The 11 biggest golf equipment news of 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at what has quietly been a big year for golf gear. In 2024, we had a major six-head tournament, the pro used two drivers in the Masters, the same player involved in two weird gear issues and the opponent suggested changing the putter to another player and that player continued. tears unlike anything we’ve seen since Tiger Woods. And there is more.

With that, read on below for the 11 biggest gaming news of 2024.

The strange rediscovery of Matt Fitzpatrick

Some experts are absolutely meticulous with their gear, knowing every detail down to the gram. Matt Fitzpatrick, given his insane dedication to scoring and record keeping, was often thrown into that bucket, except earlier this year, when he struggled with left tackles.

The problem? Fitzpatrick had experimented with small back weights on the butt end of his strings in 2023 and had accidentally left a 4g weight on the shaft end of his Titleist TSR3 driver until just before this year’s Players Championship. He discovered the problem when he went to pick up his driver.

“I got it home and the guy who did it, he put a little too much tape on it, so I took it to Titleist,” Fitzpatrick said at TPC Sawgrass. “They held it for me and it’s like, ‘Oh, you know there’s weight there,’ and I almost had a heart attack.”

Tony two drivers

Hiring two drivers is nothing new at the Masters, but unless your name is Phil Mickelson, people will call you crazy for trying that.

However, that’s exactly what Tony Finau did this year at Augusta National after Ping reps helped him “charge” his Ping G430 LST and built him another third of an inch shorter with more loft. His plan was to use a shorter driver on holes such as Nos. 2, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 18, pending fairway and wind conditions.

Scholars choose 10k

The biggest innovation in drivers in 2024 was two OEMs, TaylorMade and Ping, surpassing the 10,000 g/cm2 combined moment of inertia, or “10k” limit with their “MAX” products.

Most products were reserved for players on the slower end of the speed spectrum who needed higher spin and launch conditions, but with the introduction of the “10k” forgiveness, pros like Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda all took on the new. justifying technology.

Maxfli returns

Lexi Thompson is making waves in 2024, announcing her retirement from the regular LPGA Tour, but also signing an endorsement deal with Maxfli golf balls.

Maxfli has a storied history among golf’s top ranks, but is now owned by Dick’s Sporting Goods and has not sponsored a professional in years. The company asked Thompson’s agent, Brett Falkoff, if he would test the new Tour Series golf ball when his previous endorsement deal came up and after initially refusing, Falkoff said, “We’re all still in shock,” about the results.

“I’ve been testing the ball for a month or two, especially in the air,” said Thompson in January. “Air is the most important thing [for] ball test, and I saw nothing but a little low throw, good in the wind, and it does even better when you cross the wind. That means a lot to me, and I’m looking forward to playing.”

Maxfli also returned to the PGA Tour when Ben Griffin arrived.

Ben An raises 1 bell

Speaking of bringing back relics of the past on the PGA Tour, Ben An won in Korea on the DP World Tour in late October with a head adjustment: A 1-iron instead of a 3-wood.

This isn’t your grandfather’s 1 iron, of course, as the Titleist U505 16-degree 1-iron An uses a hollow-body driver iron designed with as little weight as possible using tungsten to give the iron wood-like launch characteristics. .

“I hit it high enough, I have enough speed, I have enough spin rates,” An said in a Titleist YouTube video earlier this year, “so why don’t I try to build that iron with a really low loft, to hit it straight off the tee?” Because that’s the whole point of using 3 woods.”

Fred Couples plays a 6-wood/hybrid setup

Fred Couples, now 65, is going in a completely different direction with his bag setup these days. The 1992 Masters champion starts playing a bag full of fairways this year, six (not including the putter) including a driver, two fairway woods and three hybrids. That means the longest iron in his bag is a 7 iron (his stock position is still 170).

“Everybody keeps talking about them,” he says of his new setup in a video from September. Some golfers may be shy. Couples simply reverse the stigma. “I am, so my long iron is a 7. Who cares?”

Matt Fitzpatrick denied the relief of the cracked driver

In his second appearance on this list, Fitzpatrick was in the middle of another 2024 gear controversy, but this time through no fault of his own.

In the final round of the BMW Championship, Fitzpatrick received a crack on his driver’s face and when he presented it to the rules authority, he was refused to close the club because it was decided that the club was “not seriously injured. ” is damaged enough to be replaced. Due to local regulation of the Model G-9, the driver is not replaceable due to cracks in the face.

After this incident, the PGA Tour, in collaboration with other governing bodies, announced a revision to Model Local Rule G-9, revising the reasons for replacing the club with cracks on the club face and club face.

The year of the young driver

TaylorMade has been releasing a “small driver,” a small clubhead with 11 or 13 degrees of loft, every year or so for the past decade, but this year, they started having company.

Along with TaylorMade’s BRNR Mini Copper, Callaway released the Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini Driver for sale while Titleist released the Tour-only TSR mini driver.

The request is for players to replace their 3-wood with a club that goes shorter than their driver, which is likely to hit lower, but is easier to hit off the tee than the 3-wood, and professionals have flocked to them.

While TaylorMade and Callaway are the only OEMs with small drivers on the market now, all signs point to more companies dipping their toes into that market by 2025.

“Zero-Torque” is becoming the latest positioning craze

“Zero-torque” and “angle-balanced” putters are not new to golf, but their popularity has increased on the PGA Tour and many major OEMs are starting to come out with their own versions of “zero-torque” putters. .

Brands like PXG, Odyssey, Bettinardi and others all release putters that advertise “zero” or “reduced” torque, meaning the face of the putter is less inclined to twist during the stroke, resulting in a more square face. All of this follows the trend of top brands like LAB Golf and Axis1, which have led the movement for the past few years.

Bryson’s last-minute 3D-printed instruments

Bryson DeChambeau doesn’t need much convincing to try something stronger in his wallet, and the model Avoda irons he started with at the Masters will certainly qualify.

DeChambeau had Avoda, a direct-to-consumer brand based in California, 3D-print the irons just before the Masters, and after the first round, the USGA deemed them noncompliant. But DeChambeau’s manager buckled down in time for the clubs to be given Augusta’s seal of approval.

DeChambeau, of course, went on to take the opening round at the Masters before finishing tied for 6th, earning a runner-up at the PGA Championship, and then winning the US Open for his second major title.

Spider Scottie

This list wasn’t measured, but if it was, Scottie Scheffler’s switch to the Spider Tour X mallet just before the Arnold Palmer Invitational was a 2024 gear story.

While Scheffler tried a variety of mallets during his 2023 putt, at the start of 2024, Rory McIlroy was asked about his proposal for World No. 1 and McIlroy explained how the mallet putter had helped his game.

To everyone’s dismay, Scheffler listened and played an off-the-rack TaylorMade Spider Tour X with a plumber’s neck at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and won by five. He went on to win eight more global events in 2024, including the Masters, Players Championship, Olympic gold medal, Tour Championship and three other PGA Tour Signature events.