I was only on-site in Memphis for all of 6 hours coming off the WILD Apex launch event in NYC (a few pics below). Since it IS the playoffs and there is a TON of money at stake, there weren’t many new things to discuss, BUT there were a couple of nuggets that I thought were pretty cool.
On-site for #teamcallaway were Tour Manager Joe Toulon, Performance Reps Kellen Watson and Dean Teykl, Odysseys Cody Hale, and Tour Techs Greg Shaw and Brock Kauffman
Chris Kirk takes an old look, and puts it into a new head
Over the past couple of months, Chris Kirk, who is not opposed to a club switch, has been putting with an old Metal X #9. The results have been mixed but he is also a pretty streaky putter that will sometimes switch it up on a whim to shake things up.
Although the roll and feel were there, his aim was an issue, so his Caddy, Mike Cromie, got with Odyssey Rep Cody Hale on an idea.
What if we got a stable head with proper aiming points but gave it the look Chris likes? Give him the feels but sneak in some alignment tech to get “less streaky”
His ball striking is so good that when the putter is just at a C+ level he will still contend.
As a player who releases the putter quite a bit, Chris has always preferred a blade-style putter but will dabble with S-neck Mallets from time to time. In addition, the face is also a big thing, with Kirk preferring something on the firmer side.
The new Ai-One 7S has the same welded neck as his number 9 (its a total 1 of 1 job) with the firmer Ai-Milled face. This new set-up has improved Kirk’s alignment, all while keeping the roll, pace, and feel the same. I think Mike did God’s work, as Kirk was -6 after round 1.
Specs:
Ai-One 7S T
69 Lie
2.25 Loft
36 Inches EOG
Si Woo Kim is the latest convert to the Ti340 Mini Driver
No real rhyme or reason to this switch beyond the fact that Si Woo wanted to get more out of his 3-wood off the tee and the number he gets with the Mini Driver were far superior to his 3-wood. Keep in mind that Si-Woo is a HIGH spin player so anytime we can hand him a club that he cant overspin its a gem. If you look at his specs, his Irons lofts are VERY strong for this reason.
The numbers don’t lie, with 3-wood Si Woo’s numbers looked something like this
@13 degrees of loft
158 MPH Ball Speed
3700-3900 RPM Spin
8 Degrees Launch
255-260 Carry
With Mini Driver it looks like this
@12.5 degrees of loft
165-166MPH Ball Speed
3300 RPM Spin
8-9 Degrees Launch
265 yds Carry
The despersion is also much tighter with a far superior miss.
No brainer if you ask me, he usually uses his 5-wood into Par 5’s so this was a benefit only situation.
Specs:
Ai-Smoke Ti340 13.5@12.5 (N/-1)
Ventus Black Velo + 7X (Tipped 1.5, 43.5 EOG, D3.5)
Gonna be a wild next few weeks on TOUR
LFG
JDub
