Tony Finau’s Playoff Putter Change in Memphis | Inside The Ropes: FedEx St. Jude Championship

From the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Andrew Tursky takes you behind the scenes for an exclusive look at the top equipment news this week on Tour. We check out Tony Finau’s new putter, his feedback on the Pro V1x Double Dot prototype ball, take a look at the Ping “Thriver” club, and much more.

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Welcome to the 2025 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind when in Memphis for the start of the 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs. Memphis is home to the iconic Bee Street. The Grizzlies, great barbecue, and the beautiful TPC Southwind Golf Course. The course recently underwent renovations to 18 of its green complexes, and word on site was they’re playing especially firm, fast, and difficult. This week, golfwx.com went inside the ropes to find out how players were preparing their gear for the start of the playoffs. First up in the equipment news, this week marked the official launch of Callaway’s new Opus SP wedges, which we’ve seen a bevy of tour players switch to in the last few months. Now, we’re finally getting some information on the mysterious prototypes. For that, we spoke to Callaway fitter Johnny Thompson to go in-depth on the new Opus SP wedges. Tell me about those SP wedges. Yeah. So yes, you have seen them in guys bags for probably Monica’s obviously, you know, tour players is sort of our proving ground for new product. That’s where we bring out, you know, new concepts, new prototypes for them to to test and give feedback. So when this week at the FedEx, we’ve launched them officially, but the guys have had them for a month or so as they’ve worked them in and and yeah, it’s been great. Like uh I think last week at Windom, we had like 34 SPS in play. So, we’ve had one of the quickest tour options we’ve ever had in a wedge series. U I think a lot of that has to go back to Opus. Like that was like our footprint where we really made a a big jump in our wedge design. U Dean Tel, all the the guys on the truck have spent a lot of time working very closely with some of our staff to develop the the the shape that they want um the grinds that they want. I mean Dean spent a ton of time with Chris Kirky. He played a big part in getting an opus where we needed it to be. And then now with SP is we found a new way to even add more spin into the 54 degrees and higher with the new spin pocket. So we were able to raise the CG and on the slower speed shots like you know inside 30 yards like you can see a noticeable difference where the balls are launching much lower and maxing out greenside spin. So I think one of the reasons why they were adopted so quickly out on tour was because of that aspect just around the greens adding that much more greenside spin. And again, we didn’t change the footprint of the uh the sand wedges and lop wedges are the same footprint as what Opus was because we we we had tour validation uh on that aspect. So, we just uh really ramped them up to spin and uh yeah, guys have been putting them in and loving them and playing well with them. What does that SP stand for? Spin pocket. Okay. Yeah. So, the spin pocket and uh depending on the lofts, you know, it’s it’s around 25 grams that we a weight that we saved that then we we put up in the flange and it hides great. Like at at a dress position, it looks the same as like what Opus did, but the uh the flange is thicker. When you look at the back of the wedge, you can definitely see where the the weight has been moved. And just raising that CG and keeping the ball in the face longer. We had a new groove package with the uh 17° pitch has helped a ton cuz you have to have aggressive grooves with a high CG. uh they kind of go hand in hand. So, it’s just keeping the ball in the face longer when the when compression’s not as much involved on a slower swing speed and um you know, grooves are ripping into the ball as the uh as it’s on the face for a little bit longer and it’s just producing like a really cool cool shots around the greens. What’s it like working with Kirk? I mean, he’s one of my favorite like even outside of golf, he’s one of my favorite people that I’ve ever met. I mean, I met Chris in 2010 on the Cornferry tour and um I’ve just always been a fan of him as a human. Um as a player, he’s unbelievable because he’s very articulate and he he he knows like as they say, he knows ball like he knows golf clubs and he uh he’s been great to work with. His caddy Michael is one of the best around. So they’re just their team in general is great to work with. Chris has amazing hands. Um he’s a very good chipper. He’s a very good pitcher and he’s a very good full wedge player. So, um, if you’re doing the right things on the wedge design, like he’s going to he’ll be a very happy man. And like I said, he his first week out last year with Opus, uh, he won his first week with the full bag of Opus. He was one of the first