With one round to play at the Fortinet Championship, Sahith Theegala said: “I feel like I’m just scrambling my butt off a little bit.” It was more of the same on Sunday en route the 25-year-old’s first career PGA Tour win. Holding on to a five-shot lead at one point at Silverado Resort’s North Course, Theegala kept the momentum going with a big up-and-down from 36 yards for par on the par-4 13th hole. He followed it with a huge right-to-left sweeper from 20 feet for a birdie on 14 that left little doubt who was going to win in California.

Although Theegala never let up on Sunday — he made seven birdies while posting a closing four-under 68 for a two-shot win — there was no denying his short game and work with the putter kept things from going awry during the week. He got up and down 14 of 18 times with his Ping Glide wedges to rank third for the week in scrambling.

Although Theegala uses the Glide 4.0 for his 50- and 54-degree wedges, he sticks with the older Glide 2.0 TS (thin sole) for the lob wedge. “I’ve always preferred less bounce and a thinner sole on the lob wedge,” he told Golf Digest in 2021. “It’s pretty much the only club I use around the greens, even on a long pitch. I’ll just turn it in and hit a hook spinner. I don’t mess with the grinds. I love the way it sits on the ground. I feel like I can really get under the ball.”

He also was good at getting the ball in the hole, too. After ranking 118th in strokes gained/putting last year, he finished second in that category this week, picking up more than nine shots on the field. Theegala’s putter is a Ping TR 1966 Anser 2 model at 37 inches in length and 3 degrees of loft.

Also of note: Theegala switched irons this week to Ping’s Blueprint S model with True Temper Project X shafts.

Theegala averaged 302.8 yards off the tee with his Ping G430 LST driver, which is the low-spin version in the G430 line. “I’ve always fought spin a little with my driver,” Theegala said. “In fact, it was the worst club in my bag until the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. Then I got fitted with the right head, shaft, length and it was game-changing. I’ve always hit down on the driver, so spin has been an issue, but LST is a low-spin driver so things are really good now.”

Even better with PGA Tour win No. 1 under his belt.

What Sahith Theegala had in the bag at the 2023 Fortinet Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G430 LST (Project X HZRDUS TX), 10.5 degrees
5-wood: Ping G430 Max, 18 degrees
Irons (3): Ping i210; (4-PW): Ping Blueprint S
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 54 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (58 degrees)
Putter: Ping TR 1966 Anser 2

The post What’s In My Bag: The clubs Sahith Theegala used to win the 2023 Fortinet Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Schauffele — who started six in arrears — came out swinging, putting up a front-nine 30, yet hardly made a dent as Hovland countered with a 31, starting with a 15-footer for birdie at the first. A dart from 172 yards at the fourth ignited a stretch of three in a row.

The Norwegian used a strong tee-to-green game at East Lake. As he did at the BMW Championship, he led the field in driving accuracy with his 9-degree Ping G425 LST driver with a 45.75-inch Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX shaft. Hovland also used the club to rank first in strokes gained/off-the-tee.

Into the greens, Hovland ranked second in greens in regulation with his Ping i210 irons with KBS Tour-V 120X shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips with one extra wrap of tape underneath.

As Hovland stalled out with a string of nine pars starting at the seventh, Schauffele made inroads with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 to cut the deficit to three. Hovland, however, rolled in a 23-footer for par after a scratchy chip shot at the 14th and then knocked in a 10-footer for birdie at the next to effectively end things. He added a 12-footer for birdie on 17 for good measure then capped it off with another on the 18th hole.

On the greens Hovland uses a Ping PLD DS72 prototype that has a stepless 36-inch shaft and 2.5 degrees of loft. In addition to ranking fifth in strokes gained/putting, he went a perfect 50 for 50 on putts from five feet and in for the week, resulting in a tournament-low two bogeys.

And a season-high pay cheque.

The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus, 15 degrees
Irons (3): Titleist U505; (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 56 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72 prototype

The post The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Early on it looked like a battle between last year’s Masters champion, Scottie Scheffler and US Open winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, but then Viktor Hovland popped into the mix and wouldn’t go away. Hovland birdied four of the last five holes, including the final two for a course record 61 and, more importantly, the BMW Championship title.

Hovland shot a final-nine 28, including a clutch 9-iron at 17 from 154 yards to nine feet and then another from 159 yards at the last to six feet. But it was his work off the tee that set things up for Hovland. The Norwegian star ranked first in driving accuracy, hitting 43 of 56 fairways (76.8 per cent) and second in strokes gained/off the tee, gaining more than four shots on the field.

Putting is sometimes an iffy proposition for Hovland, but he excelled this week, ranking fifth in strokes gained/putting, gaining more than six shots on the field. Hovland’s putter is a Ping PLD DS72 prototype that has a stepless 36-inch shaft and 2.5 degrees of loft.

