IRONS: Srixon ZU85 (3), with Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X shaft, (4), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft, TaylorMade P-7TW (5-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts.
WEDGES:Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50, 56, 60 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts.
A complete list of the golf equipment Billy Horschel used to win the PGA Tour’s 2024 Corales Puntacana Championship:
DRIVER:Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black TR 6 X shaft
FAIRWAY WOODS:Titleist TSi2 (15 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70g 6.5 TX shaft, (18 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 80g 6.5 TX shaft
Gear: TaylorMade P·770, P·790 Copper Price: $1,499.00 (4-PW) with KBS C-Taper Lite Black shafts and Golf Pride TaylorMade Victory Copper grips” Specs: Hollow-bodied irons with 8620 carbon steel chassis, forged 4140 steel face, vibration-‘dampening foam.
Who It’s For: Golfers who love the look of vintage clubs but who also want to experience the benefits of modern, distance- and feel-enhancing technologies.
The Skinny: The TaylorMade P·770 and P·790 Copper are identical to the previously-released versions of the P·770 and P·790 but have been given retro styling and details that pay homage to TaylorMade’s 1980s offerings.
The Deep Dive: For the past few years, golf footwear makers have been revisiting popular shoes from “back in the day” and releasing updates and modern interpretations, adding better materials and technologies while trying to maintain what made the shoes appealing in the first place.
With the release of the Copper Collection, TaylorMade is doing the same thing. Two weeks ago, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper was released, complete with a throwback logo on the sole and a shaft that was cosmetically designed to harken back to the old Burner Bubble shaft from the 1990s. Now, the brand is releasing the P·770 Copper and P·790 Copper, two better-player distance irons that are identical in design to the previously-released P·770 and P·790. However, both clubs look like they would have been at home in the bags of players at Baltusrol Golf Club back in 1983 when Lee Janzen was battling Payne Stewart at the U.S. Open.
The TaylorMade Copper family, including the BRNR Mini Driver, P·790 and P·770 (TaylorMade)
Both irons feature a hollow-body design that allows the forged 4140 stainless steel faces to flex more efficiently at the moment of impact, resulting in more ball speed and distance. They also have a Speed Pocket slot in the sole that helps to enhance performance on thin shots and TaylorMade’s FLT CG system. It shifts mass inside the heads, so the center of gravity (CG) location in each iron is optimized. In the long irons, it’s lower to help get the ball up more easily, while in the scoring clubs, it is elevated to help keep the ball down for enhanced distance control.
The hollow chambers in both clubs are filled with SpeedFoam Air, a second-generation material that absorbs vibrations, enhances sound, and removes weight from the center of the club.
The smaller P·770 has a body made from 8620 carbon steel, while the P·790 has a thick-thin back wall construction to save weight.
But let’s be honest, all those performance features are available in the standard P·770 and P·790. If these clubs spark your interest, it’s because of the copper-toned finish and the retro style. You like the way copper-toned irons create a throwback look to your bag and how the old-school grips feel in your hands. You probably also like the use of TaylorMade’s original logo on the toe instead of its current logo.
TaylorMade says the copper finish will “mature over time,” but for golfers who love the throwback style of the P·770 and P·790 Copper, that will only enhance the vibe.
Below are some close-up looks at the P·770 Copper and P·790 Copper irons
The Vokey WedgeWorks Low Bounce K is designed to handle sand and tight lies for low-handicap golfers.
Gear: Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind wedge Price: $225 with True Temper Dynamic Gold S200 shaft and Titleist Universal grip Specs: Cast stainless steel available in 58 or 60 degrees of loft with 6 degrees of bounce Available: April 16
Who It’s For: Skilled golfers who want a low-bounce wedge for chipping and pitching from tight lies that can also perform well in greenside bunkers.
The Skinny: The Low Bounce K Grind wedge allows skilled players to get the leading edge under the ball on tight lies, while its wide sole allows it to be used as an effective bunker option.
The Deep Dive: Low-handicap golfers often envision shots around the green that most recreational golfers should avoid. Their imagination can be an asset, but they need to have the right skills and the right clubs to pull off unique shots. The just-released Vokey Design WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind wedge can be a club that allows highly skilled players to try special shots that some wedges simply are not designed for.
Available only as a 58- or 60-degree lob wedge, the WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind is made with raw carbon steel, so after the wrapping around the club is removed, the steel will rust with exposure to air and water.
