This video features an in-depth look at the Callaway Golf Clubs used by Erik Van Rooyen, who is a member of Callaway Golf’s Tour staff. Erik Van Rooyen is a Two-Time PGA Tour Winner, with his two wins coming at the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship and 2021 Barracuda Championship. For both wins, he used a full lineup of Callaway golf clubs.
In this episode of From The Tour Van, Callaway Golf Tour Rep Zach Smith joins 2nd Swing’s Coss Barnette for a breakdown of the Callaway Golf clubs played by PGA Tour player Erik Van Rooyen.
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Hey everyone, we are here with Zach Smith, a Callaway tour rep, and today we’re going to go through Eric Vanroyan, gopher standout, his bag here at the 3M Open. So, Zach, take us through uh Eric’s bag and maybe a couple of cool standout things that he’s doing and what ball flight he’s trying to achieve. Yeah, for sure. Um Eric’s awesome for us to work with. He um he’s results driven. So we do a lot of things just to to make sure we’re meeting his expectations and goals with it. So start at the top of the bag. Probably the most unique thing he does is actually his elite driver. So um if you can see there with it, he actually does not play with the weight in the back trying to cut some spin. But you know, he’s a guy who we’ve tried several different models through the years, both triple diamond and kind of our core models. Really enjoying the forgiveness out of this and kind of frontloading a little bit. We were able to cut some spin and keep his ball speed up. So, that’s been a really, really cool addition. So, no back weight, uh, as you can see in there. Obviously, the lead tape, any hot melt or anything to get the swing weight where it needs to be. No, we were very fortunate with the, uh, the heavy 14 ger up front. Um, little bit of lead tape is all we had to do, kind of hit where we needed. So, not always the case, but, uh, pretty fortunate in this field to get there. All right. So, top of the bag, that’s the driver. Yeah, driver. and uh different wood setups obviously based on conditions of the course but uh what what’s what kind of stands out with his top of the bag in terms of his fairway woods. Yeah, for sure. So, he’s a guy depending on course where we’re at that week um elements, temperature, things like that and what his needs may be. 7wood does occasionally come into play here. Uh so, he does have the triple diamond 21° 7wood um in the bag. Kind of alternates a little bit with this utility iron, the old X4s UT he’s had for years now. You can kind of see it’s got some wear and tear on it, but um like I said, he’s a guy. He’s all about results. If it works, we’re going to leave it alone if we’re hitting his numbers. Um it’s excellent. So, that’ll kind of bounce around a touch. And uh probably the most trusty club in his bag now has been uh going to the mini. Uh so, he is still playing our AI Smoke uh mini from last year. Um pretty much every week this is in the bag. This is kind of his bread and butter. Loves to control his golf ball. Um, Eric hits it a good ways, but I wouldn’t say he’s a bomber by any stretch out here. Precision off the tea is is really really important and a lot of control with this club. So, he’s uh it’s been a really nice piece. And a little lead tape seems to be the theme somewhat on the toe here. Yeah, for sure. Um, definitely does not want to see it go left. Um, Eric doesn’t really curve the golf ball a whole lot. Um, but if anything, he wants to see a tight fade. Pretty mid trajectory, not super high. Obviously as a tour player, he can do whatever he wants with it, but um everything in his bag is set up in a way to be a little more right bias for him. So yeah, little lead tape here and uh of course adds a little character to the club as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. We’re going to save the putter for last cuz that’s something pretty sweet. Let’s move into the irons. Uh where does he play? Yeah, so he actually has a combo set. U starting with the forearm. We do play the apex pro and the four. So something we do with a lot of our guys out here is again we’re trying to hit a number, trying to hit a gap, trying to get the launch angle where we need it. So he has some stopping power with it. So he does use the Apex Pro which has cut face, a little bit more launch, a little bit more speed to it, so it gaps out a little bit better for him. And he does transition into TCB from there. So this is our 2024 TCB. Um wasn’t necessarily a TCB guy prior generations. He’s been in the blades more often. Um but a touch more forgiveness obviously not a whole lot of offset in these. Um, just a really good option for him to have the control he still wanted without giving up any kind of uh, you know, precision that he might have expected from his blades in the past. And that’s five down through the wedge. Then we get into uh, into his uh, sand irons and gap wedge and and lob wedge. Uh, what does he do there? Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, TCB goes through the 10 iron for us, the pitching wedge there. Um, and he has actually the last couple weeks transitioned into a a prototype version of the Opus uh, wedge that we’ve been working on with some guys on here on tour. We’re very fortunate Callaway. We have a guy inside Anthony Toronto who is uh, extremely talented and does a lot of really really cool stamping. But, uh, Eric is um, he’s kind of a wide bottom guy. I would describe himself, not super steep in the turf and likes to really play with the face. So standard S grinds in his 50 and 56 and then into a 60 is transitioning to the C. So he has a little bit of uh relief to the sole both on the trail side and in the heel and toe. So he can really manipulate the face and get to the ball at any. So um I said a very artistic feel oriented player. Um gives him a lot of versatility with that grind. And how much is he maybe experimenting with uh different grind and bounce options or is he changing that based on conditions? You know, he’s a guy when he finds something he likes, kind of like we had with this 21 degree and stuff, he tends to leave it alone. He’s very, very good at finding ways to manipulate the club around. We have some guys out here that week to week we’re doing W and T grinds and just kind of depending what their needs may be. Um, Eric is uh very, very simple. He does change wedges quite a bit. He’s a guy we’ll have a fresh 60 every two events for him. He always wants a fresh face, fresh grooves to go out and attack the ground. And uh last but not least, uh the putter. Um tell us a little bit about that. What makes it so cool? And uh and uh yeah, it’s it’s pretty special. This is a uh this is a unique piece. So this is actually brand new to Eric’s bag. Uh as of last week at Barracuda. We uh we been looking through his stats and finding ways to help him really excel into the end of the year. And uh thought this might be a really really cool opportunity with him in the giraffe beam. So new product for us. It started over in Japan. We’ve just started getting some pieces over here. and uh seating with a few of our guys. Sew Kim’s another guy who’s started looking at a product like this, but obviously with a longer neck going to have a little bit closer to a face balance kind of setup, but in that classic um you know, number two shaping uh that he’s always played in. He was a two-on San Diego guy for years. So, being able to keep that head shape, give him a little more face balance to match his stroke as well as our AI insert. Um it’s been a really good piece. I puted very well last week. He’s excited to keep rolling with it this week. Awesome. Well, Zach, thank you so much for taking us around Eric Vanroyan’s bag. Uh we wish him well this week and hope he plays well. Thanks for your time. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. [Music]
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