Golfweek

Bill Haas (PGA Tour – Northern Trust Open)

Driver: Titleist 910D2 (8.5 degree; Fujikura Speeder 757 shaft)

Fairway wood: Titleist 910F 3-wood (13.5 degree; Fujikura Motore VC 8.1 shaft)

Irons: Titleist CB (2-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled (54 and 60 degree)

Putter: Titleist Kombi Mid Prototype

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

• • •

Jbe Kruger (European Tour – Avantha Masters)

Driver: Titleist 910D3 (7.5 degree)

Fairway wood: Titleist 910F 3-wood (13.5 degree)

Hybrid: Titleist 910H (18 degree)

Irons: Titleist AP2 (3-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM4 (50, 56 and 64 degree)

Putter: Yes! Jennifer

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

Glove: FootJoy SciFlex

• • •

Yani Tseng (LPGA – Honda LPGA Thailand)

Driver: Adams Speedline 9032 (9.5 degree; Fujikura Motore F1 shaft)

Fairway wood: Adams Speedline Classic 3-wood (14 degree; Fujikura Rombax shaft)

Hybrids: Adams Idea a7 (19 and 22 degree; Fujikura E-Series shafts)

Irons: Adams Idea Tech a4 (4-PW)

Wedges: Callaway X Forged (52 and 58 degree)

Putter: TaylorMade Daytona Ghost

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy Women’s DryJoys

Glove: FootJoy StaSof

• • •

Skip Kendall (Nationwide Tour – Colombia Championship)

Driver: Cleveland Launcher TL 310 (Miyazaki CKUA 59 ...

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. - Golf shafts come with their own vocabulary. Understanding the language of shafts is not always easy.

During a rainy practice day at the Northern Trust Open, Philip Foster and Ben Grusin of Mitsubishi Rayon sat down to discuss the words, expressions and descriptions that help distinguish one golf shaft from another.

Keep in mind that no industry standards exist for torque, flex or frequency. This means one manufacturer’s measurement may be conducted using a different method or scale from another manufacturer.

TORQUE: A measurement of the circular rotation of the shaft during the swing. Normal measurements are in the 2- to 6-degree range. A low torque number means less twisting of the shaft but also can mean a harsher feel. A high torque number is associated with a soft-feeling shaft, although there may be a sacrifice in accuracy.

FLEX: The strength of a shaft as it bends during the swing. Because extra stiff, stiff, regular, seniors and ladies flexes are measured in so many ways, these designations have become broad in nature. Comparing flexes from one shaft manufacturer makes sense, but comparing flexes from several shaft manufacturers can be confusing.

FREQUENCY: A more precise method of ...

Mickelson uses new Callaway ball

Phil Mickelson won his fourth AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am title with all Callaway gear. Mickelson used a Razr Fit driver (9.5 degree, Fujikura Motore Speeder VC.2 shaft), Big Bertha Diablo 3-wood (15 degree), X-Hybrid (19 degree), X-Forged 4-iron, Prototype 5-iron, Razr X Muscle Back irons (6-PW), X-Series Jaws wedges (52, 60 and 64), Odyssey White Hot XG PT 82 putter and Hex Black Tour ball, which hits retail March 2. The Razr Fit driver will be available at retail Feb. 17.

Mickelson switched his driver and 3-wood shafts on Monday at Pebble Beach, going with two Fujikura shafts – the Rombax 80b in his 3-wood along with the Motore Speeder VC.2 in his driver.

• • •

Early adopters for RBZ

TaylorMade’s official PGA Tour launch of the RocketBallz line of clubs for 2012 isn’t scheduled until Doral next month.

That didn’t stop Matt Bettencourt from trying to get a jump on his fellow players. The fairway woods had been available to Tour players, but they were waiting on drivers. So a week before the clubs became available in the TaylorMade tour van, Bettencourt visited a “big box” retailer and found ...

Perhaps we wouldn’t be having this conversation if two golfers, Jhonattan Vegas and Brandt Snedeker, hadn’t won PGA Tour events while using this unusual shaft.

Both won with the Nunchuk shaft. When he captured the 2011 Bob Hope Classic, Vegas had the shaft in three Nike VR Pro clubs – driver (8.5 degree), 3-wood (15 degree) and hybrid (19 degree). Earlier this year at the Farmers Insurance Open, Snedeker used a Nunchuk shaft in his Adams Idea a12 Proto hybrid (20 degree).

