On this week’s episode of Fully Equipped, GOLF’s Jonathan Wall and Ryan Barath are joined by Gene Parente of Golf Laboratories and True Spec Golf’s Kris McCormack to give a live report from Bay Hill, talk a potential massive change coming to equipment manufacturers on tour and take a closer look at Scottie Scheffler’s potential switch to a mallet putter.
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And welcome back to fully equipped Joel RB killer Jean crew boys how we doing another late night edition of fully equipped what could go wrong another late night after hours Adventure what I look forward to all week I’m Delirious I’m gonna I’m gonna for sure say some stuff tonight that’ll get get believed
Guaranteed well where you at this week jwall I I’m at uh I’m at arie’s place I’m at Bill and there was a lot going on today at Bill going to get to it also did an interview for the podcast that’s coming up it’s gonna be a fun one I don’t want
To say the names I always do I always blow it and then nobody listens so I’m gonna I’m gonna holster it but it was a good interview tour pro the may maybe a a tour player and someone else that might be related to them so we’ll we’ll tease
That you’re you’re already giving it away RB come on man what well what did you get you get Dustin Johnson and his brother is caddy I don’t know maybe you did I’m not Claire got got DJ and on the scoop who knows I’m not I’m not that
Cool I don’t have that kind of clout all right I think Jean’s the only one that could pull that down I’m not gonna lie no no no no no no no no no no that’s that’s that’s not my end of the pool I I’m I’m merely an obser
Well where are we starting tonight so last week was way more buttoned up we did if if you didn’t listen to last week’s episode please go back and listen I don’t implore people to go back and listen to an episode of this podcast unless it’s really good last week’s was
Really good got I don’t know about you guys but I received a ton of really positive feedback on our driver robotic insights episode 90 minutes it was it was awesome awesome yeah oh yeah by the way you can watch or listen so you don’t have to you don’t have to just do
Spotify or Apple iTunes or however you consume your podcast content go check out our YouTube cha uh YouTube page YouTube channel YouTube page whatever YouTube chage there we go I told you this is gonna be a really terrible episode it’s already going off the rails but go check out the fully equip golf
YouTube page we have last week’s episode up there and all the rest of the uh the most recent episodes of the podcast plus all the robotic inside videos that we shot with myself and RB Uncle Jean serial killer so go check those out as well where where do we want to start
This week boys this I’ll be honest I I got I know where I want to start oh no I’m gonna cut you right off there jwall oh no because you Tech you mentioned this to me you mention this to me earlier and like we could we could touch
On Scotty’s putter we’ll get to that in a second but I think this is a really interesting Trend because I’ve noticed this as well in my recent weeks on tour I’m sure Chris has noticed we going to get to this but yeah let’s let’s kick it off and having players in there but
The is you know like the death of the salesman like is they going to be the eventual death of the the on-site tour rep or the amount of tour reps that exist because you noticed a very interesting Trend this week and again like I said this is a through line
Through like a lot of this season I would think so far and that is a lot of players are coming prepared and they’re really not visiting the Vans anymore yeah this this is going to be a story and I’m just kind of waiting to see if
It just continues or or if this is an aberration but I think I think it is definitely a trend as Arby mentioned he and I have been out on tour the early part of this year and without fail for the last I can’t believe I’m saying this
For the last like decade Plus that I’ve been covering equipment on the PGA tour you can hang your hat on equipment changes occurring in January and February without fail except this year I don’t know what is going on but it is weird that I I don’t know if it’s the whole live
Situation without you know Bryson in his million you know million changes and DJ changing Putters every week but we it’s quiet and th this was the very first week where I spoke to three different reps independently at different times uh during the day and they all told me the
Same thing which was man it’s quiet out here there’s not a lot of changes going on and my ears perked up but the third guy you’ve got three guys telling you the same thing um something else that was interesting some of these reps are and it’s it’s more on like the component
Side so not like the major manufacturers but but we’re talking like the the shafts and grip kind of guys they’re not getting Intel with there are changes like there there were some changes that that went down last week at PJ National for the cognizant and I spoke to reps this week
Trying to get some Intel and they’re like man I found out the same time you did like I got a text from somebody like hey so and so made a change to the to the driver Shaft or put in or out of the new putter grip so there there’s a
Disconnect right now out on the PJ tour between the the Reps and some of the Reps and some of the the bigger oems and as RB mentioned yes they’re there are players that now seem to be doing a lot more of their testing at home and they’re doing it with their instructors
And reps are sometimes coming in town to do the testing one rep I’m I will not I will not name names because a lot of this is told um without me using names but one of them said that they could see see in the next like 5 to 10 years a
Similar situation to live now I don’t think it’s going to get to be that extreme out on live they have an equipment truck now they do have some reps from some of the big Brands out there now but you know they pretty much have like one big truck the tour van
That Services a lot of guys needs out on live I don’t know man that seems really extreme to have all the major oems not have trucks out there I don’t think it’s going to get to that point but I do think that we could see a point where
There maybe fewer reps out on tour and and that’s disappointing because there’s a lot there are a lot of great characters and and a lot of really good guys a lot of those reps are awesome but I don’t know this has this has been a weird year so far and we’re we’re just
In the beginning of March Chris do you think this is something see you’re CH in anyway you’re going to chime in anyways I’m going to set you up but like um do you find being in an area where there are a lot of like touring professionals and
You see a lot of them come through like trp Studios and stuff like that do you find that there’s there like there is a team around when they’re doing this that are that are outside of the oems whether it be like a coach or someone else involved or is it them doing the
Independent testing on the side and then kind of saying like this is what I’m going to bring to the event and then like they’re kind of set like how does that work because to me I feel like coaches are getting a lot more involved and we’ve seen this not to transition
Intentionally eventually but like we’ve seen this with like Scotty Sheffer and his putter like there’s seven people sitting around him when he’s trying different Putters and I’m like seems like a lot but you know what teach their own I mean honestly it really kind of depends on the player I mean I’ve
