On this week’s episode of Fully Equipped, GOLF’s Jonathan Wall and Ryan Barath discuss Callaway’s new Opus wedge line Tour debut, RB’s golf trip to Prince Edward Island and the insane driving stats Scottie Scheffler has been producing.
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[Music] and welcome back to boy CPS it’s just two boys this week J Wall RB that’s it no Uncle Jean no Ser Kill ah it’s I don’t mind it when it’s just two but Uncle Jean as many of you who listen to the Pod probably know is out of the country he sent us pictures from Italy lovely Pizza the pizza looked good he’s he’s there with with with one of his kids they went hiking and they’re eating their way through Italy it sounds like a terrible way to live uh thoughts and prayers to Uncle G we see if he makes it back I I’m not convinced I I I figure on one of these trips Uncle Jean is going to come to the realization that that life is just too good on the road in traveling and he’s just not going to come back and we’re just not going to hear from him again it’s going to happen it wouldn’t shock me it really wouldn’t shock me if he’s over there and at some point you know he’s like you know guys Europe seems pretty good you know I can I can service robots from anywhere in the world he’s just gonna he’s just going to find a different balcony to watch sunsets on I’m telling you that’s what’s gonna happen yeah it’s it’s it is most definitely gonna happen serial killer is pounding the pavement he’s doing the opposite of Uncle jeene he’s working his butt off right now so I guess thoughts are Pur the serial killer as he continues to I think he said he’ to get up at like 5:00 a.m. or 5:30 it’s still it’s really freaking early for him so he he’s not g to be doing this pot as we record on a a Monday night it feels like we’re just getting earlier with these recordings during the week and you know it’s we’re getting as I’ve talked about before we’re getting towards that quieter part of the Season although we do have some Gear New Gear I should say that we’re going to be chatting about this week um but first and foremost RB you and I were both gone last week we we had a great interview with one of ARA it’s a sha new brand new shaft company uh one of their co-founders Alex D who spent 20 plus years at fujiura designing man he designed so many shafts while there but I think the one that again a lot of recency bias but that would be Ventus he was he was you know the lead on designing Ventus so some really cool products that have come out out of his mind and now he is over at artera so they have to do Alpha One series that recently dropped and I we had a great so kill and I had a chance to sit down with him in studio in Scottdale and pick his brain on on starting a new Chef brand um it was just a really good chat so if you didn’t listen to last week’s interview make sure you go back and check it out you can do it on wherever you consume your podcast or on the FIP YouTube page as well where we’ve got the video one of the things that you might notice if you check out that video new set by the way which I thought was very cool but I’ll let you get to I know the other thing is new set new logos so um if you want a little sneak peak of the uh revamped ful equip logo you can go check it out on the ful equip YouTube page here’s a teaser go look at last week’s interview with Alex or if you want to wait we’re going to be releasing it in full next week so you know we’ve been talking about it for so many years I feel like this is a really good opport with this new logo release to start dropping some merch we got to do it at some point man we’ve been talking about it for years and this is even going back to before RB was here we had ideas we were kicking around and they just never took off so hopefully this is the time that it finally happens but anyway if you want to go see the new logo check out the interview if not wait till next week um other than that I gu mentioned RB and I were gone I was off the grid out of the country it needed some needed some downtime with my wife we’ve got uh we’ve got uh three kiddos and they keep us very busy so it was nice to be able to to go and travel outside of the country without them but glad to be back RB you were traveling to you you were uh Pei Prince Edward Island right yeah uh my wife and I uh once again last year we went in the fall and this time we uh we went back again you know early summertime right around which was actually very cool cuz it was the solstice or very close to the solstice so golf very late into the evening which was a lot of fun and that because of the the obviously the Sun and everything we had the chance to play a lot of golf and for us too being not too far from Toronto it’s really only like a two-hour flight which is awesome and again that was something that we really liked a lot of people think because it is like a a smaller Island and you know for those who are curious little Pei facts because I was looking up I like you what the half a million people live here no it’s 160,000 people and there’s over 20 golf is on this little island and it is an entire province in Canada if if you’re not aware of where it is it’s out kind of between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is kind of in that area in the golf of the St Lawrence uh famous LPGA Tour Canadian player Lorie Kane is from PI and so yeah so it’s a it’s a really cool little spot to play a ton of golf and uh that’s what my wife and I did from an equipment perspective I will say it was very very windy so I brought along than playing with my seven wood I brought along a new tailor made dhy which was Exquisite in the wi let me tell you that thing got used a lot I just wish I had brought my mini driver as well that would have been uh very beneficial because if you checked out the first Instagram story I posted or the real I guess we posted was my wife playing a course called redsand so when we landed played This n hole course called redsand and let me tell you for a N9 hole golf course that is is where it is and I think it’s like $25 $30 to play it has such a cool little routing because Clubhouse sits in the middle of the property and the first hole is like short little par for driveable downhill a little bit of water in front of it and then you play across the property to another little par three and it’s it’s not a long course okay um and then it just snakes its way up this hill back and like kind of crisscrossing up the hill every hole is like slightly different yardage you’re playing all kinds of like different winds because of the way that it kind of sits on this hill and the last two holes just fire straight back down the hill like a ski slope and then you come back up to this little finishing part three and for all the people that I talk to out there it is it’s a it’s a welcoming course for obviously us as just tourists and then you know in front of us there were two groups of Junior like kids just like messing around and playing