Trend Tracker: Notes from the Arnold Palmer, Puerto Rico, and China

This past week the PGA TOUR was split between Orlando for the Arnold Palmer Invitation Signature Event and Puerto Rico for an additional PGA TOUR event, and there was a lot happening when it comes to gear. From new and prototype drivers being put into play, fairway woods, and even putters, let's take a look back at the week that was in professional golf for gear stories and trends from the bags of the world's top golfers.

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Rory Tuned up His Long Game

Heading into Bay Hill, Rory McIlroy was still holding onto his previous generation TaylorMade Qi10 driver along with some fairway woods, but after a lot of work to tune up the gapping in his long game, he made the switch to the new Qi35 (Core DOT head - more on this in a moment) plus some new fairway woods, and even a wedge.

For more on the switch, here's what Rory had to say during his early week press conference when asked about the new clubs in his bag,

"Yeah, I think it's all really come from the ball change a few weeks ago. So because this ball, especially with the shorter irons, spins a little bit more, especially with the three-quarter shots, I feel a little more comfortable playing those, so I actually weakened my pitching wedge by a degree and a half to bridge the gap between having a 46 and a half and a 54. So that's my 48 degree, and then 54, 60. I just feel like with the ball I'm a lot more comfortable playing those sort of half- and three-quarter shots, so comfortable going back to three wedges.

Then I had to look at the top end of the bag then of how I was going to configure it. For a while I've been looking for a club that sort of carries 300 in the air. I feel like there's a lot of golf courses we go to that really pinch in at like 310, 320, and I would hit a 3-wood -- I can't hit driver because it's just too narrow, but then I would hit my 3-wood that's going like 285, 290, but guys that are shorter than me are hitting driver sort of 300 or 310, so I'm actually, I feel like I was at a disadvantage in some ways, even to like people that hit it shorter than me, depending upon the course setup. So I sort of, and I messed around with that the mini driver last year, but I just couldn't quite get comfortable with it. So I've been playing around with like stronger 3-woods."

To the joy of the gear-obsessed, Rory continued to expand on how his bag came together:

"So this 3-wood that I have carries like 300, 305 in the air, which is a really, it's a really good club for me to have. And then I've went from a 5-wood to a 4-wood. And that 4-wood sort of bridges that gap. And then I've got the 3-iron that sort of replaces the 5-wood.

I've got a club that sort of flies 260, a club that flies 280, a club that flies 300, and then the driver. So that was sort of the reasoning behind 'em. It just gives me more options off the tee. Especially with being so comfortable at the other end of the bag with the wedges and hitting those three-quarter shots that it's nice to have those options up at the top end of the bag."

First off, thanks to Rory for explaining the tweaks in such vivid detail, and secondly, can we just take a moment to wrap out heads around what it must feel like to gap the top end of your golf bag with a 3-wood... I repeat.. a 3-wood that carries 300 freaking yards in the air!

Regardless of how we feel about the changes, Rory seemed to do ok at Bay Hill with a T-15 finish heading into the PLAYERS.

Also, if you're looking for more info on what the Qi35 (Core DOT) head is I made a little video to explain (Also, I have zero explaining to do when it comes to the T-shirt)

As for fellow TaylorMade staffer scottie Scheffler, he's still using a Qi10, but was spotted tested the Qi35 - so we're gonna keep an eye on that heading into the PLAYERS.

On Sunday, Rory switched back to his Qi10 driver for the final round at Bay Hill - so we will have to keep an eye out at the PLAYERS to see what he's using at TPC Sawgrass. As for the switch, he had this to say after the final round when asked about the swap back.

"There's pros and cons to it, and it's a blessing and a curse at the same time that we sort of have to go through these 12-month club cycles," McIlroy said. "I just, I probably just didn't give myself enough time—and it's totally different, you know, it can look good on the Trackman and it can look good on the range at home at the Bear's Club or on the golf course, but once you get out here in these conditions that's where it really shows itself and it just wasn't quite ready."

As for fellow TaylorMade staffer scottie Scheffler, he's still using a Qi10, but was spotted tested the Qi35—certainly something we're keeping an eye on heading into the PLAYERS.

Shane Lowry Also Searching for a Driver

This past week Shane Lowry proved that you can be on the lookout for a new driver, while also playing well after starting the week strong to hold the 36-hole lead at Bay Hill - a course you can't fake it around.

After his round, Shane was asked about his play heading into the weekend and he had this to say,

"My expectations are never low. I feel like I played pretty good at the Cognizant last week. I've been tinkering a little bit with drivers. I think there's something wrong with the driver I was using last week for a few days. I used something different on Sunday and I used something different again today. So I don't have a hundred percent trust in that yet, but I did hit some really nice drives there towards the end, apart from 18.

I'm pretty happy with what I have in the bag, I just need to be able to stand up on holes like 18 and trust myself to start it down the left and commit to that shot. As the week goes on hopefully I'll do that and, yeah, you never know where it will leave me."