people to adopt him because again, he worked very, uh, close with, uh, Dean Tagel and R&D to to get these things right where they wanted to be. So, yeah, Chris is he’s the best. And we’re here in Memphis. Any changes this week? Has it been a busy week? Yeah, so Max Grazerman um, is somebody we’ve worked very hard with. Uh he he’ll be putting the 56 in the 60s, kicking out some competitors wedges, which is great. That’s kind of, you know, what we like to see. Um so he’ll have a new 56. Um gosh, the uh hold on, Dean. Dino, Max is 56. That’s a 56S. And then the 60 is an X grind, right? Correct. Yeah. So, yeah, Max is putting in the 56s and the uh 60 X grind, which is new. Uh we we had X Grind a couple years ago. We brought it back, so it’s at retail as well as out here on tour. And and Max found that he brought up this week, you know, new sand. They they redid some the greens and some parts of the course, but I guess the sand is really heavy, really soft, but then uh what he found with the X grind is it kind of acted like a W grind out of the bunkers because of all of that massive amounts of of bounce. But then with a narrower sole, he just felt like he could get into the ground and, you know, keep the ball on the face longer on the on the fuller shots. It’s not balancing as much from the sole width kicking in. So, yeah, that X grind is super versatile and Max has found that it’s it’s the best one for him. Uh, any other big changes we can go out there and check out? Uh, no, cuz we’ve kind of had most of the guys have been in the wedges, so there’s still a couple guys that are right there that are testing. We’re pretty close with a couple guys, so that’s kind of a to be continued project. But, um, no, we’ve we’ve had, you know, majority of our staff are in, you know, full sets of SPS this week. And, uh, a couple guys are still in an opus, maybe one specific loft. Um, but again, it’s it’s been a great start. We’ve, you know, been ironing for maybe a month and we’ve have, you know, predominant usage and it’s been quick and easy. Yeah, the quick adoption has been cool to see. Congratulations on a good launch and I’ll let you get back to it. All right, we’ll see you. While on the Callaway truck, we also checked out these awesome Odyssey FedEx Cup Playoff beard putter covers. Back out on the course, we looked at the Opus SP wedges in the bags of Chef Minu Lee. Thomas Dietri and ash batia. In other news, a mysterious new Titleless Prov1X double dot golf ball is making the rounds out on tour after Cam Young debuted the golf ball to win last week’s Windom Championship. to try and learn more. We caught up with titleless golf ball expert 40 Pitts to get his perspective. Uh yeah, what I can say about it is we did just introduce last week a new golf ball as part of our CPO program which is our customized performance option. Uh what they are is um uh tour play products where we do things a little bit outside the box to learn things whether it be something related to the the material or the construction of the golf ball or if it’s more performance attributes that we’re trying to evaluate. And and really the only way to fully evaluate it is for a player to play it in a tournament is to actually gain it. I mean, it’s nice to hit on a range and see numbers, but unless a player can actually play it, that’s when you’re really going to learn what the potential of a product like this may do. So, yeah, it’s a it’s another ball that we’ve again added in to our lineup and see where it takes us. How often do you see a guy switch a golf ball and win that week? Uh, in my career, it’s it’s rare. It has happened, but it’s uh it’s rare. I’ll just leave it at that. Have you done some more testing with other guys this week? Do you know anyone that may also switch to it? And again, we’ve identified a few guys who would be candidates for this. So, we’ve reached out to them, spoken to them. We have had a couple guys test them. Um, so we’ll see if they end up putting them in click. Awesome. Um, can you talk just quickly about the process of fitting someone into a new golf ball out on tour? Sure. Yeah, I mean it’s process is similar for any golfer really. It’s you want to evaluate it in the three phases of the game, what’s it do in the short game, what’s it do in the mid approach game, and then what’s it do in the long game. So, uh, where you start, you know, we generally like to start around the greens for those, you know, scoring shots. uh eventually move back, hit fuller irons, and then evaluate does that ball match up to the driver the player is using because the fitting part of it is really to the wedges and the irons with a golf ball. That’s where you make your determination and then once you’ve figured out which ball works best with those clubs, you then find the driver that matches up to that golf ball. So again, for the players, in the case of K Young, the ball was more plug and play. It just fit him better than his previous ball, and we didn’t need to make any adjustments to any of his clubs to