around which was which was a blast and for us you know we we have two two daughters you know you have you have three kids we got two um to think that there’s a place like this that allows us that would allow us if you wanted to have kids out there you know they’re a little older to go do that it was it was a blast so that was like that was kind of our first fora into golf from PI we landed which again two terminal airport in charlott town is amazing there is no tra there’s no traffic on this whole island I’m telling you right now we got anywhere we had to go the only time we got stopped was when there was a tractor but that was fine we got around that pretty quick um next day we played uh Green Gables so if you are a literary buff you might recognize Green Gables from ano Green Gables this is the area where we stayed is actually where was the inspiration from the author for an of Green Gables she is everywhere and Green Gables Golf Course actually wraps around the homestead of where the author Drew their inspiration from for these characters it is an old Stanley Thompson golf course which was redesigned and it plays uh kind of up and down all again all over kind of around the property that’s there in the in the park so it is like near a a Provincial Park and then there are a bunch of holes that go out towards the dunes friend of mine Scott McLoud he’s actually from PI Great Golf teacher great instructor he actually sent me some really cool historical pictures of some of the holes that actually used to sit out in the sand dunes they used to have to go out there with like a snow plow in the summer because they would just blow across the one single road that was there um so just like to think of like how close it was to the dunes it was literally like right there so part of the redesign a number of years ago was to kind of get it out of that area so it was always playable and then the next day we actually played uh 36 holes which as a nearly 40-year-old guy know look we took carts which was great um is a lot of got to do it at some point you got got to do it and it was and again it was dark till like almost it wasn’t dark until like 9:45 so like it was very very easy to get uh get 36 in in fact last year I was one of the guys we played with is um the executive director of golf pi and he was saying last year we did 63 holes at seven different um yeah seven different golf courses so we played nine holes at nine courses is that right no nine holes at seven courses just to show how close they were within proximity um glasow Hills was fantastic and as the name suggests it is built right on the top of this Hillside and it’s very I want to say it’s not it links looking but it’s not a Links golf course and the thing too with all of these courses even like glasow Hills would be the most expensive of them all we’re talking less than $150 for round of golf and I can’t wait to share all the pictures with everybody again you can go to Instagram and check it out and kind of see like where we played and where we posted and all that stuff um but for an island that you when you’re kind of pulling in you don’t think it’s too hilly there is a lot of Rolling Hills that these golf courses are built on which makes it a very exciting place to go play it was obviously very I’m sure everyone has experienced the heat w we all had this last week we got to play in it so um again you never need to warm up when it’s 85 degrees outside and humid which is you know a nice thing when you kind of get a little older you know you get a little old and cranky U and so went went from Glasgow Hills which was a wonderful experience uh we played with two women from Vancouver actually from basically the other side of the country who had just come out by themselves so I was completely outnumbered as my wife two of these women from Vancouver and me which I’m sure is a rarity when it comes to running into the the odd group that you’re going to play with and then we also played Anderson’s Creek which is more of a local track um and I I say that just because like there were so many people out there for like a what do we play we played on the Wednesday place was jammed it was men’s night and the only regret that I have from Anderson Creek was while we were playing my wife was inches literally inches away from a hole in one and we’re standing back that’s the literal worst thing that you can can do we fil so we were shooting so many like videos of us playing golf and then all of a sudden I get talking to someone and we’re standing there and she hits the shot and it’s little par three and it hits a slope and it’s kind of at the bottom of this I wouldn’t call it a funnel but at the bottom of this like two-tier green and we’re standing there and all of a sudden we are screaming at each other because this thing is going right for the hole we’re like no please please please I’m like I want we wanted to go in it would be her second hole in one I’ve never had one um how many years has your wife been playing golf for oh she’s been playing golf since she was a teenager okay a lot of people think here this is the other thing people always ask me they’re like oh must have been great when you got your wife Golf and you can take her golfing no no no no no she played golf before she met me which I think she’s got a really good swing by the way she you know what you know what yeah like it’s it’s it’s incredibly efficient and I say that and people people ask me thinking like I did any of this and I did do I have no i’ other than like helping her with her gear uh which she’s got basically a bag full of Zio stuff right now which which helps a lot because of like her swing speed and everything um I have no responsibility for her golf swing whatever so like people are like oh you know all that stuff I have nothing to do with it great lesson for people who are curious about getting other people into golf get them lessons right away with an instructor so when if when you’re talking about laying down the Baseline for like creating good fundamentals she didn’t play for like 10 years and that’s the go swing she had after kind of getting back into it like three years ago because obviously we have kids and we moved and do all these other things right so um yeah no anyways she almost had a ho in one which I was very upset that I didn’t film and yeah the other guys we were playing with were freaking out well first of all we were excited because we thought we were going to drink for free um and then we the next day we we ended up going and playing another course which again was right near us we all all these courses were in the Cavendish area of of Pi and uh it was Eagles Glenn another great Golf Course was so much fun to play and I think the big thing that kind of really ties it all together is the fact that because if you’re in one area all these golf courses are within I would say like I think less than 10 minutes to get to any single one of these golf courses lots of food options around