Equipment

Jason Day takes us on a deep dive into his current setup

Published

4 weeks ago

Apr 15, 2026

Jason Day flirted with becoming the second Australian to win a green jacket, hanging around the top of the leaderboard at the 90th Masters Tournament for three rounds and then into Sunday, before ultimately missing out to back-to-back champion Rory McIlroy.

It’s no secret that Day has embraced his equipment free agency and his strong play at Augusta National was helped by this. In the month leading up to the Masters, Day spent plenty of time working with Avoda Golf’s CEO and Co-founder, Tom Bailey, to perfect a set of irons, developing certain wedge grinds and soles to fit his short-game characteristics, and returned to some of the oldies that worked best for him.

On-site this week at the RBC Heritage, GolfWRX caught up with Day to talk through his equipment journey.

GolfWRX: New wedges obviously spoke with Tom, some sole design on that which has influenced the irons previously. Maybe talk about what you’re seeing with them and what you’re testing out.

Jason Day: Yeah, so essentially what had happened is that when I started working with Avoda, now just to let you know that I don’t get paid by Avoda. I use them freely just to let you know. So I can be very critical of anything that I use, which is nice.

But working with Avoda was kind of unique in a sense that they were able to build anything that I wanted to see. Whether that’s more offset, onset, more curve to the face, less curve to the face, the thicker top line, how did I want to see the toe, if the iron head was symmetrical, and then we got down to the sole and essentially what the sole does for me is that obviously there’s that beveled edge, but the lean of the sole matches my forward press of my actual swing.

So what we get out here essentially is we have all the OEMs and they have their set of ions that they like to sell, like their tour version and obviously their version that is for the more the weekend warrior.

And what I’ve been able to do with Avoda or what Avoda has helped me with, is be able to create a, so that’s based off my impact, and that has helped me tremendously through the hitting zone. If I use, let’s just say for instance, Scottie’s (Scheffler’s) P7TWs, I may dig the ground a little bit more because I might be a little steeper than he is and vice versa.

If I use something that I’m just trying to think off the top of my head, there’s some guys out here that have Adam Schenk, he has a really big soul on his iron, and that would bounce out of the turf for me. So long story short, we’re able to match my forward press at impact and really help me be able to consistently strike the ball a lot better. And I think over time you’ll probably start to see custom soul designs for every one of these guys at some point.

GolfWRX: I also saw going back to the older irons that you’ve been working with, you’re seeing too much curve…

Day: Yeah, so at the start of my journey with Avoda, is essentially I wanted to go more towards a draw-bias swing, and I’ve never been one of those guys, I’ve always been a pretty zero’d, neutraled-out person,” Day said. “So zero is good, but unfortunately, you get the left miss and the right miss. … There’s no one way miss in golf. There are two-way misses. Everyone has them, some guys just have a little bit less than one side to the other side.

But I started out with the prototypes, the version ones, and I was hitting them very straight and they do like to go straight because it’s onset, there’s no offset in them at all. So they look very square. And then I came back and I said, look, can we build a version two and maybe make a little bit more offset somewhere between my, I think it was the (TaylorMade) P7CBs or something like that … and make the top line thinner.

And they came back and there was some slight vibration in ’em and they were turning too much. So we went back to a version three. We halved the offset between straight onset and offset. There’s so much going on right now. I use those at the start of the year, but then I had too much of a bias left, so I had this kind of left shot. Now I’m not saying that I don’t have left shot … but the consistency has come in a lot more and I can definitely see it in my stats. I’m hitting a lot more greens and it feels much better in the way that the club obviously goes through the turf, but the way it looks on the ground, I’m not reacting to a club that looks like it’s kind of left. And sometimes when you are looking down as a player and you see the club look a certain way, you’ll react to it not knowing that you’re reacting to the way the club looks.”

GolfWRX: I’d be remiss to ask, obviously lots of technology going into the irons you’re in right now, but then we’re seeing a lot of older woods, driver, you’re in the Stealth still. What’s the thought process around that?

Day: Yeah, I’m not saying that the technology that they have now isn’t good. The technology that all the OEMs are putting out right now, fantastic.

