Photos from the 2023 John Deere Classic

Published

8 months ago

Jul 5, 2023

GolfWRX got on its tractor and motored over to the John Deere Classic this week.

We have 19 WITBs for your viewing this week — including Grayson Murray and Jim Herman — as well as four general galleries from the grounds at TPC Deere Run.

In our pull-out galleries, we have looks at new Callaway Apex MB irons and Bettinardi’s G.I. Joe collab that you’ll want to check out.

See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

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A mysterious prototype 3-wood and 10 interesting gear photos from the Tour

Published

3 days ago

Feb 21, 2024

Andrew Tursky

If you’re a fan of golf equipment, then last week at the 2024 Genesis Invitational must have felt like the Super Bowl.

Aside from Tiger Woods and TaylorMade teaming up to create a new brand called Sun Day Red, GolfWRX.com also got full WITB photo coverage from top players such as Woods, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Sepp Straka, Denny McCarthy and Si Woo Kim among others.

It was a huge week for equipment photos, so let’s waste no time getting to the recap below. If you want to check out all of our photo galleries from the 2024 Genesis Invitational, don’t forget to head over to our GolfWRX Forums.

Now, let’s get to the gear.

Hovi’s flatstick is growing up so fast

Now over four years old, Hovland’s Ping PLD “Hovi” putter is starting to show some signs of aging, which makes it that much cooler, in my opinion. As a reminder, Hovi’s custom PLD putter later became the inspiration for Ping’s DS72 head model, and Ping has even sold limited-edition versions of the “Hovi” putter.

To keep his longtime putter safe and secure, Hovland uses a “Hovi” putter cover, with a Viking graphic on top.

See Hovland’s full 2024 WITB here

Matt Fitzpatrick’s mysterious prototype fairway wood, and new Blueprint S irons

At the end of 2023, Matt Fitzpatrick was still using Ping S55 irons, which were first released to the public back in 2013.

I was starting to wonder if he’d ever change them out.

Well, last week at the 2024 Genesis Invitational, we noticed that Fitz is now using a set of new Ping Blueprint S irons (5-PW), to go along with a Ping i210 4-iron.

Pour one out for the S55’s.

That wasn’t the only noteworthy gear news in Fitzpatrick’s bag, though. We also noticed he had a unique prototype 3-wood in the bag, which appears to have no branding or identifying logos.

After further review, however, the sole weight designs and placement seemingly verify that he’s using a Cobra Darkspeed X prototype.

Here’s a photo of a retail Cobra Darkspeed X fairway wood for comparison:

What do you think? Is Fitzpatrick’s new proto fairway wood a Cobra Darkspeed? Or something else?

See what GolfWRX members are saying in the forums

Straka stays strong with the Tuttle

We looked at every club in Straka’s bag last week, and he’s using a set of TaylorMade Qi10 metalwoods, to go along with Srixon irons and Cleveland wedges.

He’s also still going strong with his longtime Odyssey Stroke Lab Tuttle design, which has 3 lines on its bubbly crown for better alignment. With all of the modern-day mallet options on the market, it’s cool to see that Straka is sticking with what works.

Sepp Straka’s full 2024 WITB

Tiger still loves his M3

On Wednesday before the event, Woods confirmed that he’d be switching into a new TaylorMade Qi10 Tour 3-wood, and he also revealed why he still has the old M3 5-wood in play:

“Well, the [new TaylorMade Qi10 Tour] 3-wood is in play. I feel very comfortable with the 3-wood. I had to find the right shaft for it and decided to switch the shafts and go with what I have on my driver. My 5-wood’s different, it’s old, a little beat up, but it still works. But the 3-wood, I wanted to find something I could draw a little bit better and this one is definitely that.”

Rors Proto irons

McIlroy appears to be locked into his WITB setup for 2024, including new TaylorMade Qi10 metalwoods, a mixed set of TaylorMade P-760 and Rors Proto MB irons, MG4 wedges, a Spider Tour X putter, and a new TaylorMade TP5x golf ball.