Seen a little bit of everything so I mean I’ve seen guys that come on their own that don’t want anybody else’s opinion except an unbiased fitter and their own eye and feel and then I’ve also seen guys that literally come in with an Entourage and all I’m doing
Is basically it turning a wrench and handing clubs and shafts to the player and I maybe say 10 words in a couple hour session and just kind of offer my two cents when I’m asked but I uh out of all the years of doing this I I know
When when my opinion is wanted and when it’s better to just uh be quiet and hand off a golf club to a coach or a team of coaches or just a player and wait for feedback so I mean I would I would have to agree that there is a trend happening as it’s
Been quiet for you guys witnessing tour CH or uh gear changes out on tour but and the amount of guys that I have had reach out and request to do some testing I I’m going down to our our Talking Stick facility the the day that this goes live and doing some testing
With another player that is a little curious about some gear but doesn’t necessarily want any exposure for doing that testing so I think the brand agnostic environment and the independent testing facilities and you know Fitters that are versed in a variety of different gear and Equipment options are probably going to be
More present I would say rather than just the independent tour reps that we’re accustomed to seeing because I mean guys are figuring out they have one solid week with the right equipment that fits them regardless of the manufacturer and they’re going yeah this uh this eclipses the entire paycheck I’m getting
From insert OEM staff deal so it’s uh it’s definitely shifting a little bit and I don’t think we’re going to see the demise of the tour rep but definitely the presence of you know hounding guys on the on the tline to to try this try this try this that’s probably going to
Take a back seat yeah yeah it it is interesting times um but the Reps still do have value out out on the PJ tour and and it was it was on display this week let’s start with Scotty sheffler why not we were going to bring him up
Anyway so I I showed up to the putting green this morning at Bay Hill Scotty’s bag was there there were some some tailor made folks Milling around and I saw him taking pictures of of the putter I look over at the putting at the putter cover it’s a black tailor made putter
Cover and you start you start putting like two and two together and it’s like okay well I guess I guess the the olssen experiment at least for the moment the olssen experiment is being put on hold and lo and behold there’s there’s your your spider spider T orx butter so
Um I posted pictures of it now I got to say it is pretty funny when I post stuff on social media and and this one took off pretty quickly mostly because of two things one Scotty is using a mallet and people get excited about that and two
Because Scotty has a beard again and everybody’s like ah Scotty’s gonna win by seven this week he’s got the beard back and he’s got a mallet Putter and everybody’s like finally a mallet putter I I don’t I mean maybe there are people out there that don’t follow gear as
Closely as we do but Scotty used a mallet putter less than a year ago he used was a tailor made spider tour Proto putter at the at the FedEx St Jude I mean it was it was a pretty big news because he had just been using
Camerons so this is not anything new now I think the reason why this is a bigger deal is because Rory maroy came out recently uh during his post round and he was asked by Amanda rener from CBS after Scotty had missed the little you know 10-footer and seemed
Pretty exasperated with it asked him like what you know you’ve struggled with the putter like what what do you do in a situation and Rory basically said you know I tell him to to use a mallet you know we’re all grateful that he’s not he’s not putting well right now because
It helps us out but yeah I’d suggest them out lo and behold he’s now using the exact same spider that Rory’s using so you know everybody thinks that Rory was the impetus behind the change I don’t think that’s it I think I think really Scotty’s just he’s still looking
And he just decided to give a spider another shot this week I I I just like to thank I know he maybe he’s out there listening maybe he’s not I don’t know but I just like to thank Scotty if you’re out there I’d like you to I’d like to say thank you
For taking my suggestion on trying a smaller putter grip um I’m sure I was I’m sure I was probably one of like the only person on the whole internet that probably mentioned that so I would like to take credit for that at this time um obviously that I’m being extremely
Factious but I am like so interested to see because Bay Hill is a tough golf course it is a Fairways and greens golf course there’s a lot of rough he’s one of he’s like literally one of the best drivers and ball Strikers in the game so
To see how this comes together this week with a new putter is going to be extremely interesting now I’m sure he’s gone through a bunch of different iterations of that putter with a different grip or a different grip on the same putter he had before I’m sure
There’s like again the decision tree is probably enormous and he had the opportunity to try all of them so the fact that he brought this to the tournament and this is the one that he’s got in the bag I’m just very curious to see the results altogether
Because I don’t I don’t really I don’t say that I would not I don’t I don’t cheer against players and I cheer against success and I cheer again like I cheer sorry I cheer for success I cheer for people to be exceptional at like a sport what regardless and if he gets
Rolling like I’m excited to watch that like it’d be very interesting to see what this does to like competition on the PJ tour and like know who else is going to step up different parts of their game to have to compete with Scotty who’s basically put everything else together except as
Putter yeah and you’ve got some big tournaments coming up which is exciting you’ve got the PLAYERS Championship next week arb’s going to be on site for that and then oh by the way less than a month later after the players you have the Masters so uh yeah I agree I think if if
Scotty could get the putter going that would be big some of the some of the changes RB mentioned one of um smaller putter grip he is in the Golf Pride Pro only green star it’s kind of more of the kind of like pistol shape and he also is going away from
With the Proto version he had a m face now he’s back into just more of your traditional like Surin aluminum pure roll insert and the other change that I noticed more of like the nerdy side of me I’m sure RB saw it as well Sero killer probably did too if you look at
Photos from August that we photographed of of Scotty’s original the original Proto you’ll notice that there were no the TSS weights that you can see towards the back of the head those TSS weights were not visible I don’t think that they were there because Scotty wanted that
Mallet to perform more like a blade so he wanted he wanted more face rotation he shifted a lot more of that weight towards the front of the putter with that mil face and from what I can see and you guys can tell me if you if you
Think that I’m off but I I see the TSS weights more towards kind of centrally but maybe a little bit more towards the back like the retail version and like I think this to me looks like he’s using a stock a stock spider TX so maybe he’s trying a like fullon