The Nunchuk message is revolutionary: Inventor Gerry Hogan, an Australian inventor, is telling the world that golfers of all abilities and all swing speeds should be using the same shaft.

Sound crazy?

Not according to Hogan or officials of nVentix, a privately owned company in Dallas, that is making and selling the shaft.

Hogan designed the shaft “to help the everyday golfer,” said nVentix CEO Mike McCall. “He started with the concept that the most important thing in golf is to hit the sweet spot.”

Stability is the Nunchuk calling card.

“We have eliminated any need to have flex or kick in the golf shaft,” said Bryan Nicholson, the company's chairman of the golf advisory ...

In 2008, when Matt Kuchar first switched to Aerotech graphite shafts in his irons, he heard the good-natured barbs of fellow players on the PGA Tour.

Nobody had more fun with Kuchar’s graphite decision than his buddy Brandt Snedeker. “Old man” was Snedeker’s favorite mock rebuke of Kuchar and his graphite shafts.

Fast forward to 2012 – both Kuchar and Snedeker are using Aerotech shafts in their Bridgestone irons. Snedeker completed a full-circle conversion when he won the Farmers Insurance Open.

How did this happen?

First, Snedeker watched Kuchar’s dramatic ascent up the money list, from 115th in 2007 to first in 2010. Obviously instructor Chris O’Connell was instrumental in this turnabout. However, Kuchar’s rise also coincided with his switch to Aerotech shafts.

Second, Snedeker decided to test the iron shafts. He ended up with the exact specs as Kuchar – SteelFiber i95 taper tip, constant weight, stiff flex Aerotech shafts. As the name suggests, the shafts weigh 95 grams.

Aerotech SteelFiber iron shafts, available in weights from 74 to 125 grams, are classified as graphite shafts in a broad sense. Actually, though, they are a combination of a graphite core surrounded by an outer layer of ...

Phil Mickelson (PGA Tour – AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am)

Driver: Callaway RAZR Fit (9.5 degree)

Fairway wood: Callaway Big Bertha Diablo 3-wood (15 degree)

Hybrid: Callaway X (19 degree)

Irons: Callaway X-Forged (4), Prototype (5) and RAZR X Muscle Back (6-PW)

Wedges: Callaway X-Series JAWS (52, 60 and 64 degree)

Putter: Odyssey White Hot XG PT 82 Blade

Ball: Callaway HEX Black Tour

Footwear: Callaway Tour Authentic

• • •

Rafael Cabrera-Bello (European Tour – Omega Dubai Desert Classic)

Driver: Titleist 910 D3 (8.5 degree)

Fairway wood: Titleist 910Fd 3-wood (13.5 degree)

Hybrid: Titleist 910H (20 degree)

Irons: Titleist 712 MB (3-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM4 (54 and 60 degree)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Buttonback

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

Glove: FootJoy RainGrip

• • •

Jessica Korda (LPGA – Women’s Australian Open)

Driver: TaylorMade R11 (10.5 degree)

Fairway woods: TaylorMade R11 3-wood (15 degree) and TaylorMade Burner SuperFast 2.0 5-wood (21 degree)

Irons: TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC (4-PW)

Wedges: TaylorMade xFT (50, 54 and 58 degree)

Putter: TaylorMade Ghost-880

Ball: TaylorMade Penta TP

Footwear: Adidas Adicross

• • •

Corey Pavin (Champions Tour – Allianz Championship)

Driver: TaylorMade R11S (9 degree)

Fairway woods: TaylorMade RocketBallz Tour 3-wood (15 degree ...

Stanley fully stocked with Titleist

Showing resolve in recovering from a stunning loss a week earlier at Torrey Pines, Kyle Stanley forged his first PGA Tour victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

He accomplished the feat with a full bag of Titleist equipment: 910D3 driver (8.5 degree with Mitsubishi Rayon’s Diamana Kai’li 70X shaft), 910Fd 3-wood (13.5 degree with a Mitsubishi Fubuki 83X shaft), 712 MB irons (4-PW), Vokey Design Spin Milled wedges (52, 56 and 60 degree) and a Scotty Cameron Timeless GSS putter. He played a Pro V1x ball.