one of the places we went for for dinner was called the table last year we did this big tasting where it was all like local food and drink and we did that this year again at at another place and it was seven course meal we had scallops we had Lobster we had um like local local cheeses local wines it was wonderful again it was called the table and those are the kind of things where you know when you’re when you’re at home and you you just don’t get to go experience those kind of things so to be able to do it and and try and have the chef come out and talk to you about all of the different foods it was uh it was really really cool and also last but not least if you’re in pi eat oysters if you if you don’t you should just you should get kicked off the island yeah and and to to that point again like my wife was never someone who was like into seafood at all I love sushi as you’ve experienced many times anytime we’re out hanging out if I don’t if I don’t get pizza the next option is going to be Sushi and uh she she doesn’t like sushi she doesn’t mind like lobster and stuff like obviously it was like it was an option for the meal and she tried it and she enjoyed it but um oysters she was so scared when we went in the fall that like she’s like I don’t want to eat oyster like it’s it’s not going to be great she loved it and then of course every time we’re at a restaurant we’re looking for other places where we can get oysters and uh yeah it was it was awesome so um again from a vacation perspective I think if again Couples golf we saw lots of of men’s groups out there played with two women who traveled there just to play by them El and enjoy a golf trip it’s an awesome destination whether it’s food golf just exploring and hanging out and seeing all the stuff that is available to do on the island it is a is a great place to hang out and I I highly recommend it there we go RB got a uh a nice little getaway love hearing that man that’s a sounds like a cool place I’ve never been there before but I I need I need to need to figure it out at some point I can’t you and I go maybe you and I go on on a on a buddy’s trip there we go I’m I’m telling there’s no traffic it is unbelievable I every time I ask someone I’m like is there ever any traffic like the the biggest city charlott town is like 25 30,000 people and we got our bags popped out in like 10 less than 10 minutes after getting off the flight you grab your bags you go to your car it’s just like it’s one of those places where you’re like why can’t travel be this easy all the time like I just wish it was that easy all the time but yeah it was great that’s awesome all right well let’s shift gears from a little bit of travel talk to some gear talk because that’s the only reason you listen to this podcast anyway uh as I mentioned there have been a couple of releases in the last yeah like two two three weeks that have been ging traction out on tour one of them is has been more noticeable that would be title GT they launch the drivers in the fairways a memorial they you know and I don’t think a lot of people realize this because they had 13 in play 13 drivers in play the very first week of Memorial and if you go back and look if you’re a gear sio like like me you would say well what was what were the numbers in the past and they had 18 when TSR released however that was when Memorial was a full field event now it’s now it’s a limited field event so 13 and play that very first week is is pretty good and they’ve been adding players I saw that uh that Jake knap added a tital GT driver to the bag so they they’re getting some guys that aren’t under contract so that’s that’s the one that’s more of the known the one that isn’t as discussed and that’s just because it’s been more of a quiet release out on tour is is the new Callaway Opus wedge and this is an interesting one RB because you actually did a little bit of digging into all the guys that are playing this new wedge and it it you know as far as we know it’s it’s going to be the it’s going to be the the followup this is no longer underneath the the Jaws name we’re going to a brand new name and we can discuss a little bit about that but this wedge is taking off man you got a lot of guys out on tour that are playing right now yeah um I mean shafley been using prototypes since the PJ Championship Chris Kirks had him in the bag Adam had one a baa had another solid finish this past week at The Travelers Nikolai hogart which was interesting cuz I believe it was Nikolai was at the Canadian open went for a day and on even on the Sunday um when he was on the Range and kind of like walking around and like left the bag down I went over and like Snapped some pictures real quick Alex noren Eric Van and royan EVR and another person too which I think we should note which I think is really cool about this because we’re talking about major championships is yuk casasso had one in the bag uh when she had her US Open win so she was playing with a prototype there as well so there’s been a lot of up ick on this and I think a lot of it has to do with just the the fact that they’ve we’ve been watching the way that they’ve been developing wedges for a long time and we’ve seen prototypes out there for I want say almost 18 months now of like different versions they’ve been testing we snapped pictures in rah’s bag I’ve had prototypes in Kirk’s bag that I’ve spotted you know seen different ones on the van and the prototypes when you’re looking at them they don’t look that much different from each other but um there is obviously like tweaks as far as the big one shaping Soul shaping transition into the hosle which is a which is a factor of you know just looks from a dress and then the other one too which I thought was fascinating is there’s not just the Opus there’s the Opus Platinum which is a multimaterial wedge sets tungsten up higher now as far as we aware right now it’s only in the the higher lofted wedges but this is something where we are continuing to see companies play with mass when it comes to wedges and it’s all to do with center of gravity because as we talked about just like with drivers as we can as you not we I don’t design the wedges but as you move Mass around in these Club as you create tighter Windows tighter launch Windows tighter spin Windows just like again just like we talk about with drivers you create ball speed consistency and I I think we saw that a couple years ago now with the wedge testing from Muno right they had a lot of mass put up out towards the toe and up high and we saw that launch lower and spun more in our robot testing so I’m like super curious to see an opus versus an opus platinum on a on jeans robot and seeing how they launch how they spin because when we’re talk about tour pickup a lot of guys don’t change Scotty Sheffer I know we’re going to get to him Scotty sheer hasn’t changed a thing in his bag since the beginning of the year other than his driver and his ferwood but um you know his wedges I think he’s still