These have been among the high gear tales of 2024.
GOLF/Getty Photos/TaylorMade
As 2024 winds to an in depth, it’s time to look again on what was a quietly huge yr for golf gear. Simply in 2024, we had a significant championship throw six headcovers within the bag, a professional use two drivers on the Masters, the identical participant concerned within the two weirdest gear tales and a rival counsel a putter change to a different participant and that participant go on a tear in contrast to something we’ve seen since Tiger Woods. And there’s extra.
With that, maintain studying under for the 11 greatest gear tales of 2024.
Matt Fitzpatrick’s unusual regripping discovery
Some professionals are completely meticulous about their gear, realizing every specification right down to the gram. Matt Fitzpatrick, given his insane dedication to stat and document protecting, might often be thrown into that bucket, aside from earlier this yr, when he was scuffling with a left miss off the tee.
The difficulty? Fitzpatrick had examined small again weights within the butt finish of his grips in 2023 and had unintentionally left a 4g weight ultimately of the shaft of his Titleist TSR3 driver till simply earlier than this yr’s Gamers Championship. He solely found the difficulty when he went to have his driver regripped.
“I received it regripped at residence and the man that did it, he put a bit bit an excessive amount of tape on, so I took it to Titleist,” Fitzpatrick stated at TPC Sawgrass. “They regripped it for me they usually’re like, ‘Oh, you already know there’s a weight in there,’ and I nearly had a coronary heart assault.”
Tony two drivers
Using two drivers is nothing new on the Masters, however until your title is Phil Mickelson, folks will name you loopy for attempting it.
But, that’s precisely what Tony Finau did this yr at Augusta Nationwide after Ping reps helped him “supercharge” his gamer Ping G430 LST after which constructed him one other one three-quarters of an inch shorter and with extra loft. His plan was to make use of the shorter driver on holes like Nos. 2, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 18, pending course and wind situations.
Execs go for 10k
The largest innovation in drivers in 2024 was two OEMs, TaylorMade and Ping, eclipsing the ten,000 g/cm2 mixed second of inertia, or “10k” threshold with their “MAX” merchandise.
Max merchandise have been sometimes reserved for gamers on the slower finish of the velocity spectrum needing larger spin and launch situations, however with the introduction of “10k” forgiveness, professionals like Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda all dabbled with the brand new high-forgiving tech.
Maxfli returns
‘We have been all in shock’: Inside Lexi Thompson’s new endorsement deal
Lexi Thompson made waves in 2024, asserting her retirement from common competitors on the LPGA Tour, but additionally for signing an endorsement contract with Maxfli golf balls.
Maxfli has a storied historical past among the many higher echelons of professional golf, however is now owned by Dick’s Sporting Items and hadn’t sponsored an expert in years. The corporate inquired with Thompson’s agent, Brett Falkoff if she would take a look at their new Tour Collection golf ball when her earlier endorsement contract got here up and after initially declining, Falkoff stated, “We have been all in shock,” on the outcomes.
“I’ve been testing the ball for the final month or two, particularly within the wind,” Thompson stated in January. “Within the wind is a very powerful [for] ball testing, and I’ve seen nothing however a bit bit decrease spin, which is nice within the wind, and it does even higher within the crosswind. That’s super-important for me, and I’m trying ahead to taking part in it.”
Maxfli additionally made a return to the PGA Tour in touchdown Ben Griffin.
Ben An resurrects the 1-iron
Talking of bringing relicts of the previous again to the PGA Tour, Ben An received in Korea on the DP World Tour in late October with a head turning setup: A 1-iron as a substitute of 3-wood.
This isn’t your grandpa’s 1-iron, after all, because the Titleist U505 16-degree 1-iron An employs a hollow-bodied driving iron designed with weight positioned as little as attainable utilizing tungsten to provide the iron almost wood-like launch traits.
“I hit it excessive sufficient, I’ve sufficient velocity, I’ve sufficient spin charges,” An stated in a Titleist YouTube video earlier this yr, “so why not attempt to construct that iron that has actually low loft, so I can hit it straighter off the tee? As a result of that’s the entire function of utilizing the 3-wood.”
