Welcome to “Wine Country,” but please, no complaining, because this week’s Tour Report is here to provide the latest equipment news from the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour’s Fall season kicks off this week at the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Golf Resort & Spa in Napa, California.
As always, GolfWRX.com was live on site to see what equipment is inside the bags of the world’s best, and figure out what changes they’re making…and why. This week, Justin Thomas made a few surprising club additions, Odyssey unveiled custom putter covers, SuperStroke gave us a sneak peek at its custom Ryder Cup grips, Wesley Bryan switched into irons from an obscure brand, and we saw what’s in the bag of the PGA Tour’s newest equipment free agent.
Let’s get right into this week’s equipment highlights from Napa.
Kevin Tway’s blank staff bag
Tway showed up at the 2023 Fortinet Championship this week with a blacked-out Vessel staff bag, rather than the Wilson bag he’d been using since signing with the company in 2020.
As of Tuesday, Tway packed his new bag with mostly Titleist equipment, including a TSR3 driver, U505 driving iron, T100 irons, Vokey SM9 wedges, and a Scotty Cameron T5 proto putter, to go along with a pair of TaylorMade Stealth 2 fairway woods.
The pool of free agents seems to be ever-growing on the PGA Tour as the new age equipment landscape takes form. Tway is the latest addition to the list.
Click here to see all the photos of Tway’s clubs in Napa
Wesley Bryan puts Takomo on the map
Unless you’re a super gearhead, you probably haven’t heard of Takomo, which is a direct-to-consumer iron/wedge manufacturer in Scandinavia.
On Tuesday, Bryan told GolfWRX.com that he discovered the irons on the Internet, and he tried them out during his time off between the Wyndham Championship last month, and the Fortinet Championship this week.
Here’s what he had to say about the irons (which sell for just $649 a set):
“I first tried them out during… I guess you could consider it a little bit of an offseason,” Bryan said. “I had a few weeks off after Wyndham and was dabbling around. I’m always looking for ways to get better, and figure out how I’m approaching this Fall season. But yeah, I’m trying them out. I’ve really enjoyed them. They look great and they feel great, and they at least warranted getting them in the bag this week.”
As of Tuesday, Bryan was still figuring out exactly how he’ll configure his mixed set of Takomo 301 CB and 301 MB irons, but either way, he’s giving the brand a run this week.
Read GolfWRX’s full story on Bryan’s irons here
Custom Ryder Cup grips
This week in Napa, SuperStroke unveiled its custom grip designs for both Team USA and Team Europe ahead of the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.
See more photos of the grips here
JT’s new long driver, and welded 4-iron
Justin Thomas, who’s getting his last competitive preparations in before the Ryder Cup, was spotted testing out a new driver shaft this week.
As it turns out, the Graphite Design VF-5X shaft actually measures nearly an inch longer than the Mitsubishi Diamana 60ZF shaft that he’s been using for the last four years.
While it’s simply an experimental backup option for now, Thomas said it’s helping him pick up 3-5 mph of ball speed per drive. This is a significant development, especially with the Match Play format of the Ryder Cup approaching.
Thomas also brought out a customized Titleist T100 4-iron, which was tweaked to have zero offset. He’s not a big fan of offset, as we all know by now, so his new 4-iron option fits more in line with the shaping of the rest of his set. We’ll see if he officially puts it in play this week.
Read WAY more about JT’s club experiments this week in Napa
Fore the wine lovers
The PGA Tour event held in wine country certainly deserves a custom wine-bottle inspired putter cover, and Odyssey delivered the goods. The company made custom blade and mallet covers for its staffers this week.
Ryder Cup wedge stampings
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Thomas and Max Homa – the only two Ryder Cup participants playing in the Fortinet Championship – are breaking in their patriotic wedge stampings this week. Aaron Dill simply never ceases to deliver on precision and artistry.
And, with that, we say goodbye to Napa, and to this week’s Tour Report. Don’t forget to pour up a glass of wine this week while you’re watching some golf (and browsing the photos below).
Click here to see ALL of our photos from this week at the 2023 Fortinet Championship in Napa