got SM eights or Nines in the bag so yeah sm8 right so like he’s not going to he’s not going to change just for the sake of changing which I thought was I remember going to the launch at the AMX and D Aaron Dill was like hey Scotty I got we got wedges for you here if you want and he just goes just send them to my house like no just no interest like thanks so much appreciate it right but to have for free wedges exactly thanks guys um but to see them go through this whole Pro this very long drawn out process of prototyping having prototypes out on tour and then seeing them in the bag like I think we’re going to see a lot more call staffers continue to pick these up and just like with the tiess drivers we might start to see more players who aren’t staff players gravitate gravitate into these wedges so uh that will be a very interesting story to follow and I’m I’m kind of really interested to hear the technology story behind it I feel like the Opus name is a relationship to Roger Cleveland this being his his last club wedges that he was involved in I know he’s he’s working on another project now and kind of I would say semi-retired so um from a from a design perspective from a name perspective I think they they’ve got something here and it it’s obviously proven when we talk about results on the golf course for the best players in the world yeah you mentioned some of the some of the changes with with this one and I know you’ve seen it out on tour when you’re at the Canadian open what are some of the things that you’re noticing I’m curious if our notes match up I think it I would say that the the transitional shape between the Lofts to me from what I seen um is something that we’re starting to see from more companies because players are moving into those those stronger Loft you know the pitching wedge wedges that players are using from their iron sets and then into the the lob wedges which I’ve seen up close and really had the chance to look over is they have a a I know it’s a piece of metal but like a very organic shape it’s very very pleasing and I think it’s going to be something where you know you get that face open and you have this this really nice doesn’t sometimes you open a wedge and if the Leading Edge is like really straight or there’s a funky transition in the hosle or the Leading Edge is very round all of a sudden it kind of looks little odd like you’re trying to aim it with a part of the wedge or not you shouldn’t really be trying to aim with right either you’re trying to use the grooves or using a different part of the Leading Edge that you shouldn’t and I think that they’ve talked so much about shaping when I had the chance to hold one of these 60 degrees and kind of play with it I think that from a from a looks perspective not just from the standard stock shot but from that manipulation standpoint I think it’s something that players are really liking because that’s the shots that they hit a lot with these clubs yeah it this one to me looks more traditional than than the previous Jaws um just a little bit more of a rounder shape to it kind of seeing that up more in the in the toe they look they look incredibly clean the only the only like feedback that I’ve heard is people don’t like the name but but I just I don’t think kind of like you said I think that it’s tied to this being Rogers Opus not entirely sure but that would that would make the most sense but people are like I don’t like the name well you call whatever you want call yeah if it’s it’s if it’s your if you’re Roger Cleveland it’s your last wedge then you yeah you can call whatever you want I think Opus is pretty good so anyway call had a driver called the ft3 the ft5 they had a driver called the Diablo now whether that was a good performer or sold or people liked it or whatever like lots of names have come and gone in the golf industry Opus is like it’s it’s pretty not to like say that it’s a bad name but it’s kind of like very unoffensive versus a lot of things right yeah yeah what if you were to go go down the list of of Callaway names not not to go off the rails here but which which one’s your favorite I have a favorite like just fa like favorite that I really like yeah like like names yeah what what what like club name did you really like I mean big birth is so freaking iconic like it’s actually such a cool like name just in general um I actually you know what it doesn’t come I like the soul like the solstice line yeah which which was a women’s line sold a lot of those clubs back in the day I always really liked that L and I thought the name was really good too had a cool little logo it was a son and for me I just thought that was like a pretty cool brand from a branding perspective from the logo persp perspective I thought that was actually like one of their their best ones they’ve ever done you know it’s kind of interesting they don’t kind of continue to run with that yeah I liked warbird yeah War Bird pretty it it was tied to the to the big birtha name but yeah warbird was pretty cool I did like that you know we we talked there about like traditional versus non-traditional and you know a name can matter it doesn’t matter but one place where a name does matter and something we talk about a lot here is reverse taper cuz what isn’t a name right a what is it a rose by any other name would still be a rose or something like that I don’t know Shakespeare whatever would smell sweet yes exactly that’s it high school English classes here right but reverse taper it is in the name and it is from Golf Pride and we have to let you know that fully equipped is brought to you by the fine folks at Golf Pride and their reverse taper grip the thing with the reverse taper grip as the name suggests is it offers a reverse taper so rather than being bigger in the top and smaller in the bottom it is bigger in the OR sorry smaller in the top hand and bigger at the bottom what this helps do and it has been proven through testing versus standard and just perfectly parallel style putter grips is that it helps you square the face more often at impact that moment of impact is the most crucial element whether it be with a driver or an iron or a wedge or a putter especially with a putter because when we talk about being one degree off at impact that means on a 10-ft butt you’re going to miss it one degree think of how important that is and the reverse taper helps you control that moment of impact better and when it comes to different shapes there is the round the pistol and the flat the round universally popular for a lot of different grip Styles the pistol grip more for those classic golfers that prefer to for right-handers right hand low it puts the pistol in the top hand really helps lock it in so again it keeps that hand still and helps silence that lower hand which is what that reverse taper design is supposed to do and then you have the flat it’s a more oval-shaped grip it’s designed for again all different styles works really well for Palm to Palm so for