Jonathan Wall / Golf
The gear crew at GOLF.com spends a lot of time at tour events taking pictures of the tools used by the world’s best players. Posting clubhouse photos online without context sometimes works, but it doesn’t help the weekend golfer understand why the pros are setting up. In the new GOLF.com series, equipment editors Jonathan Wall and Ryan Barath answer these questions by highlighting fun clubs in players’ bags, unique weight, upper sleeve settings and more. Welcome to “Bay Spy”.
hammer man
Homa’s been wielding a mallet for four years, so you might be wondering why something that’s been around the block has been highlighted. If you don’t know Homa’s backstory with a hammer, he missed six straight cuts to open the 2018-19 Tour season and then promptly switched to a Scotty Cameron T5 W. hammer.
One week later, Monday qualified for the Phoenix Open and things started to click. His first win on the PGA Tour would come three months later at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“I had never played a big racket before. I had played Newport all my life before I decided I was finally going to try a bigger racket,” Homa said. “When I went for a bigger Scotty Cameron, it made all the difference. Playing in the tournament was weird. I used to be that Newport-headed guy. But, I’ll tell you, you play your first competitive role, and you shoot seven-under, or whatever it is. You get used to it real quick. “
If you’re the kind of razor guy who constantly struggles to find any consistency on the greens, take a page from Homa and give sledgehammer a shot. With different neck options available, it is also possible to have a facial rotation of the blade with a hammer hold.
custom creations
Homa has plenty of custom creations in the bag—check out the Vokey SM9 wedges stamped with his son’s name below—including some fun headgear of special interest. Scotty Cameron’s yellow and purple bat cover is a nod to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a native of Los Angeles, a cover is a must.
And a dog hood? This would be a Huma dog mug, Scotty, dotted on the outside. It’s a creative way to remind your pup when he’s on the course.
Weather warrior
Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet grip is the most popular model on the PGA Tour. While you can consider Homa a Tour Velvet user, he doesn’t play the standard rubber version. Instead, the 6-time Tour winner favors the underwire option that includes a textured, textured twill that’s infused into the rubber.
The addition of cotton rope to the material improves the handle’s all-weather performance. For golfers who play in wet conditions and need a grip that wicks away moisture, rope offerings deserve solid consideration. It’s also a good choice for those who prefer a firmer feel.
by letter
Pick up a Vokey wedge at your local golf store and you’ll find the loft and grind stamped on the sole. For years, equipment manufacturers have stamped the loft number on the head as a way for golfers to build their wedge setup with the appropriate loft gaps between each scoring tool. On the other hand, iron sets that extend beyond the step wedge generally have a letter rather than a loft number, which is preferred by some golfers.
But what happens when you love a Vokey razor wedge but want a letter instead of a number on its sole? If you’re Homa, you’ll get Vokey wedge guru Aaron Dill to add a letter instead. When I asked Homma at the Wells Fargo tournament if he was dealing with numbers against the loft, he shrugged and gave a reasonable answer.
“Nah, I think the letters look great there,” Homa replied. “It’s completely different.”
Fair enough, Max.
Super 4 iron
The Titleist T100S 4-iron in the Homa bag is an interesting club. With a slightly stronger loft than the T100, it turns into the perfect long iron option when Homa wants to attack as par 5. The iron also happens to be the club that helped influence Homa to make a switch in the ball while playing for the 2023 Pro V1 during a training run .
“I wasn’t really thinking much about the golf ball, and then all of a sudden it started [hole] 8 and I had a 230 way up the hill, the front pin, Homa said, and I hit this big 4-height iron and stopped it really fast. And I looked at Joe and said, ‘Okay.’ […] I called JJ up and said, “Hey, I’m going to use a golf ball.”
The average weekend golfer will likely find a hybrid iron, drive, or high wood (see below) to be better suited to their equipment setup, but in Homa’s case, he has the game to use a traditional long iron. This one doesn’t hurt with some extra juice.
Joint search
The seven wood used to be a story on the PGA Tour. Several years ago, professionals began using raised fairway forests in The Players Championship as a way to extract the ball from rough ground with minimal effort. The wood seven provided just the right amount of tolerance with a towering launch angle that allowed the ball to fall from the sky and stop on a dime.
What was once considered a course-based club has turned into a staple bag for some pros, Homma included.
After watching Louis Oosthuizen and Matt Fitzpatrick make their way around TPC Harding Park during the 2020 PGA Championship with high fairway wood in the bag, Homa decided to test the club for himself. It didn’t take long for him to embrace the benefits.
“Before the 7-wood, I only used a 3-iron blade or multi-purpose iron,” Homa said. “I like to have a club that I can hit. Some of these courses are very demanding, you want a longer club that isn’t a driver to run it on. I’ve never tried 7-wood because I thought it wouldn’t be easy to hit a tee and crash. Through testing I found I could Having a bit more driving shot. We’re seeing such a big advantage with the club on 5s and the shots from the middle and baseline.”
Loud launch
A relatively new addition to the setup, Homa turned the TSR2 fairway wood at a 15-degree angle with the Fujikura Ventus TR Red pole in the Players Championship trying to find something that could turn the ball over with a higher launch. In fact, Homa liked the pole so much, he ended up adding it to his seven timbers as well.
While some pros like to play the same weight throughout the woods to maintain feel, others use a progressively heavier shaft of driver through the fairway woods. Homa falls into the progressive weight camp. It starts with a 65X in the driver and then moves up to an 8X and 9X in 3-wood and 7-wood. The goal is to find a shaft that matches his or her preferred texture and weight.
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