Why Rickie Fowler’s 3rd driver of the year isn’t cause for alarm | 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.

Rickie Fowler is using his third different Cobra OPTM driver of the season this week at the RBC Heritage — but his driver switches are not because of poor performance.

Coming into the week, the 37-year-old ranks 17th in accuracy, 18th in total driving and 18th in total driving efficiency, a combined measure of how far he is carrying it and his total yardage compared to his clubhead speed. He’s positive in SG: Off-the-Tee at just under three-tenths of a shot.

So why is Fowler continuing to cycle through drivers? This week, he’s using the OPTM MAX LS-K prototype driver, which his good friend Gary Woodland won with last month, but for most of the season, it’s been the OPTM X, the driver most of Cobra’s Tour players use. But he’s also used the OPTM LS earlier this year at the Players.

Turns out, Fowler and Ben Schomin had confident fits in all three of Cobra’s OPTM heads used on Tour.

“This is an interesting and good story,” Schomin told GOLF. “By mid-December last year, we had him fit very well into OPTM LS, X, and Max K. I think that’s a strong testament to our new lineup.

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

“So it’s not that he’s lost and searching, but rather has confidence in all three and wants to test drive their performance on the track.”

Fowler also made a change in shaft length recently, going from a 44.125″ — one of the shortest on Tour — shaft UST LinQ Powercore White to 45″. The added length is potentially one of the reasons he wanted to consider the more forgiving Max-K head.

So far, that’s working well for Fowler as he opened with rounds of 65 and 69. He ranks 35th in SG: OTT, picking up nearly sevent-tenths of a stroke and has missed just seven of 28 fairways.

It shouldn’t be surprising either that Fowler is taking after Woodland. Woodland’s Cleveland RTZ offset lob wedge and Scotty Cameron center-shafted GoLo putter only ended up in his bag after Fowler started the year with them.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore, Cobra

Michael Kim broke his 3-wood. Then he stole’ Max Homa’s

Perhaps the worst time at a PGA Tour event to have an equipment issue is Wednesday afternoon, but that’s exactly the situation Michael Kim found himself in this week.

Kim took to Twitter Wednesday evening, as he so often does, as one of golf’s best personalities on the platform, to reveal he discovered a crack in his TaylorMade Qi10 3-wood.

“I was getting ready to hit my tee shot on 18 with my 3 wd and noticed a decent-sized crack on the face,” he wrote. “All the trucks are gone so the rep is trying to get it shipped overnight. My head pro from home is also shipping my backup from my locker.”

Earlier in the week, this would have been a non-issue as the Tour trucks from each OEM that follow the PGA Tour week-to-week could have easily built him a new one. But the Tour trucks typically leave events on Wednesdays around noon each week to have enough time to make it to the next event.

With the trucks already bound for New Orleans and next week’s Zurich Classic, Kim found an interesting solution. He intended to play with a borrowed Qi4D 3HL-wood from Max Homa.

In fact, Kim later wrote that several other pros offered their backup 3-woods to him, but Homa’s seemed to work the best, despite having a wildly different shaft, a Ventus Black 8-X with Velocore+ compared to his usual Graphite Design Tour AD UB-7 X.

“Def different profile, but it worked pretty well on the range,” Kim later told GOLF. He also added that he was expecting to get his backup 3-wood from his home course in time for his 11:00 a.m. tee time Thursday.

Luckily, it did arrive in time, but Kim said he remembered that he had flattened his gamer earlier this year, but not his backup, which has been sitting in his locker at his home course. Every shot overdrew on the range, he wrote. Again, no trucks around capable of making the lie adjustment to a fairway wood.

Titleist, TaylorMade begin seeding new lines

The week after the Masters was a big one for seeding of new products as both TaylorMade and Titleist launched new gear at Harbour Town.

TaylorMade had three players using its new 2026 Spider putters, including Tommy Fleetwood and Jacob Bridgeman, who are both using new versions of the Spider Tour.

It’s the second putter change in three weeks for Fleetwood, who changed the alignment aid on his Spider Tour Black the week before the Masters. TaylorMade Tour Rep James Holley said the new model is identical to his old putter but with a different finish and wider “Pilot’s Eye” alignment aid.

Pierceson Coody is using the Spider Tour F he first put into play four weeks ago at the Valspar Championship. TaylorMade

TaylorMade also tied for the overall putter count after the first round with 21, but then pushed ahead in the second round after Ryo Hisatsune switched to a TaylorMade blade. Last year, TaylorMade had just 12 putters in play at this same event.

Elsewhere, Titleist officially launched its GTS fairway woods at the RBC Heritage.

Cameron Young and Johnny Keefer both previously added the GTS3 7-wood at the Valero and the Masters, respectively, but four more GTS fairway metals were in play as well.

Bud Cauley (GTS3 15.0), Joe Highsmith (GTS2 13.5) and Jordan Smith (GTS2 13.5, GTS3 18.0) all added new GTS fairway metals for Harbour Town.

As with the drivers, there are few technical details out there right now, but from images, we do know both the GTS2 and GTS3 feature adjustable heel-toe weighting in addition to a silver face that was seen as a prototype on Young’s GT1 3-wood.

GTS2 also appears significantly shallower than the GTS3.

