Instead of using his usual Wilson Staff driver, Padraig Harrington had a Titleist 909 big stick in the bag at the Dunhill Links Championship.
It wasn't clear whether two-time British Open champ was trying the Titleist driver to fit the windy Scottish conditions or whether he is thinking of playing it regularly. He said that the driver had more loft than he usually plays - interesting because he noted he was striving to keep the ball down.
"With the driver, I've had a problem the last couple of years, but what I'm actually working on in my swing is bringing the ball back down," Harrington said. "I've gone to a 9 and a half-degree lofted driver where I won the two Opens with an 8 degree. So I've actually gone up in loft for what I'm working on.
"If you asked me to hit a normal swing, it would be up in the air.What I'm working more on the golf swing now is actually neutralising that flight and hitting more of a medium height and a little more spinning. That's why I have more loft than the driver, so instead of adding and trying to get a situation where I'm taking loft off the driver."
TOUR PREFERRED FINDING FANS: Several players in recent weeks have tried TaylorMade's newest Tour Preferred irons, including Turning Stone Resort Championship winner Dustin Johnson.
According to sources at TaylorMade, Johnson put the new Tour Preferred set - 3 through pitching wedge - into the bag for the first time last week after testing the clubs at a TaylorMade promotional shoot. He also liked, and used, the new Burner driver.
"Dustin was taken with them right away," said Keith Sbarbaro, TMaG's vice president of tour operations. "He loved the clean look of the Tour Preferred irons and their soft feel, and how they combine workability with great forgiveness. He left directly from our shoot to Turning Stone, and insisted on taking all the new clubs with him."
Sean O'Hair also gave the irons a try last week. Sergio Garcia is another big name to use the irons - he switched the week of the Tour Championship.
5-WOOD FITS CONDITIONS: Davis Love III put a Titleist 906F3 5-wood in the bag at Turning Stone instead of the new Titleist 585.H utility wood he has used recently.
"(I was) thinking after the practice round that we might get to hit a 5-wood at the par-5s. That's what I had it in for," Love said. "Turns out I only got hit it maybe once at a Par 5. The ball is not going -- I killed it off of 8 today and still had 270 front. It's just hard to get it there."
According to Love's website, the 5-wood has 18 degrees of loft and uses a UST Proforce V2 86-gram graphite shaft in X-flex.
Love also had a new Titleist 909D3 driver in the bag for the week, and averaged 291.3 yards off the tee for the week. That was fourth best in the field.
TAYLORMADE PUTTER NEWS: Last week a TaylorMade spokesman told Tour Van that Sergio Garcia was using a new Daytona putter by Kia Ma. Close, but not quite: Garcia actually had a Daytona No. 1 '07 Shot Pin with a solid face. Kia Ma made it special for Garcia, and it won't be available at retail.
In other putter news for the week, Jason Day used the company's Itsy Bitsy Monza Spider, Eric Axley and Jay Williamson switched to Rossa Monaco putter models and Sean O'Hair played a new Rossa Monza Corza.