those golfers who like to kind of Interlock in a parallel style and run their thumbs right down the the front of the grip it works really well for that or what I’ve also seen claw pistol and the flat work really great for those claw or pencil style grips because again it just really makes it easy to lock in and Beyond those three Siz three shapes there are two different sizes there is the medium and the large and if you want to learn more you head over to golf pride.com to check out the entire line of their reverse taper putter grips as well as their entire selection of full swing grips as well all right it’s got a shuffler time because we haven’t talked enough about him on this podcast but the guy just went the guy just went out RB you know I I think back a week ago when he’s wrapping up at Pinehurst and everybody’s starting to wonder like what’s up with Scotty I mean what’s up with Scotty he he had he had a bad week and he still he still made he still made the weekend so it to me it just it’s like wow okay well then he goes and shuts everybody up and he wins the next week and let me tell you coming off coming off a a major championship to have to go to Travelers I mean you have to go low at that golf course it’s funny RB I was actually when I was still working for the PGA Tour I covered um and this is people are going to be like what what what the hell but yeah when I was at the tour I was actually covering tournaments in addition to gear so I was covering the tournament when furck shot 58 I was on site covering it for the PJ tour which is still crazy to me because I woke up that morning and I’m like ah leaders go off late and check my phone I go out for a run and I checked my phone and I’m like man it’s got to be something wrong with it and refresh again and FK was was heading to the back nine and you’re like oh my gosh so I’m like scrambling to get my stuff in the car anyway that that tournament all has a camon young shot 59 he doesn’t hold the course record I know which is just insane and it’s also crazy that of all the guys to shoot 58 it’s Jim furck exactly yeah you think about it’s like you gotta be a bomber you got you gotta gotta get a bunch of eagles without just Jim just be Jim fck Fairways greens make out birdies yeah it’s it was just just a crazy round anyway so you have to go low there and Sheffer comes off off of the US Open with everybody questioning what’s going on and he wins The Travelers for win number six and here’s the wild thing I don’t if you saw this a couple people posted some comparisons to Tiger’s first first 15 starts in 2000 compared to Scotty’s and they’re almost identical except Scotty has 40 rounds in the 60s the Tigers 32 and he has um about a stroke better scoring average now as a lot of people mentioned tiger won three majors in 2000 pretty decent season it’s it’s also the you know it’s it’s leading right into what we like to call the tiger slam so he had a he had a decent year in 2000 Scotty just has one major he still has one more left the Open Championship um but man the guy has been an absolute machine and as you mentioned a little bit ago he hasn’t made any changes and and I wrote a story today for golf.com just going back and highlighting the fact that for as much as we talk about Scotty’s switch in the putter he he changed another piece of gear this year he changed the driver he also changed I guess you could say he changed the three-wood too because he’s also into qi1 and the 3-wood but he he switched to the tailor made Q10 driver and it’s it’s one that we’ve discussed a bunch on this podcast it’s not the ls version it it is the true core head The Standard Version and it’s the one that Rory maroy is playing and a bunch other guys have have been using that version as well this year and I think this also goes to something that people were noticing is a lot of guys that were switching into titles GT were opting for the GT2 versus the GT3 and you know and so I was going back and it’s it’s like I’m I’m writing the story a little bit I’ll let you into my brain a bit on this one but I wanted to write about Scotty’s driver I had spilled probably 2,000 words talking about his switch to to the qi1 this year but I just wanted to kind of give people a little bit of a reminder you this guy’s won six times everybody’s going to be talking about the putter because it’s it’s that hot club in his bag but Scotty Sheffer for as good as he has been with the driver and last year was probably his best year ever with the driver he he led the tour in Strokes gain off the te he was more than a stroke better than than his peers off the te that is crazy good um he’s almost at the exact same place this year but it’s interesting as I was going down and comparing RB I’m like all right pretty similar and strokes gain off the te total driving he’s he’s significantly better this year and I’m like okay there’s something going on um driving distance he’s he’s a little bit down this year as far as his distance but when you get down to and this is the crazy part when you get down to his accuracy last year he was he hit 6 2% of his Fairways that number jumped to almost 72% this year that’s a lot that’s a lot for a tour pro especially as far as he hits it like that’s the other that’s I think we don’t we don’t bring that into like the the equation a lot of times which I know people have talked about you could use distance versus like your dispersion cone and all that stuff but to to jump that that’s what two two extra Fairways basic basically almost um around a golf which is crazy yeah and for a guy who if you put him in the Fairway you know what seven times out of 10 on a par four I mean he he’s so good that I would almost I would almost like just bet on him every time to make can I be really honest with you so even before the playoff and I know it’s not overly difficult because we’ve done it whatever six times this year yeah I had his what’s in the bag his Winter’s bag like ready to go I was just I’m like I’m not jinxing him like he’s going to like there’s someone’s going to do something and it got to the playoff and Tom Kim and him are both in the Fairway I think Tom Kim no no Tom Kim missed a little right I think but oh no he did stay in the fair anyways like Tom Kim came short and hit in the bunker and Scotty just hit it to 12 feet and I was like it’s over I’m G to go send this over to our you know we we all work together we to way things are published and I was like oh it’s over now soon as that shot got on the green I was like no it’s fine it’s too far chance making that pretty low low percentage wise um just because there is there is there’s there’s almost this like weird sense of inevitability like he was two shots back I think starting the front nine and I was like he’s going to chase him down like his his his Strokes gain total just adds up to like he’s gonna chase him down yep and he did it was nuts yeah he chased him down he’s been doing it and I I get the sense from watching tournaments that it