Equipment Insider: Different specs for Furyk, Davis

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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.

Check out more of Adam Barr's equipment coverage at AdamBarrGolfGearGuide.com.

Video: In the Bag

What do players carry when they head out on TOUR? We take an inside look at the adjustments they make to their clubs ... and they show us other things (ball markers, training aids) that make their tools of the trade unique. Archive: In the Bag MORE IN THE BAGS Nick Watney Hunter Mahan Sergio Garcia

Two Srixon players -- Jim Furyk, who has already won at the Transitions Championship, and Brian Davis, a solid player still looking for his first U.S. win -- played it off on one of the most famous 18th holes in golf.

In the end, in packed-sand trouble beyond the rocks of the seawall that protects Harbour Town's 18th green from high tide, Davis made the by-now famous rules call against himself for touching a loose impediment on his backswing. He was probably going to lose anyway, but the rules infraction sealed it.

Beyond all that, having two guys dueling on TV under the same logo is a big bonus for companies whose brand image is driven by association with the best players in the world. Srixon and its sister company Cleveland Golf are both units of massive Japanese company SRI Sports. They were the latest beneficiaries of that leaderboard happenstance.

The double-Srixon playoff provides a good opportunity to examine how club makers use a wide variety of products to fit differing top-level games. Take golf balls: Furyk plays the slightly harder, slightly longer Z-STAR X, a three-piece model with the very thin (.002 inches) urethane cover that works best for swing speeds above 105 mph.

That's what you would expect to find on TOUR, but that doesn't mean every player drops into that bucket. Davis's ball, visible on TV under all that seagrass for more minutes than he would like to remember, is a "regular" (that is, non-X) Z-STAR. It's softer, and technically it is designed for slower swingers -- 80 mph and above. Surely, Davis comes at it harder than that. But the greenside and putter face feel are attractive enough to him to risk dropping a yard or two off the tee. Besides, Davis drives the ball an average of 272.4 yards, unlike Furyk, who at 265.9 yards is working to wring every possible yard out of his drives. (It appears to be working. After his Transitions Championship win, Furyk's driving average was 261.8.)

Cleveland TA 588 sand wedge

And the wedge that Davis used off that beach was one of his Cleveland TA 588s, a classic style that has a lot of staying power on TOUR. His lofts are 47, 54 and 60 degrees. Furyk goes for the latest Cleveland model, the CG 15s, which feature laser-milled lines between the grooves to encourage spin-enhancing friction. Furyk likes his wedge lofts at 50, 56 and 60 degrees.

Wedges are the clubs that brought Cleveland to the manufacturer's dance, as it were. That's why the company is taking aggressive steps to sell as many wedges as it can before the end of the year. That's the deadline for selling wedges made with so-called "old" grooves, the larger ones that are legal for recreational players until at least 2024. (Pros, as we all know by now, started playing this year with smaller grooves under a condition of competition developed by the USGA and adopted by the PGA TOUR.)

To convey a sense of urgency, Cleveland declared 2010 the "Year of the Wedge," supporting the concept with a microsite at www.yearofthewedge.com. The site includes a ticker that counts down the days, hours and minutes remaining to buy big-groove wedges that will conform to the Rules of Golf, plus a tab offering "Wedgucation."

BACK FROM EQUIPMENT LIMBO: To a certain generation of players, MacGregor Golf remains a sacred name, even though the brand has had its troubles in recent years. Now MacGregor reemerges as a house brand of retail giant Golfsmith. Expect drivers in the $300 range, and irons such as the muscle-cavity VIPs for about $800 per set. There will be a full line of clubs, plus golf balls and accessories.