Equipment Insider: Furyk wins with Srixon irons, hybrid

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Each week in the Equipment Insider, Adam Barr -- PGATOUR.COM's equipment columnist -- will provide breaking news, notes and analysis focused on PGA TOUR players. Adam will also appear in video segments for PGATOUR.COM.

Srixon Z-TX irons

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Jim Furyk hit nearly three-quarters of his greens in regulation in his Transitions Championship win (72.2 percent, T4 in the field). That's no surprise for a player who is a self-proclaimed not-very-long hitter (261.8 yards average) and who has therefore concentrated on precise iron play. His tools of choice lately have been Srixon Z-TX irons (3, 5-PW), which feature an intriguing "stepped" sole. The multi-level construction helps the club work its way through the turf better, Srixon says.

The clubs are forged carbon steel, so they have that player-iron soft feel. But like so many tour-model irons these days, these clubs have some high-tech features, such as tungsten heel and toe weights and what amounts to a cavity inside the perimeter-weighted rim.

For the gap in the irons where a 4 would normally be, Furyk chose a 19-degree Srixon hybrid. He carries three wedges from Srixon sister company, Cleveland; they're the CG15 model with the laser milling between the grooves. Lofts are 50, 56 ad 60 degrees. Furyk used a Srixon Z-STAR X golf ball, a three-piece model with a thin urethane cover; like many tour balls, it's designed to keep spin down off the driver but provide plenty of control on greenside finesse shots.

In woods, Furyk has a little free agency room under the cap, as it were. The 3-wood is a TaylorMade-adidas 15-degree model. The driver is a rookie, in golf equipment terms: a Callaway FT Tour, 10.5 degrees, that just went into his bag shortly before the tournament. Both Ernie Els (WGC-CA Championship) and Derek Lamely (Puerto Rico Open) have won with the club already this year.

The FT Tour head spins the ball less than some other models -- and when that's paired with a ball that also spins less off the driver, players who like to flight it a little lower find they don't have to worry about the RPMs getting up in the range where spin can rob distance. Also, this is a rare Callaway wood model that actually has a hosel instead of a bore-through connection between club and shaft. The shifting of weight provided by the hosel helps players who like to work the ball right to left to close the clubface on time -- but not so quickly that they risk the hated tour-player violent death move to the left.

True Temper DG Spinner shaft

Tuesday is test-'n'-try day at most tournaments, including this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando. Rory Sabbatini interrupted his putting practice (20 lags-and-finishes) to work with a TaylorMade wedge, an xFT with a replaceable face. But the club also featurs a prototype shaft from True Temper called a DG Spinner. The steel model features an unusual step down to a much narrower diameter at a point high up on the shaft, almost under the grip. About two inches later, a reverse set of steps takes the shaft back to a more standard look. This gives the shaft a different way to flex -- a unique "bending profile," as the steel-shaft wonks like to call it, that delivers the head of the club at an optimal angle. The effect, say TT engineers, is to impart a little more spin to the ball on partial shots -- that is, another new-grooves workaround.

Rory seemed less concerned with the spin benefits than with feel; he kept hitting pitches and muttering "Solid. Very nice." When he was done testing, he slammed the wedge into his bag with a smile and high-fived the technician who had put it together and brought it out to him. But he said the club won't necessarily make the starting cut, even though it did well in the first round of testing. It will need to be put through its on-course paces. "Lotta time between now and Thursday morning," Sabbatini said with a smile.