GEAR SHORTS: Rose’s golden gear, awesome wedge stamps

With the Olympics in full swing and Great Britain’s Justin Rose having just won golf’s first gold medal in 112 years, it’s only right to kick off Gear Shorts by paying tribute to the gear the newly crowned champ had in his bag.

The key to Rose’s success at the Olympics was his performance from tee-to-green. His play from the tee was exemplary all week as he hit 90.38% of fairways switching between his 8.5-degree TaylorMade M2 driver and his 15-degree M2 fairway wood. Rose’s greens-in-regulation performance also stood out as he hit 77.78% of them throughout all four rounds.

The only change he made to his bag for the challenge of the Olympic Golf Course was by switching out his TaylorMade M2 5-wood and replacing it with a TaylorMade PSi Tour 3-iron.

Here’s Justin Rose’s gold medal winning bag in full:

Driver TaylorMade M2 (8.5˚); 3-wood TaylorMade M2 (15˚); Irons TaylorMade PSi Tour (3-iron), TaylorMade Tour Preferred MB (4-iron to PW); Wedges TaylorMade Tour Preferred EF (52˚, 56˚, 60˚); Putter TaylorMade Ghost Monaco Tour Black Prototype; Ball TaylorMade Tour Preferred X.

Read more -> TaylorMade unleash M2 driver

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SPOTTED: Titleist 917 fairways on the PGA Tour

We’ve seen Titleist’s 917 prototype driver being seeded on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. It even already has a major championship to its name thanks to Jimmy Walker’s efforts at Baltusrol.

FIRST LOOK: @Titleist‘s 917F2 and 917F3 fairway woods were unveiled at the @JDCLASSIC. https://t.co/fD5Nzmc7xCpic.twitter.com/SHKJzhOnEF — Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) August 10, 2016

Now, it appears it has a little brother as the 917 fairway metal prototype progressed to ‘Tour seeding’ status at last week’s John Deere Classic. While details are sketchy, there does appear to be two heads with the model names changing from ‘F’ and ‘F.d’ to ‘F2’ and ‘F3’.

We also have some images to share thanks to the PGA Tour’s equipment guy Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) and Titleist’s official Twitter account (@Titleist).

Spotted on TOUR this week, the new #Titleist917 fairway metal prototype. (: @budcauley) pic.twitter.com/Y5bD97sAFJ

— Titleist (@Titleist) August 10, 2016

Read more -> Titleist’s new tour truck: Exclusive tour

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Moore wins with Callaway’s help

The very first man to put PXG clubs in his bag, Ryan Moore romped to success at the John Deere Classic at the weekend.

As you would expect, Moore’s bag is packed full of PXG gear. You may not expect to see a few Callaway clubs in his bag, too. The American played 16-degree and an 18-degree Callaway XR fairway woods en route to victory as well as an Odyssey White Hot RX V-Line Fang putter.

Here’s Ryan Moore’s John Deere Classic winning bag in full:

Driver PXG 0811 (9˚); Fairway woods Callaway XR (16˚, 18˚); Hybrid PXG 0317 (19˚, 22˚); Irons PXG 0311T (5-iron to PW); Wedges PXG 0311T (54˚, 60˚); Putter Odyssey White Hot RX V-Line Fang.

Read more -> Rich Beem: The Bulls Eye & the PXG bill 

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Patriotic irons? Now we have seen it all…

The lead up to the Olympic Games brought us a steady flow of specially made gear as golf prepared for its return to the Olympics and the awesome golf bags certainly piqued our interest.

Last weekend, Wilson Staff released images of its new Patriotic Edition C200 irons that may well top the lot. Red, white and blue with a gold KBS Tour shaft, they are Wilson Staff’s tribute to golf’s return to the Olympics.

So, if you’re from Great Britain, the USA, Paraguay, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia or Cuba, why not fly the flag with these eye-catching designs.

Read more -> Olympics: First look at team bags

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Is this the coolest wedge stamping yet?

Everyone went crazy for Andrew Johnston’s beef wedge stamping at this year’s Open and now there’s another name you can add to the ‘best on tour’ shortlist. Introducing Rhein Gibson and his Titleist SM4 wedge.

In his first year on the PGA Tour after graduating from the Web.com Tour last year, Gibson is already staking his claim for the best wedge stamping crown after labelling his 64-degree wedge with ’64’ related brands, gadgets and cars.

Miller 64. Nintendo 64. a ’64 Impala. I wonder what loft his Titleist Vokey SM4 wedge is…

Everything 64 for @RheinGibson55@VokeyWedges lob wedge. Including the checkerboard face. pic.twitter.com/WI7EBjxKMt — Titleist on Tour (@TitleistonTour) 8 August 2016

We’ve not seen it yet, but we assume his 60-degree wedge is stamped with memories of Psycho, Lonnie Donegan and the world’s first mini computer.

Read more -> Bob Vokey introduces ‘best ever wedges’