When the follow up question "Do you know what model you're in?" was asked, Lowry hilariously was stumped.

"What model? It's another Srixon one. I have no idea. I had about 15 drivers on the range on Tuesday here, so no idea which one I ended up with."

Since Shane wasn't sure about the driver he used, I did a little digging to try and solve exactly which one he was using since Srixon has quite a few drivers on the conforming list.

With a front weight port located towards more towards the heel than the toe, and with no other weight ports in the head, Shane is likely using either the Srixon ZXi SLS 246 or the 243. Now can't say if SLS stands for "Shane Lowry Shooter" or not, but it's fun to guess.

No word on what the exact characteristics of these tour only drivers are, but based on the shaping we can observe - they're likely a little deeper faced and lower spin thanks to the weight placement... Come to think of if SLS might actually stand for "Shane Low Spin"... but who really knows for sure?

Wyndham goes Basic With His Vokey Wedges

A fun detail of Wyndham Clark's wedges is that rather than using lofts (don't worry, the folks at Titleist keep him dialed in and have his specs on record) he has P, G, S, and L stamped on his wedges to represent Pitching Wedge, Gap, Sand and Lob.

Purely from a looks perspective, it's a fun change up, and as a general observer of gear, it feels like more players are doing this to their wedges on tour and at the retail level by getting them customized in the aftermarket - with it becoming more popular, maybe it will become a custom option in the future.

Let's Talk About the Winners!

After being behind all day at Bay Hill, Russell Henley made the shot of the tournament by jarring a chip on the 16th hole for eagle and never gave back the lead. When it comes to his gear he's got a mix of new and old in the bag: Driver: Titleist GT3 Fairway Woods: Titleist GT3 Hybrid: Titleist TSi2 Irons: T200 (4i) - (2019)T100 (5-9i) Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 48.10 F-Grind, 50.08 F-Grind, 54.10 S-Grind, 60.04 T-Grind Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom X5 Ball: Titleist Pro V1X

Karl Vilips - Puerto Rico Open

Driver: TaylorMade Qi35 LS Fairway wood: TaylorMade Qi35 (3-wood), Qi10 (7wood) Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4-PW) Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 50.09 SB-Grind, 54.11 SB-Grind, 60.08 LB-Grind Putter: Spider X Tour Ball: TaylorMade TP5X

Rio Takeda- LPGA Blue Bay (Hainan Island, Hainan, People's Republic of China)

Driver: Srixon ZX7 Mk II Fairway wood: Srixon ZX Mk II (15°) Hybrids: Srixon ZX Mk II (17°, 24°) Irons: Srixon ZXi5 (5i) ZXi7 (6i-PW) Wedges: Cleveland Golf RTZ: 50°, 54°, 58° MID-Bounce Putter: Odyssey Ai1 No7 Ball: Srixon Z-STAR

Unloading the Rest of the Gear News Items

• Corey Conners, who finished 3rd at the API had a new PING Prototype PLD Onset putter in the bag and for the week finished 13th in stroked gained putting. He was positive strokes gain all through the week, except for the final round—which was still an improvement on his -0.077 average for the year that has him ranked 111st on tour.
• Justin Rose, who made news years ago when at the Arnold Palmer decided to famously end his Honma club deal and become a free agent had some classic TaylorMade M6 fairway woods in the bag this week. He loves to experiment with the top end of his bag, but the M6s seem to be his safety blanket fairway woods.
• Speaking of fairway woods, Colin Morikawa has been on a bit of journey over the last couple of years in search of something new but keeps going back to his Gen 1 TaylorMade SIM Titanium 3-wood. Honestly, I don't blame him one bit - the OG SIM Ti is still one of the fastest and lowest-spin fairway woods TaylorMade has ever produced and makes me think they might be worth testing compared to some new ones for fun.
• Sergio Garcia won LIV Hong Kong with a mixed bag of clubs that included a Titleist GT3 driver, TaylorMade irons, Vokey Wedges, and a Toulon putter. It should also be noted that for quite some time now Sergio has also been using graphite shafts.
• Last but not least on the LIV front. Callaway confirmed an official deal with Jon Rahm's LIV team, meaning Callaway has officially returned to the front of Jon's hat, and going forward he and his team will once again be featured in Callaway marketing material. The only potential issue with this deal is Tyrrell Hatton and his current deal with PING. As of publication, we have no official comment from PING on the status of Tyrrell's contract even though he is still listed on their site under staff players for the time being. Now considering the money likely associated with the Callaway deal and Tyrrell's commitment to his LIV team, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tyrrell exploring some Callaway gear in the near future (just to be clear, this is strictly my opinion). This was always a potential outcome with teams when it comes to handling equipment deals similar to the F1 model, so going forward it will be curious to see if another OEM jumps on board to take a whole team into their stable.

Now onto PLAYERS week!