Why Sungjae Im finally switched to Titleist’s ‘Faster Player’s Iron’ | Tour Report

Welcome to Fully Equipped’s weekly Tour equipment report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if news warrants), GOLF equipment editor Jack Hirsh runs you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.

Sungjae Im is back on the PGA Tour and for the first time since his rookie season, he’s breaking in a new set of irons.

Im made his first start since last October (wrist injury) at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, and did so with a new set of Titleist T150 irons. That represents his first iron chance since he moved to his first-generation T100 irons shortly after their release in 2019.

“Sungjae really loved that first-gen T100,” Titleist Tour Rep Nick Geyer told GOLF. “It was probably a combination of things, a little bit of size and the profile. It was a little longer heel to toe than the current generation, and it had a slightly wider sole, so a little more bounce. And to be fair, he just hit them great and probably didn’t see a reason to change.”

Not only did Im make the move while at home in Korea rehabbing from injury, but he also made the switch to Titleist’s larger T150 platform at the same time.

After all this time with the original T100s — Russell Henley still plays the same model — what made Im finally switch?

Im, a notably hard switcher of gear who is still playing Titleist’s TSi2 driver from 2020, also famously never takes time off. He’s played 26 or more events in each of his first seven seasons on the PGA Tour, including 35 in both 2019 and 2021. So with the forced time off to rehab his wrist, Geyer said Im took some time to evaluate where his game was at and reached out to Titleist’s Korea team once he was able to make full swings this winter.

“The Korean team and all of our worldwide teams do a great job of communicating,” Geyer said. “Any time a player is spending time at home or somewhere else, we’re always kind of up to date with each other, and we got great reports and feedback from Sungjae when it came to all his testing during that time.”

The winner for the fitting was clearly a set of T150, the larger of Titleist’s two tour cavity-back irons, bent one degree weak.

PGA Tour players using a full set of T150s, an iron many would consider in the players distance category, isn’t unheard of, but it’s rare. Will Zalatoris also uses a full set of T150s and Geyer has said more pros have “dabbled” in this generation of the T150 than the previous one. Titleist actually lengthened the blade of the T150 to make it more similar to the proportions of the T100.

But the larger profile, specifically the wider sole, is actually most similar to Im’s original T100s.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Titleist

“The blade length and a little bit more overall size just looked very familiar to him right away. That familiarity was the first positive, and then the performance gains kind of stacked on top of that,” Geyer said. “The numbers were really good — a little higher, a little faster, and with a steeper descent angle. Especially in the long irons, being able to launch it and send it higher was a big benefit. Pair that with turf interaction that felt like his old iron and it made a lot of sense.”

With the additional loft, the irons actually play to a same stock loft as the T100, just in the larger shape.

Im uses the same Dynamic Gold X100 shafts as his previous set, but he personally made the addition of a strip of Titleist-branded lead tape to the head of each iron. That was a choice he made on his own.

“That’s just Sungjae being Sungjae,” Geye said. “My notes don’t have anything about lead tape so that’s just him fine-tuning.”

Im was shaking off the rust with an MC at Bay Hill but gained strokes on approach in his second round and each of his first two rounds at the Players this week.

A ‘Mini’ tune-up for Augusta

Justin Rose added a new mini driver to the bag this week, but it wasn’t just for the tight confines of TPC Sawgrass.

Rose approached Callaway Tour Rep Kellen Watson at the Genesis Invitational last month, looking to get the top of his bag set for the Masters.

That meant making sure everything with Rose’s now two-year-old Paradym Ai-Smoke driver was as dialed as can be and making sure he had a secondary tee option. Rose played a mini driver at times last season, including his win in Memphis, and Watson had just gotten some validation on the new prototype Quantum Mini driver from Min Woo Lee.

Rose wanted to make sure he had an option well beforehand, as opposed to getting a new club built once he got to Georgia.

“These days most players already have the things they might take to Augusta in the travel bag somewhere,” Watson said. “It’s less about building something new at the last minute and more about having everything tested ahead of time.”

Rose tested 11.5˚ prototype Mini at 11˚ with a Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73TX shaft and liked what he saw immediately.

“We probably only hit it about ten times in L.A., but the numbers were really good and the pattern was exactly what he wanted to see,” Watson said. “That was enough for him to keep testing it.”

