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As January 2018 draws to a close, we take a look at which new clubs have hit the ground running on Tour.
In the first month of the calendar year, TaylorMade golf clubs have already been in the bag of five winners and three runners-up across the PGA and European Tour. That’s seven top-two finishes in as many tournaments. No poster (or digital whatnot, as the case may be these days) can deliver advertising like that. As the old, and extremely irritating, adage goes: the stats don’t lie.
The TM stars wasted no time in 2018, with Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm finishing one-two as the PGA Tour began the year with the Tournament of Champions. Rahm then followed this up with a win at the CareerBuilder Challenge, whilst Tommy Fleetwood was putting his new M3 Driver to good use in the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. The following week on the European Tour, it took a tournament-record 23-under from Haotong Li to separate TaylorMade trailblazer Rory McIlroy from the Dubai Desert Classic crown. The very next day, Australia’s Jason Day edged out Alex Noren to win the Farmers Insurance Open after a playoff so tight they ran out of daylight, meaning the tie couldn’t be decided until Monday. Still, Day prevailed for the first time in any tournament since 2016… in his first month with the new M3 Driver. I don’t know about you, but I think I’m sensing a pattern here.
What's in the Bag?
DJ and Rahm were both equipped with the M4 Driver, whilst Fleetwood and Day opted for the M3 Driver. DJ stuck with the M4 as his 3-wood, but Rahm switched to the M3 5-wood. However, arguably the most impressive shots of 2018 so far have come from DJ’s iron play since adding the TaylorMade P-790 irons to his bag.
Sergio Garcia made a slightly more low-key, but no less successful, adjustment to life with new clubs. Following his recent transfer from TaylorMade to Callaway, the Spaniard struck gold in his first outing with the new Callaway Rogue woods and Mack Daddy 4 wedges. The new Callaway frontman topped the Singapore Open leaderboard as he dipped his toe in the Asian Tour.
As Sergio successfully switched to the Asian Tour, Li Haotong successfully switched in the opposite direction. His aforementioned victory over McIlroy featured a strong performance with the new Callaway Rogue fairway wood.
Despite an agonising loss at the hands of Jason Day, Alex Noren looked a force to be reckoned with as he got to grips with latest Callaway technologies.
TaylorMade’s success really casts a shadow over most other brands sending their latest inventions out on Tour, but Callaway’s showing has been impressive nonetheless.
What's in the Bag?
The Callaway Rogue Sub Zero Driver and Mack Daddy 4 wedges proved effective for Garcia and Noren, along with the Rogue fairway woods.
With only two players inside the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) top 100, and Bryson DeChambeau teetering on the brink at No. 99, Cobra Golf’s new F8 range could very easily have slipped under the radar. Rickie Fowler ensured that wasn’t the case.
Fulfilling his role as the manufacturer’s wonderkid, Cobra’s Californian swept aside the competition at the PGA Tour’s star-studded Hero World Challenge on his inaugural outing with the new Cobra F8+ woods last November. The F8+, a Tour-level edition of the traditional F8 design, grabbed headlines following Fowler’s strong performance with the driver, 3-wood and 5-wood.
What's in the Bag?
Fowler has gone from strength to strength from the tee and fairway with the Cobra King F8+ Nardo Driver and Cobra King F8+ Baffler 5-wood.
Written by Joe Carabini