From a design standpoint, it blends a wide sole, a characteristic of all K Grind wedges, with just 6 degrees of bounce.
The wide sole helps the Vokey WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind resist digging in the sand, making it an excellent wedge in bunkers. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The extremely wide sole design allows players to open the face in greenside bunkers and play aggressively because the bottom of the club resists digging, even in the softest sand. However, when golfers keep the Low Bounce K Grind in a square position, its extremely low bounce makes it easier to get the leading edge under the ball on chips and pitch shots to create more height and a softer landing.
While all of that versatility sounds great for everyone, using a wedge with so little bounce requires a precise strike and a high level of control, especially in soft or wet conditions around the green. For most golfers, playing a wedge that has 10 degrees of bounce (or more) can make basic short-game shots easier, but a wedge such as the Low Bounce K Grind allows skilled players who can control the leading-edge height to play shots that high-bounce wedges make more challenging.
In comparison to this new low-bounce model, Vokey has for years offered SM wedges with a standard K Grind sole that features 14 degrees of bounce – that’s the model most likely to be found at retail.
According to Bob Vokey, “Several players preferred the K Grind sole but were seeking a lower-bounce version. As a result, we crafted a sole with 6 degrees of effective bounce while maintaining the wide camber that makes the K design so effective for a wide variety of players. As soon as we brought it out on tour, it was immediately accepted and in the bags of multiple players as soon as they had a chance to test it.”
Like the standard Vokey Design SM10 wedges, the WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind has a high and forward center of gravity that encourages the face to square on the downswing. Each wedge’s grooves are also inspected to ensure they are as sharp as possible while remaining legal for play.
Below are several close-up images of the Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind wedge.
Surprisingly, the creator said, developing this skill is easy.
Eight-foot putts are not typically stressful for PGA Tour pros, but the 8-foot par putt that Max Homa faced on Friday morning on the fifth at Augusta National had to be made if he was going to stay tied for the lead at the 2024 Masters. On the outside, he looked calm, but on the inside, he had to be feeling the pressure.
After both Tiger Woods and Jason Day finished the hole, the dance floor was Homa’s. With one foot on either side of his golf ball, he bent his right arm at about a 90-degree angle and held up his index finger and middle finger while staring at the hole. After backing up four paces, bending to take another look toward the hole, and then getting into his address position, Homa set his putter behind the ball. No practice strokes. He made a quick glance toward the cup, made his stroke and buried the putt.
“I mean, that is special,” said Colt Knost on the ESPN+ broadcast before Billy Ray Brown added, “That’s what champions do.”
Max Homa lines up a putt on the no. 9 green during the second round of the Masters Tournament. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network
But what was Homa doing with his fingers, which appeared to be what Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott and a growing number of other PGA Tour pros are doing? Like those other pros, Homa uses AimPoint Express. This green-reading technique was developed by Mark Sweeney, the man who created the AimPoint putting line that broadcasters like Golf Channel, NBC and CBS used to show viewers a virtual path a ball needed to travel to finish in the hole.
“AimPoint Express is a dramatic simplification of what is a very complicated computer program to figure out how the ball goes from Point A to Point B and goes into the hole,” Sweeney said. “AimPoint Express takes about 100,000 lines of code and converts it into the player feeling how much side tilt there is in the putt.”
What television viewers did not see during the broadcast of Homa’s putt on the fifth hole was that he had not only straddled his golf ball before he putted, but that he also stood halfway between his golf ball and the hole for a few seconds and tried to feel the tilt of the putting surface. Through practice and some training, Homa and other golfers can feel the difference between a one-, two- and three-percent slope to one side or another using their feet.
Then, standing over their golf ball, they extend an arm and hold up the number of figures that correspond to the estimated number of degrees in the tilt they felt — one finger for a one-percent slope, two fingers for a two-percent slope and so on.
Viktor Hovland and Will Zalatoris both use AimPoint Express. (Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports)
Sweeney accidentally discovered the relationship between the slope of a green, the length of a golfer’s arm and the width of a person’s fingers.
“I had a much more complicated method of reading greens prior to AimPoint Express,” said Sweeney. “But then I was teaching some young kids, 7- and 8-year-olds, and I had them put their thumb on the high side of the hole, just to get them aiming somewhere above the hole. It turns out that your thumb is perfect for one’s and two’s, it will get you close, but then we started experimenting with one finger per percent. We tested those reads against the math and it was insane how accurate it was. Like, it was within an inch or two every single time (from 20 feet).”
