Equipment
The latest patents from Nike, Titleist and TaylorMade
Many of the patents major OEMs apply for with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office take several months to a year to get published, or made public. In other words, companies begin working on a technology and apply for a patent (if it’s something unique enough that the parties in question believe they alone should profit from for the term of a patent) well before we, the general public, are able to hear about it.
Still, it’s interesting to examine the technologies that some of the highest-paid equipment wonks in the world are working on, even if these specific models never make it market, as we did at the beginning of February.
Now, let’s take a look at some recent filings from the major OEMs you know and love.
Nike Iron
It seems at The Oven they’re working with a protoype design that looks like the above. Certainly, the design appears to trend more towards the “game improvement” iron type than a players club.
The prototype seems to be a composite of several materials fused together, as is commonplace among recent distance-improving clubs.
The filing doesn’t give away much in terms of the details of the materials used in the club, obviously, but it does provide a look at the design and how the component parts fit together.
See the full patent filing here.
Titleist Iron
Titleist is developing a co-forged iron, according to a recent patent filing, which is technologically very interesting.
As the filing states:
[the] invention creates…an iron type golf club head from a pre-form billet that already contains two or more materials before the actual forging process resulting in a multi-material golf club head that doesn’t require any post manufacturing operations such as machining, welding, swaging, gluing, and the like.
Thus, the great players iron manufacturer is attempting to produced a multi-component club with superior feel, as the elements will be joined during the forging process, rather than after.
The club is due to have “a body portion having a striking surface made out of a first material, and at least one weight adjustment portion made out of a second material encased within the body portion; wherein the at least one weight adjustment portion is encased monolithically within the body portion of the golf club head without any secondary attachment operations.”
See the full patent filing here.
Titleist Wedge
From an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” standpoint, It’s interesting to see Titleist working on a new wedge design. However, the company has continuously worked to improve their wedges, and appears interested in introducing some CG tweaks into their wedge offerings as they continue to pursue the holy grail of increased spin.
The Fairhaven, Mass company tips its hand with this passage from the filing:
In addition to the increased backspin benefits that can be achieved by maximizing the CG location of a wedge type golf club, maximizing the CG location will also allow for increased performance characteristics such as increased ball speed and increased launch angle that correlates into increased trajectory, increased accuracy, and increased control. Increased ball speed will yield increased shot distance. If an increased spin is desired while keeping shot distance constant, the wedge loft will have to be increased, a characteristic which will mitigate the ballspeed increase while adding even more backspin to the ball, yielding even more overall stopping power or accuracy.
See the full patent filing here.
TaylorMade Driver
In a great surprise to nobody, TaylorMade is continuing to work on driver technology.
The patent in question relates to a club design intended to maximize aerodynamic performance through club construction. The specific ways the company is seeking to accomplish this can be guessed at by looking at the drawings submitted with the patent filing.
Given this and a few of the designs from January, it appears a move away from the “traditional” driver shape may be again on the horizon, with concerns about aerodynamics, rather than MOI dominating this time around.
See the full patent filing here.
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.
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
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
Aaron Rai’s winning WITB: 2026 PGA Championship
Russell Henley’s winning WITB: 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
Photos from the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
CJ Cup Byron Nelson Tour Report: Koepka and Kim’s newest putters finally get hot
Charles Schwab Challenge Tour Report: MacIntyre, Åberg and Spaun all switch putters, TaylorMade launches new Spider
Details on J.J. Spaun’s surprise putter switch
GolfWRX Launch Report: 2026 Titleist GTS drivers
Photos from the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
PGA Championship Tour Report: Fitzpatrick, Koepka among big-name putter switches for Aronimink
Photos from the ShopRite LPGA
Maria Torres WITB 2026 (June)
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...
Eric Cole WITB 2026 (June)
Driver: PXG Lightning Tour Max (9 degrees) Shaft: Project X Titan Yellow 70 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D (15 degrees) Shaft:...
Si Woo Kim WITB 2026 (May)
Driver: Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond (8.5 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X Mini driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Mini...
Wyndham Clark’s winning WITB: 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Project X Titan Yellow 60 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D Tour (15 degrees) Shaft: Project...
dcorun
Mar 29, 2014 at 2:25 pm
The only thing that continues to bother me is the lack of interest in other clubs. It seems that Cally, and TM are the only ones out there. Lord knows they have the money to spend on promotion but, golfers are missing out on a lot of really good drivers and irons because of this constant back and forth between the two. I play Cleveland equipment and always have. They make excellent clubs but, never get any credit for them. Just check out the GD Hot List, one FW and one set of irons are listed. I guess there wasn’t enough pages them and TM, Cally, Ping and Titleist. I do wish they would promote more because a lot of golfers are missing out on some great clubs. Sorry for the rant, everyone have a great golf season especially after this past winter.
sam
Mar 22, 2014 at 5:14 am
The Titleist wedges look like a knock off of the Scor wedge, with weight higher to increase spin rates etc – it reads like they copied and pasted the idea from a Scor brochure! Still they never really have any original ideas of their own anyway, its always a redesign of a successful technology.
Sams Dumb
Mar 23, 2014 at 9:39 am
Ohhh burn. Go shoot 95 with your taylormade speedslot!
bradford
Sep 24, 2014 at 10:22 am
Oh burn–you’ve never broken 100, “Sams dumb”-ever.
Boomgolf28
Mar 21, 2014 at 8:20 pm
It looks to me like Titleist is taking a page out of Adams book too. That iron design looks a bit like the CMB, same multi-materiel forging concept. Of all of the new stuff above that’s the one I want to hit most haha.