There was, however, no mention of the GTS fairway wood that GolfWRX spotted Michael Brennan testing at the Houston Open three weeks ago at the GTS driver launch.

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 Harris English’s 15-year-old Ping Scottsdale Hohum mallet.

Odds and Ends

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

Karl Vilips is playing without a driver this week, going with an R7 Quad Mini, 3-wood and a 7-wood … Patrick Cantlay became the first player to add Titleist’s GTS4 driver and three others also added a GTS driver this week … Jhonattan Vegas is the latest player to move into Callaway’s *still* unreleased Apex MB ’26s … Jason Day added Ping’s prototype mini driver … TaylorMade had 72 fairway woods in play with the next competitor at 24 … Denny McCarthy added an R7 Quad 11.5 … Chris Gotterup is playing his TaylorMade P770 3-iron … Jordan Smith is the latest player to get ‘Spidered’, adding Spider tour X … J.T. Poston has a new Qi4D 7-wood … Tommy Fleetwood switched to a Titleist SM11 T-Grind lob wedge … Garrick Higgo switched from a 9.0 to 10.5 Ping G440 K.

3 things you should read/watch

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

Meet the man behind Rory McIlroy’s Masters-winning Spider putter. The PGA Tour’s Spider-fever got another shot of momentum with Rory McIlroy’s second green jacket. Meet the man who is responsible for building and fitting all of the new ones out there.

TaylorMade Spider Tour X Custom Putter

 

THIN WALL UNDERCUT CONSTRUCTION

We’ve engineered a super stable structure by removing excess weight to create high MOI and legendary Spider performance.
STEEL WIREFRAME
Allows engineers to better control weight distribution and CG location.
HYBRAR ECHO® DAMPENER
HYBRAR is behind the face to dampen unwanted vibrations, delivering premium sound and feel on every putt with the best possible sensation.
DIFFERENT CG LOCATION
Each Spider Tour model features different CG locations for optimal putter fitting.
TSS WEIGHTING
TSS weights provide balanced weighting and help optimize performance for all various putter lengths.
GUNMETAL PVD FINISH
The durable PVD coating creates a beautiful high-quality finish.
TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT
The patented alignment system provides visual clarity and helps golfers better envision the line to the hole.
WHITE TPU PURE ROLL™ INSERT
Made from a combination of Surlyn and aluminum, the white TPU Pure Roll™ insert creates a softer feel. Grooves are angled at 45° to encourage optimal forward roll as well as better sound, feel and overall roll characteristics. The white insert also creates better symmetry with the white True Path alignment.
REFINED HOSEL DESIGNS
Spider Tour Series includes two different hosel shapes and designs. The small slant produces toe hang, and the double bend produces a face balanced design.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore, TaylorMade

Cobra’s R&D was asked to think outside the box. Now they’re 3D printing golf clubs. Jake Morrow takes you inside the process of bringing Cobra’s first 3DP irons to market and what the technology enables for the future.

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Cobra 3DP Tour Custom Irons

The KING 3D Printed TOUR irons utilize 3D printing technology to unlock a new realm of performance. Their one of a kind design features the most forgiving blade shape on the market, delivering the forgiveness that aspirational players need, and the sleek looks and soft feel that better players desire.
3D PRINTED STEEL CONSTRUCTION
Each iron is fully 3D printed from 316 stainless steel. 3D printing provides significant advantages over traditional methods of casting and forging, unlocking more design freedom and significant performance improvements.
FORGIVING PLAYERS BLADE SHAPE
3D printing has unlocked new design possibilities, enabling COBRA engineers to create a compact blade shape with the mass properties (high MOI, low CG) of a game improvement iron without sacrificing looks and soft feel that better players demand.
INTERNAL LATTICE STRUCTURE
COBRA took a muscle-back blade shape (similar in size and shape to the KING TOUR iron), and transformed the inside of the blade into a complex internal lattice structure to reduce the weight of the club by 33%. That discretionary weight was repositioned to optimize feel, CG position, and MOI.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore, Cobra

This rising star has a golf bag built for the modern bomber | Bag Spy. For this week’s Bag Spy, we dive into the bag of Michael Thorbjornsen and what he’s changed to adapt to PGA Tour golf.

TaylorMade R7 Quad Custom Mini Driver

PERFORMANCE FOR THE MODERN PLAYER
Inspired by one of the most iconic models in TaylorMade history, the R7 Quad Mini Driver pays homage to what’s come before, while creating its own modern identity in the same breath. It’s that very modern design that incorporates proven TaylorMade technologies to give golfers versatility and playability.
R7 QUAD WEIGHTING SYSTEM
The new quad weighting system features four movable weights (13g x2, 4g x2) that provide the ultimate in spin management and shot shape control. Forward CG creates a penetrating flight best suited for maximizing distance whereas rear CG helps prioritize control and ease of use from the deck. Shot shape can also be fine-tuned helping create the most optimal flight. Additional weights can be purchased for a wider range of adjustability.
INFINITY CARBON CROWN
A new satin Infinity Carbon Crown has been added to the R7 Quad Mini Driver chassis creating a stunning look while saving weight for better mass optimization. The cosmetic package is clean, elegant, and confidence-inspiring.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore, TaylorMade

The author welcomes your comments at Jack.Hirsh@golf.com.

Want to overhaul your bag in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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