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Club Junkie WITB, week 18: Driver still needs a grip! – GolfWRX

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Club Junkie WITB, week 18: Driver still needs a grip! – GolfWRX

On this Memorial Day, and on days of commemoration all year long, all around the planet, we remember and thank those that made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and liberty. The tours are in a few weeks of non-major mode as May seeps into June. The LPGA is up next with its Women’s Open in early June, followed by the Men’s Open on Father’s Day. The Tour Champions runs three majors together in July, and before you know it, summer is on the wane and the majors are behind us.

We celebrate all professional outcomes on Tour Tech Rundown, and we appreciate each event for its intrinsic worth and value. A TPC Craig Ranch doesn’t have to be Aronimink, and let’s face it, after last week’s grueling PGA Championship set-up, it shouldn’t be. Imagine for a moment your most exhausting, energy-sapping day in the office or wherever. Should every week, every day, be identical? Of course not.

In a week when the ruling golf associations announced the two-fold implementation of rolled-back golf balls, focus is on the little white (in most cases) orb that we whack across the Elysian Fields. All current balls are legal for amateurs until 2030, and the pros will receive new spheres in January of 2028. For me, it means that our team shagbag will probably be OK to use until we lose all the balls, down the road. For the pros, given their levels of fitness and the science behind every aspect of golf technology, I expect their distances to change not one bit. Sorry, not sorry. That’s evolution.

On that note, enough with the Op-Ed section and on to the facts. Five winners on five tours gives us plenty of Tour and plenty of Tech to run down. Let’s take a crack at understanding what made the winning engines purr and roar this week. Thanks to GolfWRX, Inside Tour Golf, and Today’s Golfer for initial research efforts.

 

PGA Tour @ CJ Cup Byron Nelson: A fair Wyndham blows through Texas

Unlike the Charles Schwab Challenge, which has a forever home at Hogan’s Alley (Colonial Country Club) the Nelson has moved around the Dallas-Fort Worth area with regularity. TPC Craig Ranch was toughened up by Lanny Wadkins and company, in anticipation of this year’s tournament. Two things need to be stated: Tour Pros don’t like tough golf courses every week, and they expect a chance to show off their skills (aka birdie fests) with some regularity. No one likes missed shots, missed field goals, missed catches, except for the defensive specialists, and the average sports viewer is not a defensive specialist. We come to July 4th in anticipation of bigger, louder, brighter, better, and we like birdies and eagles from time to time.

This week in Dallasland, we had plenty of fireworks. We had 60s and 61s, and we had a 30-under par tally from our winner. Wyndham Clark blaxed through the inward nine at TPCCR in 28 strokes. He made up five shots on the day, on Si Woo Kim and company. Clark’s five birdies and one eagle over the closing half brought the week’s second 60 (Kim had the first) and a three-shot margin of victory.

Si Woo Kim appeared destined to claim the win, but a bogey at the eighth slowed his role. He came home in minus-three, a decent showing on most days. On Sunday, it meant that he gave four shots back over the final stretch, and that is never good. Kim placed second at 27-under par, while Scottie Scheffler came third at 25-deep. The tour moves down the interstate a bit, to Colonial this week.

Clark’s Collection

  • Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D at 9 degrees with Project X Titan Black 70 TX Shaft
  • Metal: Ping G440 Max at 21 degreews with Project X  HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 80 TX shaft
  • Irons: Titleist T200 4-5 with True Temper Dynamic Golf X-Seven shaft
  • Irons: Titleist T100 6-9 with True Temper Dynamic Golf X-Seven shaft
  • Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 @ 46, 53, 56, 60 degrees with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft
  • Putter: Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset
  • Ball: Titleist ProV1x

DP World Tour @ Soudal Open: Sterne finish leads to triumph

In 2013, over a dozen years back, Richard Sterne won his sixth DP World Tour title. Thanks to a stellar week in Belgium, Sterne now has his seventh tour title, after a bit of a wait. The South African veteran golfer held off a half-dozen of the circuit’s finest and hungriest, to reach 18-under par and win at Rinkven International.

A United Nations sub-committee pursued Sterne to the final green. England, Spain, Sweden, France, Japan, and Denmark all sent representatives to the stretch run, but none could track down the 44-year old from Pretoria. Sterne started well (three birdies in five holes) and finished well (birdie-eagle near the end) on Sunday, and held the pack at distance. In truth, the two that gave the most away were countryment Zander Lombard (74) and MJ Daffue (71) who both closed with less than their best, finishing three shots back at minus-15. On to Austria and the Alpine Open in Kitzbuhel.

