So who’s copying who?
The PGA Tour is all about trends. When something works, other golfers look to follow suit.
So after spending a year out on the PGA Tour, let’s discuss five things that caught on.
Spider success stands out
Starting with the obvious: the TaylorMade Spider putter.
We saw five of the first six tournaments this season won by Spiders, but beyond the obvious victories with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Chris Gotterup, a couple of interesting players hopped on the trend. Most notably, Brand Snedeker and J.T. Poston.
Snedeker ended a nearly two-decade-long era with his Odyssey Rossie White Hot XG, and just a couple of starts later won with a TaylorMade Spider Tour X at the Myrtle Beach Classic.
And then we had Poston, a guy known for his consistent stroke with a Scotty Cameron GoLo – more on that next – switched into the Spider and collected a win with it at the Memorial in just its second start.
GoLo-w Torque
While the GoLo lost a longtime user in Poston, it’s a putter head that gained new followers on Tour this year, most notably with a center shaft. The trend began with Rickie Fowler, moving away from zero-torque and entering the low-torque GoLo option to gain a little more face understanding and the simplicity of aiming the head. He began the year with it in the bag at The American Express, and it didn’t take long for others to catch on.
His good friend Gary Woodland tried it out and ended up winning with it in Houston for arguably the best feel-good story of the season. Fast forward to the summer, and Bud Cauley did the same, winning the Canadian Open for another victory with a little more meaning. Other players such as Haotong Li also tried the putter style during the season.
Owning Offset
Another trend started by Fowler this year: offset wedges. And it’s another one his good friend Woodland decided to jump on board with. In fact, the wedge Woodland won with at Memorial Park is one that Cleveland originally made for Fowler, and one they based off an old 485 wedge, featuring quite the gooseneck.
Now we’ve seen more players add offset to their arsenal, with the likes of Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa also using custom-made options.
Young switched to offset this summer across the pond, bending a 64T lob wedge to 62 degrees to remove the bounce for the firmer turf conditions. He liked the look so much he had Vokey wedge reps do the same with his usual K* gamer when he returned.
Morikawa did it for a different reason. According to TaylorMade, he wanted his hands more forward when chipping, and the offset allowed him to do this without digging.
CPO becomes mainstream
The Pro V1x Double Dot was a custom performance option (CPO) made for the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Young. It’s becoming more and more popular now that Titleist has officially added it to its Tour lineup.
Young won with the Double Dot last year in his first start with it. He added two more victories this season, including The Players Championship.
Since then, the likes of Neal Shipley, Gary Woodland, Marco Penge and Ben James have all added it, thanks to the stability in the wind, reduced long-game spin and consistency with distance control.
The ball has become so popular that it just earned a win on the DP World Tour at the British Masters, where Joe Dean collected his first victory since switching to the ball in mid-May.
Kings of the castle
Finally, and this one might be hard to believe, but it’s Castle tees.
Yes, the plastic kind with the step in them. Well, two winners on Tour this year used them. Wyndham Clark won the Byron Nelson using them off the tee and told GolfWRX why.
“I was at home practicing with it, and the reason I did that is it’s always the same height,” Clark said. “So every time I put it in, it’s the same height. I’m trying to look for consistency with my driver.”
And then there was Aaron Rai, who won a major championship with them. Does this mean iron covers and two gloves could be trending on tour next year?
