Equipment

Aaron Dill gives deep dive into Nelly Korda’s wedge set-up

Published

5 years ago

Jun 23, 2021

Nelly Korda is flying high in 2021, winning the LPGA Meijer Classic last weekend to become the first player this year to win multiple times on tour.

The 22-year-old fired her career low-round of 62 at the event on Saturday and heads into this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship as one of the favorites as she looks to break her major duck.

Titleist gave golf fans an awesome deep dive into both Nelly and sister Jessica’s WITB earlier this year, and now, master craftsman Aaron Dill has provided fans with an in-depth look at Nelly’s wedge set-up.

Speaking on the process behind fitting Korda for her SM8 wedges, Dill says Nelly sent her current gamers to him, which he then spec’d out to figure out what was missing so that he could then make the perfect set for her.

@vokeywedgerep

On Nelly’s SM8 (50-08F) Gap Wedge:

AD: “This is a great wedge for her; it’s really an extension of her irons. It’s a way for her to branch out of the pitching wedge and into something a little shorter with a little more versatility and short game feel. So this is a great fit for her and matches her gaps nicely.”

On Nelly’s SM8 (54-14F):

AD: “Before, she had less bounce. She had a lot of clubs that were on the lower bounce spectrum, and it limited her on how much short game she could really do or the shots that she could get out of each one.

So as we tested, we began to realise that she was missing some higher bounce clubs in that wedge set, and this one fits that nicely because it doesn’t limit her around the greens. She can hit it from the fairway, in the bunkers, pitches and chips, into the grain – great fit for her.”

On Nelly’s former SM8 (58-08MV):

AD: “She started with a 58 M grind with a V. This was a good fit for her in the beginning, but as we began working together more, she realised that ‘these golf courses I’m playing on, the types of shots I’m trying to hit. I need a little less bounce from time to time.’

And it wasn’t a lot less bounce; it was really more ‘I just need it to be a little less here and there, especially when I’m in the sand.’ This wedge was a little bit wider.”

On Nelly’s SM8 (58-10S):

AD: “This is slightly thinner, with a little ribbon on the back. Ten degrees of bounce, but the bounce is all right here (sole). So when she’s hitting those square faced shots, she has that protection and the bounce that she needs, but when she needs to be creative, the ribbon on the back and the thinner flange helps her have that versatility around the greens.

But then we took it a step further, and I said, ‘Hey, for you to really maximize potential, especially when you’re going from course to course, that’s when we bring in something a little bit less, into a 58T.”

On Nelly’s SM8 58T:

AD: “I think for her, it was really a moment where she could really take a breath and relax and say, ‘Okay, if things firm up, I’ve got the best wedge for that (58T), if things stay soft, I’ve got this too (58-10S).’ So she carries both. She takes them from course to course; she decides which one fits based on conditions.”

On Nelly’s Aerotech SteelFiber i95 wedge shafts:

AD: “She plays a SteelFiber graphite shaft at 1/2 an inch over as she’s very tall and Tour Velvet grips, and she’s a little bit upright. So she likes to have more of that straight to slightly draw-biased ball flight – it’s a great way to help her bring her ball flight down, keep that spin up and carry that number that she’s trying to hit at the time.”

Check out the video in full below.

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Follow Aaron Dill on Instagram here and Nelly Korda here.

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.