Equipment

TOUR REPORT: 3 jaw-dropping custom Augusta National putters spotted before the Masters

Published

4 years ago

Apr 1, 2022

Welcome to the Tour Report from the 2022 Valero Texas Open, which is the final PGA Tour event before he Masters. It’s the last chance for players without a Masters invite to get into the field, and it’s the last chance for Masters participants to get dialed in with their games. It’s the final test.

You may think the Valero is the proverbial calm before the storm, but there’s not much “calm” about TPC San Antonio. It’s a long and difficult layout that’s exposed to the whipping Texas winds; the conditions aren’t much of a preview to the tree-lined and typically calmer Augusta weather we’ll see next week.

Alas, in this week’s Tour Report, we’ll run down all of the interesting gear and equipment switches we spotted in San Antonio the week before the Masters. Check out our rundown of the most interesting topics below.

If you want more gear insight and information, tune into our latest “Two Guys Talkin Golf” podcast here, and for more photos from the Valero Texas Open, head over to our forum thread.

And with that, let’s get into this week’s Tour Report.

Spieth’s Masters prep and gear insights

Jordan Spieth is only 28 years old, but he already has five top-3 finishes in The Masters, including a win in 2015. He has veteran-like experience, so I was curious what gear changes he makes to prepare for the uniquely challenging conditions that Augusta National presents.

As it turns out, Spieth doesn’t really change much.

Every week, Spieth decides between a driving iron and a hybrid depending on course layout and weather, and he says he’s going with his trusty Titleist 818H2 (21 degrees) at Augusta to help take advantage on approach shots on the par 5’s.

While many Masters participants will switch into lower bounce wedges to deal with the firm Augusta pitching areas, Spieth explained that he never changes his wedge setup to deal with different grasses or bunkers.

“I don’t change anything for Augusta,” Spieth said. “I don’t change anything regardless if I’m on soft sand, firm sand, if I’m on bentgrass, or really grainy Bermuda. I’ve learned to pitch on grainy Bermuda, meaning I drive the ball into the ground. I don’t use bounce, so I have very little on my 60-degree. Even out of a bunker, I try to enter the club really close to the ball so it doesn’t make a difference if it’s firm or soft to me. It’s a technique thing. If it’s off, it’s not the bounce of the wedge.”

Since Spieth says he uses the leading edge when chipping and pitching, rather than using the bounce of the wedge, he prefers a Vokey T-grind, which Vokey rep Aaron Dill says is probably the lowest-bounce offering in the lineup. Spieth’s Vokey WedgeWorks T-grind 60 degree also has heel relief so the leading edge sits closer to the ground when he opens up the face.

For our full gear Q&A with Spieth, check it out on PGATOUR.com.

C.T. Pan shows off the bronze medal and a new toy

Representing Taiwan, C.T. Pan won the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and he happened to have the medal with him at the Valero this week. Of course, we had to get some up-close photos of it.

That’s not the only cool piece of gear he had with him this week, though. Pan also got a new Scotty Cameron T-11.5 proto putter decked out in custom University of Washington purple paintfill, and equipped with a purple Scotty Cameron grip.

Abe Ancer’s mysterious 5-wood

Ancer switched into a new 5-wood last week, and we were able to take some in-hand photos of it this week.

But… what is it, exactly?

According to Callaway’s head of tour content Johnny Wunder, the blank head is actually a Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond 18-degree 5-wood, it just doesn’t have the typical paint and branding on the sole.

If you love a clean look, it doesn’t get much cleaner than a head that has nothing printed on it at all (not even the loft).

Rickie Fowler’s blacked-out Diamana White Board

Like Ancer, Fowler also put a new piece of mysterious equipment in the bag.

While testing out the new Cobra LTDx LS driver (9 degrees, set to 7 degrees), Fowler wanted to put a Mitsubishi Diamana White Board shaft into the head that he’d been using in his previous Cobra King F9 driver. The problem was that Mitsubishi no longer makes that shaft, which originally came out back in 2006, and they didn’t have any White Board shafts in stock that had the original branding.

They did, however, have an old stock of Diamana White Board shafts laying around that they used to experiment with a laser etching machine in 2013.

So, Fowler’s new black-on-black Diamana shaft is actually an original White Board shaft.

There’s actually way more to the full story, which you can read here.

3 awesome Augusta-inspired custom putters

With The Masters right around the corner, it’s no surprise that we started to see some custom Augusta National-inspired gear out at the Valero.

Here are three standout putters we spotted:

Piretti made just 200 of these custom Masters putters with a colorful Azalea flower on the sole. Unfortunately, according to a Piretti representative, they’re already sold out. Luckily they kept one around so we could capture some in-hand photos, at least.

While this isn’t an entirely new design from Swag Golf, it’s one of my favorites. The food and drinks at The Masters are both inexpensive and delicious, making the Masters menu especially iconic. Personally, I think the famous Pimento Cheese sandwich is overrated, but that’s another argument for another day.

The Swag-brand skull being transformed into a Georgia Peach is a nice touch, too.

Odyssey Toulon also concocted a custom Magnolia putter with a green dot as the alignment aid, and an Azalea flower milling on the sole. It’s a subtle yet classy design, and it comes without Toulon’s usual Diamond face milling.

Dustin Johnson’s under-the-radar gear switch

DJ isn’t a stranger to testing out driver shafts; he’s constantly searching for the right fit from week-to-week.

Although Johnson isn’t playing in this week’s Valero Texas Open, we got an in-hand look at the new LA Golf “DJ FS6X Rev. 8” driver shaft that he put in play at the Valspar Championship.

As the model name would imply, this is the 8th version of the custom shaft. We’ll keep an eye on Johnson’s driver next week at The Masters to see if it hangs around, or whether he’ll be onto version No. 9.

More photos and discussion about Johnson’s new LA Golf shaft

Any Contra fans here?

Admittedly, I had no idea what Andrew Novak’s alignment stick cover was referencing, but luckily a few of our GolfWRX forum members helped shed some light. Apparently, Novak’s cover shows a “Konami code” that was first used in the game Gradius, and later made famous in the Nintendo game “Contra,” according to this article.

If you already know what the Konami Code is, I apologize for my ignorance. If you’re like me and want to know more about it, check out this YouTube explanation from the Gaming Historian:

And that’s “Game Over” for this week’s Tour Report from the 2022 Valero Texas Open. We’ll see you next week from the home of the green jackets.

For more photos and discussion, check out our forum thread 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.

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Equipment

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

Published

3 mins 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

3 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.