What Hideki Matsuyama’s 2026 Bag Tells Us About Tour-Level Equipment Philosophy When I’m fitting golfers at my studio, I always pull up tour player equipment lists. Not because amateurs should play exactly what the pros use—they shouldn’t—but because tour setups reveal what actually matters when performance is worth millions of dollars. Hideki Matsuyama’s latest bag is a masterclass in selective technology adoption, and honestly, it’s refreshing to see. Matsuyama’s 2026 setup is lean and purpose-built. He’s not chasing the latest model year for marketing reasons. He’s keeping what works and making strategic upgrades where the data supports it. After fitting…

Kevin Na’s New Zealand Gamble: Reading Between the Lines of a Career Reset In my 35 years covering professional golf, I’ve watched plenty of talented players navigate the trickiest terrain in sports—not the rough, but the gap between aspiration and reality. Kevin Na’s decision to tee it up at the New Zealand Open in late February represents one of those fascinating inflection points that tells you far more about modern professional golf than any leaderboard ever could. Let me be direct: Na’s situation is complicated, and that complexity matters. The Basics, With Context For those just tuning in, here’s what…

When Mental Resilience Meets Bad Luck: What Hideki Matsuyama’s Phoenix Collapse Teaches Us About Golf and Life There’s a moment that happens to most golfers—amateur and professional alike—when everything unravels in front of you. You’ve fought hard. You’ve managed expectations. You’ve even made the smart shots when your game wasn’t at its best. And then, in an instant, it all falls apart in a way that’s partly your fault and partly completely out of your control. That’s exactly what happened to Hideki Matsuyama at TPC Scottsdale this past Sunday, and honestly? It’s one of the most human stories golf has…

The 2025 PGA Tour Gets the Formula Right—And the Calendar to Match After 35 years of following professional golf, I’ve learned that the tour’s health depends on three things: compelling competition, financial stability, and a schedule that actually makes sense. This January, when The Sentry kicks off in Maui, the PGA Tour will have finally achieved all three—at least on paper. Whether players and fans stick around for the full ride is the real test ahead. A Schedule That Actually Flows Let me be honest: I wasn’t sure about the January-to-August compressed schedule when it debuted last year. Having caddied…

Equipment Matters: What the Pros Know That Can Transform Your Game This week at Pebble Beach, I’m watching something fascinating happen in the equipment trailers. Professional golfers are testing new drivers at different lengths, evaluating fairway woods with fresh technology, and meticulously choosing putters that match their stroke. And here’s what I want you to understand: they’re not doing this because equipment is magic. They’re doing it because the right tools, matched to YOUR swing, can unlock real improvement. In my 15+ years of teaching, I’ve noticed that amateur golfers often fall into one of two traps. Either they ignore…

Seven Scenarios That Could Shake Golf to Its Core—And Why We Need Them After 35 years covering this game, I’ve learned that golf’s greatest strength is also its occasional weakness: unpredictability. We celebrate when 156 different players can theoretically win any given Sunday, but here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve witnessed from the ropes and the press tent alike—sometimes that wide-open field makes for compelling sport, and sometimes it leaves casual fans scratching their heads wondering who they should actually care about. That’s precisely why the seven scenarios floating around the golf world right now matter more than you might think.…

SuperStroke TLT Putter Grips: Solving a Real Problem or Marketing the Solution? Here’s what I’ve learned after fitting hundreds of golfers with zero-torque putters: the technology works, but it creates a problem nobody talks about openly. These putters arrive with a forward-pressed lie angle built into the design—sometimes 2-4 degrees—which means golfers either have to match that press with their hands or fight it. SuperStroke’s new TLT grip attempts to solve this by angling the internal bore, letting players achieve a more neutral hand position without compensating for the club’s geometry. It’s a legitimate insight into putter fitting, and it…

The Bay’s Statement Win Shows TGL’s Young Guns Are Ready for Prime Time I’ve been around professional golf long enough to know that victories mean different things depending on the context. A win in February means something entirely different than a win in June, and a win by a team desperately fighting for playoff relevance carries its own particular weight. The Bay Golf Club’s 11-5 demolition of Los Angeles on Monday night wasn’t just about keeping playoff hopes alive—it was a statement that this young core is ready to carry the torch in professional golf’s newest format. What strikes me…

The Gear Minimalist: What Chris Gotterup’s Winning Bag Tells Us About Playing Your Game There’s something refreshingly honest about Chris Gotterup’s approach to golf. While most tour players juggle sponsorships from half a dozen equipment manufacturers, Gotterup keeps it simple: Bridgestone balls, Bridgestone irons, and a carefully curated collection of clubs from a handful of trusted partners. No chaos. No constant gear shuffling. Just a player committed to knowing his tools inside and out. His back-to-back wins to start the 2026 PGA Tour season—first with the Bridgestone VS Black Proto, then with the new Tour B X—tell a story that…

The Bridgestone Tour B X Moment: When Equipment Innovation Actually Moves the Needle In 35 years of covering professional golf, I’ve watched the equipment industry make a lot of noise about “breakthroughs” that, honestly, amounted to marginal tweaks and clever marketing. A new dimple pattern here, a slightly firmer mantle there—you get the idea. So when Bridgestone’s new Tour B X line arrived on the PGA Tour less than a month ago and Chris Gotterup immediately captured his second win of the season, my first instinct wasn’t to declare a revolution. My second instinct, though? That’s where things get interesting.…