Equipment

Bulking and ball testing: How Bridgestone works with Bryson to dial in his game with the Tour BX

Published

6 years ago

Jul 14, 2020

In the world of golf right now, everything “Bryson DeChambeau” has become a big topic of conversation—pun fully intended. From his remarkable body transformation to his new diet, to his personality, and now his driving distance—which has helped turn him into the hottest golfer on the planet—he is single-handedly changing the game.

Bryson has established himself as one of the most thorough tinkerers golf has ever seen, and with these newfound changes to his game, we wanted to reach out to Bridgestone Golf to find out about the Golf Scientist’s ball testing process and what type of changes they have seen with his game over the last nine months.

I had the chance to speak with Elliot Mellow, Bridgestone Golf’s Marketing Manager, about Bryson’s process and how the Tour BX ball has been able to help him along the way.

RB: How has working with Bryson changed since when he originally joined team Bridgestone, and specifically over the last 9 months as his game has changed so quickly?

EM: Ever since we started working with Bryson, he has always wanted to be at the forefront of optimization throughout his golf bag, and that has meant making sure the golf ball he is using offers him the most control from his driver to his wedges. When he first came to us his swing speed with a driver hovered around 124 mph and the ball he used was the B330S which offered a bit more spin through the bag and the control that he wanted.

Beyond the physical change, he has changed a lot about his golf clubs over the last year too, but the one thing that has remained constant is his use of the Tour BX since we first introduced it, and now the new Tour BX with Reactiv Cover that he started using around Thanksgiving 2019 before the Presidents Cup. The reason for the change is thanks in part to his new 134mph driver swing speed he has no problem creating spin, and with his driver dynamics, he wanted to gain extra spin reduction to help him hit it straighter. The firmers Tour BX gives him extra control with his driver while still providing maximum short game control.

RB: How does Bryson’s testing process compared to other players you work with?

EM: Bryson is very unique in that he is willing to test almost anywhere. A lot of players like to test strictly at home during breaks while not in “competition mode,” but we have worked with Bryson on tour, at his home course, and at our testing facility in Covington, Georgia.

Bryson understands that playing conditions are going to vary week to week, and he likes to know that regardless of where he is playing he can have confidence his ball will do what he wants when he wants it. Still, our most in-depth testing sessions always occur at our test facility since we have access to all of our equipment and prototypes to dial him in. He also loves to provide feedback on other products in the line that are going through various prototype stages, even if they aren’t geared towards his game just to see how they work and react—Bryson is not afraid to experiment.

RB: Who drives the testing process? Bryson asking for tweaks during a ball’s prototyping stages or engineers presenting a number of options along the way?

EM: The fun part about testing is that it’s a two-way street. Our engineers are always working on new prototypes, and thanks to robot testing and modeling we can fine-tune the expected performance variables before putting them into a player’s hand. The other side of that is we still need and rely on player feedback because its humans that play golf, not robots.

Having golfers like Bryson, Tiger, and Lexi Thompson on our team help us get valuable feedback on how different balls feel and react to there games and now with Bryson, he is able to hit a golf ball at speeds none of our other players generate on a consistent basis. What’s been interesting for us to continue to watch is how he is controlling his irons and wedges into greens and just how high he is hitting it – speed creates higher launch and spin and being able to gain extra control with his Tour BX is certainly part of that equation.

RB: Ok, let’s switch gears here. How does someone who swings their driver at 134 mph translate to the average golfer that might only swing their driver between 95-100 mph? I mean we’d all love to drive the ball 300 yards but in reality, that’s not going to happen for most recreational golfers.

EM: That’s a great question, and its something we think about with every ball we develop.

It’s similar to the concept car model – we experiment and develop for the extreme and then thanks to advancements on the higher level, even down to something chemical like Reactiv Urethane, that technology ends up in all of our products targeted to different golfers of varying skill and swing speed. Thanks to the properties of that cover material we have seen golfers of all swing speeds gain ball speed without sacrificing short game spin and control.

The one thing that we continue to be at the forefront of is core design and our gradational core helps create higher initial balls speeds and lower spin. It gets softer towards the middle and becomes higher compression as you get closer to the cover allowing it to react very differently depending on how it’s struck – the ball will naturally compress more for clubs with lower lofts and at higher speeds compared to slower speed shots hit with a more of a glancing blow. We change these core dynamics throughout our product line up to once again suit the target player.

RB: So just like with clubs, the same driver can work for different golfers once you dial in specs, except for with a ball it’s about finding the right model to offer performance from the top to the bottom of your set since you have to use it for every shot?

EM: Exactly!

RB: As always Elliot, I really appreciate your time.

EM: Thanks, Ryan.

Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

Published

14 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.

Equipment

TaylorMade MySpider Tour and Tour X: More customizable build options now available

Published

14 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.

The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.

One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.

Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:

MySpider Tour

MySpider Tour X

Equipment

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

Published

17 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.