it it just feels like guys are starting to recognize that when they feel it’s and it’s I can’t remember the last time maybe Rory during stretches but but not even like this like this is a guy who it’s not like he’s he’s getting on a hot streak it’s it’s he’s at the table and he just he he can’t lose and if you look at every basically every time he teases with the exception of the US Open he’s right there in the mix and that’s got to be terrifying for for some of the other guys and I know everybody says oh they’re all buddies out there and this version of the PGA Tour isn’t nearly as Cutthroat as when tiger was out there and I would agree to some extent I think there’s a lot of like buddy buddy but Scotty sheffer’s not not that guy I I think he’s friendly but he is so and again I’ve heard this from from other guys that know him and just from being out on tour he’s just ultra competitive even though it doesn’t really show and and kind of you know he’s the the southern gentleman but that that guy’s a stone cold killer and I think I think his peers are starting to recognize like a there’s there’s Scotty he’s a couple shot like you said he’s a couple shots back at the lead and you start looking at the leaderboard because you know he’s there you know he’s just hanging around and he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes that’s the thing and those those are the worst guys to have behind you because then you start getting in your own head like okay well I can’t miss this putt man because if I miss this Scotty I know Scotty’s going to be making another birdie in the next hole or two and my leads my lead’s gonna g to shrink so yeah he’s just he’s he’s so consistent but yeah to be to be almost 72% from 62% in Fairways hit for for a guy that’s that good with his irons it’s it’s game over most times I think the other part of it too and this and I think this is it it’s a credit to no offense to the the bishop at the PGA Championship because I know Ted Scott isn’t there this kind of wasn’t it wasn’t one of his best rounds um but the the way that they guide them they work their way around the golf course is what I think creates this like really interesting Dynamic especially when we talk about the US Open because he said like the randomness of the rough created issues like mentally it was harder because you didn’t know where to miss because you can say the right side’s better to miss but you’re gonna you could as as I know Alan Basel one of our editors literally analyzed every single one of the lies that Bryson got in the waste areas at the final round of the US Open some want to say they got they got lucky some want to say you know whatever it was right like he he drew good lies it’s just is what it is but that could have easily gone the other way and he could have had three terrible lives right he could not have advanced It Whatever all of those things happen in a golf tournament and you know at the end of the day they all factor out for everybody when they miss Fairways and all that stuff and I think for Scotty and and Ted like the way that they guide themselves around the golf course and know where to miss it and know where to place shots to give themselves the next chance and the fact that his short games really good so you don’t see them have those big misses and that was the one thing that really stood out in the playoff and Tom Kim h a great shot to get into the playoff in the first place but no Scotty didn’t miss that shot he didn’t miss that approach shot and all of a sudden the pressure is on Tom Kim to like well if I I hit the bunker now I have to I have to get up and down like he’s not going to he’s not going to he literally puted it to like two two inches and it was over but it’s it’s the the the shot selection which helps off the tea which helps all these things add up that it’s just it is such impressive golf to watch and although he’s not like tiger dynamic or Phil dynamic or Rory exciting the the level at which he performs at makes it extremely interesting to watch especially now as your point when he’s chasing down guys who have come out and they are head it’s like what’s he going to do like what are the shots he’s going to hit that is’s going to put himself in the position and he just keeps doing it he keeps doing it and it is it is a it is a very very impressive thing to watch and that the interesting like again he switched from a Nike fairywood which he used for like seven years basically used it out of college I know I know Scotty looks like he’s 45 but he’s not that old and he’s used that Nike fairywood forever then he got into a stealth or stealth two he was a I think it was the stealth 2 then it was the uh the qi1 like he just he like immediately switched which goes to show how much time and effort they’re putting into that because he sit some wonderful shots this year with that golf club and that is a club that when it’s your only fairywood you have to rely on it for a lot of shots and whatever they got cooking in that that qi1 like standard model like it’s working like it’s working very very well not just for Scotty but it’s in the bag of a lot of players too yeah um I think also what what I see when I look at his numbers and I see 72% Fairways hit versus 62% I look at some of the data that we saw during during robotic testing and we’re seeing it it’s not just from tailor made we’re seeing it from other manufacturers as well but this ability to to negate the big Miss we we saw it on to Misses in particular for for qi1 I mean some of these drivers had had I mean a couple of them had positive had positive carry numbers in relation of Center meaning you were actually gaining distance as you were hitting it out towards the toe which is you know unfathomable if you go back like 10 years but we’ve just slowly started to see this you know everybody would always talk about ah the next driver coming out it’s going to be 10 yards further that’s going to be the the claim well now the claim is that you’re going to get and I oh as I’m saying this I can hear uh Andy Johnson and God God God bless the fried egg I love I love Brandon I love Brandon and Andy they they two of my favorite dudes but I know they’re they’re big on driver roll back and in any time that I bring this up I always wait for Andy to respond anything to do with with with minimizing the misses and I know there are a lot of people out there that want to see the pros penalized for a Miss yep there he is folks RB I’m in the same camp but we’re we’re we’re going in the opposite direction RB we’re we’re going in the opposite direction buddy get 15 handicaps as much help as they need man on it but it is crazy I think this year more than any other I was going through the data and you start to see yeah there’s some drivers out there that and typically it’s the low spin anytime you’re moving CG closer to the face you’re you’re gonna have to you I mean at least you thought you did you’re gonna have to give something up that would was typically