Mallet this time to see what happens instead of just trying to find a malth that performs like a blade there’s there’s definitely a change there and I’m that this is this is again like that decision tree of like pulling levers of like what what you’re
Going to try to go from the the blade to the previously like the Mallet that kind of performs like a blade which for players out there who are curious you can go find an fcg spider from like two years ago which has the copper face
Which is really cool go give that a shot they’re they’re really cheap online so if you’re really curious good thing to go check out um but just General like this this change as a whole is a lot going on so you know whether there is failure success what comes down to it at
The end of if you’re like going through like an experimentation process is what is your like what are the variables here and there’s a lot going on so it’s going to be interesting to kind of figure out and this is where shotlink doesn’t do a great job and I
Know that they’re trying to do a better job of this but like is there bias in his right or left Miss Right is he missing like overly long is he missing overly short and so when you look at statistics and his Strokes gain putting there’s one thing to say like yeah he
Hasn’t putted well but like where are his misses and are they uphill downhill s Hill like where are they breaking all of these different things and so I know I understand from what I’ve heard from from a lot of people like they are working on trying to better understand
All of these data points so they can really input them to help golfers even you know further break down all the these different elements but how this again just from a curiosity perspective I do think that you know John to your point yes I believe that it
Is just very very close to like a standard retail putter I’m sure Bucky Co shout out you know we just talked about t reps in the beginning of it sh Bucky had a lot to do with that putter that he’s got he’s a spider Master out there
On tour and I’m very curious to see how this ends up because I’m I want to see it like I’d love to see like a Rory Scotty duel coming down the stretch playing two of the well I mean 17 and 18 are two pretty difficult holes on the PJ
Tour they’re well known a lot of people know them and it’d be fun to watch that go down I mean that is just the the perfect case scenario there to watch those two guys on uh on Sunday coming down the stretch there would be a lot of people
Tuning in to see that I’m sure which I mean isn’t necessarily a bad thing I mean the the PJ tour has uh has been taken taking a little bit of heat lately with the leaderboards and who’s in the field and who’s not in the field so a a
Rory and Scotty Showdown on Sunday at Bay Hill that would be phenomenal they need it let’s yeah let’s let’s put the bets in in Vegas right now let’s do it now before we move on to the next topic Jonathan You’ kind of mentioned this and I think it’s
Important is like you know this week is Arnold Palmer next week is the players coming up we’ve obviously got a very important tournament uh in Augusta after that got the PGA but the one after that is the US open at Pinehurst little bit further down the road a little bit
Further down the road but you know you got to build some type of transition in here somewhere and for those who are inside golf members if you haven’t heard of inside golf it’s our membership program called inside golf where you get a ton of benefits like first off a dozen
STS on golf balls 20 bucks to spend at Fairway jockey and a subscription to Golf Magazine which also includes the all of the web website content and something I posted about before the backlog of golf.com issu or Golf Magazine issues which you can access to golf.com which are loaded with all kinds
Of if you’re into equipment you could go back and look at old Club test issues which are a lot of fun which you know for you golf Geeks out there I mean I delved into them for quite a while and just all kinds of instruction articles
And all kinds of stuff but anyways when you are a member of this you also get is something that’s really cool which we doing right now which our bucket list experiences and our first one is at Pinehurst it’s a 3-day two night adventure at Pinehurst which is just two
Weeks before the US Open and the trip includes a round of golf on number eight the newly opened number 10 and behind the scenes walkthrough of number two which is hosting the for mentioned us open so you get to do that with members of the golf.com team Golf Magazine team
And you’re going to get inside knowledge of the golf course inside look at the golf course and walking the same ground that the leaders will be walking down on Sunday which is very very cool as well you’re also going to get exclusive tour of the New World Golf Hall of Fame and
The USGA Museum and again we love you Club nerds out there um I hope you love us too and you also get to see the USGA Club testing center which I’ve never seen so hopefully I get to go and see this whole thing too so go to golf.com
Pinehurst experience to book your spot now and for inside golf members you do get $1,000 off the original price so again go to golf.com / Pinehurst experience to get all the information on this really cool event and check it out there and book your spot I don’t know if Uncle Jean’s gonna
Make it back on this podcast tonight he is definitely having some some technical difficulties there he is oh the devil there he is he’s back is internet is crapp in the bed tonight but it’s good to see him back it’s not my yeah I’m back not back uh all right so
Only thing he missed was super sweet ad read so no yeah you missed you missed a great uh a great transition into an ad read from RB damn I I I really enjoy those but you know you know Jean here’s the thing if you head over to YouTube
And go to the fully equipped uh YouTube page Channel whatever you want to call it you can watch the whole chage as I call it I didn’t yeah see I didn’t say that I got both of them right so anyway anyway let’s get back to let’s get back
To this whole thing all right okay oh by the way hey shout out to everybody watching this on YouTube thank you you guys have done uh you’ve done us a big solid and uh uh what what were the numbers jwall for last week’s uh episode were 15,000 people watch the episode
That is so awesome to look at our four ugly mugs listen to us ramble about golf clubs thank you thank you and some people actually how many people actually watched the entire 90minut episode wow it’s a crazy just waiting for a Outburst I guarantee you no I kept
It together I kept it tight yeah I didn’t I didn’t go sideways last week all right so a couple other things that uh that caught my eye um this this goes right back to this this trend that we’re seeing we talked about the last week that the Taylor
Taylor Made qi1 the core model because people keep asking are you talking about the ls the core like which one I’m talking about the core model your your standard qi1 this is the driver that we’ve seen Rory use we’ve also seen Adam Scott use who else is using qi1
Now Mr Brooks kka Mr Brooks kka there you go so there are a lot of guys that are that are finding the that kind of middle of the road driver from tailor made to be a good fit and I bring this up because Ricky Fowler I was watching
Him today on the Range and he in in Cobra tour at Ben showman Ben Ben is one of the best dudes on the PGA tour uh one of the smartest guys but he’s just just a just a fun guy to to chat with he and he and Ricky were working on drivers and