I just think it comes down to what the player really likes do. They may have really good experience and really good memories from a driver that they used five years ago. If we take Aaron Ray for instance, he’s using an M6 and he really loves that feeling obviously I think that may have cracked and he’s using a different driver now, but he used that driver for a very long time and he had really good success with it. So it’s just more of a preference saying when guys stand up there, they want to know that, Hey, what are my shots doing? And I have trust in this driver to be able to go from here to there the best when you haven’t had enough hits with some other drivers or if you’re changing every, let’s say six months or a year, then it’s just hard to build up the character or at least know what the characteristics of that club would like to do.

GolfWRX: Are you enjoying building a bag like this now as a free agent?

Day: I am enjoying it. I think when I was probably one of the only guys to not have a club manufacturer as a partner. And I think there was some other guys out here doing it, but I was one of the only few. And it’s great in a sense that you can try everything, but it’s also bad because you can try too much and you can tinker too much.

I think I am starting to settle. I say that, and I just got a Ping Mini in the bag this week. Yeah, which is good. You kind of need the 280 to 290 range, and the 3-wood may not go as far, you know what I mean? So it’s a good addition. But yeah, I’m starting to settle on a good driver. I’ve always liked the Ping G430. I like the Ping mini prototype. That feels fantastic. Right now, I’ve got an M6 3-wood, Qi10 5-wood, and a Stealth 7-wood. And then obviously the rest are Avoda and obviously a custom Spider putter.

Equipment

Spotted at the PGA Championship: Koepka’s new putter, L.A.B. Golf’s latest prototype and custom Philly gear

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

Aronimink Golf Club takes center stage for the 2026 PGA Championship, as the world’s best, along with America’s top club pros, take on the Donald Ross classic, just outside Philadelphia in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Even on the first official practice day of the championship, there was plenty of gear news and storylines to dive into, with a three-time champion going through an extensive putter testing, as well as new prototype putters spotted and custom gear galore. Let’s dive into it.

Brooks Koepka’s putter testing

Three-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka spent plenty of time Monday morning and into the afternoon on the practice putting green in front of the Aronimink clubhouse, working with coaches and Tour reps and putting plenty of different flasticks through their paces, after apparently recently breaking his new TaylorMade Spider Tour X last time out at the Myrtle Beach Classic.

Koepka tested out a couple of Scotty Cameron heads, similar to that of Cameron Young’s Phantom 9.5R with a full sightline. It’s not the first time a Tour pro has asked to follow in Young’s footsteps. Justin Thomas had the same request last week at the Truist Championship. Why not follow the hot hand?

Koepka’s custom Cameron featured the same style Teryllium insert that he has used previously, most notably during his PGA Championship wins in a Newport-style blade. The putter, however, that looks to have the best chance of making its way into the bag come Thursday is a TaylorMade Spider Tour V, the model of head recently launched on Tour at the RBC Heritage.

What’s unique about Koepka’s new Tour V putter is the custom length L-Neck (plumbers) hosel that he has equipped. The extended version looks ot reduce the toe-hang of the putter along with adding stability to the stroke.

The putter change comes with a plethora of additions to Keopka’s bag after his split with Srixon/Cleveland. Along with already playing a Titleist ist Pro V1x golf ball, Koepka added Vokey wedges to his Grove XXIII staff bag last week in South Carolina. The 36-year-old is using SM11s in 48.10F, 52.12F and 56.10, along with the WedgeWorks 60B, a special grind with an interesting letter choice.

Look at Koepka’s full bag here.

L.A.B. Golf’s new vision

As GolfWRX continued the long tradition of capturing players’ bags and equipment, we got a glimpse of the latest L.A.B. Golf putter in the bag of Adrian Saddier. The Frenchman, who’s making his PGA Championship debut at Aronimink, is rolling with the newly added VZN.1i putter, which features a closed-back, winged-mallet design, resulting in a square cutout in the middle of the mallet.

Saddier’s new stick is center-shafted with two thick white alignment lines. The VZN.1 is the latest L.A.B. putter to be spotted. It comes after the traditional blade-style LINK.2.1 & LINK.2.2 were released on Tour, featuring a heel-shaft.

Take a look at the full gallery here.

Custom Philly-themed gear

As with every major championship, the PGA sees a bevy of custom gear from equipment manufacturers to highlight the theme of the week. With Aronimink sitting just west of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love takes full focus.

