Newer Isn't Always Better On The PGA Tour

PGA Tour players put more thought and consideration into the clubs they choose to put in their bag than any other golfers on Earth. These players spend hours upon hours performing intensive testing on equipment to ensure they have the best 14 clubs possible for their game.

Conventional golf wisdom assumes that “new” equals “better” in terms of golf clubs, but when looking inside the bags of the world’s best players, it is not uncommon to spot clubs released 10+ years ago. For proof, let’s take a look at some of the older clubs used week-in and week-out on the PGA Tour.

Daniel Berger’s TaylorMade 2011 Tour Preferred MC Irons

One of the PGA Tour’s most recent winners, Daniel Berger games a set of irons that were released three years before he first gained status on the PGA Tour in 2014.

Berger was deadly accurate with his 2011 TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Irons at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the former Florida State golfer demonstrated the underrated value of older equipment with an assertive two-shot victory at Pebble Beach.

Overall, Berger has been one of the most consistent iron players on the PGA Tour for better part of the last decade, all with his 2011 TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC irons in the bag.

Berger’s Tour Preferred MCs feature a precision-weighting port that guarantees precise swingweights while ensuring optimal CG location in every iron’s clubhead. And while Berger has found spectacular success with the irons, the clubs are built for those with handicaps going all the way up to 10.

Henrik Stenson’s Callaway Legacy Black Irons

Stenson switched to these irons, which were never made available in North America, in 2013 and almost immediately won the Tour Championship. The key technology found in the irons is the Vibration Absorption Rubber found in the cavity, which helps minimize vibration during and after the strike.

After collecting a cool $10 million payout at East Lake, Stenson has gone on to play in three Ryder Cups and 27 major championships with his Legacy Black Irons. For the Swede, the most important of the major championships on that list is the 2016 Open Championship, in which he out-dueled Phil Mickelson on an epic Sunday at Royal Troon to claim the Claret Jug. 

Stenson also famously played a Callaway Diablo Octane Tour 3-wood over a decade and it became his signature club to use off the tee. However, he was forced to upgrade in 2020 after the face caved in on his trusty Diablo Octane Tour.

Bubba Watson’s PING S55 Irons

Watson is most known for his expressive personality, unique swing, shot-shaping ability, and flashy pink drivers. While he may display a grip-it-and-rip-it approach on the course, he is actually very particular about his clubs, which is a testament to the staying power of the S55 irons. In the fall of 2012, Watson put the PING S55 irons into his bag (the model was made available to the public early in 2013) and quickly saw an uptick in his ball-striking. 

When at his best, the two-time Masters champion is a deadly iron player who’s willing to take on any flag. Watson has experimented with other PING players iron sets, such as iBlade and Blueprint, but has nevertheless leaned on the S55 irons for eight years and counting.

Watson, now a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour, is currently ranked 13th out of 236 qualifying players in strokes gained on approach shots during the 2020-21 with his trusty S55 irons.

Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau’s Nike Vapor Pro Fly 3-Irons

Two of golf’s hottest performing players both use long irons built by a manufacturer that hasn’t produced a club since 2016. Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau both game a Nike Vapor Pro Fly 3-iron, and both use it frequently off the tee and off the deck. 

Koepka, an equipment free agent, won the 2021 Phoenix Open just a few weeks ago with the help of his Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron. Meanwhile, Finau notched his third straight runner-up finish at the Genesis Invitational with his Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron, one of the few clubs in his bag not made by PING.

The cavity of the Nike Vapor Pro Fly features NexCor variable face thickness and a FlyBeam bar across the back of the club. The club also sports extra weight in the toe which, along with the previously mentioned features, improves the performance of mishit shots. 

While the company’s factories no longer churn out any golf clubs, the Nike Vapor Pro Fly’s longstanding featured role in the bags of two of golf’s best players speaks to the quality of their equipment that remains on the market today.

Tiger Woods’ Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS Putter

No putter in the history of golf has made more putts that mattered than Tiger Woods’ Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS. The greatest clutch putter of all time has won 14 of his 15 major championships with this particular flatstick, made from special German Stainless Steel. This metal creates a relatively softer feel at impact compared to 303 stainless steel, the more commonly used metal used when building Scotty Cameron’s retail putters.

Woods first put “The Scotty” in play in 1999, and while other putters have intermittently found their way into his hands, his Newport 2 has been his ace in the hole on the greens for over 20 years.

Tiger is famously hesitant to change equipment, as once he finds a club he likes, it tends to remain in the bag even after a newer model is released. Perhaps amateur golfers can learn from him and the numerous professional golfers who use older equipment week-in and week-out. Golf clubs that are five, ten, or even twenty years old are still capable of producing excellence.