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A full lineup of Team TaylorMade athletes are in the field this week at the PGA Tour’s premier event, The Players Championship. Billed as the fifth major, it annually attracts one of the strongest fields in golf. In fact, the only thing that matches the strength of the field, is the strength of the venue. Pete Dye’s Stadium Course is a firm test of golf that requires strategy, intent and execution. Blinders would also help because it’s hard to ignore all that water.
Speaking of the wet stuff, heavy rains postponed the start of the opening round and took some of the teeth out of the course. Give Tour pros a soft track, and they’re going to throw darts. That’s exactly what Team TaylorMade’s Tommy Fleetwood did, jumping out to an early lead with an opening round 66 (6-under par).
Many players are just getting started, including Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and the newly-signed Scottie Scheffler. They only completed a few holes of their opening rounds before darkness set in. With more thunderstorms threatening to roll in and delays imminent, this year’s Players Champion will need to endure a marathon of patience and fine play.
Let’s look at WITB for each Team TaylorMade athlete vying for the title, starting with Scheffler who comes in having just won in Orlando.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER
World No. 5 Scottie Scheffler joins the squad after collecting wins in two of his last three starts (at the WM Phoenix Open and Bay Hill). The Texas native is very familiar with the performance of TaylorMade equipment, as he’s played P·7TW irons for more than a year. He added a Stealth Plus 8° driver to the bag to start the 2022 season and saw average ball speed gains of 3.4 mph (177.4 mph with Stealth Plus vs 174.0 with previous gamer) and carry gains of just over 11 yards (305.8 with Stealth Plus vs 294.7 with previous gamer).
“During our initial driver fitting, we were working on the range into a pretty substantial wind. He was delivering some amazingly consistent golf shots. Without us being able to test on course, he turns up at his first event of the year with only one driver in his bag, which shows how confident he was with the club. I guess the rest is history. The results are showing up in tournament play, and the stats confirm how much the added speed has helped him.” Adrian Rietveld, Senior Tour Rep
RORY McILROY
Rory comes to Ponte Vedra with the same bag he used the prior week at Bay Hill. He’s keeping the P·790 3-iron in play (click here for the full download) and added fresh MG3 wedges to the bag. Earlier this year, he made the decision to switch to high-bounce soles in all of his wedges and immediately noticed a lower and more controlled flight. He also noted how much better the club slid through the turf with, especially from 50-75 yards. In soft conditions this week, the high bounce should provide Rory added benefits around these treacherous greens.
COLLIN MORIKAWA
When it comes to fairway woods, Collin’s old reliable is hard to beat. Headed into this week he tested three new Stealth Plus Rocket 3-woods with varying lofts in the range of 13°. He’s also spent a fair amount of time testing the new Spider GT putter, but when considering how well he rolled it in his last outing (+2.072 Strokes Gained Putting at the Genesis Invitational) he’s likely to stick with his MyTP Juno longneck for the immediate future. Collin made the switch to Stealth Plus driver out of the gate and has enjoyed average ball speed gains of 2 mph compared to 2021.
“This is the first time I’ve…seen that jump, which is great. Anytime you can get a little more ball speed, get a little more distance, it’s going to be helpful. The carbon creates a feel that you normally wouldn’t get off a titanium face, and it’s unbelievable.” Collin Morikawa
DUSTIN JOHNSON
DJ takes on the Stadium Course with a TP Bandon 3 putter equipped with LA Golf Black Soho shaft. It measures out to 37” with 2° of loft, a 69° lie angle and is finished with a Super Stroke Pistol GT 1.0 grip. The rest of his bag has been the same since the Genesis Invitational, when he swapped out his trusted Rescue for a 3-iron that matches is DJ Proto irons.
TOMMY FLEETWOOOD
Tommy set atop the leaderboard after his opening round 66, powered by his Stealth Plus 9° driver and TP5x pix. He’s added 3 mph of ball speed on average compared to 2021. This week’s soft conditions make for a ball strikers paradise, and Tommy is taking dead aim with his P·7TW irons and firing at pins. He’s using pix with ClearPath Alignment to roll putts on precision lines. He switched to pix late last year (click here for the full story), believing that it gives him a competitive advantage on the putting surface.
LUCAS HERBERT
Last week, Herbert did something you rarely see on Tour. He switched gear mid-tournament. After inquiring about the Red Spider GT, we built one to his specs on Tuesday with a single bend hosel. He rolled it well in testing but came to the first tee on Thursday with his longtime Spider X gamer. On Friday, however, the GT had taken spot in the bag, and he went on to finish the week first in Strokes Gained Putting (+2.118) and T7 overall. It was a courageous performance given how firm and slick the greens were.
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