Callaway is ringing the Liberty Bell with its Philly special-edition staff bag that tour players will be rocking at Aronimink. The bag features a pin-striped design, embossed with the Liberty Bell itself and a special green-fluff strap for the Philadelphia Phillies’ mascot, the Phillie Phanatic.

TaylorMade is also theming the staff bag around the birth of a nation, with a specially crafted staff back to celebrate the city where American independence was born. The bag features Philadelphia’s fingerprints with Independence Hall lives on the ball pocket, the Liberty Bell graces the valuables pocket, and Benjamin Franklin holds court on the back. The bottom collar reads – City of Brotherly Love – and custom “LOVE” zipper pulls pay tribute to the iconic Robert Indiana’s sculpture situated in the city center.

Tileist has adopted a different design for its GTS headcovers, going with Kelly Green, for the 2025 Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles.

Check out more custom gear in the forums.

Whats in the Bag

Alex Fitzpatrick WITB 2026 (May)

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Driver: Ping G440 LST (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X

7-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

9-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: Titleist T100 (5-9)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X (5-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (46-10F, 50-12F, 56-14F), WedgeWorks (60-A+)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X (46, 50), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (56, 60)

Putter: Odyssey Ai-One #7S

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Equipment

Lead Tape Hall of Fame: Hideki Matsuyama

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

Andrew Von Lossow

Today is a very special day for the Lead Tape Hall of Fame. Our second inductee is announced, and with great honor, we welcome Hideki Matsuyama to the Silver Jacket ceremony. Hideki’s meticulous attention to detail and precision have earned him his place in the Lead Tape Hall of Fame.

Hideki turned professional in 2013 and began his career on the Japan Tour. He was the first rookie on the Japan Tour to lead the money list, highlighted by five wins in his first season. His first appearance on the PGA Tour was the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, where he came in 10th place in his debut. In 2014, he won his first PGA Tour event at Memorial. Hideki is currently at 11 PGA Tour wins, including a scoring record at The Sentry in January 2025 at 35 under par. In 2021, he won The Masters. An incredible career and still full of momentum, what kind of tools does Hideki use to get in the mix week in and week out?

Matsuyama has been a career Srixon and Cleveland staff player. Typically with Graphite Design shafts in his woods and True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts in his irons. A unique trait is that in his wedges, he will play X100 shafts that suit his launch preferences. Rarely do you see a stiffer profile in wedges compared to irons.

Speaking of wedges, Hideki plays the Cleveland RTX4 Forged wedges. These debuted in 2018, but due to his level of detail, this is what he plays today. You can see the lead tape placed on the wedges in different places on the back flange. Usually erring towards the heel promoting certain launch characteristics and if anything a slight draw ball flight. In a 2021 GolfWRX interview, we found Hideki does not want to see the ball fall to the right. He wants the ball to fall to the left.

We see the use of lead tape on clubs like his fairway metal, where we see a small strip near the ferrule and even at the base of the grip. Looking at the details, Hideki operates; everything is done with purpose and measured for his stats. Not the type of feel player that doesn’t know how much weight is where and says, “That’s fine.”

Srixon told us, “We also travel with pre-cut lead tape in half-gram and one-gram increments, and Hideki will apply the tape to different areas of the club (muscle, flange, hosel, shaft), depending on how the club feels while testing.”

Hideki and his team have his club spec’d to the half gram for what to add or subtract from his set. This is Hall of Fame level here, nearly alone, but with Hideki’s meticulous attention to detail for each club is amazing to see.

This attention to detail carries down to the putting green as well. Hideki rotates through a series of Scotty Cameron Newport putters with subtle changes on sightlines, bumpers, and welded plumber’s necks. Sometimes on the bottom of the putter? A strip of one-inch lead tape. The tape has been on there so long that you can see the hand-stamped logo underneath. That is absolutely Hall of Fame grade!

It is incredible to see through the lens of the level of detail that Hideki operates in. We see lead tape anywhere from the shaft, above the hosel, in different positions on the back flange of wedges, and on the bottom of the putter. The precision he brings to the course has translated into a record of winning results from the beginning. We will have to stay tuned if his new Silver Jacker accompanies his Green Jacket in the trophy room!