Equipment

Bullseye spotted! Ryuji Imada on his unique gear setup, return to the PGA Tour

Published

4 years ago

Feb 2, 2022

After a nearly seven-year hiatus, Ryuji Imada has finally returned to the PGA Tour; he’ll be teeing it up this week at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The last time we saw Imada play in a tour-sanctioned event in the United States was back in 2015, and while he played in the 2021 Zozo Championship in Japan, he’s largely stepped away from the professional game.

Imada, who was born in Japan and is currently 45 years old, captured his lone PGA Tour victory in 2008 at the AT&T Classic in a playoff against Kenny Perry; Imada also won the 2000 Buy.com Virginia Beach Open and the 2004 BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs on the then-Nationwide Tour.

During Tuesday’s practice round day at Pebble Beach, Imada was greeted with hugs and hellos from fellow players and caddies; he was all smiles catching up with old friends.

He also showed up with a bag full of unique clubs, including an old Titleist Scotty Cameron Bullseye, a new set of Proto Concept (Proto-C) irons, and a lob wedge with a particularly unique grind on it. When Imada arrived to the range on Tuesday, he was carrying a handful of new fairway woods and drivers to test out, too.

While he was knocking some of the cobwebs off on the range at Pebble Beach, GolfWRX caught up with Imada to see what he’s been up to since we last saw him.

“To tell you the truth, not really much,” Imada said. “Been spending a lot of time with my daughter, and that’s about it. Just taking her to school, picking her up, taking her to other after school activities, and by then pretty much the day’s over.

“But yeah, I am [excited to be back out here]. I haven’t played an event in the U.S. in about 6 or 7 years. It’s good. It’s very fresh. Seeing all the old faces I can, it brings back memories.”

Speaking of old faces and memories, Imada still has the same putter in the bag he used throughout the majority of his PGA Tour career: a classic Titleist Scotty Cameron Bullseye.

“I think I got that putter about, I wanna say at least 15 years ago,” Imada said. “I can’t remember where I got it, but I think I just saw one on the putting green and I started putting with it, and it felt really good. I asked to have it, and it’s been in my bag ever since. I actually have another putter that I switch to sometimes – I switch between two putters – and the other one is probably a little bit older. Every time I feel I’m not putting well, I just switch over. But yeah, the [Bullseye] putter has been good to me.”

Of course, not every club in Imada’s bag is 15+ years old. At Pebble Beach this week, he’ll be gaming all-new Proto-C C01 blade irons and a custom Proto-C lob wedge.

“I’ve known (Masashi Kamoda, brand rep from Proto Concept) for a longtime, and he’s been a good friend of mine. He asked if I wanted to give the product a try, and as soon as I hit em, obviously they’re great looking clubs and they setup perfectly for me. I’ve always used blade irons growing up, probably up until almost 30 years old. They’re great looking, and surprisingly they’re very forgiving. I’d been playing cavity backs for the last 10 or 20 years, but these are probably more forgiving to me than the ones I’ve had before. I get more height with the middle irons, a little bit more spin, and they feel really good, they look good, and that’s all I can ask.”

The Proto-C C01 blade irons are unique because they incorporate a 25-gram titanium rod into their forgings, helping to enhance feel and sound. Also, since the titanium rod helps shift CG in the heads – to Imada’s point – they help induce higher launch angles and more forgiveness.

While Imada is playing stock C01 irons, his wedge grind is far from typical. To learn more about his special grind, I caught up with Kamoda, who represents Proto-C and works with Imada on his equipment.

“He’s picky on the wedges…he likes 61.5 or 62 degrees of loft, even though it says 60. He doesn’t like to have bounce on the back of the wedges, but he wants bounce on the front. It’s like 12-14 degrees of bounce on the front, but on the back it’s negative bounce. He likes to have light swing weights, around C7 or C8, and a shorter length: 34.5 inches.”

Being that most lob wedges are around D2-D5 swing weight and 35 inches in length, Imada’s wedge is especially short and light.

As for the rest of his setup, Imada fills out his bag with Jucie wedges (47 and 51 degrees), NexGen fairways (3 and 5 woods), NexGen hybrids (3 and 4), and his driver is still undetermined.

“I’ve been pretty much out of the golf business for awhile, so I’m gonna find out [what driver I’ll be using],” Imada said. “I’ve heard good things about Stealth. I know they’ve done really well this year ever since they came out. TaylorMade’s always made good stuff, and I’ve been using TaylorMade drivers the past 8-10 years or so, so hopefully it’ll be an easy switch for me. I haven’t even seen the head yet. When I found out I was coming, I wanted to give them a try so I got in touch with some TaylorMade people and asked if I could try some out.”

It’s been a long time away from the PGA Tour for Imada, so we’ll give him some time to test the new stuff out. Should we see Imada again, though, we’ll make sure to get an update on how the driver testing went.

With new perspective on life inside the ropes, Imada is tampering expectations when it comes to his results this week. When I asked him how his game is at the moment, he replied, “That, we’re not going to talk about. We’ll see how it goes. If I can make a few birdies, it’ll be a good day.”

Birdies or not, Imada will certainly have one of the most interesting gear setups in the field this week.

To see Ryuji Imada’s full bag setup at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, click here!

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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.

4 Comments

neet and angel

Mar 5, 2024 at 1:47 am

Wow, it’s great to see Ryuji Imada back on the PGA Tour! His unique gear setup is definitely interesting, can’t wait to see how he performs this season. ???

Reply Report comment
Henry R Fitzgerald

Feb 25, 2022 at 12:19 pm

Who can forget this guy.

After all, Scotty Cameron made one of the ugliest ‘Inspired by’ putters after this guy.

Flash in the pan without seasoning, lol….

Now, the Bullseye is cool.

Reply Report comment
BobbyN

Feb 4, 2022 at 12:58 am

Bullseye is as pure as the driven snow boys.

Reply Report comment
Justin

Feb 2, 2022 at 2:47 pm

Imada has always been one of my favorites out there. That Del Mar putter with the face weights?? Amazing stuff. Super interested in those Proto C irons… Hopefully he has a shot at making the cut!

Reply Report comment

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Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

Published

5 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

6 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

8 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.