PGA TOUR | Open Championship
Titleist was the most played golf ball (109/70%), driver (44/28%), iron (39/25%) wedge (241/41%) at the 149th Open Championship, continuing its lead in each category for the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season.
SPIETH, THOMAS PUT NEW T-SERIES IRONS IN PLAY
- Before his flight to England last weekend, Jordan Spieth made a notable packing decision, adding a set of NEW T-Series T100 irons to the bag. His prior generation T100’s stayed home in Dallas.
- Spieth, who first tested the final prototypes the week of the AT&T Byron Nelson, gamed his new T100 4-9 irons (True Temper Project X 6.5 shafts) for the first time at Royal St. George’s, his first opportunity since the models launched on tour at the Travelers Championship, posting the lowest 72-hole total by a runner-up in the history of the championship.
- Spieth also put a NEW T200 2-iron (Graphite Design Tour AD D1 105 X) in play.
- It was at the Open Championship in 2019 that Spieth, an instrumental part of the Titleist Golf Club R&D team’s T-Series development process, made the switch to the original T100 models.
- Like 2019, he spent the last couple weeks at home testing the new irons, dialing them in for competition, with Titleist’s Director of Players Promotions J.J. Van Wezenbeeck just a text or call away.
- “When we first introduced the new T100’s to Jordan in Dallas, he commented immediately on the look and feel, how well they went through the turf, and how consistently they were flying,” Van Wezenbeeck said. “Talking with him last week, as he was working through the set, he said his ball speeds were extremely consistent, and he was really happy from a visual standpoint.”
- Upon seeing the new T100’s for the first time, Spieth said: “First thing you noticed is how they look, kind of the backside of the iron. You could see the color just kind of more matted out, and then a really clean back to it. Just very simple – stays looking almost like a blade with the forgiveness of a cavity back.”
- “I don’t understand why you’d play any other iron to be honest,” Spieth said. “I joke around, ‘I’m not good enough to play the blades,’ but in reality, I think we’re just being smarter. I think we’re just like, ‘Oh, we can actually hit every shot that a blade can hit.’ But that chance that we mishit them – which we’re going to mishit a few shots in a round, even in a great round, the idea that it does carry that bunker and you make birdie on a hole where someone has to get up and down for par – I mean, it could be the difference in a tournament.”
- Spieth and Justin Thomas were two of several players to add NEW T200 long irons to the bag at Royal St. George’s.
- Thomas, who traveled to England with a prior generation T-MB 2-iron, worked with Titleist European Tour Rep Liam McDougall in moving to a new T200 2-iron (True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100), which he tested during practice rounds, preferring the lower offset, look and feel.
PGA TOUR | Barbasol Championship
Playing a Pro V1 golf ball, Seamus Power earned his first PGA TOUR victory on the sixth hole of an all-Titleist playoff with Titleist Brand Ambassador J.T. Poston.
- Power, 34, making his 106th TOUR start, birdied the 72nd hole for a closing 5-under 67 to match Poston at 21 under and force overtime.
- Power chipped in for birdie from just off the green on the first playoff hole, eventually winning with a tap-in par five holes later. He finished the week eighth in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (+2.557), sixth in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (+9.029), sixth in Scrambling (80%) and T8 in Greens in Regulation (79%), hitting 57 of 72 greens.
- Power’s win marked the 30th victory for Titleist golf ball players this season on the PGA Tour, six times the nearest competitor with five.
POSTON ADDS NEW T100, T200 IRONS
J.T. Poston earned his best finish of the season, one week after adding NEW T100 and T200 irons to the bag.
- Poston, who had been gaming U•500 utility irons and 718 AP2 irons, put the NEW T200 4-5 and NEW T100 6-9 models (True Temper Project X 6.5) in play at the John Deere Classic, after testing them for the first time that Tuesday with Titleist Tour Rep Jim Curran.
- “J.T. had been coming off a two-week break, he’d heard about the new irons and couldn’t wait to hit them,” Curran said. “Right away, he loved the look. He loved the feel. We started to go through each iron, the club’s moving faster through the ground, his ball speed’s staying up and it’s going exactly where he’s looking. I’m watching the monitor and it’s like, 8-iron 170, 8-iron 170, 8-iron 171. That’s how the whole session went and I said, ‘you need to go play these.’”
- Poston finished the week T1 in Greens in Regulation, hitting 60 of 72 greens (83%).
LPGA | Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational
Moriya and Ariya Jutanugarn – each playing 2021 Pro V1x golf balls – posted a pair of best-ball 11-under 59’s, including one Sunday, to win the LPGA’s team event by three shots.
- The sisters made a combined 13 birdies in their final round, with two in the final holes, capped by a 35-foot birdie putt from Ariya on 18.
- It marked the second victory of 2021 and 12th-career LPGA title for Ariya, and second-career LPGA win for Moriya.
- “I would say this is the best moment for me because we won together,” Ariya said. “We helped each other to win the golf tournament. I know it’s like we got through so much stuff this week because sometimes I’m worried, I’m nervous to play, and sometimes she have the same feeling. I know it’s a really hard week for us, and the way we play, I’m just so proud of her.”
- All eight players among the four teams who finished T-3 or better played a Titleist golf ball. Sixteen of the 18 events played this season on the LPGA have been won by Titleist golf ball players.
KORN FERRY TOUR | Memorial Health Championship
Taylor Moore, playing a Pro V1 golf ball, followed a third-round 60 with a closing 65 to claim his first Korn Ferry Tour victory and confirm his PGA TOUR card for next season.
- Moore’s 11-under 60 set both a new personal-best and the course record at Panther Creek Country Club.
- Moore made 26 birdies and one eagle, with just one bogey over the 72 holes, finishing at 27 under for a three-shot win over Erik Barnes (Pro V1x).
- For the week, he hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation (86 percent), ranking second.
- The win advanced Moore past the KFT’s fail-safe threshold of 1,650 points, earning him PGA TOUR membership for the 2021-22 season.
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