MARCO PENGE: What’s In The Bag? 2025 Season

During a recent episode of the @KickPointGolf show podcast, Joe Ferguson caught up with two-time DP World Tour winner and Ryder Cup hopeful Marco Penge about the clubs he uses to such devastating effect on the DP World Tour.

► Video and bag contents accurate at the time of filming, which was the Tuesday of the 2025 British Masters at the Belfry.

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📹 These Are The 5 Most Underrated Clubs Of 2025 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kho–yiVIEg
📹 We Test Callaway’s Top Secret New Ball 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2UAoFpju8c

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a special treat. We got last week’s winner with us. We’ve got Marco Pens. You look like a very happy man. Am I right? You are indeed. Um yeah, over the moon on cloud n really. What a week for you. Sort of life-changing stuff. We’ve got a few juniors here. So, apologies for any noise coming in here. We got a little bit got a little bit of moving parts. We’re going to delve into your bag and see what propelled you to victory and what’s been helping you play so well. So, Mizuno staff player, right? How long you been with Mizuno? Uh I think this is my fourth year now. So yeah, built a really nice relationship with them and you know they’ve been great since day one really. Do you know I mean I’m going to chat to them about this separately but as a very high speed player so you’re the sort of the top 1% of the 1% right. Is it difficult for them and there’s stuff they have to do differently for your equipment than some of the other players who don’t have quite the speed? I think so. Um you know my my loss in my irons are pretty strong. Um the shafts are kind of hard steps kind of a lot of tweaking around. It’s quite fine margins to get it right. So yeah, all credit to them for my success really. Are you someone who takes a lot of interest in the equipment side? Are you a bit of a gear guy or you kind of let them get on with it and you just play what you’re told? Kind of let them get on with it. I obviously have my feelings and pretty self-aware of when something’s not quite right. Um but you know, they’re the professionals at that so I kind of stay out of the way and leave it. Good decision. Seems to be working well. So we’re in an older driver. in the STX. Now, this um the 230 STX, this had like a a slight draw bias to it. Um was sort of designed to help shape the ball a little bit. What’s your thought? How did you end up here out of all the drivers we’ve tested? I think it is just that’s the first driver I had uh with Mazuno and um it’s just been great since I’ve had it really. Uh predominantly I, you know, I shape the ball predominantly left to right off the tea. Slowly trying to draw the ball more. Um, but again, that’s another place it’s really tough for me with the speed. Um, you know, trying to with my speed, keeping the spin down with a fade is quite key cuz I hit that shot a lot, but then when I’ve got that in a good place, it’s then hard to turn the ball right to left. So, it’s just finding the balance really. So, um, is that why if you’re predominantly left to right off the tea and that seems to be your stock shot, is that why we’ve introduced mini driver further down? Is that something you can turn a little bit easier? Something I can turn right to left, eat with ease. Yeah. you know, I can move I I can barely hit a cut with that many drivers. It’s uh you know, a kind of stock shot moves 10 15 yards right to left, whereas a stock shot with driver moves 10 15 yards left to right. So, got a nice little balance there between the two and um you know, at times I’d like to be able to draw it with driver, but you know, you can’t whisk for too much. Can’t have everything, can you? Um so, shaft wise, we’re in quite meaty shafts. We’re invent it black T. Yeah, it is black TR 7X are quite heavy. So again, matching up with your speeds. I guess you need stability here. Do you know stuff? Would you take an interest in kind of how much they’re tipped, things like that? Do you know that kind of stuff? Kind of leave it to the guys. Yeah, leave it to the guys. But just something very, very strong. Grip wise here in a golf pride. Tall velvet couple of layers. Round two layers of tape. Is that the same throughout? The set? Same throughout. Yeah. Always been the same. I used to be the multic compound up until last year. Then my hands were my hands were getting torn apart. I think it was multicompound. The golf bit. Yeah. So just a bit rough. So I’ve gone to these just as it’s a bit easier on the hands when you’re practicing a lot. Right. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So down into mini drive. Now this area of your bag I’ve sort of looking at a bit earlier in the year and seems to be this the one bit that sort of does chop and change a bit. You might have mini and I saw you with a more standard three at one point. I saw you at one tournament with just driver one iron, two irons and no fairway woods at all. What how does that sort of process formulate of you know what you’re going to put in the bag? Does that change week to week or do you feel like you’re in a settled place now? I’m in a settle place now. The reason why it used to chop and change a lot is cuz I’m I’m no good with a freewood to be honest. Um I’ve never had kind of confidence in hitting a freewood off the tea. So I’ve been so confident with my two iron and my driver. It’s kind of been a bit of a hole in my bag in a way. And you know I did a bit of experimenting with the mini driver and it’s been awesome since I’ve had it. So yeah, it’s filled a really nice gap in the bag. Um you know, it’s in there to draw basically. Um, do you hit it off the deck much or is it more of a Yeah, it’s you’re pretty versatile in that way. You can hit different flights with it. The spin rate is really consistent. Um, but like I said, it mainly in the bag to move the ball right to left when I need to. So, I like to hit driver a lot. Um, so yeah, it only really comes out if a hole doesn’t suit driver