Why Tiger Woods is still part of this week’s U.S. Open gear conversation

Tiger Woods isn’t in the U.S. Open field, but he’s still part of the equipment conversation.

During a week where players prefer to keep gear changes to an absolute minimum, Jason Day arrived in Los Angeles with a new addition that just happens to feature the 15-time major winner’s fingerprints.

The club(s) in question is TaylorMade’s P7TW irons, a set of traditional muscleback blades designed specifically for Woods’ needs. Of course, Woods isn’t the only pro on Tour who swears by the blades. Scottie Scheffler used P7TW to win the 2022 Masters; Tommy Fleetwood also plays a set that includes the 3-iron. Starting this week, you can add Day to the list of P7TW (5-PW) users.

While working at home in the run-up to the U.S. Open, Day said he noticed his previous TaylorMade P7MCs were launching in a lower window than he preferred.

“[The P7MC] is a great iron,” Day said. “I won with them so I know they can get the job done. But the launch window and spin rate weren’t quite there. With them being on the lower side, I decided to do some testing and wound up with P7TW.”

Looking at Day’s history with equipment, he’s never struggled to generate a sky-high launch. In 2015, he became one of the first pros to use True Temper’s Dynamic Gold X7 steel product in his irons to curb launch and spin. Day has since switched to KBS’s C-Taper 125 S+ — he’s using the same shaft in P7TW — but both launch and spin have gone in the opposite direction of late.

With the greens expected to be on the firmer side this week at LACC, having enough launch and spin to stop the ball on the green will be critical to having a good week.

In Day’s case, the weaker lofts on Woods’ P7TW model make it easier to induce a higher launch with more spin. More of both should also help Day work the ball in both directions if he so desires.

Is an iron change enough to get Day in the conversation for a U.S. Open trophy? If they work for Tiger Woods, chances are they could add a little something special to Day’s game as well.

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Jonathan Wall

Golf.com Editor

Jonathan Wall is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s Managing Editor for Equipment. Prior to joining the staff at the end of 2018, he spent 6 years covering equipment for the PGA Tour.