Trend Tracker: Gear Notes from Harbour Town and Beyond

This week, the PGA TOUR is headed to New Orleans and TPC Louisiana for the lone team event on the schedule, the Zurich Classic. The defending champions are Shane Lowry and recent Masters winner Rory McIlroy. Yep, he’s back! But before we get into all of that this week, we need to take a look back at some other big events in golf from this past week as the PGA TOUR split time between Harbour Town, S.C. at RBC Heritage and the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic. This week's Trend Tracker also tracks down trends at the Korn Ferry Tour's Lecom Suncoast Classic in Florida, too! Let's get into it.

Small Course, Big Changes

With Harbour Town Golf Links being a much tighter course off the tee, there was once again more mini driver testing from several players. Not only that, but both Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood (who finished 7th) put new Spider Putters into play.

Speaking of mini drivers, thanks to the fine folks at TaylorMade for sharing some great bag pics, we got to see that Carl Vilips put one of the new R7 mini drivers into play. The funny thing is, I’m not sure the nostalgia of the R7 has any effect on Carl since he was just 3 years old (now I know I’m getting older) when the first R7 quad was released.

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More Minis

Also speaking of mini drivers, it looks like Titleist has one more thing up their sleeve after recently launching the GT280...the GT280+. It just showed up on the USGA conforming list and was first spotted in the wild by the folks at GolfWRX in a "What's in the Bag" gallery for Cameron Young.

Although I haven't seen it in person or received official word from Titleist, I did some research and analysis based on the USGA pictures and came to some conclusions about what it's likely all about.

This 280+ in makes sense and also doesn't, let me explain.

It makes sense because it creates another option for tour players and is designed (at least size wise) as a direct competitor to other 300cc products. Also, perception matters and what company wants one of their players using a competitive product when they believe they can offer a better one.

On the other hand, it makes less sense because it's the same size as many others mini driver clubs out there. I realize this is a lot of conversation about one club head that may never make it to the retail market but for Titleist, the idea of "tour only" products has always been kept to an extreme minimum, where as others like Callaway, Cobra, and TaylorMade have a much deep history of creating such products to fit player needs. Either way, we see something, we say something because that's my job and I can't help but be a club nerd.

JT Breaks Big Time Slump

Now I should mention that Justin Thomas did actually win the RBC Heritage in a playoff over Andrew Novak by sinking a long birdie putter on the first playoff hole to seal the deal.

This certainly wasn't JT’s first win on tour but it was his first win as a dad - cue the sweeping takes on new perspective from parents around the globe. (For anyone new here, that's not a shot at JT by any means—it's a retaliatory joke about all the commentators over the years making endless references to kids and perspective on one's golf game).

(I've beet trying to shoehorn this graphic into an article for a couple weeks now, and finally got my chance)

Justin Thomas' RBC Gear Notes

Driver: Titleist GT2 3-Wood: Titleist TS3 15.0 5-Wood: 915Fd 18.0 Irons: T200 (4-iron), T100 (5-iron), 621.JT (6-9 iron) Wedges: Titleisty Vokey SM10 46.10 F-Grind, 52.12 F-Grind, 56.14 F-grind, 60.04 T-Grind Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom 5 tour prototype Ball: Titleist ProV1x

A couple more things.

In his driver Justin was using a new Mitsubishi Didmana BB prototype, and this win marks the first time "traditional shoe guy" JT has won using FootJoy's new HyperFlex, making for a happy coincidence since FJ has been talking a lot about this new model.

Now to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, where Garrick Higgo had a day to remember, and Joel Dahmen had a day to forget when he bogeyed the last three holes to fall from the lead into a large group tied for second.

Garrick is a gear free agent this year and started the season with limited status on tour, but a win is a win, and here’s a little look into his golf bag:

Garrick Higgo Corales Puntacana Gear Notes

Driver: Titleist GT2 3-Wood: TaylorMade Qi10 Tour Hybrid: Titleist TSR2 (21) Irons: Titleist T100 (4-P) Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 52.12 F-Grind, 56.10 S-grind, 60.04 T-Grind Putter: LAB OZ.1 Mallet Ball: Titleist ProV1

The Netflix Bump: Neal Shipley Wins

Neal Shipley had a big week on the Korn Ferry Tour to secure his first professional win. Ping’s VP of Fitting and Performance, Marty Jertson, aptly pointed out Shipley's unique setup that we can't just glaze over. Shipley, and his self-proclaimed "Body by Waffle House," has iron set includes 5 different iron models, if you’re willing to call the crossover utility and the S159 wedges part of an iron set. For the record, if one of the big-wig smart dudes at Ping (unofficial title) is willing to call them irons, I’ll agree with him.

Alright, let's get to Louisiana for the Zurich!