Knowing that, and seeing Homa on the fifth hole holding up two fingers, viewers familiar with AimPoint Express would know that Max was estimating that halfway to the hole, there was a two-perfect tilt in the green. From Homa’s perspective, his target on that putt was two fingers’ width to the right of the hole (probably about 4 inches right), and assuming he hit the putt directly at that target, he was right because the ball went in the cup.
Every week, pros can be seen practicing AimPoint Express and developing their sense of feel for slopes on the practice greens at PGA Tour events. Many of them bring a digital level, and as they stand along an intended putt line, they call out a slope percentage like one, two or three while their caddy looks at the level.
Surprisingly, Sweeney said, developing this skill is easy.
“Within about 15 minutes, most people are picking up half-degrees of slope,” he said. “People are much, much better at feeling slope than they think. Nobody is ever off by more than one percent. Like, it’s almost unheard of that a player is off by more than one percent. No one calls a one a three or a one a four because they are so dramatically different.”
Ben An doing slope detection exercises with his caddie at Riviera Country Club. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Sweeney claims that anybody, with a bit of practice, can accurately estimate to a half-percent. He also encourages golfers to calculate the slope along their putt’s length twice around halfway between the ball and the hole and use the bigger of the two estimations for their read. Some players, like Homa, take one reading and then turn around and repeat the estimation facing toward the ball to confirm their first reading.
In a Golf Channel interview, Homa said, “Your eyes can lie to you a lot, but your feet, typically, will never lie.”
Tiger Woods does not use AimPoint Express, and neither does Jordan Spieth or Jason Day. Brad Faxon, Loren Roberts and Ben Crenshaw never used it either. Some golfers have a great feel for green reading, spotting slopes and contours on the putting surface and understanding how putts will roll. However, many golfers are not blessed with this ability. Sweeney hates hearing that the skill will come with time and experience.
“As a coach, you have to take someone who doesn’t have a skill and give them that skill,” said Sweeney, who works with several tour pros and teaches lessons at Waldorf Astoria Golf Club in Orlando, Florida. “How do you teach someone green reading if they don’t naturally see what a good green reader sees? I thought ‘Just go do it and you’ll get better,’ was a really crappy answer. It’s like a full-swing instructor saying to someone, ‘I know you’re slicing it off the tee, but just go hit a lot of balls and you’ll get better.'”
Tom Kim and his caddie practice reading greens with a digital level before the start of the Genesis Invitational. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Aimpoint Express removes the need to walk around a hole and see your intended putt from multiple angles, so for Sweeney, it does not slow play as some people think.
Sweeney postulates that the better a golfer gets at reading greens, the more time they can spend working on improving distance control and developing the quality of their putting stroke.
“It’s really helped me to read the greens, obviously, but it’s turned a lot of that into better speed,” Homa said on Golf Channel. “I’m shocked more people don’t do it, if I am being honest.”
Scottie Scheffler won over $21 million in prize money last season and was one of the PGA Tour’s worst putters. His driving and iron play were that good. He played in 23 events and made the cut in all of them, earning top-10 finishes in 17 to go along with two wins and two runner-up finishes. He did all that while finishing No. 162 in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Scheffler tinkered with different putters in the second half of 2023, benching his Scotty Cameron blade-style putter for a prototype TaylorMade Spider with a milled face at the end of the PGA Tour season. That didn’t work, so Scheffler played a few events with a blade made by the Olson Putter Company at the end of 2023 and in early 2024, but that didn’t work out either.
Then, in the days leading up to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Scheffler switched back into a TaylorMade Spider and won, leading the field that week in Strokes Gained: Putting. The following week, he won again at the 2024 Players Championship, finishing first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (naturally) and 37th in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Rory McIlroy’s prophecy appeared to be coming true because, speaking with Amanda Balionis at the Genesis Invitational in February as Scheffler struggled on the greens, McIlroy had said, “I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”
A few days before the Masters, Golfweek talked with Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, to learn what makes Scottie Scheffler’s new Spider Tour putter unique, how it is similar to Spider Tour X putters sold at retail and more.
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TaylorMade created two prototype Spider mallet putters with milled faces for Scheffler to try at the 2023 Tour Championship. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Golfweek: Let’s go through a progression. Towards the end of last season, Scottie Scheffler started using a TaylorMade Spider putter with a milled face. Was the goal to create a mallet that would feel like the milled blade putters that he had before but that would provide the forgiveness or stability?