By all accounts, his Rors Proto irons have to be some of the most famous irons in golf at the moment, and they’ve got the bag chatter to prove they’ve stood the test of time. It’s always a pleasure getting an up-close look at the Rors Protos.

Tommy 2 Drivers

Speaking to the gearheads, if Tommy Fleetwood wasn’t already on your list of top-5 favorite PGA Tour players, then maybe this will help you reconsider: Fleetwood is currently using a TaylorMade Qi10 LS driver (9 degrees), and a TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver (13.5 degrees), and both are equipped with Fujikura Ventus TR 6X shafts.

Tommy Fleetwood’s full 2024 WITB

New shafts spottedAt the 2024 Genesis Invitational, we spotted new Fujikura Ventus Blue shafts, as well as Aretara shafts, which is a new company started by Alex Dee, formerly of Fujikura. Click on the respective links to learn more about each new release.

A special putter for a special exemption

Chase Johnson, one of the recipients of a sponsors exemption at the Genesis Invitational, made the cut using an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Mini with white-red-white alignment lines and a knuckle neck construction, to go along with a Cobra Darkspeed Max driver.

Johnson is certifiably equipped with ultra forgiveness, and it helped him make the cut last week.

See Johnson’s full 2024 WITB here

The view for one of golf’s best putters

Denny McCarthy finished first in Strokes Gained: Putting in 2018-2019, first in 2019-2020, and second in 2021-2022, and he still uses this Scotty Cameron Tour-Only GoLo mallet putter currently. This photo shows what he looks down at while he’s making basically every putt he sees.

See McCarthy’s full 2024 WITB here

Are new Toulon putters on the way?

On Tuesday at the 2024 Genesis Invitational, we spotted a slew of new models from Toulon. The putter pictured above, called “Alcatraz,” bears a strong resemblance to Odyssey’s “Jailbird” putters, in both looks and nomenclature.

Is something bigger on the way from Toulon? We’ll keep an eye out for testers and switchers on the PGA Tour next week at the 2024 Cognizant Classic at PGA National.

And, with that, we say goodbye to the 2024 Genesis Invitational, and the 2024 West Coast Swing. We’ll see you next week on the other coast!

Browse all of our photos from the 2024 Genesis Invitational here

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Equipment

Heavy Artillery: A look at driver/shaft combos at the Genesis Invitational

Published

1 week ago

Feb 15, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

What are the driver and shaft combinations of the best golfers in the world? For gearheads, it’s an endlessly interesting question — even if we can only ever aspire to play LS heads and 7 TX shafts.

At this week’s Genesis Invitational, GolfWRX got in-hand looks at the driver setups of plenty of pros. Who’s playing something new? Something old? Something different?

Check out some of the most interesting combos below, then head to the GolfWRX forums for the rest, as well as the rest of our galleries from Riv!

Tiger Woods

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (10.5 degrees @9.75)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 6 X

Rory McIlroy

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @7.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

Viktor Hovland

Driver: Ping G425 LST (9 degrees @8.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 TR TX

Matt Fitzpatrick

Driver: Titleist TSi3 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Orange 65 TX

Tommy Fleetwood

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

Wyndham Clark

Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees @10.5)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 60 6.5 TX

Sepp Straka

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees @10.5)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Kai’li White 60 TX

Si Woo Kim

Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (9 degrees @8)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

Chase Johnson

Driver: Cobra Darkspeed Max (9 degrees @10)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Lin-Q Blue M40X 7F5 (45.25 inches)

Check out all our photos from the Genesis Invitational here.

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2024 Genesis Invitational

Published

2 weeks ago

Feb 13, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site this week at famed Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California for the Genesis Invitational.

Tournament host Tiger Woods makes his 2024 debut — and speaking of debuts, GolfWRX already got a look at Woods’ new Sun Day Red apparel.

Beyond the 15-time major champion, there’s plenty to see in our photos this week from this Signature Event. Check out all our shots from Riv below, and see what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.