With 172-173 mph ball speed out of the mini, it represents more of a second driver than a 3-wood replacement, which is exactly what Rose was looking for at TPC Sawgrass, where accuracy is at a premium. It’s also advantageous at a place like Augusta National, where accuracy is important, but you don’t want to necessarily give up distance to do it.

That’s a reason Watson said more players than you might expect opt for an 11-degree mini as opposed to a 13-degree mini. The 11-degree is a true second driver while the 13-degree still retains the ability to hit the ball from the deck.

“You’re not losing much in ball speed, but you’re gaining a club that’s easier to control and place where you want it. For guys who want something they can lean on off the tee, pushing the loft down like that tends to make more sense,” Watson said. “Gone are the days where the 3-wood absolutely needs to be in the bag. Guys are hitting 5-woods 250 to 265 now, so you start asking where the 3-wood really fits. At that point, it can make more sense to give yourself another tee option instead.”

Justin Rose’s Quantum Mini Prototype specs

Actual Loft: 11˚
Lie: 57˚
OptiFit4 Setting: ++ Lie
Weights: 9 g front, 7 g back
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73TX
Length: 43.25″
Tipping: 1.25″
Swingweight: D3
Grip: Superstroke Revel Blk/Grey

Wyndham Clark’s golf shop visit results in a new putter

Newly minted equipment free-agent Wyndham Clark is just like us.

When he’s struggling with his putting, he goes to his local golf shop and buys a new putter.

The difference is that Clark is a major championship winner who really doesn’t ever need to buy any golf clubs.

But as GolfWRX reported this week, that’s exactly what Clark did as he showed up with a new Bettinardi Antidote SB1 with a slap of lead tape caked on the sole.

“I hadn’t been putting my best, so I wanted to try some different putters, and I kind of narrowed it down to two or three, and I went to go put lead tape on one of them at the pro shop at Whisper Rock,” Clark told GolfWRX. “As I was kind of waiting there and looking, they had this putter and I said, ‘You know, can I try this?’”

Bettinardi 2025 Antidote SB1 Custom Putter

SIMPLY BALANCED™ TECHNOLOGY
G With a precisely engineered pocket and 6061 Aluminum insert, the SB1’s Center of Gravity (CoG) lies perfectly at the center of the putter, creating a zero-torque head that stays naturally on path and square from start to finish.
F.I.T. FACE™ (FEEL IMPACT TECHNOLOGY) FACE MILLING
G Milled from 303 Stainless Steel. This exclusive Bettinardi face milling removes 55% of the face material, resulting in a soft, responsive feel.
DIAMOND BLAST AND SAPPHIRE BLUE FINISH
G The Antidote SB1 has a Diamond Blast finish which reduces glare at address and features a Sapphire Blue T-Alignment and Anodized 6061 Aluminum pocket insert.

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Clark has been using a L.A.B. putter this season and recently switched the orientation of the grip to play upside down.

The Bettinardi, which still had the price tag of $399.99 on the shaft has a regular SuperStroke grip. Clark goes into the weekend at 1-under par and 71st in putting through two rounds.

Putters aren’t the only thing he’s been switching around this season as he used four different drivers in four weeks earlier this year. This week he entered with the same Qi4D driver he played with at the Genesis Invitational.

Check this out

This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Maverick McNealy’s custom P7CB irons.

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Aldrich Potgieter became the first player to game L.A.B.’s new Link 2.1 HS blade … Maverick McNealy went back to an Odyssey Toulon blade putter after a one-week trial with the TaylorMade Spider … Ben Griffin switched back to Ping G440 K driver after switching back to his 430 Max at Pebble … Marco Penge is gaming the Ping Prototype Mini driver and switched his iron shafts to the KBS C-Taper 130 X from the VTen to lower his ball flight … Denny McCarthy switched to a Ping G440 LST with Project X Titan … Gary Woodland switched out of his Scotty Cameron Phantom 9 OC prototype to a prototype GoLo center-shaft … Justin Thomas switched back to a Titleist GT2 after debuting last week with an old TS3. He was in GT3 toward the end of last season … Sepp Straka went back to his Odyssey Tuttle … Max Greyserman switched to a shorter-build Quantum TD 5-wood … TaylorMade had 103 of the 220 fairway woods in play and every winner so far this season has played at least one.

3 things you should read/watch

A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.

Could Charles Howell play Quantum irons!? – In the latest edition of Tour Validated, Charles Howell tests the Callaway Quantum game-improvement irons to see if they’re up to snuff for a Tour Pro.

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Callaway Quantum Max Custom Irons

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