I kid you not I my head was spinning because Ben pulls out two heads and these things have about five to six massive strips of lead tape all over the sole and then one strip of lead tape on the top of the crown and I got my camera there and I clicking away
And I’m like holy crap they are working on something big oh man oh man oh man and so they finish up like an hour later I was there watching it the whole time they kept hitting drivers Ben would make a little tweak to the lead tape and he
Gets done and I’m like hey Ben what’s going on man what what’s the deal with Ricky’s driver is it a new driver this week he’s like no he put in a new driver last week at the cognizant but it’s tough to tell man because the the dark
Speed driver heads other than the little bit of color change you can’t really tell it’s it’s not like you know the qi1 stuff where you can you can see a little bit more on the soul and and kind of differentiate the driver heads it’s it’s tough now I know the weight the weight
Locations are a little bit different on the cobras but it’s still difficult even for your boy who who spends way too much time on Getty Images and so Ben told me an interesting story that he two weeks ago started working with Ricky on on COBRA dark speed X now Ricky was in the
Ls product but he was having trouble keeping it on the map and it it showed in his numbers he was 67th in Strokes ganed off the T and like in the40s in in driving accuracy and so they they basically bench showed up he had four heads uh
Went to Metalist they did some work and they found a 9 degree head with a brand new Project X Denali Black 70tx Shaft so he’s going away from that really sweet uh bits ofi diamana whiteboard the one with like the custom etching in it the Prototype he’s going away from that the
Denali found the that shaft in the the X head to be a much better fit and Ben said simply like look these guys aren’t perfect like they’re going to miss and for Ricky he misses more out on the toe and because of that we’re trying to find
A driver that’s going to not like want to shoot left and something that’s going to keep Spin and just stay on the map and that’s what they found with the x is it’s more forgiving and like oh by the way I mean the numbers he said from a
Spin perspective pretty similar to the ls but it’s just more forgiving and we’re we’re seeing it guys we’re seeing more players out on the PGA 2 going away from the ls heads into these slightly more forgiving as Jean mentioned last week on the the robot Insight pod you
Know a lot of these drivers are still low spin so you’re able to get that that beautiful combination of of more forgiveness with low spin and that’s what Ricky was working on was just trying to find that driver the ones that he was working with with Ben those were
Backups and I think this is kind kind of a cool story and it’s very inside baseball but hey this is a gear podcast so what the heck but Ben said that you know for a lot of people out there they know that Hot Melt rack glue whatever
You want to call it you can add it to the internal portion of the head to change uh not just the weighting so you can change shot shape or spin but you can also change the Acoustics so what Ben does because adding little bits of Hot Melt here and there to really dial
In a driver is very tedious and requires you to go back and forth to the equipment truck and the the one at Bay Hill is not close he uses uh let tape and so Ricky will hit the driver and then Ben will talk to Rick and get his
Feelings on what he’s what he’s seeing what he’s feeling and then he’ll just adjust the lead tape and so by the time he finishes he has a driver with lead tape in all the right spots and then when he goes back to the truck he peels
Off the lead tape he measures the tape to get the exact weighting and then he goes inside the head any positions the Hot Melt exactly where that lead tape was located on the outside of the head boom dialed in backup driver and we’re done so that’s what was going on at Bay
Hill Rick has a new driver it’s more forgiving but um but yeah the Le tape was just for the backup but it did get me very excited just like uh Scotty and like his putter grip is obviously like a big listener to the podcast I’m sure uh like
To thank Ben and Ricky and his whole team for listening to our robot insights video with Jean and talking about how great that that uh that Cobra dark speed X is Right Jean I think right that I think I think he probably knew that about three or
Four months ago I’m just gonna guess but that X is a great head I think it’s a sneaky good head we we talked a lot about Cobra’s uh the max product but but that that X I think is going to be a really sneaky good head for a lot of golfers
This is where I I think this for golfers and like for players who might not be like at obviously like a tour player level if you’re not ranked in the top 500 in the world you probably know who I’m talking about um but get this
Question a lot I’m sure you do as well Chris is like why don’t more players use the ls head and a lot of times my answer to that question is when I get it on social media is their delivery numbers are so good that they do not need to reduce spin
They are looking for consistency in their spin around their misses whereas in some cases higher handicap golfers even like lower handicap golfers that are obviously not tour players they might not deliver it as well so they need that spin reduction to help lower ball flight flatten ball flight and also
Reduce dispersion you know put my hand up for that like I am not a better golfer than a lot of like a whole bunch of people but I generally Trend towards the ls head because my delivery isn’t great and I tend to miss it low on the
Face so I need something that spins lower like you can find these LS heads work for players up to like a 12 15 handicap if they’re delivering the club a certain way right there’s such a broad spectrum of players that fit in a variety of different product and I mean you hit the
Nail on the head there RB it really depends on strike location and angles that the player kind of creates and if to your point if you’re somebody that misses it low on the face versus high on the face toe side heel side coming from the inside outside up uh I mean with
Your angle of attack versus down with your angle of attack these drivers will respond differently dependent upon your strike location dependent upon your speed dependent upon other angles that you as a player deliver the club at so there’s a variety of different I mean things that we’re looking at to match
The shaft the head with the player profile so strike location and speed are two of them also start line overall curvature that you see down range Apex height Landing angle I mean there’s there’s just so many different things that we take into account during a fitting
And I mean that’s one thing that I kind of combat is categorizing golf clubs into certain boxes and so players have this stigma when they come in that oh this is a player iron this is a game improvement iron and you’ll see players that have a particular handicap range and they just
Don’t want anything to do with one category the other because in their mind they feel like that club doesn’t necessarily fit their demographic and so it’s an educational opportunity for me to go H really it doesn’t matter what category this is quote unquote group grouped in because this really
Complements what it is that you’re doing and also what it is that you’re trying to accomplish as a player so I I just try and like break people out of these preconceived boxes and go you know this is a golf club and this particular golf club does exactly what it is that we’re
