Yes, it’s PGA Merchandise Show week, but it’s also Farmers Insurance Open week at Torrey Pines. And the field is sneaky stacked, with big names such as Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Jason Day… you get the point.
It’s a big field, for a big event, on a big golf course.
And the rough is big-time thick as this on-site reporter can verify.
But with a rain-out on Monday, and the event itself starting on a Wednesday, it didn’t make for the best club testing week. Plus it was a relatively cold-and-wet day for the Tuesday Pro-Am.
Still, though, there were some interesting equipment photos and stories to be had.
Here are 10 equipment highlights from the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open:
1) Not to worry, Berger still has the TaylorMade MC 2011 irons in the bag
Daniel Berger played in The American Express last week after a 19-month-long injury-induced hiatus from the PGA Tour, and he finished T39. Not a bad comeback at all. This week at the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open, we caught up with Berger to see what’s in his bag, and to make sure he still has the TaylorMade TP MC 2011 irons in there. Not to worry, the Modern Classic irons are still going strong.
He also has a pair of new TaylorMade Qi10 Tour fairway woods, including a 21-degree 6-wood.
See what else Berger has in the bag this week
2) Jason Day doesn’t miss with his 7-wood
These type of photos from the PGA Tour are always very humbling. Jason Day is starting to create a nice wear mark right in the center of the face on his TaylorMade Stealth 7-wood.
We also verified that Day is using Bridgestone’s new Mindset visual technology on his Bridgestone Tour B X golf ball, which he helped develop.
Learn more about Bridgestone’s new golf balls here, or click here to see Day’s full WITB setup at the Farmers
3) The #1 Putter on Tour
Most Odyssey staff bags say “#1 Putter in Golf,” but Maverick McNealy’s is a little different, because he was statistically the “#1 Putter on Tour” throughout the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season in terms of Strokes Gained: Putting stats.
4) Woodland’s new woods
Gary Woodland has Cobra’s new Darkspeed LS driver in the bag, which appears to be 7 degrees, at least based on the white sticker he has on the hosel. He’s also testing a Darkspeed fairway wood, too.
Woodland also has a custom paint job on his Scotty Cameron Phantom putter, which is quite reminiscent of the Jailbird putters that took professional golf by storm in 2023, thanks to his buddy Rickie Fowler.
I think we can all agree that, regardless of his equipment, it’s great to see Woodland back on Tour after having brain surgery last year to remove a tumor.
5) Hideki’s jaw-dropping (backup) putter
Hideki Matsuyama is the king of testing cool, new, custom Scotty Cameron putters, even though he mostly ends up using the same gamer putter that he’s used for years. This backup putter he was testing was especially noteworthy, however, due to the additional weights that are inside the face, and the beautifully simplistic stampings and putter finish.
While we likely won’t see this putter in competition, we must applaud the engineering and design.
Click to see Hideki Matsuyama’s full 2024 WITB
6) L.A. Golf’s metal-faced putters
It was a busy week in the world of L.A. Golf, as the company unveiled a slew of new products, including a Gold-Edition driver shaft, a single-bend putter shaft, a 120-gram putter shaft, and a few new putters, which are equipped with heavier, “exotic metal” face inserts, as pictured above.
See what GolfWRX members are saying about L.A. Golf’s new metallic face inserts
7) TaylorMade’s metal-faced putters
Speaking of metal-faced putters, we also spotted a TaylorMade Spider Tour X custom putter that’s made with a milled aluminum face, which has a decidedly firmer feel than the company’s typical Pure Roll inserts that are much softer.
See what GolfWRX members are saying here
8) Swag’s Channel 4 News headcovers
I’m Ron Burgundy?
Click to see more photos of the SWAG headcovers
9) Go Rutgers!
I try to stay as unbiased as possible when writing about golf equipment, but as a fellow former Rutgers Scarlet Knight golfer, I must say that Chris Gotterup’s custom Vokey wedge just might be the coolest wedge on the PGA Tour.
Check out Gotterup’s full WITB here
10) Ben Griffin’s white Mizuno driver
We first spotted Mizuno’s white-crowned STX 230 driver last week when Keith Mitchell tested it at The American Express, and this week, it’s likely that Ben Griffin is switching into the new Mizuno STX 230 prototype.
What do you think about white-crowned drivers making a comeback? GolfWRX members are weighing in here.
And, with that, we say goodbye to the beautiful cliffs at Torrey Pines. We’ll see you next week on the beautiful cliffs at Pebble Beach for more equipment photos and information!
Check out all of our photos from this week at the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open
