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The Masters Tour Report: Bryson’s club building adventures and Rose’s custom Cleveland wedge

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It’s Masters week at Augusta National. While plenty of players have had their bags locked in for weeks, there have been more than a few notable changes that have surfaced heading into the year’s first major.

Check out our Tour Report from the 2026 Masters

Bryson DeChambeau’s club building adventures

It started on Monday at the Masters Tournament, where Bryson DeChambeau was spotted with lead tape on the top of his Krank Formula Fire fairway wood.

Then on Tuesday, he gave some insight into his current setup and the equipment he’s been testing. 

“In South Africa, I was trying wedges,” DeChambeau said in the Masters press room. “So I was going quite a bit down a rabbit hole there and figured a couple cool things out.” 

Between his two victories in Singapore and South Africa, DeChambeau had switched from Bettinardi Golf’s HLX 5.0 wedges to the newer 6.0s.

DeChambeau continued, “Then I am working on irons, building irons, building a driver. So we’ll see where it goes, we’ll see where it takes me. All I could say now is, if I don’t put them in the bag, it’s my fault now.”

After that, golf fans were wondering whether they’d see the golf clubs DeChambeau had been building. The wait wasn’t long. On Wednesday, he broke news to ESPN that one of the clubs he has built, a 3D-printed 5-iron, will be in the bag. 

Why just the one club, though?

“Because they’re finally ready,” DeChambeau told ESPN.

Then on Thursday, after an opening-round, 4-over 76, he was quizzed again by the media about the process of printing the clubs. 

“Prints in eight hours,” DeChambeau said. “Machines in either three or four hours. Then you have to cut grooves in it and do a bunch of other stuff. So you can have something within a day and a half.”

According to DeChambeau, he hit the mystery 5-iron once for his second shot on seven. He was quick to shut down more questions about where and how the club was made.

“That’s a longer conversation,” DeChambeau said. “It’s not for here.”

TaylorMade’s fairway dominance 

Defending champion Rory McIlroy went back to his older Qi10 3-wood ahead of an opening-round, 5-under 67, instead of the Qi4D he had played earlier in the season. Tied for the first round lead, McIlroy’s fairways were part of the 79 TaylorMade total in play at Augusta. 

The newest to be added to a bag was that of Wyndham Clark, who vaulted ted up the leaderboard Friday with a second-round 68. He debuted a Qi4D Tour 3-wood equipped with a Project X Titan shaft. 

“Wyndham called me Tuesday night and wanted to fit a 3-wood similar to the driver we fitted,” Adrian Rietveld, senior tour manager at TaylorMade, shared with GolfWRX. “He calls it his draw club. We built a 3-wood in his driver shaft and was able to fit him into a little bit more loft in the titanium Qi4D Tour head. The best thing about that head is that you have all of the weights in the bottom, where you can move the CG around to get it to do what the player desires from a spin and shape bias perspective. 

“We did about 45 minutes of work on the range and eventually ended off in the upright setting 1 towards lower. He likes it upright and open. I found the highest lofted 15-degree head on the truck…it’s about 15.2 degrees. Weight is a little bit more forward to hold the spin. He played it in the practice round on Wednesday and it was good to go.”

Harry Hall goes full Phil Mickelson

Harry Hall made his Masters Tournament debut this week, but it didn’t go as planned. After an opening-round, 5-over 77 on Thursday at Augusta National, Hall had a pretty honest assessment of his game.

“I need to get a lot better,” Hall said. 

After the blunt judgment of his first round out of the way, Hall went on to add he’s going to try some pretty drastic gear changes for Round 2. 

“I’m going to change my driver,” Hall said. He went on to add, “I’m going to put two drivers in play tomorrow, different ones.”

Hall moved into a Ping G440 LST driver at Augusta, after previously playing a TaylorMade Qi4D LS while alternating it with a Titleist GT3 driver this season. It’s a potential combination of big sticks we could see for Friday. 