Looking for regardless of how the marketing monster at OEM decides to tell you who it’s for and what it does so yeah there’s there’s all kinds of opportunities there with different types of gear to accommodate different types of players it’s kind of like the um like we
Tal I think the big one was like heal misses like those bigi drivers we saw that Jean like if you’re regardless of how fast you swing the golf club if you’re a heel misser of the golf like you’d better in most cases end up in like a Max product versus an LS product
Which is probably better like higher on the face in G again big generalization here but you’re just looking at the the nine points Point like those nine points can direct you in a lot of directions of like what kind of models you should look
For oh 100% And you know we saw it for example you know we not to you know rehash too much from last week’s podcast but we saw like with the qi1 the drop off in distance on the upper third of almost all their models was minimal to
None and um so if you miss higher on the f and you know you you’re spinning too much you’re going to um uh you’re going to you’re going to get some you’re going to get some distance out of that and you’re not going to lose a lot that’s a
Crazy thing so you’re gonna you’re going to optimize your launch conditions because usually uh players you know that are hitting down on the ball they’re spinning too much not launching high enough so if you can get that ball up in the air by hitting it higher on the club
Face you’re going to launch better and spin less and really and and the crazy part is not lose that much ball speed or distance even from that offc Center hit location but the launch and spin characteristics by hitting on the upper third of the face will really maximize
That so uh you know more than anything else for people listening is get fit get on a launch monitor like a foresight GC quad where you can get really good impact location um data find out where your Miss is and then listen to these pods listen I mean
You guys do great work in really highlighting which drivers perform best at these different locations and so you can start mining the information that we provide once you know what your Miss is and combine those two and um get yourself a good driver in the process
That was very nice to compliment us on that information where you’re the guy with the freaking robot Jean so thanks a lot all I all I’m all I’m doing is producing the data you guys do the Artistry and uh you you weave it together with your fancy words and uh
Trained monkey could do those articles Jean let’s let’s ai ai will soon take your job but let’s celebrate it before it uh before it goes there we go yeah that’s right AI is coming for my gig um anyway but I do think it is cool to see another player
Out on the PJ tour using something other than an LS head and and finding of success in it because as I mentioned you know Ricky was in the 160s and uh Strokes G it off the te in the 140s and driving accuracy last week he was
T41 at the cognizant and you could say yeah it’s not a great week for Rick but he was 31st in Strokes gained off the T and 33rd in driving accuracy for a guy that in the 160s 140s that’s a massive jump and I think that’s why he’s yep
Trending upward as RB is showing with his hand I I do I think I think he’s trending in the right direction I would not be surprised to see him have I’m not I’m not a a you know tipster so I can’t I can’t you know tip the guys in the
Field that are going to have good weeks but if I was gonna pick somebody to have a good week I think Ricky Fowler’s gonna have a really good week everything’s coming together we are definitely not a gambling podcast until like FanDuel or somebody else comes along and uh yeah offers us some
Money we can be bought um but you know I I think it’s interesting you know to kind of uh finish up this conversation was really interesting Callaway introduced a a chart on the performance characteristics of all three well I’m not counting the U the fast model but the the three main models
And if you looked at the chart it’s not handicap specific it’s it’s more this is the direction this is the launch and spin you know this is the amount of forgiveness and it was just a really interesting chart because uh I think that I and and I’m hoping that this will
I don’t know I don’t know if go away but minimize you know like what’s a Max what’s an X what’s you know all of these terms that that suddenly now are becoming kind of like institutionalized they’re almost obsolete at this point because you you really just want to have
A brand name and then really kind of dive into the performance characteristics of that and I think that the um the golfer is becoming Savvy enough to understand and to look at that and and to really kind of say hey what what’s the performance characteristics of this model versus that model and
Callaway was the one who jumped out the others the others may have similar things I just haven’t seen them but I thought it was really instructional and informative for the golfer to look at that and if you look at it objectively regardless of um skill or handicap I
Think it it’s it’s a good road map if you look at that and say okay what are the weaknesses in my game and which one of these models could you know best help uh you know mitigate some of those here here just remember folks Alex noren is a
Top player in the world and he uses the Callaway you know you mentioned it uh Max D driver because if you look at his swing Dynamics he is and you see him practice that like little move he does all the time he comes across it that’s his thing
And it helps with this start line and it helps with this Spin and he doesn’t care what the hell it says on the bottom of it it does what it’s supposed to do so just just remember that folks out there when you’re you’re headed to your next fitting are you better than Alex
Nor I’m gonna say most or not but the uh you got marawa coming out of the gate with the uh the QI 10 Max as well I mean that’s a extremely efficient ball Striker and Driver of the golf ball and he’s playing the most forgiving product
In the tailor made stable I mean today was was yeah was my apologies at least he had it in play in a p Tour event he did for a hot minute it was it was a story I had two guys uh MLB players that were in the studio today both of them
Swinging cruising speed no joke 125 miles an hour uh and they ended up in two very very different products just because dynamically how they hit the ball and and angles it was that they were producing and one ended up in a tsr3 with a tensei white uh
1K and it was he was playing the 60tx and then the other ended up in coincidentally the Cobra dark speed x with a Acra RPG the 472 M5 plus that is a freaking Pole to say I mean transition was the beefy driver build Rive big those RPGs i’ I’ve hit them in
Like the M even in like the M4 Flex which is for those like the way that they do their their um their shaft coating for Flex is like the standard stiff it’s like it’s not as stiff like it is and they have an I think they have
An M5 plus don’t they like for the like if you’re like a complet who uses that M5 my boy today it’s it’s I think in a lot of cases too it’s a it’s a feel thing for that player so they they actually like they their transition is better
Right yeah 100% And The the shaft that he came in the door with was a a stock proprietary MCA Kylie Blue 60x and I went oh no no no no surprised he SN that well I mean you should have seen the uh the Delta of dispersion and he
