Equipment

Editors’ Choice 2013

Published

13 years ago

May 6, 2013

GolfWRX

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]olfWRX’s editorial team recognizes golf equipment of the highest quality, design and performance with our “Editors’ Choice” award, which signifies that a club is one of the best in its category. This year’s “Best of 2013″ nominees are the results of many months of observation, discussion and debate, along with countless hours spent reviewing data.

But don’t just take our word for it.

EditorsChoice_131 copy

A product that receives an Editors’ Choice award and makes the “Best of” list must pass through multiple stages of review, including feedback from our panel of elite custom fitters located throughout North America.

Their feedback, combined with objective analysis and reviews from our editorial team, allows us to filter through the hype to provide the GolfWRX community with a list of the absolute best golf equipment currently available. Click here to read the specifics on the voting committee and how we picked the best.

Note: Because new golf equipment is released year round, the “Best of ” list will grow and change as new clubs and data become available.

Add all this up and one thing becomes clear: We take our Editors’ Choice awards very seriously. You can spend countless hours in the GolfWRX forums reading, writing and asking questions about the latest golf gear. If you’re really hardcore, you might even buy and sell clubs in our BST (Buy/Sell/Trade) forum to find the best match for you. We certainly don’t want to discourage you from doing that, because it’s a lot of fun, and our team and up to 1.4 million monthly visitors do it every day.

But we offer our “Best of” list as a much quicker and easier route to equipment nirvana.

Award Categories

Drivers
Fairways
Hybrids
Irons
Wedges
Shafts
Rangefinders

__________________________________________________________________________

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his year’s crop of drivers seem to have more buzz than we remember in the past. Even though golf’s ruling bodies capped the COR (coefficient of restitution) limit on drivers to 0.83 and club head size to 460 cubic centimeters more than a decade ago, manufactures have still found new ways to improve on their designs every year. This year is no exception — crazy graphics, cavity back sole designs and small tweaks have made this year’s drivers better than ever before. Here are eight new drivers that have rolled out these recent months.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/62101/launch-season-for-6-big-dogs/”]See Best Drivers for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]olfers love fairway woods that allow them to hit long, straight shots off the tee and off the ground. But fairway woods are not only some of the hardest clubs to hit consistently — they’re also some of the toughest to fit. Start with these five top-ranked fairway woods in your next fitting session and we guarantee that you’ll be on your way to hitting more fairways and greens in no time.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/90773/2013-best-fairway-woods/”]See Best Fairways for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

There’s a lot fewer long irons played on the PGA Tour these days than in years past. That’s because the pros have realized that some of the long irons they used to play aren’t as consistent as similar-lofted hybrids, which they can also hit higher and farther. Unfortunately, many amatuer golfers haven’t caught on with the trend. If you’re one of them, make your way to the nearest golf store and give one of these hybrids a swing.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/97848/2013-best-hybrids/”]See Best Hybrids for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]very year brings an opportunity for all the golf companies to release something that makes us gasp, a set of irons that will make us want to kick out our current gamers out of the bag for something new. Maybe longer, more forgiving irons will be the spark we need to take our game to the next level? Here are some of our Editors’ picks for best irons for the year.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/95050/best-irons-2013/”]See Best Irons for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]olf equipment companies are currently offering more sole options than ever before, so there’s no excuse for not playing a grind that gives you the best chance to get it up and down. To help you narrow it down, we’ve created an Editors’ Choice list for the best wedges currently available. They’re offered in a slew of lofts, grinds, finishes and custom options, and are a great starting point if you’re in the market for a new wedge.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/90151/the-best-wedges-for-2013-editors-choice/”]See Best Wedges for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

600 best shafts

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of our favorite subjects to cover on GolfWRX is shafts. They can be confusing, but golfers who get fitted and know what works for them can get into a comfort zone on the course that can make the difference. But golfers buying new or looking to dial in their old gear need to know about the hottest shafts that are hitting stores this year. You can look HERE to see what shafts the Pros are playing in their equipment and also read through this article to find some inspiration prior to your fitting.

[button color=”black” link=”http://www.golfwrx.com/74447/hot-shafts-for-2013-latest-hot-picks/”]See Best Shafts for 2013[/button]

__________________________________________________________________________

Equipment

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

Published

1 hour 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.