The PGA Tour Champions is playing this week at the Simmons Bank Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. Our Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, was on-site this week and found a dandy bag with Tag Ridings when you keep an eye out, as I do, for lead tape and club customization. Time to take a look at this setup.
This all began a bit earlier; Tag found the Lead Tape Chronicles account in October 2020. He sent along some photos of different clubs which I posted years ago; he said, “How am I late to this party? Resident lead tape expert everywhere.” He was spot on about that and I love to see it!
Driver
Starting out with the driver, this Callaway Quantum Max has tape allocations on the sole, and what caught my eye is the tape around the hosel, bumping up the swing weight another point or two. He has a Graphite Design IZ-7 driver shaft and a Golf Pride Tour Velvet grip.
Mini-Driver
For the fairway metal, Tag goes with the TaylorMade R7 Quad Mini-Driver. This shaft is a Graphite Design IZ-8. Big fan of the lead tape over the rear weight ports.
Driving Iron
The 4-iron is a Titleist T250. Some tape applied on the back cavity; along with that, check out the stamped “+” logo in the sole. Without too much speculation, this might be geared towards more of a 3-iron loft, with some mass behind it in the cavity. This club has a Graphite Design IZ-95x, keeping the IZ theme throughout the Driver, mini, and driving iron.
Irons
You can see the irons covered in tape from afar, and getting closer, you can indeed see the layers. Really nice addition with the Golf Pride V-55 grips too.
Wedges
When it comes to wedges, we are covering a wide range here, and it’s awesome. The pitching wedge is a Titleist Vokey SM4. This SM4 launched in late 2011 and was available for retail in 2012. For context, the USGA changed the rule on grooves on January 1st, 2010, where V-grooves are the standard we play today, or U-grooves, which are considered legal if manufactured after 2010 to meet the rounded-edge (.010″) and volume limits. This SM4 was one of the first runs before square-grooves were outlawed for competitive play.
Then Tag throws the wedges into modern times with Vokey SM11’s for 56 and 60 degrees. Check out the custom grind on the 60* with added relief on the heel, toe, and sole of the wedge.
Putter
This MacGregor V-Foil GT M5K, designed by Bobby Grace, brings me back to my Dad’s club shop in Seattle when these first came out, and players getting a new grip or checking the lie angle for their preference. This putter is accompanied by some additional perimeter weighting. When it comes to the model name, 5K is a reference to the moment of inertia at impact when the ball rolls off the face. We see something very similar today with mallets. The angular shape of the putter fits today’s modern look as well. This MacGregor Bobby Grace putter was released in 2004.
What I think is very cool about this set is that Tag Riddings is playing clubs this week from 2026 all the way to 2004, spanning 22 years! Well done, Tag. This is truly the bag of a lead tape resident expert!
