PGA Tour pros have an abundance of help finding the best bag setup to help them succeed. They have everything from Tour trucks stocked with the latest technology to highly trained reps who can diagnose what’s working and what’s not. But for Ross Steelman, his setup is a little different.
Steelman is one of the newest members of the PGA Tour, after securing his card this season on the Korn Ferry Tour as the No. 1 in the points list. At a glance, his setup doesn’t look out of the norm, but digging deeper reveals a story about how Steelman ended up playing what he does that’s unlike any other.
Starting with the driver, Steelman plays the TaylorMade Qi4D at 8 degrees. Pretty standard on Tour, but Steelman’s has a personal touch. The 25-year-old used a Sharpie to cover up the reflective strip that surrounds the face of the driver. It’s also fitted with a Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana PD 60 X. It’s a shaft that was released at the start of the decade, and in fact, Steelman purchased a used one off eBay due to the lack of availability, as it is an older model.
“I really enjoy, like, finding kind of niche clubs on my own, and just making them work,” Steelman said. “You know, we are very fortunate to get any golf club we want for free, but there’s just something romantic about finding it yourself and kind of having hands-on experience with how it is, and just a lot of trust that goes into it, knowing that I’m the one that did, you know, everything to make it work.”
Steelman admitted that his driver did have to be re-bonded earlier in the year as his build job wasn’t up to par. It did the job, though, with Steelman ranking first on Tour for Strokes Gained: Off the tee.
Moving on to the 3-wood, his Qi4D 15-degree has the same backstory, having found the Diamana PD 70 X on eBay as well, and built up the clubs himself.
“Length … who knows, I kept cutting and re-gripping until it felt right,” Steelman told GolfWRX about the builds.
Steelman’s iron setup is where things really get unique. Liking the way the Diamana PD shafts moved through his golf swing, Steelman used ChatGPT’s artificial intelligence to determine a similar-feeling iron shaft that he could test on his TaylorMade P7CBs.
“It told me to try Steelfiber, so I bought one and put it in an old 8 iron, and it was perfect,” Steelman told GolfWRX about his AI fitting. “Super light, right amount of give, very muted feel through the turf, which I love.”
Steelman experimented with a single 8-iron build with the Aerotech SteelFiber 110CW, and instantly saw the results. With a full set in play, Steelman says he was 160-under-par over an eight-event stretch. Building the irons himself, Steelman says that each club is a different swingweight. Starting each club at D0, Steelman adds lead tape to some of them “purely based on the feel of each head.”
Speaking of lead tape, Steelman uses it as a label on his wedges to note how many rounds of golf he’s played with each wedge. It helps him determine when he needs to trade them out for a new set.
“It’s about 16-20 before it’s time for a new one,” Steelman thinks.
Steelman continues his use of pre-owned golf gear with a putter which he bought off eBay too: a TaylorMade Rossa TP by Kia Ma.
“I was using an old red Spider which I really liked but wasn’t putting very well … searched ‘TaylorMade milled blade’ and bought the first one that came up,” Steelman said. “It was 34 inches, so I extended it, slapped a piece of lead tape on the bottom, and haven’t hit a putt with another putter since.”
Before adding the blade to his bag, Steelman ranked 112th on Tour in SG: Putting. He ended the season 29th, gaining on average 0.338 strokes on the greens each round. TaylorMade Tour reps Scott Boulware and James Holley are the only ones who know the exact specs of the putter and are under strict instructions not to tell Steelman.
“Sometimes things are best not known,” said Steelman, and if you’re looking to pick one up off eBay, you better move past because Steelman is buying plenty of backups.
Check out Steelman’s full WITB and specs below:
Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D 8 upright 1 click towards lower 2° sleeve
Shaft: Diamana PD 60x 45.6” no tipping. D1 swing weight
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D 15 upright 2 clicks towards lower 2° sleeve
Shaft: Diamana PD 70x 0.5” tipped. D0 swing weight
Hybrid: TaylorMade Qi10 Tour 19.5 upright setting 1.5° sleeve
Shaft: Modus GOST 95 x…D3 swing weight
Irons: TaylorMade 4-9 P7CB
Shafts: Steelfiber 110x CW D0-D2 swing weigh
Wedges: TaylorMade MG5 SB (46,50,56) & SX 60
Shafts: Steelfiber 110x C46, 50,50) & 125x C56, 60,60). 46 & 50 are D1, 56 & 60 are D4.
Putter: TaylorMade Rossa Daytona Milled TP