The iron play was strong as well, as he finished T-3 in greens in regulation and fourth in strokes gained/approach the green with his Ping i210 irons with KBS Tour-V 120X shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips with one extra wrap of tape underneath.

And one more PGA Tour title to his credit.

The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 BMW Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus, 15 degrees
Irons (3): Titleist U505; (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 56 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72 prototype

The post Winner’s Bag: The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 BMW Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Brian Harman likes to hunt big game. So much so that he is known for marking his Titleist Pro V1 ball with lines resembling deer tracks. Now Harman has bagged the biggest title of his career, the 151st British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in a relatively comfortable walk, winning by six shots.

Not that sitting on the lead is ever easy. As he did in Saturday’s third round, Harman put up a couple of early bogeys before settling in with a 13-footer for birdie at the par-3 sixth and a 23-footer at the next that steadied the round after the early wobbles. A 40-footer at the 14th erased all doubt.

The key club for Harman all week was the lone non-Titleist stick in the bag — his venerable TaylorMade’s Spider OS CB — a counterbalanced model similar to the putter he used while employing a belly style of putting prior to the ban that started on January 1, 2016.

For the week, Harman holed nearly 450 feet of putts and gained nearly 11 shots on the field in strokes gained/putting, ranked first for the week. He also made 56 of 57 putts inside 10 feet, a remarkable show of consistency.

Harman’s putter is 35.5 inches in length with 3 degrees of loft. “I’ve always preferred a putter with a lower loft,” Harman told Golf Digest a couple of years ago. “Most have 3 or 4 degrees of loft, but I have only 2 degrees on this putter. This allows me to get the ball rolling without it hopping.” As for the oversized head, Harman said: “I’ve always liked a large, face-balanced mallet. It helps the head stay square through the stroke.”

For his irons, Harman employs an interesting set-up with three Titleist U•500 utility irons with Project X Hzrdus Smoke Black 90HY 6.0 graphite shafts for the 3- through 5-irons and Titleist’s 620 CB irons for the rest of the set with True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 steel shafts.

Harman also excelled off the tee, ranking 15th in strokes gained/off the tee despite averaging only 285 yards per measured tee shot. More importantly, however, Harman ranked first in accuracy with his 9-degree Titleist TSi2 with a Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 5S shaft, an impressive feat considering he used driver more than 70 per cent of the time off the tee.

Not to be overlooked is Harman’s Titleist Pro V1 ball. “I switched to this ball in 2017 from a different company and the effects were immediate,” he said prior to last year’s US Open. “I just was never able to flight my old ball. I had trouble controlling and especially in the wind and we ended up playing so much wind out here. The effects for me were immediate switching to this Pro V and I mean, it’s been a complete 180. The way that I flight iron shots, the way that I control it around the green … I don’t know how many shots it saved me.

“The reason I switched back to Titleist was because of windy days and with Open Championships and major championships in mind. To flight the ball and not have to worry about it getting up and getting out of hand was a big deal.”

Especially when trying to bag the big one.

What Brian Harman had in the bag in winning the 2023 British Open:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Titleist TSi2 (Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 5S), 9 degrees
3-wood: Titleist TS2, 13.5 degrees
Irons (3-5): Titleist U•500; (6-PW): Titleist 620 CB
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (50, 54, 60 degrees)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider OS CB

The post The Open Championship 2023: The clubs Brian Harman used to dominate Royal Liverpool appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Sergio Garcia is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to the equipment he used to win Masters 2017. For years he has ground his own wedges in the TaylorMade tour van. Instead of having wood shafts of different weight (usually there is a 10-gram difference from club to club), he uses Mistubishi’s Kuro Kage Silver 80X in all his woods.

For his TaylorMade P750 Tour Proto irons he puts 30-gram weights in the end of the grip to counterbalance them. Garcia had been using lead tape to accomplish that up until the 2010 Valero Texas Open, when TaylorMade tour techs discovered the availability of the weight plugs that could go into the butt end of the grip. Garcia counterbalances the clubs to make the swingweight feel lighter. The shafts in his irons are Nippon’s Modus 130X model.

Garcia also changed two key components of his equipment this year—his driver (to TaylorMade’s M2 2017) and golf ball (to the company’s five-layer TP5 ball). All told, it turned into a winning combination.

Ball: TaylorMade TP5
Driver: TaylorMade M2 2017 (Mitsubishi Kuro Kage Silver 80X), 9.5 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade M1 2017, 15 degrees
5-wood: TaylorMade M1 2017, 19 degrees
Irons (3-PW): TaylorMade P750 Tour Proto
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind (54, 58 degrees)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour

 Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images

The post Sergio’s winning Masters bag appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.