Was playing a a stealth two plus and uh it was it was not staying in play often we’ll say that but we got him all dialed in and he was a happy camper and everybody got new toys and everybody picked up more yardage and uh check out
TR Spec’s social story in the next couple days to get a little sneak peek of who it was nice there we go little teaser right there would is is this time of year a big year like this big time of year for like you know a lot of MLB players
Because it’s spring spring training Chris is is that like I got I got I I want some like seriously when I say inside baseball I want some inside baseball golf stuff like these guys rolling in like I need to get fit I’m on the road way too way too late for those
Kind of jokes every year and it is uh that’s awesome every March specifically uh every March my my phone starts to blow up and hey man when you got time when you got time when you got time and it is uh it’s just kind of kids
In the candy store they get loaded up before they head back home and and start their regular season they only get two off days during spring training so we try especially the starters like we try and fit those guys in and accommodate the schedules that they have and I’ll
Stay late and make sure that they get dialed in so they’re coming in after workouts and after games and make sure that uh that they’re all set to go for the year and then all right fellas see you next year wow this is where you got you got
To do like the quick little check of like okay what’s the signing bonuses here okay cool I want to I want to make sure that we’re looking at like the right gear here no that’s I I don’t want them to pay for my time I have them I have them
Just like hey you know sign a ball for me sign a glove sign a cleat sign a bat something cool I’m sign sign a swag head cover No don’t touch the covers there we go okay if I’m in your city I want good tickets that’s all that’s what I would want that
Would be my that would be my call well that’s just a given that’s a given all right okay so uh we’re going to get to a couple questions in the hotline this week but before we do just wanted just a little bit of Rapid Fire because there were some additional
Things going on uh not just at Bay Hill but just on tour in general that I think are pretty fascinating last week uh CT pan removed his Nike vaporfly Pro two iron for a Titus u505 one iron don’t see the one iron very often although it’s
Not a it’s not a traditional one I don’t get too excited uh but the interesting thing about the change was with CT removing the Nike Club there are now just two Nike clubs left on the PJ tour that’s it Tony phenow vaporfly Pro and uh Justin Su Nike method core
Putter and then that’s it and unless you get a think goes like Cody Gribble and there’s like three or four guys on the corn fairy have Nike clubs and then obviously you’ve got Brooks kka over on Liv but does that really count I I don’t
Know but at least on the PJ tour we’re almost there I jokingly said it’s it might be time to start writing the oit for Nike golf clubs and professional golf at least on the PJ tour so that I thought that was interesting another another one that that caught my eye RB
Noticed this in a video from Liv Phil Mickelson switched to the new lab golf df3 putter the the smaller profile version had his best finish of the year uh on on the live tour and oh by the way another change that completely went under the radar nobody noticed it Phil
Is in the Mitsubishi mmt Iron Chefs and wed chefs so yeah there we go a little bit interest there so he’s he’s in he’s into graphite now in the irons and the wedges 10 pieces I was told um than that out at Bay Hill bet nardy first time ever two different Iron
Models this is this is just like and they have wedges so it’s not that crazy but they have a a one piece forged cavity back and a one piece forged blade I was told that Fred Couples has been offering feedback on these no no word on if Freddy’s going to actually play them
But he is interested and and they’re out there so the we’ll see what happens with when it comes to those another guy who was using old gear who is no longer using old gear is Matt Fitzpatrick he got rid of his Ping s55 irons and is now
On a full set of the Ping blueprint s irons those things have been um moving like hot cakes you see a lot of guys moving into those irons out on the PJ tour so um other than that Scotty C had the new Phantom 11 out this week out on tour they’ve been
Slowly releasing those oh and Golf Pride hello reverse taper RB did the write up on the new reverse taper putter grip that thing’s pretty cool and I found out that that thing has been three years in the making it’s a long time for a putter grip and they’re going to polyurethane
With the with the material on the outside so a different different grip texture and material for them so there you go there’s kind of your Roundup on on the cool gear if any of that stuff is turns into larger stores you know we’re going to cover it more in more detail
But that’s sort of the uh reader digest version of what’s going on on tour with the gear stuff so with that what do you think boys do we get into RB do you want to say anything or do we get into hotline I was going to say uh credit to
The Ping Engineers because I can remember when I first saw the the blueprint S at the rocket mortgage last year in the fall or late summer I guess so I got like I didn’t even get to touch it I was like basically like look what I
Have no lies and then like put it back in the drawer which is kind of funny um but they said that you know it was called The Blueprint s it was going to replace a lot of the S Series product uh that was their goal when it came to
Because they knew that there was a lot of players out there with the S5 FS basically and they’ve done it and I think that you know we we talk so much about goals as far as engineering and design and they they saw something that players were sticking with they wanted
To design towards something like that but that was better that could be comboed with a blade that was a forged product and they succeeded so it’s not that I don’t think Golf Club Engineers need a big pat on the back I’m I’m pretty sure that you know the players
And everyone else around them you know sees the goal and sees the success that they have but I think it is an interesting thing especially with so many players to that product it goes to show that they are making um substantial developmental steps as far as product is concerned and
Players are taking notice and they’re making changes and that’s why I think it is such a big deal all right what do you think hotline time I guess before we get into the hotline I should probably let you know that if you want to leave us a voicemail
For the fully equipped hotline the number is 602 2935 4974 again that’s 602 935 4974 and we will get to your question unless it’s terrible then we won’t but if it’s reasonably good I promise you we will we will get to it on the podcast and with that coach let it
Rip we should also note there that if it is over a minute and a half coach is not gonna listen to it um well that too the first the first guy here left a two-minute one and then another one minute and 10c one back to
Back and I’m like what’s going on so I had to dive into it um he explains his story and he gets his well-deserved question into the the Pod here okay all right hey guys uh Patrick from Pittsburgh here this is my second attempt to make a voicemail you realize
