Welcome to New Orleans, the home of Bourbon Street, jambalaya, yard-sized cocktails, Mardi Gras beads, jazz music, Lil Wayne, and the Zurich Classic.

Held at TPC Louisiana, the Zurich Classic is a two-man team event, making it a unique stop on the PGA Tour schedule. Being that it’s also set in New Orleans, the Zurich Classic has a more laid back and fun vibe than most other events throughout the season.

This week, despite all of the festivities and food, GolfWRX was live from the grounds to see what equipment the top players in the world are using, and what gear changes they’ve made recently.

Below is this week’s Tour Report from The Big Easy.

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 Zurich Classic here.

Viktor makes a subtle driver tweak

Prior to The Masters, Viktor Hovland, who naturally plays a cut off the tee, noticed that he wasn’t able to draw the ball as much as he’d like. To combat the problem, Hovland and Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates experimented with different driver configurations.

Eventually, they settled on changing the lie angle of his Ping G425 LST driver by 2 degrees upright. The more upright lie angle now helps Hovland turn the ball over from right-to-left more easily.

I spoke with Hovland about the tweak this week in New Orleans:

”We had a hard time drawing the driver, because it was too flat,” Hovland told GolfWRX.com at the 2022 Zurich Classic on Tuesday. “I have pretty low hands at impact, so we figured it’d be easier to make it more upright so I didn’t have to work as hard to draw it. When I do draw it, with that current setting, I tend to draw my irons too much. We just kind of matched it up to the rest of the set.”

Read the full report on Hovland’s driver switch on PGATOUR.com

WITB: Barstool Trent and Frankie Borrelli

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Playing in the 2022 Zurich Classic Celebrity Shootout on Tuesday, Barstool Trent and Frankie Borrelli from Barstool Sports’ Fore Play podcast let us take a look at their WITB setups.

Check them out here:

Frankie Borrelli WITB

Barstool Trent Ryan WITB

Collin’s sneaky putter change on slow greens

Coming into the Zurich Classic, Collin Morikawa was using a TaylorMade TP Collection Juno putter with 2.5-gram weights in the heel and toe sections of the sole. While warming up on the practice putting green on Monday, Morikawa noticed that the TPC Louisiana greens were a bit slower than the greens he dealt with at Augusta National for The Masters.

To deal with the change of pace, Morikawa sought to change the feel of his putter rather than his stroke. So, Morikawa changed out the 2.5-gram weights for 5-gram weights, adding 5 grams of overall weight to the putter for a heavier hit.

“I just added a little more weight to the putter,” Morikawa said on Monday at the 2022 Zurich Classic. “For me, it’s what I do on slower greens, like what I did at The Open. Instead of trying to hit it harder, or do something different, it just matches my feel a little better, and helps me work my way from fast greens to slow greens.”

Click here for the full story.

Scott Piercy’s lead tape 101 explanation

Scott Piercy, the undisputed King of Lead Tape, provide an in-depth explanation of why he places lead tape on the rear portion of his Titleist TSi4 driver.

I asked Piercy if the lead tape was for forgiveness purposes, and here was his answer:

“It’s a spin and launch kinda thing. The more you move the weight forward, the more, yeah, the head gets less forgiving, but it also changes launch and spin. There’s glue back here, too. And this is the lightest weight they have [in the front weight port]. So, there’s a method to the madness.

“It’s a little bit of forgiveness, but it’s more like…back in the day, the CGs were farther back. What happens with CG is, if you don’t know…the CG tries to align with the shaft at impact. So what does that do with the face? It helps you shut it. I hit a cut that needs to start left and cut, so when I get the CG forward, the ball starts right. So I’m always trying to pull my CG back. From there it’s a shaft thing, and you start getting into the launch monitor numbers.”

Check out Piercy’s full WITB here. 

Graeme McDowell: The Duke of lead tape?

If Scott Piercy is the King of Lead Tape, then maybe Graeme McDowell is the Duke. McDowell’s irons are slabbed all the way up with lead tape on his Srixon ZX7 irons, and his driver and putter are caked with tape, too.

Check out McDowell’s full WITB from the 2022 Zurich Classic, too.

Team Streb and Merritt have matching wedges

Being a team event, some player duos dress to match, such as defending champions Marc Leishman and Cam Smith in 2021.

Robert Streb and Troy Merritt kicked it up a notch this year by getting custom Titleist Vokey SM9 wedges with the same festive “Recipe for Success” stampings by Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill.

See what GolfWRX forums members are saying about the matching wedges in our forums.

Callaway reveals its new double-decker Tour Truck

This week at the 2022 Zurich Classic, Callaway officially revealed its new double-decker Tour Truck, which will travel with the PGA Tour to each event to help players get dialed into their equipment.

Want to see what the new state-of-the-art Tour Truck looks like on the inside? GolfWRX photographer Greg Moore got a full tour of the portable build shop.

And with that, we’re signing off this week from the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. We’ll see you next week from the Mexico Open at Vidanta!

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 Zurich Classic here.