Equipment Insider: Palmer's TaylorMade wedges, more

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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.

Ryan Palmer, winner of the Sony Open in Hawaii, was back at work Monday in preparation for this week's Bob Hope Classic, but there was some pleasant business to attend to as well. Palmer joined the technicians and TOUR reps in the TaylorMade-adidas truck for some Champagne when the afternoon rains came over the mountains. The hastily prepared (but no less happy) party featured Dom Perignon in plastic glasses.

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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 In the Bag: Mickelson In the Bag: Furyk In the Bag: Harrington

Palmer gave much of the credit for his win to the work he has done with the TaylorMade technical staff. He also discussed some of the welcome burdens of winning his third TOUR event.

"I've answered 178 text messages in the last 24 hours," he said with a smile. "And there are 20 more waiting."

Palmer had new TaylorMade RAC wedges in the bag for his win, with lofts of 50, 54 and 60 degrees. He also took out his 3-iron and used a Rescue TP hybrid with 22 degrees of loft instead, hoping to work under the wind. Palmer's ball was a Titleist Pro V1.

TaylorMade's R9 SuperTri (top) and Burner Superfast (bottom) will be available soon.

Players ducking out of the rain into the TaylorMade van may have seen a couple of new drivers the company is bringing out in about a month. The R9 SuperTri will be the first 460cc-head driver with three moveable weights. It will also be the first TaylorMade model to combine the moveable weight system with the company's flight control technology, which relies on adjustable hosel-to-shaft connections that can be changed with a special torque wrench. The goal, TaylorMade says, is to combine increased distance with forgiveness of off-center hits.

The other model, the Burner Superfast, features a much more space-age shape. Nonetheless, a number of curious pros have hit both drivers, even if they haven't committed to putting them in the bag yet. Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia and Kenny Perry have worked with the SuperTri, and Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rory Sabbatini have hit the new Burner.

Over at the Ping van, Bubba Watson, Chris DiMarco and Heath Slocum waited out the rain while marveling at the under-the-grip tape build Watson prefers. It's 10 wraps around the shaft near the top and 12 near the bottom, over which a midsize grip is installed. Watson just shrugs and smiles; it feels natural for him and keeps his super-fast wrists from turning over so quickly that he would snap-hook it. Ping tech Daniel Utt said it's no big deal to make a big platform for Watson's hands. He's done it plenty of times.

Charl Schwartzel isn't at the Hope this week; he's too busy dominating the European Tour. Schwartzel, a South African, won the Africa Open to start the year, then the Joburg Open last week. He's a Nike staff player, and his bag includes the new VR STR8-FIT driver you learned about here a couple weeks ago. It's the one with the red "compression channel" running around the circumference of the head. It, and much more, will be on display at the PGA Merchandise Show, which kicks off Jan. 27 in Orlando, Fla.

Kris Blanks, who made it through Q-School after his 2009 rookie TOUR season yielded only a 170th finish on the money list, has a new weapon in the arsenal: his caddie, former LPGA pro A.J. Eathorne. It was Eathorne, Blanks said, who got him through Q-School and onto the TOUR this year.

"We played one round my way and five rounds hers," Blanks said. After a dispiriting 5-over start in the final stage, Blanks was ready to pack it in. But he made himself listen to Eathorne, who wasn't afraid to speak up.

"She said that was a problem for me, the fact that other caddies hadn't said what needed to be said," Blanks said. "She saw something with my short game, and we went and practiced it. When I had a 4-iron in the fairway, I would just walk up and hit it. When I had a chip, I'd take a million practice swings. So she told me to hit my chips with the same confidence I brought to a 4-iron."

Blanks missed the cut at the Sony Open, his first start this year, but he feels good about his chances for 2010 -- and about the advice he'll be getting.