have a couple of nuggets to discover.
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.
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
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”
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Ronaldleacy
Feb 20, 2020 at 7:42 pm
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Dill Pickelson
Feb 18, 2020 at 7:31 am
I changed shafts last Thursday. I’ll check back in 2038 for you all to recollect.
dixiedoc
Feb 17, 2020 at 10:00 am
So much for the promoted fallacy that the public can play the same equipment as the pros.
Benny
Feb 16, 2020 at 4:59 pm
Great indo JW. Thanks for sharing and awesome comments fellas. Crazy!
MCoz
Feb 16, 2020 at 2:49 am
I noticed this back then. I reported it on another older golf site back then.
I was in LV at Butch Harman’s place at Rio Secco with he and Adam Scott. Butch told me about it and showed it to me. He had a duplicate set of TW’s clubs in his office. The stepdowns were closer together very similar to the old Rocket shafts of the 60’s/70’s. Butch wanted one for Adam Scott’s Titleist driver. True Temper insisted that TW give his okay for Scott to use one. At that time most had gone to graphite, but TW and AS continued to prefer steel, at least this shaft. Interestingly Scott seemed to hit a lot of drivers that drifted quite a bit to the right when I was with them.
MCoz
Feb 16, 2020 at 1:58 am
I can confirm this shaft. Butch Harmon told me about it and showed it to me. To everyone else it was just pushed off as an X-100 Dynamic. But in reality the stepdowns were more similar to the old Rocket shafts of the 60’s/70’s. I reported it on another old golf site about 15 yrs ago. Butch introduced me to Adam Scott in LV at that time. it was just the three of us and Adam was hitting his Titleist driver with that same “tiger” driver shaft. Butch told me that True Temper insisted that TW gave the okay for them to get that shaft for Adam Scott to use.
Mike Honcho
Feb 17, 2020 at 5:32 am
True story MCoz. I remember like it was yesterday! Tiger asked me if he should let Adam use it. I said to Tiger “who cares bro?” but we all know Tiger, ever the competitor, lol. Who really knows what the golf world would be like if it wasnt for me convincing Tiger to let Adam put it in play. So, Tiger threw me his phone and called True Temper to give the ok. Tiger and I still laugh about it to this day.
Ahh the good ol’ days..
Mike Honcho
Feb 17, 2020 at 6:00 am
True story MCoz. I remember it like it was yesterday. Tiger was asking me if he should let Adam try the shaft out and I said “sure, why not” so Tiger threw me his phone and I called True Temper and told them it was ok. Tiger and I laugh about that to this day. I can’t remember what we did after that. We may have went car shopping or something. Those were the good ol’ days!
TacklingDummy
Feb 16, 2020 at 1:00 am
Tiger has switch driver shafts many times the last few years. He was using a Graphite Design Tour AD DI, Tensi shaft, and probably several others. However, he keeps going back to the Diamana Whiteboard.
Christopher
Feb 15, 2020 at 7:47 pm
I think a lot of WRXers remember this, but I can’t remember if this one was linked to MacGregor, wasn’t there a steel shaft pulled or designed for one of their clubs?
Bruce
Feb 15, 2020 at 4:58 pm
One has to wonder if True Temper went ahead and marketed the DG 118g, or even a 105g steel. But then, I guess the writing on the wall with graphite.
Jo
Feb 15, 2020 at 3:15 pm
A lot of people noticed this.
Ty Webb
Feb 15, 2020 at 11:52 am
Other Nike staffers had that shaft in play to mostly in fairway woods. I personally built a Sonartec 3 wood for a staffer with that shaft.
Jbone
Feb 15, 2020 at 10:52 am
USGA and R&A clowns should reduce the head size and not mess with the ball. The 975J or D would be a good size to revert back to
Bacon Pants
Feb 15, 2020 at 6:22 pm
Not disputing your idea but these guys can still hit strong lofted 3 woods over 300 yards so IMO it wouldn’t do a whole lot just shrinking driver head size
Jbone
Feb 16, 2020 at 8:47 am
Maybe the elite distance guys get it out there 300 but not many. Crank the loft down and that size head gets a lot less forgiving.