forgiveness not anymore even even like this year with the the Callaway Paradigm AI smoke the Triple Diamond Head that that thing was not not unforgiving it it had some spots on the head and again we’re swinging this that I just said 95 mph so it’s an average golfer swing speed but the the Deltas on on carry in relation to Center and the other eight Mish hit locations on the face not that bad so yeah we’re we’re moving away from that and and the pros are benefiting in a big way because if a guy like Scotty Sheffer he’s not missing big if he’s able to miss just a little bit on you know heel or toe he’s probably seeing pretty similar numbers and and it’s going to it’s going to stay close to to where he would see it if he was hitting a dead nuts out of the middle so yeah I think I think Scotty’s number there that that Fairways hit percentage I think it directly ties to what we’re seeing in the the robotic data which is more consistent clubs less you know less penalizing misses and I I think that we can all and someone asked me this question on Instagram a little while ago um like who do you credit as like one of the best innovators in golf and I I said to be you know if I’m going to be very honest it’s going to be Carson solheim because of like you know cavity back irons the answer putter um the swing robot no offense to Jean he had I think I think Carson probably had his one his first um the Ping Man but it’s almost like we we saw this trend where like Ping had the LST and their goal was to take a forgiving driver and make it lower Spin and lower Spin and lower spin where we have seen other companies go the other direction where they’ve created very long low spin drivers and they’re trying to continue to add forgiveness right it’s almost like they started at different ends of this spectrum and trying to work to find like you know the Unicorn as we like to say and that’s why call I think is also released the the the max triple diamond right the the slightly lower spin slightly more forgiveness option because just to your point with what talking about Scotty like yes you can talk about Cameron young hit four Fairways when he shot his 59 I think it was no sorry not four I think he hit six Fairways um when he shot his 59 but there’s still data that’s going to show that over the long run especially too not just for tour players who blasted over 300 yards but for average golfers not just hitting it further but hitting it a little bit straighter again looking at those dispersion cones helps so much more when we talk about players that are average swing speed players which is why we tested average swing speeds because if you can hit a little bit further and you can control your misses and you’re still going to get that distance out of those golf clubs there is a massive massive benefit to the potential of hitting your next shot closer that’s a relationship to distance as well as lie and so you know to your point like Scotty hitting 10% more Fairways is a ridiculous statistic and I think it just comes down to this me melding of technology that maybe is the most beneficial to players that are in the higher handicap level but because tour players have access to it of course they’re going to use it I’m not saying that they shouldn’t use it okay I’m not the rules of golf are what they are right now and I’m argueing against that I think down the line we should see them pun punished a little bit more it’s always fun when we get those old throwback videos Everyone goes nuts over them when it’s like look how far you know look at that Miss holy smokes like yeah it’d be kind of fun to watch one of those once in a while down the stretch there folks um but there is that that ability for players to get dialed in and this applies to Scotty just as it does to the average golfer at there finding those clubs that are going to get you off the tea more often into the right places is a massive massive Advantage yeah it does make me wonder and I know we’re we’re in June right now but like what changes is he going to make for next season if if he continues on this trajectory he’s at six wins you’ve still got one major left you still have the playoffs I I think he’ll probably shut it down and and not play much during the the fall and maybe we’ll see him Mor hero but let’s just say he wins let just say he wins three more times let’s say he gets a nine I mean that that would be really difficult and I and look Adrien Reed Feld is is one of the best tour reps on the PJ tour and and Taylor Made is Taylor Made is damn lucky to have him but gosh that would be tough with for the guy with you know nine wins like how do you how do you bump that stuff maybe you just say hey let it ride and and Adrian when I talked to him for the story on Scotty’s driver he mentioned to me that they had started working on on qi1 pre- Rider cup that’s when they did the initial testing so it started way back and and that was a very a very lengthy and thoughtful dialogue that they had and and Scotty was very open and honest with him as they were working through some tweaks of the driver but it does make me want that also one other thing that it does make me wonder about as as I’m going through my uh my small brain right now is got is spinning but Midway through through 2024 what which equipment manufacturer do you think is is having the biggest and best year are we talking tour or like retail sales or anything like that tour well maybe could maybe you could tie to to retail sales I think it has to be like it has to be tailor made like they’ve like Scotty’s percentage win wise I think is like the stand out then you have Rory who’s who’s won some and you’ve got the freaking spider putter which feels like everyone’s using it at the moment again y um which is insane and uh I would have to I would have to guess Taylor Made yeah that’s what I’m thinking too I’m I’m thinking it’s I’m thinking it has to be tailor made you know one thing before we before we move on speaking of tailor made for anyone who’s curious about maybe you know grabbing themselves a qi1 driver or anything else including a spider putter you know where you can find those things at Fairway jock .c they offer the world’s most extensive collection of aftermarket cha and customer equipment built to tour level specifications not only that they offer the lowest prices on custom buil clubs and up to 20% less than the average Club fitter quote from the nation’s top club Fitters and for you fully equipped listeners you can take an extra 10% off using the code fully equipped f l l y e Qi p p d we are talking less than 30% than those quotes that you might get from other uh Club Fitters and not only that if you are looking for those small batch items things like The Limited Cobra irons or limited edition say bet nardy Putters or Scotty Cameron putters or you’re looking for new artera shafts or vent shafts we just talked about the uh you know the Ventus profiles if you’re looking for any of those things head over to Fairway