make it work. So in a in a way that was a little easier. Sometimes you might have to change two or three clubs um to make it work everywhere. Is Cam fun to work with because of the speed? Cam’s great. Yeah, he’s he’s such a nice guy and he’s he’s knowledgeable. He’s into the numbers, but at the same time, he’s he’s got a great eye and uh yeah, he’s he’s he’s great to work with. Awesome. Thank you for the time, 40. We appreciate you as always. Absolutely. Tony Feno doesn’t make a lot of gear changes, but this week we spotted him testing out the double dot golf ball and testing out some different putters, too. Then we caught up with the man himself to hear more about the changes. We saw some putter testing out of you this week. We normally don’t see that. Yeah. Um, what’s the putter you’re switching to and how did that come about? That’s a great question. Uh, I I wish I could tell you exactly the model, but here it is. Still a PLD putter. I’ve been using a blade for five 5 years. Um, over 5 years straight, the same putter and just thought it was time for time for a change. So, I wanted to go look into a mallet and uh, you know, the Ping guys, KO Spencer, those guys helped me get into this one. Cool. Um, did you do some ball testing, too? Did you try the double dot? I did try the double dot. It’s incredible. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s going into play right away. Is it? You’re playing it this week? I am. Yeah. What did you notice that’s different about it? It had a little bit higher launch and lower spin for me. Okay. Which is uh a perfect combo, especially for me at the moment. I seem to over the last couple months was spinning my driver a little more than I would like. And I’ve made a shaft change about a month ago and that’s helped, but the spin numbers are still a little high. I switch to this ball and it’s a couple hundred RPMs lower. So, without changing equipment, that’s a great thing. What was the shaft change you made? That’s a good question. I I’m terrible with knowing equipment, bro. But, uh, I went from a Diamano shaft to Ventus. Okay. A Ventus black shaft. So, all right. We’ll check it out here in a second. Sounds good. All right. Thanks. Thanks. For further insight, we also went on to the Ping truck to speak with Ping putter rep Dylan Goodwin about Fen’s putter change. Uh Tony Feno has used the answer 2D for a very long time. Had multiple wins with that putter. Wanted a little bit of a change last week. Um went to an old putter that he’s had in the garage for probably four or five years ago. Um and then this week kind of came to us and said, “Hey, what what kind of mallet can I get into to try to mix things up?” So we brought about 10 different options out with different hoszles. He’s used something with a little bit of toe hang uh in the past and that’s kind of worked quite well for him. So, we brought some different options with different necks um and some different inserts and face options as well. So, he was using a putter last week that was quite soft and and and soft sounding. Um didn’t quite like that. He felt like he had a little bit of distance control issues just not being able to hear uh the impact experience. So, gave a couple firmer options for him this week. Um, and then where we ended was an Ali Blue onset. So, he kind of was experimenting with it and was like, what’s the benefit to this? And for us, we feel like we’re able to have an onset option with some towang. So, now it matches what his stroke type is. Um, so he’s able to have the alignment benefits of the onset now along with something that matches to his stroke. So, he rolled quite a few with it. Loved it. felt like the long line of this Ali Blue 4 that goes all the way to the face he felt like was really really easy to to line up and then all he had to do really was just trace the shaft down that line and he felt like he was making good good solid strokes. So, um making it simple for him with having some now added technology. So, this is the putter that he was working with. It is exactly. Yeah. Okay. Um it looked like you guys had a bunch of putters laid out with a bunch of different grip options and tow hang options. Like what was he looking at and what was he saying? Yeah. So again, we started looking at models first, kind of narrowing down just overall looks. Then we went to neck types to try and see how much towed down he likes, whatever matches with the stroke. And then from there we went to face options. Make sure that hey, we still got the speed control that we want and that’s priority. And then we went to grips. So he’s got massive hands, ginormous hands, so he has quite large grip. And so we gave gave him multiple options. And one we ended up was our PP62 cuz the one he had on there was an older older type um that we don’t quite make anymore. So PP62 is where we ended. It’s quite a large non-taper grip. Okay. And when was the last time that you worked with Fen on his putter? So, usually Fen is very happy with our model that that he’s been using. The