Fred {Couples} video games a 6-wood/hybrid setup
Fred {Couples} smashes golf stigma with new membership setup
Fred {Couples}, now 65, goes a very completely different route together with his bag setup as of late. The 1992 Masters champion beginning gaming a bag full of headcovers this yr, six (not counting the putter) together with a driver, two fairway woods and three hybrids. Meaning the longest iron in his bag is a 7-iron (for which his inventory yardage remains to be 170).
“Everybody retains speaking about ‘em,” he says of his newly configured setup in a video from September. Different golfers may be embarrassed. {Couples} merely shrugs off the stigma. “I’m like, so my longest iron is a 7. Who cares?”
Matt Fitzpatrick denied reduction for cracked driver
In his second look on this checklist, Fitzpatrick was on the middle of one other 2024 gear controversy, however this time via no fault of his personal.
In the course of the remaining spherical of the BMW Championship, Fitzpatrick found a crack within the face of his driver and when he offered it to a guidelines official, he was denied the power to substitute the membership as a result of it was decided the membership wasn’t “considerably broken” broken sufficient to get replaced. Due to Mannequin Native Rule G-9, a driver isn’t replaceable solely due to a crack on the face.
After the incident, the PGA Tour, along with the opposite governing our bodies, introduced an replace to Mannequin Native Rule G-9, updating the grounds for changing a membership to cracks within the membership head and membership face.
12 months of the mini driver
What’s a mini driver and the way can it assist your golf sport? We clarify
TaylorMade had been releasing a “mini driver,” a smaller clubhead with 11 or 13 levels of loft, yearly or so for the final decade, however this yr, they began having firm.
Together with TaylorMade’s BRNR Mini Copper, Callaway launched the Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini Driver to retail whereas Titleist put out a Tour-only TSR mini driver.
The enchantment is for gamers to switch their 3-woods with a membership that travels shorter than their driver, attainable to hit off the deck, however is simpler to hit off the tee than a 3-wood, and professionals have flocked to them.
Whereas TaylorMade and Callaway are the one OEMs with mini drivers available on the market now, all indicators level to extra firms dipping their toes in that market in 2025.
“Zero-Torque” turns into the newest placing craze
“Zero-torque” and “lie-angle balanced” putters are nothing new in golf, however their recognition elevated on the PGA Tour and lots of the main OEMs started popping out with their very own variations of “zero-torque” putters.
Manufacturers like PXG, Odyssey, Bettinardi and extra all launched putters promoting “zero” or “decreased” torque, which means the putter faces have an aversion to twisting through the stroke, resulting in a extra sq. face at impression. This all follows the development of upstart manufacturers like L.A.B. Golf and Axis1, which led the motion during the last couple years.
Bryson’s last-minute 3D-printed irons
Bryson DeChambeau’s particular irons nearly didn’t make it to the Masters
Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t want a lot convincing to strive one thing radical in his bag, and the prototype Avoda irons he debuted on the Masters will surely qualify.
DeChambeau had Avoda, a direct-to-consumer model primarily based in California, 3D-print the irons for him simply earlier than the Masters, and after the primary go ’spherical, the USGA deemed them non-conforming. However DeChambeau’s supervisor hand-buffed and floor the grooves himself simply in time for the golf equipment to be given the seal of approval for Augusta.
DeChambeau, after all, went on to grab the opening spherical lead on the Masters earlier than ending tied for sixth, earned a runner-up on the PGA Championship, then received the U.S. Open for his second main title.
Spider Scottie
This checklist wasn’t ranked, but when it was, Scottie Scheffler’s change to a Spider Tour X mallet simply earlier than the Arnold Palmer Invitational must be the gear story of 2024.
Whereas Scheffler had tried varied mallets throughout his placing woes of 2023, in early 2024, Rory McIlroy was requested his suggestion for the World No. 1 and McIlroy defined how a mallet putter had helped his personal sport.
To everybody else’s disappointment, Scheffler listened and gamed an off-the-rack TaylorMade Spider Tour X with a plumber’s neck on the Arnold Palmer Invitational and received by 5. He then received eight extra worldwide occasions in 2024, together with the Masters, Gamers Championship, Olympic Gold medal, Tour Championship and three different PGA Tour Signature occasions.
