Trend Tracker: Gear Notes from the Mexico Open and Beyond

This week the PGA TOUR is back Stateside in Palm Beach Gardens Florida for the Cognizant Classic, an important event on the schedule for players looking to move up the FedEx Cup rankings or earn a Masters invite with a win. But before the Cognizant kicks off at PGA National, let's take a look back at the week that was in professional golf at the Mexico Open held at VidantaWorld in Vallarta Mexico and beyond for gear trends in the bags of the world's top golfers.

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Brian Campbell is saved by a tree and wins!

It took two playoff holes and one heck of a bounce, but Brian Campbell won his first PGA Tour event in Mexico, and here’s a look at what was in his bag for the win.

Driver: Ping G440 LST

3-Wood: Ping G430 LST

7-Wood: Ping G430 Max

Irons: Ping Blueprint S (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 (52-12 F-grind, 56-10 S-grind, WedgeWorks 60L wedge)

Putter: Custom Ping PLD Anser 2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Now, when it comes to new gear, it looks like all my talk of only older drivers winning so far this year on the PGA TOUR is now moot because Brian Campbell won with a current model Ping G440 LST…. and with a little help from a tree.

When talking to Ping’s Kenton Oates about Brian Campbell’s recent move into the new driver from his previous 430, Oates had this to say:

“Brian right away noticed the extra forgiveness and sound improvements of the G440 LST. At the Farmers we set out to optimize the launch conditions, face angle, and shot shape, and after testing multiple shafts, heads, and (adapter) settings Brain landed on what you see in his bag today," Oates said. "He is playing a slightly lower loft in his G440 than G430 with a slighter stronger shaft to control the extra height the G440 provides. To achieve the less loft in the face angle he preferred with G440 he went from a 10.5 head to a 9. Brian prefers a very neutral resting face angle and the flat + setting provided this look in the G440 LST”

As for the rest of the drivers in the top 5 - here’s how it played out

Aldrich Potgieter - Titleist GT3 (current)

Isaiah Salinda - Callaway Ai Smoke (2024)

Aaron Rai - Titleist GT2 and TaylorMade M6 (current and 2019 making it the oldest driver in play)

Ben Griffin - Ping G430 Max (current because Ping has not released a new 10K driver)

One more note on Campbell's bag, he’s one of very few tour players using Ping’s G430 LST 3-wood. One likely reason is that the lower spin helps to add a little distance with that club to improve gapping at the top end of his set.

Also, one thing both Campbell and Potgieter had in common, although their golf games are quite dissimilar is that they both use a Titleist Pro V1x. In fact, Potgieter switched to the newest 2025 Pro V1x just this week on his way to coming in second by losing in the playoff.

Wait, hold up! Aaron Rai used TWO drivers?

Yes, you read that correctly.

Aaron Rai who finished tied for 4th in Mexico had a very interesting setup this past week because he was carrying two drivers in the bag - were not sure if this was a 1A and 1B type of situation but he used both during the event. Driver number one was his tried and true TaylorMade M6—which came out in 2019— while the second option was a current Titleist GT2, with both drivers having an Aldila Synergy Blue shaft.

As I mentioned last week in Tour Trends from the Genesis Invitational - there must be something about those 2019 M-Series drivers from TaylorMade because Jake Knapp had an M5 in the bag last week for a short stint before moving into a Qi10 this week where he finished tied for 25th.

Windy conditions = driving irons

According to several tour reps I spoke to, the potential for windy conditions at VidantaWorld had several players replacing some higher lofted fairway woods or even long irons with utility irons to help lower launch and boost ball speeds. Although there weren’t any players who switched and made a substantial impact on the outcome of the event, it does demonstrate how players are always evaluating their gear setup to find what fits conditions.

(NOTE: Aldrich Potgieter did have a Titleist T200 driving iron in the bag but he didn't switch into this week)

With that in mind, I expect to see a few more players go the other way and put higher lofted fairway woods and or hybrids in the bag this week at Cognizant and next week at Bay Hill where it typically plays with long rough and firm greens. The one player to keep a keen eye on will be Scottie Scheffler since he put a 7-wood in at the Genesis for the first time.

One Bright Putter

Angel Yin won the Honda LPGA Thailand - the first event on the LPGA’s 2025 Asian Swing, to secure her second career LPGA Tour victory, and the club that made us take notice when she counted her final stroke was her putter; a Burke AI 77. Now I’ll be the first to admit that Angel Yin’s putter was a bit of a blind spot for me in the world of gear and from what I can tell, she has used this putter dating back to at least 2020 (!).

They come in a variety of color options - Angel's is red, and it's possible to configure the wide body blade with various hosel designs to fit for alignment and stroke.

Congrats to Angel on the win and congratulations to that putter for being in the bag for so long.