“I fade the driver that I’ve got in the bag at the moment, and I was driving back to the mini just to draw it off the tee on some of these fairways,” Hall said. “When you give up 30 yards, you’re not really being very aggressive.”

It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s gamed double-drivers at the Masters. Famously, Phil Mickelson played a pair of 9.5-degree Callaway Big Bertha Fusion FT-3 drivers. The difference: one was one inch longer (46 instead of 45 inches) and had different weighting to help Mickelson play a draw. With the two-driver strategy in play, Mickelson captured his second Masters title. 

But back to Hall, he’s also going to make changes to the bottom end of his bag for Friday’s round. Find it all out here.

Justin Rose’s custom Cleveland wedge

Justin Rose returns to Augusta National for his 21st Masters Tournament. He arrives a year after his closest attempt to winning the green jacket, ending last year’s tournament as runner-up after a heartbreaking defeat to Rory McIlroy in a playoff. 

A blast from the past aided Rose’s near success at Augusta National in 2025. He returned to what he knows best, playing a wedge designed off a head that he played for much of his early career. 

“It is basically from the mold of the 588 Wide Sole from back in the day, but just current material and legal grooves,” Robert Waters, Tour manager for Srixon/Cleveland Golf, told GolfWRX. 

The wider sole was perfect for Rose for the added forgiveness needed on the tighter lies around the greens at Augusta. The higher bounce and flatter overall sole of the wedge also helped with versatility, especially in the bunkers, which feature a different sand compared to other courses on the PGA Tour.

Check out more on the club and the project Cleveland has going on here.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: RBC Heritage Tour Report: More minis, course-specific setups, Spider & GTS launches – GolfWRX

  2. Rueben

    Apr 10, 2026 at 10:35 pm

    Get ’em next year Doosh’bag, and bring your AI generated 5 iron.

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Neal Shipley, AKA, the “Big Fridge’s,” custom stamping

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Neal Shipley was the first to admit that he enjoyed his food while in college. But since his days at Ohio State, he’s slimmed down and earned a PGA Tour Card.

That hasn’t stopped him from having fun with his wedge stampings, though it’s led to some misunderstandings.

On the 54 (degree), we have ‘Big Fudge,'” Shipley told GolfWRX. “It was supposed to be ‘Big Fridge,’ so this happened a little while ago. ‘Big Fridge’ was a nickname between my college teammates and I, with ‘fridge’ meaning stomach, a big stomach.

“We told the Ping guys to put … ‘Big Fridge’ on it, and I think maybe some bad cell service or something, and they thought I said ‘fudge,’ so they put fudge on it.”

On Shipley’s 50-degree he also continues the food theme, this time with his go-to order at the “Golden Arches,” and his stamping “DONS 7.”

“The number 7 meal, the two cheeseburger meal, that was my McDonald’s order, back when I would have McDonald’s frequently,” Shipley shared.

Check out Shipley’s full what’s in the bag and the rest of his wedge stampings here on “Inside the Ropes” from Colonial.

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Equipment

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: L.A.B. Purple DF3 with Masters cover

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @raw10628 has a L.A.B. DF3 putter and Masters putter cover up for grabs.

From the listing: “Some great items here today, time to thin out and make room for next set of gear.  All prices include shipping. 
LAB DF3 Purple 33.5” 68° lie with TPT – $725. LAB Masters release DF3 cover – $150.

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules

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Whats in the Bag

Maria Torres WITB 2026 (June)

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Driver: Ping G440 LST (9 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 5-M4

3-wood: Ping G440 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4

5-wood: Ping G440 Max (19 degrees @18)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4

Hybrid: Ping G440 (23 degrees)
Shaft: Oban Isawa Red Hybrid Shaft 04 Flex 70 Gms

Irons: Srixon ZXi7 (5-P)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i80

Wedges: Cleveland RTZ (50-MID, 54-FULL, 58-MID)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i105

Putter: L.A.B. Golf OZ.1i
Shaft: ACCRA Putter Shaft

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

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