3 equipment trends in the PGA Championship caught my attention

Charlotte, NC – Let's be clear about one thing: Quail Hollow plays longer than the numbers on the card. The course has been incredibly well drained after the fifth-inch rain this week, but it won’t go quickly, at least not in the first few rounds.

The prompts for the PAR-72 design just exceeded 7,600 yards, but hardly came out, and for most venues it felt more like 8,200 yards. For bombers (Bryson, Rory, etc.), there is no need to replace the bag, but for those ball speeders below 180 mph, more consideration is needed.

The main question to ask is spreading around the top of the bag and choosing. Peak height and carrying are also key in softer conditions. Any yard you are not on the ground must be made up in the air.

This shift inspired some of the ideas of caddies, players and travel representatives this week, and these are the three most interesting tweaks I found.

1. A mini pilot with full flight

There are 25 mini riders this week in Quail's Titleist G280, Taylormade BRNR MINI, Taylormade R7 Quad, PXG's Secret Weapon, Cobra King and Callaway's Elyte and Ai-Smoke Minis.

The mini driver thing becomes more meaningful on the tour. When you can hand him a player like Min Woo Lee a club, he can get a ball speed of 175 mph or more and spin like 3 wood (3,500 rpms), that's a Huge assets. When you carry this rotation, attacking dog legs can become much easier, just like the driver has a risk of long/tight holes.

Callaway Elyte Mini Driver

The versatility of the bag is easier to tolerate and easier to launch than fairway wood, and the Elyte Mini driver is an excellent choice when Tee is crucial. With neutral, fading and drawing settings for custom ball flight controls. Elyte Speed ​​From Enhanced Plastic Shaping The new Elyte shape provides enhanced aerodynamics for Elyte Speed ​​from the entire golf swing. The improved shape is designed to maximize swing speed by improving forgiveness and launch conditions. AI Optimal Distance, Control and Launching Advances in Our State-of-the-art AI Faces, the new AI10X Face has 10 times more control points than AI Smart Face™. Designed to generate extremely fast ball speeds, tight dispersion and optimized face launches.

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2. Fairway Forest in the Loft is more popular

Are there a few 7 and 9 woods this week?

Sixty-one. Sixty-oneWoolen cloth

Why? Simple: peak height, ball speed and rotation. When you can bring a club to the required carry distance that club slot, the ball starts easily, rotates more, lands like a pillow… This decision is easy. This is one of the manifestations Distant Go beyond the players' desire for appearance. What is that sentence-working in fashion?

Here is what Scottie Scheffler said this week:

“This week it may be more 5 wood [ed. note: it’s actually more of a 7-wood] One week, because like you said, the golf course will be played very long, rough in thickness, and this upgrade area after rain will be very soft and the vegetables will still be very firm because they are new. You have to be able to lower the ball to the green. You really can't run it on this golf course. This is an aspect you have to consider. ”

It should be clear that his club is not 5 wood, but 5 wood distance. Is this the exact specification on the club.. Is it called 6 wood?

Taylormade QI35 Custom Fairway Wood

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3. Narrow wedges with wider wedges

This is what I noticed when hanging with defending champion Xander Schauffele and his caddie Austin Kaiser.

Xander always comes with three Lob wedge options. Most of the action is Vokey T-Grind or K* (he is also a very cool A+ Grind). On Monday, after the rain broke, they were practicing batting around the green, and both options can be seen. Break All excellent wedges make sound when the bounce is used correctly.

For your gear head, you might think the T-Grind and its narrow soles will be tough in soft conditions, but it isn't. There is more to consider. Soft grass means a solid bunker, so having a low bounce wedge does help. Speed ​​is also important, especially since the greens are still running fast. Xander said he always wants to be 1-to-1 because his hitting speed is the speed of hitting a window. Often, this comes down to rebound.

Xander has always been on his 60-degree brain. He watched it in several different fields. turf interaction (simple); swing speed reduces the ratio of faces than speed; bunker game; runs out on the green green; he will hit his shot type from a longer course, i.e. fly and stop it or rely on running out. All of these factors go into his preferred wedge, but it's still a feeling and depends on how Xander feels in a given week. Sometimes he will surprise you. For example, in public, you would think that narrow T-screws are the obvious choice for all tight lies…but it isn’t always the case. It's all about Xander Feel at present.

Titleist Vokey SM10 original custom wedge

For every shot, every lie, every course is right for your swing. Finding the right grinding to match your swing and match conditions will provide you with the best turf interaction, contact and shooting performance. Master Craftsman Bob Vokey spent decades producing, developing and improving his tour to suit players at all levels. Anyone can make a wedge, but the master turns a high-performance technology into a creative control tool. Bob's six tours honed their training to provide maximum creativity, versatility and consistency, all carefully developed by working with the best players in the world. The progressive center of gravity SM9 features a progressive center of gravity (CG) throughout the attic to optimize ball flight, accuracy and forgiveness. The Vokey R&D team used conical toplines and various Hosel lengths to increase the height of the CG in the higher lofts, which facilitated lower, more controlled flights. CG also moves forward on the face, which adds to the MOI, a great feeling and the club's face, which just wants to open up when impacted. Rotary milling grooves SM9's patented rotary milling grooves are carefully designed through a new cutting process to maximize spin and durability. The process starts by using a high-speed saw to completely flatten the face. Each groove is then cut separately according to the attic and finish; the lower attic (46°-54°) is designed to be narrower and deeper, while the higher attic (56°-62°) is lighter. The micro peaks are cut individually between grooves, thereby maximizing the rotation of part of the shot. Proprietary heat treatment is applied to impact areas that double the durability of the groove without affecting the feeling, making it the most durable groove in golf. The process is only completed if each Vokey wedge has undergone 100% checked maximum mass and performance.

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