Andrew Oldknow: The goal, honestly, was to give him better alignment. While centering the ball with the alignment system, we were actually trying to get that thing to perform just like a blade.
We put a massive amount of tungsten in the front of that putter. We used all aluminum in the back. We gave it a profile of the Spider X shape, but under the backside, it really was all cut out. We were hollowing the whole thing out to get as much weight forward as possible so that the putter actually closed like a blade.
At the time, he loved the performance of his blade, he just felt like he didn’t have enough alignment out of it. True Path worked really well for him in terms of centering the ball. One of his biggest issues is he doesn’t always hit the ball center face.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X putter is large enough to contain the True Path alignment system. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
GK: Got it. A blade simply doesn’t have the size to be able to accommodate a True Path-style alignment system.
AO: Correct.
GW: After playing a few events with an Olson blade, Scottie and his team asked TaylorMade for many different Spider putters with different hosel configurations, neck styles, and even different inserts. Obviously, he was very open then to the alignment system you talked about, and he wound up settling on a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. That configuration is not available at retail. How much does that hosel configuration play into the way his putter swings for him?
AO: Yeah, great question. So, over the last few years, even Rory McIlroy has gone into a slant-neck version of the Spider Tour. They’re very similar, but the toe hang is going to be slightly different.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X has an L-neck hosel designed to create some toe hang. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
We know that toe hang is slightly more toe down with the L-neck, so that helps [Scottie] rotate and feel more blade-like performance. Again, we’re trying to get him the good feel that he wants. He’s been in the blade for the majority of his life, and winning majors and so forth in a blade product.
So, we want to make sure that when he’s releasing the putter, that it has the right feel. A slightly more toe-down putter is going to have more of a familiar feel, and so that’s been the most important thing for him.
And yes, he asked for everything under the sun and our team has done everything we can to provide him with that.
GW: I noticed on the retail putters there is an X7 in the sole in the toe area, but on Scottie’s but an X1.
AO: Yep.
GW: Does that mean anything?
AO: Yeah, hosel, that’s the type of hassle on there. We have code names for our hosels.
Scottie Scheffler lines up his putt on No. 11 during the final round of the Masters Tournament. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network
GW: So, the motivation for Scottie to change was really rooted in wanting to be able to align the putter more easily, and then you designed a Spider that would swing like his blade. But now, instead of hitting off a milled metal face, he’s using a grooved Pure Roll face. Is it the same one that is in retail putters?
AO: He was in the camp of wanting more metal face inserts versus the Pure Roll Surlyn insert. We provided him with milled prototypes and metal versions with different thicknesses to get different feels. And then, low and behold, Joe Ryon, who runs our putter lab, was like, “Let’s just throw one in with the actual, stock, Surlyn insert even though they’re not asking for it.” We wanted to give it to him.
A blend of Surlyn and aluminum powder create the feel Scheffler likes while the Pure Roll grooves encourage the ball to start rolling quicker. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Pure Roll insert has a little bit of aluminum powder in it, so it’s 80 percent Surlyn. We’ve player-tested pure Surlyn inserts (essentially ionomer resin) in the past, but they test too soft.
AO: Yes. The addition of the Aluminum flake slightly firms the compound to create a perfect balance of feel, sound and roll performance. And, as you can see, the score lines and grooves are angled down slightly. They will grab the ball better and get it rolling. In everything we’ve ever tested on our Quintic Ball Roll system here in The Kingdom, you will see that if you put somebody in this 80/20 Pure Roll insert, they will instantly get better numbers.
GK: What is the loft on Scottie’s putter?
AO: Our traditional Spider Tour putters have 3.5 degrees of loft, but Scottie’s has 3.1 degrees. You need some loft in there because the ball sits in a depression created by its weight. You have to get it out of the depression or else you end up just jamming it into the ground, but the grooves grab the back of the ball and stop it from back spinning.
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Finau was presented with a patent certificate in Ping’s PGA Tour van on Wednesday.
When he is faced with a delicate chip from the collar or an awkward shot from a few inches off the green, Tony Finau has been known to turn his putter, a Ping PLD Anser 2D, counter-clockwise in his hands and strike the ball with the toe-end of his putter, popping the ball onto the putting surface.
