Equipment

Gold medal gear: An inside look at Xander Schauffele’s Olympic WITB

Published

5 years ago

Aug 25, 2021

It was less than 30 days ago that Xander Schauffele stood atop the podium at Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course in Tokyo, gold medal around his neck. Schauffele vanquished a field of 120 competitors from 42 nations by a stroke in the men’s golf competition.

It’s only once every four years that we get the chance to compile a gold medal-winning WITB in men’s golf, so we wanted to offer a more robust entry in the 2020 Olympic golf time capsule. To that end, we enlisted the help of Jacob Davidson, PGA Tour Manager for Callaway, to dig deep into the contents of Xander’s toolbox.

Callaway has seen staffers take two of the four major championships this season and the top spot in Tokyo. Investments in R&D and manufacturing — on the golf ball side in particular — are paying dividends in general, and as you will see in our conversation, for Schauffele in particular — perhaps most notably in the areas of his golf ball (Chrome Soft X LS) and irons (Apex TCB).

Our discussion with Davidson (edited for length and clarity), below.

GolfWRX: What type of player is Xander with respect to his equipment? Is he a tester and tinker, always searching? Is he more of a “set it and forget it” guy? Somewhere in-between?

JD: The thing about Xander is his team around him is very close. Obviously, his father is his swing coach, and his father is an industry guy who has been around the golf industry for a long time, even on the manufacturing side, so he has a deep, thorough understanding of golf equipment. He’s instilled a little bit of that in Xander, who is unique in that he is a deep thinker — he thinks through everything and is very calculated — but he can also go back into “player mode” and is very laid back, much more of an athlete, very even-keeled, very relaxed.

Xander lives in San Diego very close to our test center in Carlsbad. His dad is there as well as Austin Kaiser his caddie. So when we do work, it’s not just Xander showing up. With the whole team there, they’re very collaborative sessions.

He’s not a tinkerer once his bag is set, but with his team, we’re always looking for any small ways we can make him better. Year over year, if you look at his stats and some of the areas of his game where he’s gotten better — like his approach game, that’s an area we’ve worked hard with him on, looking at every club individually, making sure the spin windows, distance, and launch are right.

GolfWRX: With respect to spin, he recently made a ball change, right?

JD: At the Memorial Tournament, he switched into the Chrome Soft X LS. Really, the genesis of that switch was that Xander has been working hard on his fitness and he picked up some clubhead speed and that changed the delivery of the golf club, so we needed to move him into something that had a little less spin.

He had played a lower-spinning ball early in his career and had moved into a mid-spin ball, but we were able to move him into that golf ball, which he really likes because it gives him the ability to flight the ball lower, and he doesn’t feel like he’s lost greenside control. He’s excited about that, and the stats show it was a good fit for him.

GolfWRX: Was it one thing in particular that tipped him off to feeling like he needed to find a way to kill some spin?

JD: Well, he has a launch monitor and is very diligent, and he’ll even take his GCQuad out in practice rounds to ge actual data on course. Through that, we started seeing some spin numbers that were a little high, and that led us back to the test center to do a deep dive. We looked at some solutions, and the golf ball was a natural fit for him — it spun a couple of hundred RPMs less with the irons and just a touch less with the driver, so we didn’t have to tweak much in his bag setup.

GolfWRX: Cool. Well, with respect to that setup, let’s dig into his bag.

(Photo via Callaway’s Johnny Wunder)

Driver: Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond (9 degrees, NS setting, 6GF, 6GB)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD BB 7 X (custom black, 45.5 inches, tipped 1 inch, D3)

JD: Xander plays the Epic Triple Diamond 9-degree head. He’s been in a Triple Diamond head for years now. Not doing anything crazy. He’s been in the shaft for a long time. He’s cruising at 120-121 mph clubhead speed, ball speed around 178-180. Launch is around 10 degrees. Spin is around 2,400 RPM. We moved him up a full degree from last year to optimize his driver — he was getting a little bit low on the launch and spinning it a little too much. We felt like if we could get the launch higher and keep the spin relatively flat it would give him more efficient numbers.