It’s hard to keep your train of thought when someone tries to cut you off on the highway but nonetheless uh I just got done listening to the interview you had with Aon bill and it made me think um companies like vogi you know wedge manufacturers have done such a great job
Of marketing um you know their their different grinds and the effect that they have you know with with Leading Edge and and obviously you know there’s different variation of shots with with the wedges but I was just wondering you know a what is the effect of of a
Leading Edge Andor bounce on irons and B you know if there is an effect uh you know why these these manufactur iron manufacturers have not marketed that and you know you you’d assume that these Pros you know they know every little thing about their clubs uh you know
Whereas you know everyday golfers like myself you know I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the leading edge of my irons um so I just just want to pick your braid about that love the show thanks guys see you go for it RB I I hope I hope you’re
GNA go the same direction that I would have gone so let’s see uh yeah I’m actually I’m actually curious you guys are going to say here um but I think iron companies like any company that makes an iron and the the different models that they offer they intentionally design towards certain players and
Categories now I know this is an extreme example and it is an example that is uh a little bit older but when just rovic was still I think he was I think he was probably still playing on the the PJ tour before he went to the the champions
Tour he went into a set of ping g15s ping g15s and from what I was told and what I saw from pictures when they were when he was using them they were still grinding the Leading Edge because if you ever saw Jesper hit an iron that man pounds an
Iron into the ground like few people have ever have in their entire lives so they were adjusting bounce they were adjusting soul that was a very wide sold iron that was that was intentionally given more uh Leading Edge uh lift lifting that Leading Edge off the ground
And creating more uh bounce towards the Leading Edge of the golf club so they are doing it it’s just that they are almost inherently designed into specific iron models that as players make certain swings they’re going to kind of fit into certain models within a company’s line
At least that’s what I’ve noticed in almost every case and you know using ping as the example again you could be a a blueprint s player or you could be a an i230 player because you might need a little bit more bounce you might need a
Little bit more camber and it’s kind of the same thing through like the tail product the Titleist product it’s it’s kind of all through all of these oems it’s designed into the the models it’s just that because those models are segmented for certain players whether they be steep or shallow or kind
Of a mixture of in between that’s all factored into how those souls are designed and then after that there might be slight modifications on the van or in the tour Department before they go out to the player but in most cases they are they’re designed to
Get to that point and at least that’s that’s how I would describe it but I also know that when it comes to certain players in certain categories they’re going to gravitate towards other models one way or the other just because of looks and soul width and all that
Stuff did I get that right Chris or what do you you’re sitting there really quiet and I can’t tell if you’re like that was good or you’re an idiot he’s like I think I think it’s the ladder no not at all I was waiting to see what Jay wall was gonna chime in
With is I mean there’s there’s multitude of ways you can answer that yeah all I was going to say was was vogi actually especially in the last couple of of iterations for their wedge they have started to pay attention to the sole width on on the wedges in relation to
The iron sets so they they are making very thoughtful modifications to these clubs with the irons in mind um you know I I think I think to like this year with with sm10 they moved the the CG closer to where they are on the the t100’s the
The cavity back and the and the M or the the sorry the 620 the MBS and the CBS so the it’s it’s one of those things where they are being thoughtful in in some of the modifications that they are making these clubs one thing I will also point
Out if you go back to a story that I wrote the early part of last year and this was tied to Justin Thomas and web Simpson and Adam Scott and then Cameron young all got custom titles irons one of the things that titles hinted at as they
Were making this custom irons was that you may down the road and I don’t know when when that is it was more of just them hinting that they could potentially have a uh a menu of grind options for irons in the future something very similar to
What they have with fogy and I wouldn’t put them past him because oh by the way RB we haven’t even talked about the with the patent that you posted on social but titles is doing some cool [ __ ] behind the scenes so I would not put a p him to
Have a menu for grind options in the future for irons just like they do with wedges they they’re doing some crazy stuff and uh if you haven’t I’m not I’m just I know I feel like like the Iron Man driver I’m still like I’m mind blown
On on like what I saw there yeah I know we posted on our social you can I mean it’s very easy to find the whole patent filing online you just kind of search it out uh but they I really liked their their their little mini documentary on finding feel talking about irons go
Check it out on YouTube again I wrote I kind of plugged it I wrote a little bit little piece about it but even as someone who talks who’s had the opportunity to talk to those people Marty included like it’s cool to see that stuff and
Like see how much work goes into it and yes there’s cameras following them and yes the documentary and yes you know they have the opportunity to edit and make you see what they want you to see I’m not like look I’m not stupid I’ve worked in marketing but actually know
That they are doing they are doing that stuff like that is not a lie that is not some just done for the camera thing like that is really fascinating to watch so if you got 15 minutes or you know you got a little less time and you want to
Watch it on one and a half speed or whatever it is like go check it out because they are working on these kind of things oems are always working on this kind of stuff and for them to show it off in that way obviously it’s self-produced but I mean I still think
It is very cool uh go go check it out on the on the title’s YouTube page and if you’re on YouTube go check out the fully equipped YouTube page as well there we go all right coach one more what do we got we’re we’re going to end on a real
Positive note tonight this one is near and dear to my heart just a a high school coach trying to find ways to maximize the most out of his player season hey guys love the podcast keep it going it’s great I just got hired as a high school golf coach the question I
Have for you guys is how important is it for a high school golfer who shirts between 45 and 50 to play the same ball the entire golf season and if it is important asking for recommendations I’ve been told I have almost no budget to acquire golf ball thanks
Guys so how important is it to play the same golf ball the entire season so I mean it really kind of comes down to paying attention to essentially what types of shots the player hitting and also what it is that they’re doing around the greens so you can really dial
