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TOUR REPORT: Jim Furyk speaks on his wild prototype lob wedge

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Break out your tartan jackets: It’s RBC Heritage week at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.

Even though the event’s place in the PGA Tour schedule puts it the week after the Masters, the RBC Heritage boasts a strong field, with five of the top-10 players in the world in attendance.

GolfWRX was also in attendance during the practice round days to dive into players’ bags to figure out what equipment they’re using and why. This week’s Tour Report is stacked with interesting custom gear and insights from PGA Tour players.

Let’s dive right in!

TG2 talks to the Masters champion

Scottie Scheffler holds the championship trophy after winning the 86th Masters golf tournament on Sunday, April 10, 2022, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

In case you didn’t hear, 25-year-old Scottie Scheffler won the 2022 Masters. Just days after winning his first major championship, Scheffler was nice enough to speak with our Two Guys Talkin Golf (TG2) podcast to talk about the win, his TaylorMade gear, and what it’s like to be a Masters champion.

The entire interview is definitely worth a listen, but the most fascinating part of the interview came when Scheffler revealed his first big purchases following the victory. They might not be what you expected.

“Ya know, we have a little backyard here at our house,” Scheffler told TG2. “I went to Lowes yesterday and got some pool equipment to clean the pool. We’re redoing the grill area in the backyard, and I asked one of the guys that helps us around the house what I should do to clean the leaves up, and he was like, ‘You have to get this leaf vacuum.’ Now I’m kind of jacked up about the leaf vacuum. So I’m going to go to the store after this and get that. Just clean, get outside. The weather is so good here at home. I’m used to being outside practicing, but right now I’m just getting a bit of rest, maybe go clean the yard, go for a swim. Just do nothing.”

Hopefully someone snaps a photo of Scheffler cleaning up leaves while wearing his green jacket.

Make sure to check out the full podcast below, either on YouTube or SoundCloud.

Charl Schwartzel’s prototype Artisan irons

Charl Schwartzel, who finished T10 at the Masters after missing six straight cuts this year, debuted a brand new set of unreleased Artisan Golf prototype irons at Augusta last week. The irons were designed by Mike Taylor, a master craftsman who also built irons and wedges for Tiger Woods throughout his career.

We caught up with Schwartzel at the RBC Heritage to take in-hand photos of the irons and get his insight on the switch.

“Mike built me clubs for 10 years. Probably the 10 best years of my career,” Schwartzel told GolfWRX. “I’ve been on him for awhile to build me irons again. So, he finally did. I think this is the first set that he sent me, just before Augusta. Augusta was my first tournament with them, but they’re very familiar for me. Mike is just so good with the way he weights his clubs. He uses more head weight than anyone else. They’re very familiar for me and I think the results show. I hit the ball really good last week [at The Masters].”

Check out the full story and more photos here

Stewart Cink lofts down to gain distance

Defending champion Stewart Cink, now 48 years old, has gained big distance off the tee in the last few years. It wasn’t by accident either.

“I set out to achieve (increased distance) two years ago,” Cink told GolfWRX this week. “That’s something we’ve been focusing on, gaining a little distance. I felt like I was leaving something in the tank. I just wasn’t properly using everything I had at my disposal. Me and my coaches went out and tried to solve that, and two years later, (it worked)…It’s not like I found a hot driver and could hit it farther, it was definitely technique and form and biomechanics first, and then I got my equipment to be efficient to match that. Fitting is one thing, but especially if you have optimized mechanics and form.”

For Cink, the answer was to shift his attack angle from 2 degrees downward, to 2 degrees upward. To optimize distance with the swing change, he also changed the loft on his driver by 3 degrees, helping him gain about 4 mph of ball speed and 8-10 yards of total distance per drive.

Read our full story over on PGATOUR.com

Jim Furyk’s wild lob wedge story

Jim Furyk has never exactly played golf like his contemporaries. His swing has always been a little different, and the lob wedge he uses is quite different, too.

Now an equipment free agent, Furyk uses a prototype Cleveland lob wedge that he got back in 2010. And it has A LOT of offset.

Furyk told GolfWRX the story of how it ended up in his bag:

“This is back from my Srixon-Cleveland days. Srixon started making this for me and I was with them from 06-10… then they acquired Cleveland and they started stamping Cleveland on this wedge. It was an old Cleveland 485 that I had ground and taken the weight off of. Hogan made one for me, then Srixon made one for me.

“Good story behind this one is, I knew the last year that I was with them was 2010, and I had to think back to what year the grooves changed in the rules. That was 2010. I had 4 of this head. They all had a certain (JF-1) stamp.