In fact, he loves the feeling shots like that create so much that he worked with designers and engineers at Ping to build a prototype putter that replicates the sensations of that shot and was just named as one of three people on a utility patent awarded to Ping (U.S. #11,911,670 B2) for a compact putter head. Tony Serrano, Ping’s principal putter design engineer, and John A. Solheim, the company’s president, are also on the patent.
Finau was presented with a patent certificate in Ping’s PGA Tour van on Wednesday outside the gates of Augusta National Golf Club.
“When Tony turns his putter over and hits a putt with the toe, all the mass is directly behind the ball,” Serrano said. “So he came to us and said, ‘How can we make a putter that has some of these feelings and attributes and sounds that I get when I turn this putter over?’”
That led Serrano and his team to develop a few prototypes that would give Finau what he wanted while also conforming to the USGA’s Rules of Golf and equipment standards.
Tony Finau’s compact prototype putter is shaped like a cube and replicates the feeling of hitting a putt with the toe-end of a putter. (Ping)
The putter that Finau liked and worked with Ping to develop is cube-like in shape, with a small area in the back hollowed out to create some perimeter weighting. There is also a T-shaped alignment system on the top and a plumber’s neck hosel.
“He looks at the top rail of the putter when he turns it. It’s long and right down the center and helps him align the putter with the ball,” Serrano said. The small T accomplishes the same thing and helps Finau focus on a tiny area and make solid contact more easily.
The small hosel was designed and positioned close to the grooved hitting area so that when Finau putts, his stroke has to pull the center of gravity and the putter’s weight, like a traditional putter, instead of pushing the head’s weight as Finau would do with a flipped-over putter.
“Tony said that he plays with this putter all the time,” when he is home in Utah, Serrano said. Finau has yet to use the un-named putter in a PGA Tour event, but he plans to keep using it as a training aid going forward, and Ping plans to study the tiny putter more closely to see whether attributes of it could be designed into future PLD and retail putters.
Finau realized that unless very unusual conditions arise, he was not going to hit his 3-wood off the ground.
Phil Mickelson won his second green jacket at the 2006 Masters while carrying two drivers in his bag, and it appears that big-hitting Tony Finau is planning to try to capture his first major this week at Augusta National using the same strategy.
According to Kenton Oates, a PGA Tour rep for Ping, Finau is planning to use two Ping G430 LST drivers during the 2024 Masters because, after developing his course strategy, he realized that unless very unusual conditions arise, he was not going to hit his 3-wood off the ground. Perhaps if the anticipated rain on Thursday significantly softened the turf on the par-5 eighth hole, or if the wind blew into Finau on the second shot on that hole, maybe a 3-wood would be in order, but aside from that, he was not going to need the club.
Ping G430 LST driver. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
With that in mind, Ping built Finau a second G430 LST driver, built to his 3-wood specifications. Finau’s standard driver is a 9-degree G430 LST, but it has an actual loft of 7.75 degrees and is fitted with a 45.25-inch Mitsubishi Diamana GT 70TX shaft. The stated loft of the 3-wood-replacement-driver is 10.5 degrees, but with the adjustable hosel set to the small minus position, Kenton Oates, a PGA Tour rep for Ping estimates the head has about 8.9 degrees of loft. Ping gave the short driver to him last week in Texas. Finau brought the shorter driver to Augusta with the rest of his gear this week.
“It’s probably going to give him a carry distance of about 290 yards and then roll out to about 300,” Oates said. “It’s still going to go really far. Tony was getting ball speeds with his gamer driver in the high 180s and ball speeds with the little one in the low 180s on the range this week.”
According to Oates, the increased loft and shorter shaft allow Finau to shut the face more aggressively and produce the draw-style flight. That shot shape could be very handy on the newly lengthened second hole, as well as the seventh, 10th, 13th, 14th and 17th holes, which all encourage a right-to-left shot.
Past the Masters, Oates explained, Finau and other pros may start to consider carrying two drivers more frequently because if they don’t need to play a 3-wood off the turf to reach par 5s, elite golfers could find having a draw driver and a fade driver to be an advantage worth exploring.
For decades, golf equipment brands have made special bags, headcovers and accessories for staff players to use in major championships to serve two purposes. First, at the most prestigious events, the cool gear makes it easier for companies to showcase how many players use their equipment. Second, if they are creative and appealing enough, the limited-edition items can also be sold to fans online.
