Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Gear, the wrap-up of GOLF’s Gear Editor’s Monday morning gear Jonathan Wall It takes you through the latest trends, rumors and new breakoutss.
Big rackets
One has 18 major titles. The other won his first match on Sunday at Royal Liverpool. In theory, comparing Brian Harman’s biography to Jack Nicklaus’s historical accomplishments sounds like A.J particle stretch. But hear us out. The two are actually associated with something other than the major titles – the club that has made Nicklaus nearly unbeatable on golf’s biggest stage. Harman too.
We are, of course, talking about the racket.
In the case of Niklaus, the massive MacGregor Response ZT (Zero Twist) 615 he used to win the 1986 Masters—a racquet that helped establish USGA width limit Because of its abnormally large size.
Before sledgehammers made their way onto the market, racquets like Nicklaus’ Response ZT were a rare sight. The racquet looked like a conventional blade, but the wide profile allowed it to impact the ball with little to no twist in impact. As the moment of inertia increased, returning the face to square on a consistent basis was significantly easier to achieve with the Response ZT.
The racquet happened to be the brainchild of club designer Clay Long, who played a major role in the development of many of Nicklaus’ creations during his prime. Now you might be wondering why we were discussing Nicklaus gear when Harman won the Open Championship on Sunday.
Here’s the connection: Not only did Long create the putter putter that Nicklaus used to win his most important major championship in 1986, he also developed the TaylorMade Spider OS CB (G3 swing weight) that Harman used to win his first major.
Following the recent trend of older club models coming round, Long introduced the oversized Spider OS CB hammer in 2016, believing that the larger profile that helped Nicklaus find his stroke could have similar benefits for the contemporary consumer.
Thus, OS CB (The Budget) was born. What was interesting about this specific Harman putter was that it was 0.3 inches wider than the head of the OS, making it about 13 percent larger than the standard model. While the putter offered plenty of performance benefits—reduced head twist and a generous MOI—the OS CB saw little action on the PGA Tour, outside of Harman.
The putter has been a part of his setup in some form since 2016 when it was introduced, but even the newly minted Open champion admitted the stick didn’t always behave. In fact, he revealed during the tournament that he’s considering “going onto the field and pulling something different” during the middle of the season.
“She was a good bat, but she’s been misbehaving a lot this year,” he said. “The last few weeks I found a little thing on the greens that I felt gave me a little bit better lap. I had a really great day going into the US Open and then the following weeks I looked really great.”
The threat of a trip to the “time-out locker” got the club back on track as Harman cruised to victory while getting more than 11 shots in the court with only the bat. The profile may not be huge for everyone, but as Harman proved time and time again at Royal Liverpool, the only thing that really matters is the level of confidence you have at the racket on a Sunday afternoon.
alternatives
Royal rain prevented Liverpool from playing hard and fast during Championship week, but it didn’t stop several big names from trading their high fairway woods for long irons. Jordan Spieth added a T150 Prototype 3-iron (Graphite Design Tour AD DI-105 Hybrid X shaft) and Colin Morikawa chose a TaylorMade P790 Prototype 3-iron. Forgiving long irons such as the Titleist T200 have also seen action during The Open Championship.
“A lot of tee shots require certain distances,” said Titleist Tour representative JG van Wiesenbeek. “You need to be able to shape it and fly it.”
While some players will still wield their new long irons, expect to see many return to the high fairway woods in preparation for the playoffs.
see red
If no TaylorMade Spider acts, go back to the person who made you a MVP. For Jason Day, that meant dusting off Spider Red Itsy Bitsy (paint chips and all) for the Open Championship. The change of racquet did not result in a claret jug, but helped the Aussie finish tied for second with Sepp Straka, John Rahm and Tom Kim at 7-under.
The Today ranked 13th in the field in SG: placing (plus a 4.48) with the Red Spider he helped popularize it in 2016. The racquet was so popular, in fact, that TaylorMade initially struggled to keep up with the demand for the Tour when it was first released. With Day leading the charge, Spider Red quickly became the hottest batter in the pro ranks during the 2015-16 season.
Fast hitters: Max Homma and Justin Thomas added the Vokey A-Grind lob wedges at an angle of 60 degrees to allow the club to slide under the ball with ease. … Mizuno’s newest woods and wedges made their Open Championship debut. … Phil Mickelson switched to a Ping G430 LST and G430 Max 3-wood driver. … Scotty Cameron’s latest batter Hideki Matsuyama is an A in a jiffy.
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