• • •

Odyssey’s new putter

Odyssey’s Metal-X putters made its debut in Phoenix and Qatar. At the Qatar Masters, 13 players used a Metal-X putter. . . . Dustin Johnson switched to a TaylorMade Ghost Spider Prototype putter at Phoenix. The putter was 35 inches with 2.5 degrees of loft and a 70.5-degree lie angle. . . . Former PGA champion Y.E. Yang put a new TaylorMade Ghost Manta putter in his bag. Yang likes it heavy, so the swingweight of his Manta is E6.

• • •

Snedeker’s quick switch

It’s not often that a PGA Tour winner switches a club immediately after a victory, but that ...

Kyle Stanley (PGA Tour – Waste Management Phoenix Open)

Driver: Titleist 910D3 (8.5 degree; Mitsubishi Diamana Kaili 70x shaft)

Fairway wood: Titleist 910Fd 3-wood (13.5 degree; Mitsubishi Fubuki Tour 83x shaft)

Irons: Titleist 712 Series MB (3-PW; Project X 6.5 shafts)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design (52.08, 56.14) and Titleist Vokey SM4 (60.10)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Timeless (GSS)

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

Glove: FootJoy StaSof

• • •

Paul Lawrie (European Tour – CommercialBank Qatar Masters)

Driver: TaylorMade R11

Fairway wood: Callaway FT Tour 3-wood (15 degree)

Irons: Wilson Staff FG Tour (3-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM4 (52 and 60 degree)

Putter: Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball Blade

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

Glove: FootJoy

HOUSTON - Belly putters may not be spared the rulemakers’ ax after all.

Just when it appeared likely that belly putters and chest putters would be with us for an extended period of time, a new ban-the-belly movement within the R&A has persuaded the U.S. Golf Association to take what executive director Mike Davis calls a “fresh look” at the putting phenomenon known as anchoring.

Anchoring, as it is commonly called in R&A and USGA circles, refers in general to any putting method in which the putter is secured against the body in a manner considered to be outside the definition of a natural or traditional stroke.

In belly putting, the grip end of the putter is anchored in or around the abdomen. In chest putting, which often is called long putting, the grip end is locked against the chest.

Writing an anti-anchoring rule would be extremely tricky. Drafting the precise language likely would become the biggest challenge in the history of equipment rulemaking. It would constitute a major rules decision.

The putters themselves would not be ruled nonconforming, but rather the putting methods would become illegal. This is exactly what happened more than 40 years ago when ...

At the 2012 PGA Merchandise Show, golf shafts were everywhere. For golf equipment fanatics, shafts could have been proclaimed the star of the show.

Of course, it wasn’t always this way. There was a time, not that long ago, when shafts received little fanfare.

It was the U.S. Golf Association that helped turn the attention of golfers in the United States to their golf shafts.

Back in the era before graphite shafts, life was relatively simple for golfers. There were iron heads, wood heads and steel shafts. No big deal.

Then the USGA gave its blessing to graphite shafts, and life on the equipment front got a little more complex.

Frank Thomas, who later would become technical director of the USGA, was experimenting with several shaft materials in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

One of those materials was carbon fiber, or graphite, which increasingly was being used in airplane construction. Gradually a few crude graphite golf shafts appeared on the PGA Tour, thanks mostly to Jim Flood from a fledgling graphite shaft manufacturer called Aldila.

Thomas, as an experimenter in exotic materials and an inventor of golf shafts, wasn’t about to stop this parade of new ...

Titleist’s NXT Tour family represents one of golf’s most recognizable names. For 2012, the family is growing and should attract even more attention.

At the PGA Merchandise Show, held Jan. 26-28 in Orlando, Fla., Titleist introduced two new NXT Tour models – NXT Tour and NXT Tour S.

Joining the NXT Tour party were two other new Titleist balls, a reconfigured DT SoLo and an interesting distance ball called Velocity.

First, though, the NXT Tour platform: NXT Tour balls appeal to a broad spectrum of golfers, and now there is a choice to be made by consumers. Will it be the NXT Tour or NXT Tour S?

The S version is slightly softer, but guess what? The NXT Tour also feels soft while generating, according to Titleist, even more distance than the previous NXT Tour.