3-wood: Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond (15 degrees @14)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 7 TX (43.25, tipped 1.5 inch, D3)

JD: He made the move recently…had been in the Mavrik Sub Zero. He found the Epic Speed to be a little easier to launch — it got up in the air a little quicker — but he also felt he could play a flighted shot better with it. Same shaft setup, so it was a really easy transition.

7-wood: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (20 degrees @18.8)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 X (41.5 inches, tipped 2 inches, D3)

JD: It’s a course-dependant club, as he has a driving iron as well. He likes the 7-wood when the rough is up a little bit thicker as it’s a little bit easier to get through the rough.

GolfWRX: What is it about this family of shafts for him?

JD: He loves those shafts and he’s always played them. He knows how they feel in competition. He’s a feel golfer with a lot of rhythm in his golf swing, and you find with guys like that, they know the feel and how a shaft reacts and they don’t want to change.

Irons: Callaway Apex TCB (4-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

JD: Xander was instrumental in helping us with the design of these irons. He was very involved in the process from start to finish. We got a lot of feedback from him. He had played the Apex Pros previously. Our R&D team went to him with some ideas with the goal of offering one of the most consistent irons that has ever been played, and with that, we came up with concept of having a removable weight on the back. There’s no plugs in the hosel, from a club building standpoint, it’s easy to replicate that build, there’s nothing that compensates. We can keep the CG in the center, right behind the clubface. From our end, it’s easy to replicate, but it’s also the most consistent and there’s nothing that has to be done to compensate. We worked hard with him on the offset and topline and the bounces and grinds. It’s a direct replacement for the iron he was playing, and it’s now our most popular iron on tour. He had the first prototype set. He was probably the first guy to hit them.

Loft (4-PW): 22.5, 26.5, 30.75, 35, 38.5, 43, 47 degrees
Lie (4-PW): 60.5, 61, 61.5, 62, 62.5, 63, 63.5 degrees
6-iron spin: 6,600 RPM
Swing weight: D1.5 (4, 5) D2 (6-P)
Length: Standard Callaway length

Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 (52-10S), Titleist Vokey Design SM6 (56-10 @57), Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (60-06K)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

JD: The MD5 blends nicely from the pitching to gap. It’s a familiar shape to him. He uses it on a lot of full shots or slightly off-speed shots. He loves the trajectory. It comes out a little lower and he feels he can control the spin a little more.

With the other wedges, it’s mostly a matter of the sole configuration, and we’re working hard to get him something.

Putter: Odyssey O-Works #7 CH Red
Grip: SuperStroke Traxion 2.0 Tour (10 grams)

JD: He works really hard with his putting coach, and they saw with the armlock some really, really consistent Quintic numbers. They saw his launch angles were very consistent from four feet to 40 feet. The numbers were off the charts, and that led him to working with the armlock.

Over at the Scottish Open, the greens were a little bit slower, so that was a little bit tougher. Speed control was tougher, and he felt when he had to hit it harder, he was better with the shorter putter, so he went back to that over the weekend at the Scottish.

But he’s a world-class putter, so it goes to show his whole team has full expectations of helping him reach No. 1 in the world. We’re always going to be working on helping him get better.

The armlock didn’t stick, but it’s been a great training aid. It helps him in his transition from his backstroke to his through-stroke, he tends to get a little bit of lag. The armlock has helped him eliminate some of that.

It may be temporarily shelved, but he’s still working with it as a training tool, and I think he might bring it back. I don’t think it was a one-and-done, because he’s intrigued by it and the numbers are so good.

Joe Toulon, Odyssey Tour Rep, told us this about Xander’s putter earlier this year, “The top line and back tracer lines really work with his eyes. The CH provides him a little bit of toe hang and it matches up nicely with his path and arc. He’s used face-balanced options in #7’s before and will typically only use something with little-to-no toe hang.”

Loft/lie: 3.5/71.5 degrees (loft adjusted weekly)
Alignment: Top and tracers in white
Insert: White Hot
Length: 34 3/8 inches to end of grip
Swingweight: D7.5
Weight: 516.5 gams
Shaft: Black stepped shaft

Equipment

Why Rickie Fowler is switching to a shorter driver at the PGA Championship

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

Alistair Cameron

In a golf world where players are looking to eke out every yard possible, usually by lengthening their drivers to add clubhead speed, there’s one player at the PGA Championship who’s going in the opposite direction. In fact, for Rickie Fowler, his goal off the tee is not about gaining extra distance or yards north to south, but rather about shrinking the misses from east to west.

Ahead of the PGA Championship and the week prior at the Truist Championship. Fowler mentioned to Cobra Tour Rep Ben Schomin that the driver didn’t quite swing feel the same as everything in the bag. As a result, and with Schomin’s suggestion to try and sync everything up with the big stick, Fowler decided to test out a shorter length shaft.

“He’s been at 45 (inches), and he’d been at 45 for a few weeks, 44 1/8 (inches) is really is where he is been living really for the most part, for the last couple of years, and is where he is been comfortable,” Schomin told GolfWRX. “It just felt like it was a little long and loose on him.”

Interestingly, Fowler ranks 40th in Driving Accuracy this year on the PGA Tour. It’s his most accurate season with the driver since the start of the decade. But sometimes for players, feel is more important than statistics.

“It was really more of a trying to get the swing to feel the fluidness from club to club to club to try to get it to feel the same,” Schomin added. “And so we took it down to 43 and a quarter, and it was a touch of a ball speed loss, just based on that overall club head speed. But honestly, he squared it up probably a little better. The right miss wasn’t nearly as far. So really, overall down-range dispersion tightened up a fair amount, and he felt confident in swinging it.”

The change in length had Fowler’s caddie, Ricky Romano, beaming at how well he had driven during Tuesday’s practice round at Aronimink. So much so, he was asking Schomin not to suggest changes anymore.

Fowler’s shaft-shortening is one of a few driver adjustments he’s made this season, and to Schomin’s credit, it’s thanks to the fact that he and the rest of the Cobra team had Fowler fit very well into three of the four heads in the Cobra OPTM lineup.

“He had three distinct drivers and the biggest decision was trying to decide which worked best at that time,” Schomin told GolfWRX previously. “He’s played the majority of the season with OPTM X, but has also played a couple of tournaments with OPTM LS. His overall driving stats have been good.”

At the RBC Heritage earlier this spring, Fowler switched drivers, changing from his Cobra OPTM X and into the Tour, low-loft Max K model that Gary Woodland used to win just a few weeks prior.

Now for the PGA Championship, Fowler’s back in the X head, but still using the UST Mamiya LIN-Q PowerCore White 6TX shaft, just a little bit shorter.

“Will he stay there? I’m not sure,” Schomin added. “Could we end up say at like 43 and 7.5 (of an inch). If it’s giving him the same feel of consistency through the bag, then I think we might end up just a touch longer. But if he likes where he is at, he’s confident where he is at, that’s really all that matters.”

If there’s more testing, though, just don’t tell his caddie.

Equipment

GolfWRX Launch Report: 2026 Titleist GTS drivers

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

What you need to know: As is customary for the Fairhaven-based company, Titleist officially announced today that its GTS drivers are headed to retail, following a successful tour release. The GTS2, GTS3, and GTS4 drivers will be available in golf shops June 11.

Since debuting at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, the new GTS lineup has quickly gained traction on the PGA Tour, with more than 50 players already making the switch to a GTS2, GTS3, or GTS4 driver. Among them are Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.

Justin Thomas’ Titleist GTS2 driver (Greg Moore, GolfWRX)

According to Titleist, the GTS series builds upon the performance foundation established by the GT Series, while introducing several major technological advancements, including a new Split Mass Frame construction, refined aerodynamics, and an updated Speed Sync face design.

2026 Titleist GTS drivers: What’s new, key technology

Split Mass Frame and thermoform body

At the center of the new GTS lineup is a redesigned internal structure: the Split Mass Frame. This technology works with a full-thermoform body made from Titleist’s Proprietary Matrix Polymer (PMP), a lightweight composite that enables engineers to reposition mass more efficiently throughout the head. Compared to the previous GT generation, GTS drivers feature nearly double the PMP material, increasing from 13 grams to 26 grams, while maintaining the sound and feel preferred by better players.

The weight savings from the thermoform construction allowed Titleist engineers to strategically separate mass placement inside the head. Specifically, more weight is pushed rearward to improve stability and forgiveness, while additional mass is positioned low and forward to optimize speed, launch, and spin.

In short, golfers are able to maintain ball speed and consistency across both centered and off-center strikes.

Faster aerodynamics

Titleist also refined the aerodynamic shaping of the GTS heads to help players generate more clubhead speed.

The tails of the new GTS2 and GTS3 heads have been raised compared to previous models, helping airflow stay attached to the crown and sole longer during the swing. According to Titleist, the improved airflow reduces drag and increases speed without affecting launch conditions or center of gravity placement.

Typically, aerodynamic gains can compromise forgiveness or launch characteristics, but the weight savings from the Split Mass Frame allowed engineers to preserve preferred CG locations.

New Speed Sync face

The new Speed Sync Face design is engineered to improve ball speed retention across a larger portion of the face. A reinforced perimeter structure helps maximize face deflection and COR on centered strikes, while the upper portion of the support ring is opened up to increase speed on high-face impacts, a common strike location for many golfers. The face also features a variable thickness design to preserve speed and performance across a wider impact area.

Expanded adjustability

Each GTS model includes a dual-weighting system to fine-tune launch, spin, and shot shape more precisely than previous generations. GTS2 uses interchangeable forward and aft weights, while GTS3 and GTS4 combine a rear weight with an adjustable forward track weight system.

Tour-inspired face graphics

The new lineup features redesigned high-contrast face graphics to improve alignment and framing at address, according to Titleist. Sharp visual lines are designed to make it easier to center the golf ball and to perceive loft more easily at setup.

Additional model details

GTS2

The GTS2 is the most forgiving model, designed for golfers seeking maximum stability and consistent speed across the face.
It produces high launch with mid spin and features a larger, confidence-inspiring profile behind the ball.
Standard weighting includes an 11-gram forward weight and a 5-gram rear weight, with additional fitting configurations available.

GTS3

The GTS3 is aimed at players who want more control over launch, spin, and shot shaping.
Compared to GTS2, the GTS3 offers lower launch and spin while featuring a more compact profile and deeper face design preferred by many stronger players.
The head features an adjustable forward-track weight system to further fine-tune center of gravity placement.

GTS4

The lowest-spinning option in the lineup, GTS4 is built for golfers looking to reduce excessive spin and maximize total distance.
Unlike previous “4” models from Titleist, the new GTS4 features a full 460cc profile that improves forgiveness and stability while retaining its low-spin DNA.
Like GTS3, it includes a forward track weighting system for precise fitting adjustments.

What Titleist says

“When we talk about driver design, it’s never about the one feature or benefit — it’s about all of them,” said Stephanie Luttrell, Titleist’s Senior Director of Metalwood R&D. “Ball speed, forgiveness, spin stability, adjustability, exceptional sound and feel… these are all attributes that golfers care about. It’s our job to design a lineup that elevates performance across the board without sacrificing in key areas, and we feel we’ve done that with GTS.”

“We know that forward CGs drive speed with great launch and spin characteristics, but you need to be able to do that with an inertial stability that still preserves ball speed, launch and spin consistency on off-center hits,” Luttrell said. “We’ve never before been able to hit these CG positions and inertia properties at the same time, and we’re achieving that because of GTS’ construction.”

Club Junkie’s take

I feel like every time there is a new Titleist wood release, I figure they can’t outdo their previous driver. And every year, I am wrong and impressed with the performance. The GTS fits right into that narrative again, as I didn’t know where Titleist could go from GT, but they pushed the limits again, and my fitting proved the smart people there found ways to improve.

My past four Titleist drivers have been a 2 series as my swing typically requires a little height, spin, and forgiveness so I figured I would just get a new GTS2 and be on my way. During the fitting, I was impressed by the new GTS construction, its added PMP material, and the advanced adjustability on each model. My fitter, Joey, got to work putting together a GTS2 and we started there. The launch and spin were great, and the consistency on misses was very tight. My average ball speed with the GTS went up a little bit as the new Speed Sync face creates more speed away from the center.

Joey then built up a GTS3 in 11 degrees, but I figured this wouldn’t have the stability I needed for tight dispersion on my miss hits. That thought was quickly erased after a few shots, and I really liked the more center start line and reduced draw on the misses I was seeing. We tried a few different settings and shafts to dial in the details in order to get the best fit. Having a forward and rear weight in the head allowed Joey to set up the GTS3 with a heavier rear weight to keep the launch and spin up, while the Sure Fit hosel set flat created a more center start line for me. My misses were not nearly as far left, and I was really impressed with the consistency on the spin and launch when I didn’t hit it in the center.

Titleist again created a wood line in GTS that delivers improvements over previous drivers while keeping the traditional look and feel you expect. More adjustability, better off-center speed, and 3 drivers that are playable over a wider range of players should make these extremely successful in fittings.

Pricing, specs, availability

GTS2 lofts: 8, 9, 10, 11 degrees (RH/LH)

GTS3 lofts: 8, 9, 10, 11 degrees (RH/LH)

GTS4 lofts: 8, 9, 10 (RH/LH)

Featured shafts

Project X Titan Black
Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White
Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue
Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Red

Premium shafts

Graphite Design Tour AD DI
Graphite Design Tour AD VF
Graphite Design Tour AD FI

Available for fittings and pre-sale now.

In golf shops worldwide beginning June 11.

Price: $699 (standard), $899 (premium)

Equipment

Titleist launches new GTS2 and GTS3 fairways

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Titleist has today introduced its new GTS2 and GTS3 fairways.

Lower and deeper center of gravity (CG) positions, new adjustable heel-toe weights and advanced clubface innovations drive total performance in the two tour-proven models.

New GTS fairway technology:

Wraparound composite crowns: Unlock lower CG positions for higher launch and lower spin as well as more CG depth for added forgiveness.

Refined shapes and profiles: With two distinct setups, with GTS2 featuring a shallower face height and larger address profile compared to GTS3’s deeper face and more compact profile. Both models feature flatter sole designs for better performance off the turf.

Dual-weighting systems: The dual-weighting systems allows for personalized performance, with interchangeable heel-toe flat weights helping to fine-tune CG location across the face.

A forged L-Cup face design: The new face design is optimized for GTS and works to preserve ball speed, maintain launch conditions and enhance sound and feel on low-face impacts.

Tour-inspired polished clubfaces: To help players see more of the clubface at address.

GTS2 Fairway

The new GTS2 fairway is designed with a shallower face and a larger profile than GTS3, ideal for players with more sweeping deliveries with their fairway metals.

GTS2’s new face height, inspired by tour feedback, was designed shallower than the prior generation GT2 model and more in line with the GT1 fairway. Each loft in GTS2 leverages a shallower profile except for the 13.5-degree, which maintains a slightly taller face.

With its new dual-weighting system, the ‘2’ model now has heel-toe CG adjustability.

Lofts: 13.5, 15.0, 16.5, 18.0, 21.0

Dual-weight system: 11-gram weight in heel, 5-gram weight in toe (standard)

GTS3 Fairway

The new GTS3 fairway is designed with a deeper face and a more compact profile, ideal for players who hit down on the golf ball more with their fairway metals.

New to the GTS3 family is a 21-degree offering, giving players two distinct profiles in Titleist’s 7-wood loft.

Instead of the track weight system featured in prior generation ‘3’ models, GTS3 now benefits from adjustable heel-toe flat weights.

Lofts: 15.0, 16.5, 18.0, 21.0

Dual-weight system: 11-gram weight in heel, 5-gram weight in toe (standard)

Price & Availability

The new GTS fairways are available for fittings and pre-sale now and will be in golf shops worldwide beginning June 11 priced at $399 (standard) and $599 (premium).