In a player for a golf ball watching their approach shots watching their chip shots their pitch shots and how it is that those shots really respond for that particular player now the golf ball is the only piece of equipment that you use te to Green every single shot every
Single hole so I would put a a pretty high level of importance as far as making sure that the player is using the same golf ball week in and week out and if there is going to be a golf ball change that it’s a change that is
Essentially going to be more of a permanent change and there has to be a reason as to why so Spin and control and consistency coming in and around the greens that is absolutely what I’m looking for I fit golf ball from the green backwards everything’s going to
Respond essentially for a full swing and off the T it’s how is that ball responding around the greens for the touch and field shots but I I would rank golf ball as an extremely important piece of equipment to make sure that there is consistency and uniformity
There me RB um Jean yeah what what’s your take on it well I I was just going to say you know as someone who tests a billion Gulf balls um what you want to do with the same Gulf ball to kind of follow up on your point is you want to
Eliminate doubt and so when you know what a golf ball does from a performance standpoint when you mis hit a shot you know that was you you you’re not doubting that it could be the golf ball if you’re switching out golf balls you you in you introduce doubt into the
Equation was that the golf ball was that my shot and especially as a a formative golfer a high school golfer I think it’s critical to um really kind of eliminate that doubt now as far as affordability is concerned um what I would recommend is going back to the 2023 golf uh review
Golf ball review that golf.com did and there’s some really good suring golf balls out there so s there’s two basic categories of golf balls Serling golf balls and urethane golf balls urethane golf balls are two or grade golf balls Serling golf balls are they can get
Close to tour grade but they can also go down to two-piece Pinnacles but there are some suring golf balls and we tested them last year that really have high performance characteristics but they don’t have the price point that a urethane golf ball has so um i’ I’d
Recommend you know doing a little bit of mining on that and seeing some more affordable golf balls um uh you know in the suring category but also realize you want you want a um you want the same golf ball you really do so that you eliminate that doubt from a player’s
Perspective I think I think that’s actually like probably the the the the most important thing is just consistency and I think I see it from I see it from all kinds of players like when I just kind of go out and teed up with all kinds of random golfers is they
Will they will use different golf balls it’s like oh that one checked and then that one rolled to the green and all kinds of stuff and you can find you know we talk so much about tour performance golf balls but exactly to Jean’s point if and I believe the caller said like
Golfers who shoot like you know 40 to 45 on nine holes which is like still like look that’s that’s that’s that’s still really good that’s still good golf for like like so many players and I don’t want to downplay that by any means because I I think it’s important that
Like any golfer is always looking for performance whatever they whatever their scores whatever their handicap is so it’s not like oh you have to do this or you have to do that but when you are looking at someone like that you know one thing a lot of times like maybe
Driver dispersion or dispersion with golf clubs a lot of times you’re going to get less spin access with those two or threepiece golf balls that are the that offer that like firmer non- urethane cover and then when you get closer to the green you’re just looking
At to Chris’s point to put these two things together you’re looking at what kind of consistency as far as shot shape am I going to do like look like there’s not a lot of players in that category who are trying to hit like Wicked flop
Shots that are going to spin a lot and stop there a lot of most players are going to be using a gap wedge or a pitching wedge to try and pitch and run so if you are able to control that and understand how far that golf ball is
Going to roll out every single time not only are you going to 100% completely understand from a value perspective what you’re going to get out of that but you’re going to get that consistency and that performance on every single shot so you get the value you get the
Performance and all those things come together for those golfers in that category so they can be confident going out there and they also don’t feel like the pressure because I get this like again golf is an expensive Sport and sometimes I’ve played High School golf
You know you see the kid with like the expensive clubs and you see someone else over there and there’s like there’s ego involved and all those different things because you know there’s again money and budgets and all that stuff and so some player can feel just as confident in
Their equipment whatever they’re using whatever price point they’re using versus looking over at someone else and being like Oh they’ve got the new this and the new that and they’re playing the the $60 dozen golf balls like it doesn’t matter because it’s the golf ball doesn’t care what you’re using it just
Cares how you deliver the golf club and so at that point it’s get out there be confident in what you’re using and I think in in most cases from a coaching perspective your goal is to instill confidence and Inspire players to do their best and if you can give them that
Confidence just from an equipment perspective they’re going to go out there and feel like you know no matter what I do I’m going to be performing my best and it’s my job to just focus on my task at hand I think you guys gave some great
Answers um I I will say I’m not made of of golf gear but I do have a bunch of dozens of dozens and dozens of golf balls around the house and I have your phone number so I’ll be reaching out and I’ll send you I I can’t I can’t Supply a
A season’s worth of golf balls but I can definitely get you like 12 to 15 dozen so uh that should hopefully get you started so I’ll be reaching out on the side to get you those golf balls uh all right with that let’s wrap up episode
231 of fully equipped as always if you want the gear goodness hit up Social channels we are fly equipped on Twitter and fly equipped golf on the YouTube change oh man it has been a night uh and then also on Instagram so hit us up there if you have any
Questions thanks all for Listening
5 Comments
Someone needs to put a LAB broomstick putter in Scotty's hands. Look what it did for Zal. He needs to try something else because traditional putting isnt working.
Do you think there will be a trend towards more broken bag setups and not as many full mfg bags going forward? Seems like people are starting to push playing with gear they want regardless of brand and more mix and match lately.
Any one notice Scottie scheffler has a stealth face in the Qi10 driver
The original rumor on Scotty Scheffler going to a mallet was to transition from using the line on the ball to align to using the alignment aid on the putter and disregard the ball line mark. Any way to confirm this if you are there at Bay Hill with him? Thanks!
The new TM speed soft ball feeling great