answer 2D, I said he’s won multiple times. He’s got nice gold putters in our vault. Um, so he doesn’t mess a whole lot with the actual putter. Where we do work with Tony um is actually more on his loft and lie. So, he changes his setup quite often based on what him and his instructor is working on at the time or what he feels comfortable with. Sometimes he’ll just show up cross-handed and just be like, “Hey, I really like how this is set up.” Um and then from there we kind of make sure that we’re getting the proper roll at the end of the day. So whether it’s taking off some loft or adding loft depending on where his hands are at impact. Awesome. Thank you D. Thank you very much. Always. Then we stayed right there on the ping truck to talk to rep Kent Oats who told us about a Thor that they fit Mackenzie Hughes into this week. So we’re hearing rumors about a Thor out there. What is a Thriver? It’s something that we call we don’t have uh what the industry would call a mini driver, right? So, we don’t have that bigger 3-wood head for a secondary option off the TE. But what we do have is 12 degree max drivers uh that we cut to 43 and 1/2 in, just a/ inch longer. And honestly, the half inch longer is simply uh for books. You cut a you cut a shaft down that short on a head that big and it gets fillers just feel like it’s real short. So, do a/ inch longer than your three-wood. And Mackenzie Hughes uh this week was looking for something like that. He’s like, I don’t ever hit my 3 through 3 around TPC Southwind and I’m frustrated that I’m not using a have another secondary club off the TE. So, we did a 12°ree max driver. Finishes at 13° in the dot setting at 43 and 12 in and no adjustments needed. Spun right around 3,400 every time you hit it. It flew about 280. Exactly what it was for. Okay. Well done. Yeah, exactly. You seen anything else this week? Any changes? Uh any adjustments that you made? Cory Connors might put in a blueprint T5 iron. uh just to actually funny for him increase his gapping. His blueprint S5 iron was spinning a little too much getting too close to his blueprint T6 iron. So his gapping wasn’t as clean as he wanted. So he’s been testing a blueprint T5 iron that might make the bag. Um I think that gap got a little more exposed when he put in his IDI4 iron. Um that Idi4 obviously higher launch. Um still good spin, little more ball speed. So that pushes that gap a little farther. So he’s starting to notice his five iron not going far enough. So that might make the bag. Uh you did the fen now stuff with Dylan on the putter which is pretty cool. Um and then uh Windham Clark not Stafford but he might put in a uh he’s been playing our 3-wood. He might put in our our forward this week. Just similar just a better option for his distance off the te this week is what it sounds like. So and last question. What have guys been saying about the Greens this week? Uh that they are definitely firmer than they’ve played in the past but surprisingly soft. Some players thought surprisingly soft for only being whatever they are old 12 months or whatever we are on. I’m not sure when they actually did them, but um guys definitely firmer than they have been, but a little bit surprisingly soft for how new they they are in Bermuda obviously. Okay. Can we expect the bucket hat next week or Yes. Okay. Bucket hat through Atlanta. Napa. Napa. We might go back to the the normal way. Awesome. Appreciate you as always, Kyle. See you. Of course, we had to get a look at the Thrive for ourselves out on the range. In tailor made news, we saw a few different alignment line offerings on their ZT putters. Yo, yo. and a new Logan Olsen 1.5 model. And then we got an in-hand look at Colin Morawa’s new mil grind five wedges including a 50° and a 56°. All right. Then during the Wednesday ProAm, we got a glimpse into NBA legend Penny Hardway’s awesome club setup. and his custom betard putter. We also took a look at Justin Rose’s ever evolving iron setup. Chris Gotup’s bag. Ricky Fowler’s fresh cobra wedge. and Mazuno’s new tour truck. Look out in the future for a tour inside the truck. Taking a quick food break, we had to dig into some Memphis style barbecue for ourselves, brought to you by Rendezvous. Craig, what do we got here? Rendevous Barbecue. Best out of a couple of Throw one more on there. We got Appreciate it. Thank you. We always appreciate all. After washing our hands, we then checked out this new Seymour Tour prototype putter. What do you do? Superstroke’s new 100-year Lampkin grips. And last, but certainly not least, we got some great in-hand footage of Taylor Pendr’s new Shrixon mini driver and Hideki’s version equipped with his preferred orange graphite design to a D shaft. In your opinion, which company is making the best mini driver on the market these days? Leave your answer down in the comments below. And with that, unfortunately, we say goodbye to the 2025 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis. We’ll see you next time on golfwx.com’s video series, Inside the Ropes.