really. We were discussing tactics for this week off camera, weren’t we? The word full send was used a couple of times, so we could be there. Um same shaft um as in profile as in driver just going up in weight into the 8x vented black TR. So again really stable product nothing on the loft sleeve just playing standard loft at 13.5. Cool. Then we go into this two on I saw a couple of ludicrous shots last week in Denmark with this driving par fours with two irons over trees. How long has this been in and what you love about it? So we’ve got the fly high in the black finish hybrid shaft 10TX Ventus black. It’s um yeah, I mean before I was any good I’d say it was I couldn’t really hit the key the ball on the planet in the past. So this was like a big replacement for driver when driver wasn’t behaving uh in my earlier days. Now it’s yeah, you know, I still use it when drivers misbehaving, but it’s very again can hit different flights with it. Um I would never go away from having a tour in my bag. is kind of quite a big asset of mine and it’s all 173 ball speed off one of those I said to my caddy after I hit it I said that’s all I’ve got and then to see it after on video is pretty cool. Um it was actually quite cool scrolling down the comments of people that was a joke. Say some people were saying it’s can’t be 175 blah blah blah but it was so I was watching I know it is. I’m absolutely certain it is. Um so yeah. So moving then into the irons. I think you’ve got the best looking set of irons in the game today. You got the Pro S3s um from Mazuna. You got a nice little bit of custom stamping on the toe. And you said shaft wise we’re so we’re in the KBS V10 130 hard steps as well, right? Yeah. Just purely to cope your speed. Keep the spin down. Yeah, spin’s always been a big issue for me. Um I used to be I actually, funny enough, last week I tweaked my loss two degrees weaker before the week. Um so you’re saying they were generally they’ve generally been pretty strong. Four degrees strong. You’ve gone weaker, but you’re still strong to standard, if you like. Yeah, still strong to standard, but yeah, it was quite a bold decision last week to weaken them. Um, but I was seeing things in there that, you know, I was struggling to kind of hit a nice high tower and long iron. Um, in the short of, you know, pitching nine iron was tough to take distance out of it. So had a little experiment really last week for kind of next year playing in America was I’m trying to get ready for that really and keep the ball higher into the firmer green. So yeah, when you’ve gone as much as like three four degrees strong, do you notice any difference in a the offset because obviously when you’re taking off off you put tend to put more offset on b they you can take bounce off as well. Did you notice any difference in turf interaction or have they kind of I was I used to use the the blades. Um that’s the reason I went to these was because of the turf interaction. I was I was losing the bounce especially with the stronger stronger setup. Um apparently my irons are pretty offset already. I don’t really have a that’s kind of what I see as standard. Uh so I don’t notice anything too. You get used to what you see, don’t you? You’ve been playing stronger and they’ve been nudged more offet. You get used to Yeah, these have been awesome. Um the boys last week obviously did a great job uh leading into the week and really well. Who does that come from then when you go you just decided to weaken them up? Is it you decided you just saw some stuff and you took them on the track or they do they monitor that with you? I think it could be a mix of both but last week was more me saying to Joe at Mizuno that I said to him look I want to do some experimenting with making my loss weaker. Um you know I’ve improved so much this year in terms of shots that I’m able to hit now. I can grip down it. I can take speed out of it. So I don’t have to fight spin as much as I used to. Before everything used to be a bit flat out and just wasn’t quite as good. So I said to him, look, if we could um I want to help I want help from the irons to get the ball in the air. I can hit I can take flight out of it if I want to. Uh so yeah, we just made the gapping in the bag a lot more consistent really. Kind of 3 4 degrees throughout rather than three in some areas and five six degree gap in another area. certainly seemed to pay off last week. Then into wedges. So we go into Voki’s SM10s. We’ve got 50, 56, and 60. So we’re in a fairly standard full sold F grind in the 50. We’ve got the M grind 08 and 56 and the K star grind, which we’ve seen a lot of. It looks like it’s had a bit of extra work as well. What do you like to see in your wedges? And are you someone who kind of chops and changes wedges depending on course and Yeah, I change the 60 a lot. I use the Kar and the A+ I think it’s called. I saw you tossing the A+ out before we came over. I’ve had the back worn off a lot out of them both cuz I play everything pretty open. I’m not one that plays chips st like square face. So I like to open the face up. Just find when the ground gets too firm, I kind of get like a fat it but not from a leading edge, more from the back of the bounce. So we’ve had that worn off. Um yeah, and it’s been uh been a big big improvement in my game. When at what stage do you make the decision? So obviously we’re on the practice ground here with a couple of lob wedges in the bag. You presume you’re going out to play in a little while. Is it you’re going to take them both out and hit a few shots around the greens with each and then or do you kind of having played a few of these courses before? You kind of I guess you’ve got an idea of what might be in Yeah. Excuse me. I have a pretty rough idea uh from the off really. It’s not so much in the pitching. It’s all about round the green for me. So um like I said, I play a lot of my wedge shot my chip shots open face. It’s a 56 I kind of turn into a 5860 anyway. Um, but as soon as I hit one or two chips, I kind of know whether I need something grinding down or whether I need the other kind of option. And