Sterne’s Collection

  • Driver: Ping G440 LST at 10 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
  • Metal: Ping G440 Max at 15 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
  • Metal: Ping G440 Max at 19 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
  • Metal: Ping G440 Max at 21 degrees with Titan Project X shaft
  • Irons: Srixon ZXiU 2-4 irons
  • Irons: TaylorMade P7MC 5-9 irons
  • Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11Ball  46, 50, 54, 60 degrees
  • Putter: L.A.B. DF3i
  • Ball: Titleist ProV1x

Korn Ferry Tour @ Visit Knoxville Open: What a minute, Doc!

Doc Redman joined Ian Holt as double dippers in 2026, with a playoff win in Tennessee. Redman won in Chile during the tour’s tour of the Americas this winter, then repeated his fortune in Knoxville. Redman and Hunter Eichorn finished on 25-under par, two shots clear of third place. The pair played but one hole in overtime. Redman buried a monster putt for eagle at the par-five finisher, and Eichorn was unable to match.

Cooper Dossey held the 54-hole lead, but an outward, plus-one 37 opened the barn door to all the predators. Dossey dropped into a tie for third position with John Marshall Butler and Bryce Lewis. Eichorn was flawless on Sunday, posting ten birdies on his way to 61, Redman stumbled for bogey at the penultimate hole, before rebounding with birdie at the last, to enter the playoff. The tour shifts to Raleigh Country Club this week for the UNC Health Championship.

Redman’s Collection

  • Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke at 8.5 degrees with Fujikura Ventus TR 6-X shaft
  • Metal: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond at 15 degrees w/ Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X
  • Metal: Ping G430 at 21 degrees with Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX shaft
  • Irons: Ping Blueprint S 4 and 5 with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft
  • Irons:Ping Blueprint T 6 – 9 with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft
  • Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 at 46, 50, 54 degrees w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
  • Wedge: Titleist Wedgeworks Proto at 58 degrees w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
  • Putter: Scotty Cameron T 5.5
  • Ball: Titleist ProV1x

PGA Tour Americas @ Open de Ecuador: Earth’s waistline is good to Joey

Canada’s Joey Savoie thought that he only had to consider the USA’s Thomas Ponder, until Jack Lundin made a stretch run at the overnight leader. Savoie posted 69 on Sunday, featuring a clumsy birdie-bogey-bogey-birdie finish. Meanwhile, Lundin applied the icing to a delicious 64 cake, featuring a 32 on the closing nine. His only mistake was bogey at the tenth, but he made up for it with three birdies and an eagle over the final eight holes.

Savoie and Lundin finished one shot clear of Ponder, who followd a 71st-hole eagle with a 72nd-hole bogey, to miss the playoff by one. The top pair returned to the 18th hole twice with pars, before moving to the 10th hole, where Savoie had posted 3, and Lundin 5, in regulation. There, Savoie repeated his birdie with another tre, while Lundin was unable to match. The PGAT moves to Mexico in June, after a weeklong break.

Savoie’s Collection

  • Driver: TaylorMade Qi35 LS at 9 degrees
  • Metal: TaylorMade Qi35 Tour at 15 degrees
  • Hybrid: TaylorMade Qi35 Rescue
  • Irons: TaylorMade 7CB
  • Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 4
  • Putter: TaylorMade Spider GTX Black
  • Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

PGA Tour Champions @ Trophy Hassan II: Give him a Hend, ladies and gentlemen

Many senior golfers travel to America to fulfill their post-PGA Tour dreams. Scott Hend journeyed to … Morocco? A bit disingenuous, I’ll admit. The PGA Tour Champions made a stop in Morocco, at the Royal Dar Es Salaam golf club. Long before the Indianaplis Motor Speedway conceived of the idea of having a golf course within the race course. RDES was built inside the Rabat royal palace. Nifty if you can afford it, I suppose!

Hend opened with 66, for a one-shot margin over Tommy Gainey, the second-most famous wearer of two gloves, after Aaron Rai’s PGA Championship win. Gainey followed with a second 67, to assume the lead by one over Hend. On Day three, Two-Gloves Gainey stumbled to a 75 and tie for second spot with Steven Alker. Hend was unflappable under pressure, posting 69 for the second-consecutive day, to earn an inaugural Champions Tour title.

Hend’s Collection

It’s safe to say that a 2020 WITB is not current, so we won’t list that Scott Hend equipment set for you. Rest assured that we will update this column if new information comes to our attention.

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