jockey.com use code fully equipped and get yourself loaded up with new gear today oh by the way Ventus red and black now joining the blue so the I was going to sink that in there but I was we didn’t even talk about it yet yeah yeah The Branding the Ventus products I mean it’s we we knew it was coming then we’re just going to leave it at blue but yeah that’s out I’m I’m excited to try those have you tried any of the the new Venta stuff yet I’ve got a blue and I I’ve quite liked it I think the general feedback from what like I’ve done I’ve talked to other I talked to other club Fitters down at the uh at the PGA show this year Fuji had a a thing where you could you could go outside and actually hit them at at a local range they’re actually like shling people back and forth if you want to go hit them so you hit him outside which I think was a really cool way that they did that um they feel smoother now I know feel is subjective and we talked about this many many times but the consensus from a lot of the play and I talk to multiple players like everyone we talking different tempos different swing speeds all that stuff and the general consensus was that it felt uh Lively I guess would be the term you would use or it just it just felt like it was easier to load obviously a lot of different stable profiles now we’ve got the red the blue and the black which relate to the again it is still the Ventus line it is their premium line for generally better players but there are also lots of flexes and weight categories in in this line so when I say the better player I mean the red is still a it’s not the super high launch Mega ultral light shaft they do come in ultr light they come in an R2 but again we’re talking about the general category altogether so you’ve got a high launch a mid- launch and a lower launch or another way to categorize it because I know we’ talked about this many times when it comes to shafts players that might not transition as fast more of something that can fit a lot of different players and then the black option which is the one for players that might have a quicker transition little stiffer in the handle and even with that like that stiffness that built up section that’s going to offer that extra stability still feels softer still feels easier to load with without giving up control which is I think what a lot of players are looking for nowadays and we’ve seen this trend too we like I know it’s long drive but guys like M Martin bomgardner and a lot of players out there using basically senior Flex shafts because it helps them gain more Club head speed to so to think of applying not necessarily that going super soft but applying the idea that a shaft can feel more lively it feels like it’s going to load more create more more ball speed because of the stability all that built in and now you’ve gone from one option to three option and yes this was probably the least best kept secret in golf especially when they launch the the velor plus the blue and you start you saw like the promo and they’d be like see like a black shaft in the background or a red shaft in the background it’s like we know it’s coming so when is it coming and I think the biggest thing is these shafts have been so popular like d Ventus has been an extremely popular shaft and I I wrote about this today when when with their launch like talking and discussing the launch is that the reason these things don’t get launched all at the same time is because they’re literally keeping up to inventory like they are trying to make sure that when they announce it you can go into your local Club fitter and order it they don’t want to just say it and then you have to wait four months for one of these things so that’s why there are these staggered starts with a lot of these companies especially graphite shafts that are made in not like massive massive batches because of the materials that are used and the tolerances that are being kept right so I think this is a great addition to the line and so you’ve had the original around for a while you’ve got the TR is not going anywhere and then you’ve got the new V core Plus which is going to think work for again for a lot of players that um again is a little bit more lively and feel and you know speaking of like getting TR speec they did a video on it we didn’t cover it but they did a video on it today you can find it on the YouTube channel so uh pretty cool way to like dive into it with it yeah for sure all right so we’re going to wrap up one thing I did want to point out so the prev the Pod before the interview last week we were discussing Seymour and they’re they were releasing 300 the last batch of 300 Putters of the the special limited edition pain St Putter and it was you know built to his exact specs down of the grip and um I was talking about how cool it was and it’s funny you know I you never are quite sure who listens to the podcast but I did have somebody reach out on on the Seymour side and say hey uh we’ll uh we’ll save one of these for you and I was like don’t I I mean that’s very nice but I I could just go I I could buy one like if I want to get one I’ll I’ll buy it and uh and so my dad showed up here at the at at our house today and he handed me a box and I’m like what the what’s this box it’s a looks like a golf club box and sure enough my dad bought me the putter nice guy that he is I love him that was just like it’s like a really cool moment like he handed me the box and I opened it up and I was like oh my gosh it’s the Seymour so shout out to my dad for uh for making my year that was a cool really cool gift and uh I got to find a place for it now but it’s got the it’s got the engraved plates and everything so you kind of what how was that how was that little plate because I thought the plate was like really cool yeah the Plate’s really cool but it also has one that that I didn’t realize is a part of the the whole like presentation which is basically like this is a you know special for for you know pay Stewart’s win at the 99 US Open and the you know the Putt and anyway I don’t it’s it’s over here in my in my golf closet right now but yeah it’s it’s it’s pretty awesome man I I I’m super jacked to have to have it here so anyway shout out to him for for making that happen um anyway all right on on the on the that sap you note let’s wrap up uh episode as it says up here 246 of fully equipped we’re getting close to 250 um as always if you want more gear goodness check us out on the social channels we are at folf on YouTube and Instagram and _ equipped on Twitter hopefully Uncle Jean and S killer will be back next week if not you’re just gonna get being RB rambling for another week we showing off our new logo what could go wrong yeah us showing off the new logo what could go wrong no I think I think RB and St killer and Uncle jeene will all be here so we we’ll get the whole crew and kick around some more topics thanks is all for listening we’ll see you next week
1 Comment
Dad of the year ! Awesome