“How do we make these balls even better? That’s the question we always ask ourselves,” said Mary Lou Bohn, vice president golf ball marketing and Titleist communications.

The inside of the new NXT Tour looks like this: three-piece construction, featuring a large dual core with a slightly smaller soft center and higher volume outer core layer.

The outside of the ball is a ...

Brandt Snedeker (PGA Tour – Farmers Insurance Open)

Driver: TaylorMade Burner SuperFast 2.0 (10.5 degree; Fujikura Motore F1 8.0 shaft)

Fairway wood: TaylorMade Burner SuperFast 2.0 3-wood (15 degree; Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 73x shaft)

Hybrid: Adams Idea a12 Proto (20 degree; NVentix Nunchuk GH 2660 shaft)

Irons: Bridgestone J40 Cavity Back (4-PW; Aerotech SteelFiber i95 Constant Weight shafts)

Wedges: Bridgestone J40 Satin Chrome (52 and 56 degree) and Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled (60 degree)

Putter: Odyssey White Hot XG Rossie

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B330

Footwear: adidas adiPure

• • •

Robert Rock (European Tour – Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship)

Driver: TaylorMade R11 (9 degree; Aldila NV ProtoPype 70x shaft)

Fairway wood: Callaway RAZR Hawk 3-wood (13 degree; Aldila DVS 70x shaft)

Irons: Callaway X-Forged (2-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts)

Wedges: Callaway X-Tour Forged (52 degree) and Cleveland CG14 Black Pearl (58 degree)

Putter: Odyssey Odyssey Black Series i #1

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Footwear: FootJoy FJ Icon

Glove: Titleist Players

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Beginners no longer require an expensive -- and extensive -- introduction to the game.

Adding another element to the Grow the Game movement, Starting New at Golf (SNAG) is a first-touch system that teaches the sport to everyone from children to active seniors by using developmentally appropriate equipment -- big-faced clubheads, big golf balls, big putter heads -- that can be plied on the field, in gym class or on the range.

Sold primarily to teaching professionals, player-development programs and physical education instructors, the SNAG kit includes clubs, targets, training tools, balls and launch pads, with portable targets such as the Flagsticky, Bullseye and Rollerama.

Beginners stand inside the hoop block, designed to teach arm control for different strokes and swings.

From there, you can putt, using the roller brush to teach a slow, rhythmic stroke.

You can chip, using the SNAG-o-Matic to show beginners the proper form around the greens. This tool is placed on the inside of the left forearm (for right-handers) to simulate proper positioning through impact and, more importantly, prevent deceleration.

You can pitch, using the SNAGazoo to put beginners in the correct “L” or “9 o’clock” position on the backswing.

And you can hit full ...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Among the most eye-catching putters at the PGA Merchandise Show is Nike’s new Method Concept, a putter whose front section is flaming red and back section is midnight black.

It isn’t just the color that makes this putter different. The Concept looks as if somebody attached a bent horseshoe to the back of the putter.

The Concept putter was inspired by the existence of various so-called concept cars. There is a scientific reason behind every design feature of this golf club.

For starters, the front of the putter is made of aluminum. Over the history of the game, aluminum putters have developed a bad reputation because generally they haven’t felt solid at impact.

This one, though, feels extremely solid.

How did Nike engineers do it? The aluminum front piece weighs about 100 grams. Meanwhile, the high-mass stainless steel back piece weighs 250, 265 or 290 grams, depending on the length of the putter.

Total head weight for a 34-inch Concept is 350 grams. For a 32- or 33-inch Concept, it’s 365 grams. For a 41- or 43-inch belly putter, it’s 390 grams.

For a relatively small mallet design, the Concept boasts an impressive ...

Not able to get inside the doors at the annual merchandise showcase? No worries, we've got you covered. Check back multiple times a day for the latest from the showroom floor.

From the latest on equipment launches, to the latest fashion trends, to the little-known companies making noise at the Show to exclusive interviews with celebrities and golf stars alike, Golfweek will bring you wall-to-wall coverage starting on Wednesday at Demo Day at Orange County National and on Thursday through Saturday from the Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

You'll hear from our business editor, Gene Yasuda, our equipment expert, Jim Achenbach, and the rest of our staff of industry experts.

Want to follow along socially? Follow us on Twitter here and on Facebook here.

Here is a look at our preview coverage: