With the PGA Tour’s regular season fully in the books for 2026 and a sprint to the FedExCup just around the corner, it’s a great time to sit down and see which golfers made impressive improvements, with a little help from the equipment.
Min Woo Lee
Starting with the big stick (and not so big in the case of Min Woo Lee), the Aussie has climbed from 105th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee in 2025 to 12th this season. During that time, Lee moved into the new Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Tour Draw head this season.
Lee, a predominant fader of the golf ball thanks to his out-to-in club path – which he has also worked to reduce this season and limit the curve on his golf ball – had initially changed to the previous model of the Tour Draw head. It was a change to try and reduce how far right the ball was starting.
“In a world of players searching for perfection, solutions come from mitigating misses,” Kellen Watson, PGA Tour Rep at Callaway Golf, told GolfWRX. “In Min Woo’s (Lee’s) case, he was very accurate hitting his pull cut when swings were smooth and accuracy was paramount.
“… When it came to hitting driver in that extra gear, his miss was spinny and right. First tee/round jitters, final round “let’s go” mantras. When a cutter of the ball is cutting it too much, we need to think in the inverse. If we take a driver made strategically for promoting a neutral ball flight, we can tighten the 2nd gear dispersion whilst making “smooth” swings more aggressive. Hence, TD-TD. Triple Diamond starts a touch fade-biased as is. Min Woo (Lee) did not need more; he needed comfort and predictability. He has speed. We are harnessing speed with fences, but we’re making the home stretch a touch tighter, built for max speed.”
With the updated Quantum model, Lee has found that he can start the ball closer to neutral without the ball falling too far right. It’s also been helped by a switch in shaft, changing from a Fujikura Ventus Blue to the new TR Black with VeloCore+ technology, which features a stronger handle allowing Lee to have more freedom through the ball.
The consistency of Lee’s mini driver has also helped with his strong performance off the tee this season. Sitting 8th in Driving Distance on Tour allows Lee the luxury to hit the smaller-headed Callaway Quantum Mini with more spin and control it better, while not feeling he’s struggling for length off the tee.
Cameron Young
This was arguably the most surprising statistical jump of the lot. Cameron Young sat 128th in SG: Approach. He’s now one of the best ball-strikers on Tour, ranking 16th in Approach.
“I think as you look at his golf bag, he’s a high-speed player and needing help with control,” Nick Geyer, Titleist Tour Rep told GolfWRX. “You look at that golf bag and it’s all full of control, and his golf bag has evolved kind of over the time that we’ve been with him on tour, and it seems like every iteration is just, he’s gaining more control, and that golf bag kind of reflects that.”
The control came with a very well-talked-about change – Young’s Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot golf ball, which you can learn more about in his “Building a Bag.”
“I’ve always been a super high spin person, so it’s really just trying to manage that,” Young said on the ball swap. “And given I hit it pretty hard, so if I hit it hard and hit down on it a lot, that just generates spin, so it’s just trying to manage that.”
Young added the Double Dot for his first victory last season at the Wyndham Championship, where he gained 3.107 shots on the field with his irons. Since then, Young has won twice more, including The Players Championship.
A not-so-talked-about change, though, happened earlier this year. Young spent time with Van Wezenbeeck at Riviera in February to adjust the lie angles on his Titleist 631.CY short irons, moving them more upright to produce his desired start lines, after swing changes were in full force.
Young’s prototype 631.CYs originated from the custom grinding the team at Titleist had to add to the 620 MBs he was initially playing to help with turf interaction due to his steeper swing and shaft lean.
Brandt Snedeker
Brandt Snedeker’s resurgence this season saw this year’s Presidents Cup Captain win for the first time in nearly a decade. While the switch in putter this year is the change most spoken about for the 45-year-old, his success around the greens helped Snedeker immensely.
Snedeker rose from 77th to inside the top-10 on Tour in SG: Around the Green, and it was helped by switching to Cleveland’s RTZ wedges.
“Been a Titleist guy for a long time, but I grew up playing 588 Cleveland’s back in the day, and this is kind of their new model of that. I really enjoy what they’ve done for me and spin a lot more,” Snedeker told GolfWRX earlier in the season. “…Lighter shaft (True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S300), less flex, just kind of a little bit more feel, more spin for the short iron clubs.”
Snedeker plays the Cleveland RTZ 46-degree in the MID grind along with Cleveland RTZ Tour Racks in 52-MID, 56-FULL and then a custom 60-degree, which mimics the 588 Wide Sole, which has recently been re-released in the new RTZ 2 wedges.
Michael Kim
Michael Kim joined a very exclusive club this season, going sub-60 during the second round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities. During that round, he made 145 feet of putts, including the 24-footer for 59 on the 18th hole.
He did it using a TaylorMade Spider ZT, a putter that he moved into towards the end of last season. At the time, Kim was outside the top 100 in SG: Putting on Tour. Now he’s up to 17th.
Not only has Kim shot 59 with the putter, but in his second start with the TaylorMade Spider ZT, Kim also won the FedEx Open de France on the DP World Tour.
“Very easy to start putts online,” Kim said on X about the positives of using the Spider ZT. “I’ve always had trouble pushing putts, and I don’t push putts as often anymore. That’s the biggest and really only benefit to these putters.
“I’ve been one of the top putters inside of 8 feet as those are way less speed dependent and way more start line and set up dependent.”
The Spider ZT putter utilizes 100-percent milled multi-material construction featuring high-density 303 stainless steel in the face and low-density 6061 aluminum in the back, with extreme perimeter weighting designed to enhance the putter’s high-MOI.
“We have multi-material construction, so heavy steel front, lightweight aluminum back, which moves the CG more forward, so we were able to get that shaft closer to the face,” James Holley, TaylorMade Putter Rep, told GolfWRX. “So it gets your hands in a familiar position; it’s not so awkward.
“Along with that, we worked really hard on this sole design to keep the face squared, addressed. A lot of times, with onset putters, they look a little closed and have a lot of loft. I think the big thing that I was really proud of is we got it to sit really, really square and not awkward.”
The ZT putter has a heel-to-toe cambered sole to accommodate a wide array of player types and setup styles, and is designed to work specifically with the hosel configuration. As a result, golfers are better able to sole and aim the putter at address and deliver it to that same square position at impact.
It also features the True Path Alignment and Pure Roll insert, which are integral parts of the success of the current Spider lineup.