“I had 4 of them. I sent them off the to the USGA to have them test them. They came back conforming, and they said that anything that had the markings was conforming. But this is the one I sent them, and then I have 3 other heads.”

Interestingly, Furyk also revealed that he’s a bit of craftsman, and tinkers with golf equipment at his house.

“I have a wheel at home. Loft and lie for both putters and irons. I have like an office/workshop type thing. I’m always kind of had something where I can mess around and tinker. Basically it’s just a mess, but I like to do it. I like to mess around with the wedges. I can actually bend the offset in now too, Dean (Teykll, Manager of Tour operations at Callaway) taught me to do that.”

Morgan Hoffmann returns with new sticks

Back from a nearly 3-year hiatus from the PGA Tour, Morgan Hoffmann, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, is in the field this week. Since we haven’t seen Hoffmann in years, we were especially curious to see what equipment he’d have in the bag. Would it all be 3-year-old gear, or has he upgraded his set?

As it turns out, Hoffmann has upgraded just about every club in the bag after working with Scott Kraul (manager of player development at Acushnet) down in Jupiter, Florida, recently.

Hoffmann is particularly pleased with Titleist’s new T100 irons.

“It’s like I’m a kid in a candy shop with the new equipment,” Hoffmann told GolfWRX on Tuesday. “The new T100s are so amazing with what they’ve done with the topline. They look nice and thin, like a blade, but the forgiveness is amazing. It’s exactly what I need right now.”

Read the full story on PGATOUR.com here!

Shane Lowry answers 7 quick questions

In a non gear-related interview with Shane Lowry, I hit him with 7 quick interesting questions. Check out his answers below. Let me know in the comments who you’d like me to interview next and what questions you’d want me to ask them!

What’s your favorite restaurant to go during a PGA Tour season where it’s like you can’t wait to play in that tournament so you can go to that restaurant?

That’s a great question. There’s a little sushi place besides Sawgrass that I’d say we eat there four nights every week when we’re there at The Players. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s beside Starbucks right down the street from Sawgrass.

What’s your go-to sushi order?

We just order a lot. We load up.

What’s your go-to snack on the course?

I eat Clif bars and Quest bars. And a banana.

What’s your favorite sport aside from golf, and what are your favorite teams and players?

Gaelic football is my sport that I love. Not too many people know too much about it in America. Rugby, as well. Obviously I like Ireland, and we love a team called Offaly (GAA) at home.

What’s on your music playlist right now?

Lot of kids stuff, because I have two small kids. One is a Sing To playlist. I like Irish artists. I just put a playlist on Spotify that just has Irish artists and I put it on shuffle and it just goes.

What’s been the most important lesson you’ve learned along the way about golf, life or travel in general.

In golf, you’ve got to enjoy the good days. The bad days are tough. I think in life in general, it’s pretty similar to be honest.

Last one. What’s your best advice for amateur golfers who are trying to improve their games.

The only way you’re going to improve is from 100 yards and in. Everyone goes to the driving range and hits drivers, but get around the chipping green and the putting green.

Bettinardi’s collab with PEZ

Bettinardi, a putter and wedge manufacturer, teamed up with PEZ, an Austrian candy maker, to make putter covers that we spotted at the RBC Heritage this week. There were multiple colorways of the Bettinardi x PEX collaboration, including blue, white, and the orange one that’s pictured above.

Pretty sweet, right?

Yes, that was a candy pun. I’m sorry.

New Titleist golf balls on the way?

White box alert!

It seems as though Titleist has started tour seeding for two new golf balls at the RBC Heritage this week. Unfortunately, we don’t have any information on them yet, but we’ll keep you informed when we learn more.

And with that, we wrap up this week’s Tour Report from Hilton Head. We’ll see you in New Orleans next week for the Zurich Classic team event.

Click here to see the rest of our photos from the 2022 RBC Heritage

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.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Mitch

    Apr 19, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    You had me googling Tursky when I saw that PEZ was Australian. Turns out we didn’t invent it, the Austrians did.

  2. Chuck

    Apr 17, 2022 at 10:59 am

    What’s interesting about a prototype wedge from 2010 is that the groove rule was just coming into effect. The rule was of course well known prospectively. And I would have a very hard time believing that now, Furyk and/or his agent and/or Cleveland would allow a non-compliant (with the Condition if Competition) Club into professional competition.
    But still it’s interesting that Cleveland may have been building prototype wedges in 2009 that were compliant. And that the new rule wasn’t even relevant for those clubs.

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Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

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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.

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

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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

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Equipment

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

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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.

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