Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy made gear changes at the Genesis

Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up through which GOLF gear editor Jonathan Wall takes you thru the newest developments, rumors and breaking information. This week’s Wall-to-Wall is delivered to you by Jonathan’s associate in gear nerdiness, GOLF senior gear editor Ryan Barath, who was on the floor at Riviera for the Genesis invitational.

Rahm’s under-the-radar swap

Let’s kick this week off by speaking about Genesis Invitational winner Jon Rahm. Though his total gear setup hasn’t actually modified since he gained the Tournament of Champions in January (are you able to blame him?), he quietly modified the shaft in his well-known Paradym Triple Diamond 3-wood.

That would possibly appear to be small potatoes, but it surely qualifies as a notable improvement contemplating Rahm has used the identical driver and 3-wood shaft since he began on Tour. But, after this weekend’s efficiency, I don’t count on we’ll see many extra changes in the close to future.

Rory changes drivers mid-event

After a gap spherical that noticed Tiger Woods bombing drives previous him, Rory McIlroy determined to vary up his driver on Friday at the Genesis and noticed some spectacular outcomes.

Before Friday’s second spherical, Rory went from a first-generation TayloMade Stealth Plus driver to a more recent Stealth 2 Plus with the identical Fujikura Ventus shaft.

The cause for the swap, in line with TaylorMade, was a testing session after spherical one which resulted in noticeable ball velocity positive factors with the Stealth 2 Plus head. McIlroy, searching for to reap the benefits of the added velocity, caught the new membership in his bag and by no means appeared again.

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The swap proved to be a great one, particularly when he uncorked a 388-yard drive early in the second spherical, which was the longest drive of the day and second longest of the total event.

Rickie finds a brand new 3-wood

It’s laborious to earn reward for a top-20 end when taking part in in an occasion alongside Tiger Woods, but it surely needs to be famous that Rickie Fowler continues to play nicely in 2023. Even together with his good play, Fowler was in search of a small change at the high of his bag at Riviera, and he discovered it with a 15-degree Titleist TSR3 3-wood. The aim of the change was to assist Rickie discover a particular flight window, that means we may see him change out of the membership as the Tour travels to totally different setups. We’ll preserve our eyes peeled.

One membership Fowler definitely gained’t be altering is his Cobra AeroJet LS driver, which helped him rank eighth in strokes gained: off the tee over the course of the event.

Talking Tiger

Tiger Woods is famously a creature of behavior in relation to gear, and 2023 has confirmed no totally different. At Riviera, his driver, fairway woods, wedges, and irons principally remained the identical from 2022, however he did add a brand new TaylorMade P-770 3-iron to switch his P7TW.

While scouting Tiger’s bag, one different element I seen was the water bottle pocket on his golf bag, which is logoed with the Roman Numerals “XV” to indicate his 15 main wins. Also stamped into the backside of his bag had been the years of every of his Masters’ triumphs, you already know, in case any of his taking part in rivals wanted a reminder.

Updated flat stick for Adam Scott

Former Genesis Invitational champ Adam Scott had a brand new customized L.A.B. putter in the bag this week, which was outfitted with a brand new prototype putter shaft from TPT Golf.

The suggestions from the L.A.B. putter workforce was that it not solely provided one in every of the extra steady profiles to suit Adam’s wants but it surely was additionally one in every of the straightest-measured broomstick putter shafts they’d ever examined.

Quick-hitters: Harris English was in quest of a brand new really feel this week and the crew on the Ping truck regripped his irons with a recent set of Golf Pride align grips. Whatever feeling English sought appeared to kick in on Sunday when he shot a closing spherical 65 to maneuver right into a tie for twelfth place.

Hideki Matsuyama appears to be on the hunt for a brand new really feel together with his driver. For the second week in a row, he went via a variety of Graphite Design shafts on the vary. A nugget I received from his workforce is that the total shaft profiles aren’t totally different however the tipping is, which may make a noticeable distinction from a really feel perspective.

Want to overtake your bag for 2023? Find a becoming location close to you at GOLF’s affiliate firm True Spec Golf. For extra on the newest gear information and knowledge, take a look at our newest Fully Equipped podcast beneath.

Golf.com Editor

Ryan Barath is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s senior editor for gear. He has an in depth club-fitting and -building background with greater than 20 years of expertise working with golfers of all talent ranges, together with PGA Tour gamers. Before becoming a member of the employees, he was the lead content material strategist for Tour Experience Golf, in Toronto, Canada.