that’s more turf for you than sand or do you do you factor that in as well? More turf, but sand does come into it, but it depends again, you know, how often do I think I’m going to be in a bunker around the greens? You know, how often am I going to be hitting off tight fairway? Is it mainly rough? So, it’s kind of weighing up the options of what the priority is and shaft wise in the wedges. So, we we’ve got 7 got 7.0 Project X in a lob wedge. So, a lot of people tend to go softer down the bag when they’re taking speed off. Is that just a weight thing for you or Yeah, I think so. You know, again, I leave the lads to it. Um, that’s a wedge shaft in that one. Uh, the 50’s got my iron shaft in. So, the 50’s got iron shafting. The 56 has got a wedge version of the project X 7.0 still in terms of flex and the 60s just got a stock project 7.0. I mean, like I said, I I don’t know enough about it or it’s kind of like, you know, my clubs would be the last thing to blame in a way. So, it’s kind of unless I’m seeing something really strange, it’s uh majority of the time it’s me. So, but yeah, like I said, the bounce on the wedges are are the main thing in that area of the game. The irons for me is um you know the leading edge again interaction with the turf loss spin rates being consistent. Uh I’ll probably do a bit of that today with the lads. Was a little bit unsure on last week whether I took too much loft out of it. Okay. Or added too much loft. Sorry. Um I just need them to clarify that for me. Cool. Interesting. And finally on to putter. So I’ve seen you dabbling. This is I love this one. This is bit to source. Yeah. I saw you you’ve been in some blade more blade style putters. You switched over to a mallet style putter. So, we’ve got the Scotty Cameron Circle T5.2, one little alignment line on the leading edge. What do you love about this other than it keeps going in right now? Yeah. No, I love the top line. Really, the top line’s big one for me. Um, you know, I was loving the blade. I was using the super app, which is pretty cool. You know, nice good looking bit of kit and uh probably great with the super app, but it had had a line on the back and then a dot on top, whereas this has got the line on the top, so it sits flush with my line on the ball. So that’s the main reason why I’m using that over the blade at the moment, but I’m one that can chop and change with my putter more from a comfort standpoint. And ball-wise, as someone who spins the ball an awful lot, do you try and control that with ball as well? Again, you know, last year stronger irons, stronger loss, was using the left, everything was towards low launch, low spin. Made some technical changes with my coach this year, able to hit more variety of shots. kind of seeing myself go back, you know, now I’m in the 25V, which is similar to the left dock, but not as not as low launching. And then obviously again with the irons making them weaker, everything at the minute is kind of going towards spin. Yeah. So, I think that’s a good sign for me that I’m doing the right things. Um, but predominantly as a as a high speed player, spin is is the issue majority of the time. Um, it’s just trying to find that balance. Just for me, you said something earlier about back when I wasn’t very good. Yeah. And I’ve improved. Like what does I just want to know for me here, what what does that look like? And you said you’ve just made some technical changes. Um so presumably some swing mechanics stuff. Then you said you’re um you’re better at hitting partial shots now. Is it just like the whole package? Did you How did that come about? Did you sort of assess yourself and go, “This isn’t it. Here’s where I need to go.” Yeah. Uh you know, after I had a break, I I sat down with my short game coach who’s now teaching me through everything, Alex. But now um I said to him, you mentioned Alex on the pod a couple of times. Great short game coach. Yeah, he’s awesome. Uh I said, you know, I felt like before this year I was only kind of at 25% of my potential and something that was really bugging me. Um you know, I knew I know I can hit grip down shots. I know I can hit knockdown shots, but I couldn’t do it consistently under pressure. And that’s something that I wanted to that I wasn’t going to accept for this year. And we put tons of work in trying to gain them 1%s and get get good at everything. Um, I don’t want to be known to be this guy that just hits it far. I want to be known as an all round player and that can win anywhere. So, that’s been the main goal to be honest. It’s been everything’s working towards that. Um, so yeah, just more control, moving the ball left to right, right to left, bring the spin down, being good with my numbers in, you know, inside 150. Uh, I use stats Edward Molinari for stats. every week sitting down going through them and yeah, it’s a just a massive work in prog work working environment to be honest. And we we spoke about um my stats before last week about how inside 150 I don’t hit it close enough. Okay. I my proximity is pretty good, but I don’t hit it close enough enough. Which I guess is pretty key for you because where you drive you’re going to be in inside that number. And then it’s the opposite outside of 180. I short side myself too much. So we were kind of game plan was kind of like doing the same misses with everything. It wasn’t like dis like going further away from the flag as we got further away. So last week we decided from 150 and in to go at the flags and then outside of 170 to just hit the green or the fat side of the green. That was our plan and we did that really well last week and u Yeah. Yeah. It’s just um all the work behind the scenes really is paying off and uh it’s really nice for my team to get that reward as well as me cuz uh without them I wouldn’t be where I am today. Mate, you’re becoming one of the most popular players on the tour. People love watching you. People love clipping up your bombs and seeing that. It’s been a great season so far. Hoping for a really big end to the season cuz there’s a couple of big events on the horizon maybe. That’s it. Market USA.