Brian
Mar 20, 2014 at 11:18 am
Great information, as usual. I am very excited to see what Titleist has in store with those irons. Looks like a MB design with some multi-material forgiveness built in – a more “playerish” AP2, if you will. If so, sign me up!
Jonathan
Mar 19, 2014 at 9:40 pm
The inventors listed on the TayloMade driver are both listed as residing in Texas, one specifically in Plano. That’s all the proof needed that TM has resorted to having to go to Adams for help. The only other possibility is that all design projects get filed under TM, and then once approved, the product actually gets assigned to Adams to take it to market.
Jonathan
Mar 19, 2014 at 10:18 pm
Actually the more I think about it, this has to be an Adams product. There’s no way that a TM driver is going to get patent approval and be registered without Benoit Vincent’s name on it as at least a contributing inventor. My guess is that TM is forcing Adams to get back to the “speed design” business while TM continues to take the wheel on low-forward CG design. A good way to prevent brand cannibalism in the marketplace between the two.
Elmo
Mar 20, 2014 at 3:00 am
I agree. I thought that as soon as I saw the head shape. It looks like it has that aerodynamic channel on the side that you always see on adams.
dMac
Mar 20, 2014 at 10:45 pm
Funnily enough this morning I was looking at an Adams 9064LS. When I looked at the TM offering I went hmmm then I wondered what the view would be like from underneath.
One thing the 9064 had was a spacer in the hosel that let you adjust shaft length by about 0.5 inch- I wonder how long (no pun intended)…
leftright
Mar 27, 2014 at 11:15 am
This is why the only products in my bag other than my putter are Adams. They are and have been on the forefront for awhile. I have tried Vokey’s, ATV’s, etc. but the Pugielli’s continue to be the best wedges for me. The new XTD driver is the longest I have tested. The SLDR was similar because it rolled out more but I prefer longer carry.
AC Green
Mar 19, 2014 at 9:02 pm
Could the Titleist wedge be an indicator of the first work done by James Harrington aka James Patrick? Also does the shape of the Taylormade driver in the front facing drawing remind anyone of the Adams Launch Lab?
BigBoy.
Mar 19, 2014 at 8:07 pm
what a load of rubbish.
technology has done nothing for the golf swing and never will.
todays golfer is a bigger hack than golfers of past.
the so called new clubs are no different than clubs built in the 70’s, if anything they do not help the golfer whatsoever.
a turd is a turd is a turd…they polish it and shout from the rooftops “look what we have invented”…and the sucker public bows down and believes the golfing evangelists.
what a shame golfers today have no real desire to improve their swings but will upgrade clubs yearly believing the spin the golfing companies tell them.
John
Mar 20, 2014 at 11:27 am
I guess you still play persimmon clubs and hogan apex irons with pro 90 golf balls right?
technology does not make huge leaps every year no doubt but if you try to argue that over periods of time it doesn’t make a difference you are crazy
paul
Mar 21, 2014 at 9:01 am
Typical pessimist comment about tech doesn’t matter, followed by tech doesn’t help, no one cares anymore about their swing (hacks usually don’t, they play for fun).
Cue the typical reply about persimmons and apex irons (I have some apex irons).
So tired of these comments.
Chuck
Mar 19, 2014 at 5:54 pm
This is such a great regular feature. And very well-written.
Jim
Mar 19, 2014 at 5:21 pm
Looks like the SLDR ALPHA is coming with the guarantee of 400 yard drives 17 degree launch and a mind numbing 1 rpm of backspin for all and 2 yards of dispersion
jgpl001
Mar 21, 2014 at 2:35 am
When is this being release? Next week?
This is the one I have been waiting for – can’t wait
pk20152
Mar 19, 2014 at 4:59 pm
I’m surprise TM hasn’t overloaded the US Patent office with their latest and greatest design. As a matter of fact I bet they’re the running joke at the Patent office “look what I got guys! hot off the press.. another rare patent submissions from TM”… no thanks. I am Titlist loyal.
Hackerdav31
Mar 20, 2014 at 2:51 am
Tough to tell…
MHendon
Mar 19, 2014 at 3:12 pm
Hmmmm so Taylormade is going with a design strangely similar to something Adams has already had on the market.
kibbs
Mar 19, 2014 at 5:51 pm
Well, since tney do own Adams Golf now, I wouldn’t see why they would do so seeing how Adams was the most advanced driver in speed (aerodynamically speaking). Coupling those two technologies of speed and adjust-ability is the next logical step. I can’t wait to see what they come out with.
bradford
Sep 24, 2014 at 10:26 am
Agreed, almost all of the long drive guys are playing Speedlines because of the head speed they can get. This and the slot technology were the two main reasons I thought they bought Adams in the first place. I’d REALLY like to see them incorporate some of the iron tech as well.
Danny
Mar 19, 2014 at 2:34 pm
SLDRier in white, guaranteed 17 yards longer or your money back! Why play a Titleist and drive it 250 yards when you can play a Taylormade and drive it 325 with the same swing!
Taylormade should start doing infomercials
AntiDanny
Mar 21, 2014 at 12:36 am
Here’s Danny again spewing hate to TM, further perpetuating that “haters gonna hate” only because the company leading the market is.. well.. leading the market. Sourpuss.
leftright
Mar 27, 2014 at 11:18 am
The Adams XTD and SLDR were the longest drivers for me, LH, 103 average swing speed by a bit (stock shafts) and I tested them all. I do think Adams probably is the brains behind TM now.
leftright
Mar 27, 2014 at 11:21 am
I hate to say it but the SLDR is heads and tails better than the 913. Titleist is going to have to hire away Justin Honea from Adams to rejuvenate their driver line. Titleist, straight but short.