This week at Augusta National Golf Club, TaylorMade staff players will be using “Season Opener” bags, headcovers and accessories designed especially for the Masters, and fans can pick up the gear on TaylorMade’s website.
The Staff Bag ($599.99) is covered in symbols, some of which are subtle, like the three gold flags with a halo near the handle that pay homage to Amen Corner (the 11th, 12th and 13th holes), while others like the azalea-patterned TaylorMade logo are easy to understand. The lining of the pockets are covered in a peach pattern.
TaylorMade also designed special-edition TP5 and TP5x Pix balls for the 2024 Masters ($59.99) that are covered in peaches instead of the orange and black diamond pattern found on the standard 2024 version of the Pix balls. According to TaylorMade, Tommy Fleetwood, who uses a TP5x Pix in competition, plans to use the Season Opener edition during this season’s Masters.
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You know about the green jacket, the back-nine charges and the pimento cheese, but did you know these things about equipment at the Masters?
Whether you are lucky enough to have a badge and plan to attend this year’s Masters Tournament in person or will be watching the action at Augusta National Golf Club from home, you already know plenty of details about the season’s first major because it is the only one that returns to the same venue every year. Green jackets, pimento cheese sandwiches, epic collapses, back-nine charges and the hole locations on Sundays – they all combine to make the Masters unique.
But there are a few things related to golf equipment that most patrons and Masters fans are unaware of, but that also make the tournament special.
No Equipment Vans on Site
At week-to-week PGA Tour events and the other three major championships, golf equipment makers like Titleist, Ping, TaylorMade, Callaway, Cobra and Cleveland/Srixon park large trucks near the practice area because technicians, fitters and other reps work closely with the players on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays as they prepare for the tournament. The vans arrive on Sunday afternoon and leave as a group shortly in the early afternoon on Wednesday to start the drive to the next event.
At the Masters, PGA Tour reps have to park trailers across the street and walk back and forth to service players. (Google Earth)
However, there are no equipment vans on-site at the Masters Tournament. The trucks park in a large lot across the street at the corner of Washington Road and Azalea Drive. The technicians and PGA Tour reps who are credentialed to work at the Masters Tournament need to cross Washington Road and then go through a special gate to gain access to the grounds, then they walk either around or through the caddie building before arriving at the practice range.
Like the patrons, the PGA Tour reps and company workers are not allowed to bring their cell phones into Augusta National, so communication can be challenging and there is a lot of walking back and forth between the practice area and the trucks.
PGA Tour reps and technicians work with players in the practice area but do not linger on the range, keeping it much more open. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Also, fitters and technicians need to be brought to the practice area by a player or requested by a player. Loitering around the range or near the practice green is not done. If business discussions need to happen, those conversations typically happen either under the massive oak tree behind the clubhouse or in a quiet place away from the practice area.
No Demos
Like the rest of us, when pros start missing putts and get frustrated, they can be tempted to look for a new putter to turn things around, and at nearly all PGA Tour events, companies leave large bags filled with demo clubs, prototypes and other putters for competitors to try. However, at the Masters Tournament, that doesn’t happen.
An assortment of Odyssey putters available for golfers to try at Riviera Country Club during the Genesis Invitational. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
There are two practice greens at Augusta National for competitors to use. There is a large one next to the driving range in the practice area, and a second putting green behind the clubhouse and just a few steps away from the first tee. Players make use of both practice greens throughout the week, but the only golf bags you will see are those being used by the players. There are no demo bags or areas with gear left for players to try at the Masters.
Unique Wedge Prep
The greens at the Augusta National Golf Club are famous for being fast and for having massive slopes and undulations. There are also tightly mowed areas where players need to chip and pitch the ball, and those factors combine to put a premium on wedge play and generating spin, so you might think that competitors use brand-new wedges at the Masters Tournament. They don’t.
In 2019, Justin Thomas had his jacket size stamped into his Titleist wedges. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
During the Florida Swing in March, PGA Tour reps who are responsible for wedges often chat with players who are already in the field at the Masters about what clubs they will want to use at Augusta National. Based on those conversations, the technicians will then either give the players what they want at a tournament or send the clubs directly to the player’s home. Next, the players will “break in” the wedges by either using them in one or two practice sessions or non-competition rounds. The goal is for the player to feel how the soles work through the turf and how the bounce feels, and to gain trust in the wedges’ performance. Once that is established, the golfers will set the broken-in wedges aside and save them for the Masters.
