Major championships aren’t always the best place to find interesting gear news. By the time it’s the week of a major, players are typically dialed into their equipment and focused on performance and preparation.

This week was different.

An abnormal amount of gear changes happened this week, and GolfWRX was live at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to cover them all.

Yes, Tiger Woods made significant equipment switches this week, but he wasn’t the only one.

In this week’s Tour Report, we highlight the noteworthy equipment news and coolest gear photos from on site at the 2022 PGA Championship.

Let’s dive right in.

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 PGA Championship

1) Tiger Woods makes big changes

Tiger Woods is the undisputed King of the 2-iron stinger. I don’t think I’ll get too many arguments there.

Most golf fans know Woods historically hit his patented stingers with a forged blade long iron. This week, however, Woods surprised us all by switching into TaylorMade’s P-770 2 and 3-irons to replace his usual 5-wood and P-7TW 3-iron setup.

As highlighted in our report for PGATOUR.com, Woods has found greater forgiveness, height and length from the hollow-bodied irons. Both of his new P-770 long irons are also equipped with True Temper’s new Dynamic Gold MID Tour Issue X100 shafts, which are designed for higher spin and launch.

The new irons weren’t the only changes Woods made to his bag setup, though. He also switched from TaylorMade’s MG2 (Milled Grind 2) wedges into the new MG3 wedges this week. His versions have a raw finish, come with his familiarly intricate TW sole grinds, and have more bounce than you may expect.

Any changes that Tiger makes are noteworthy, since he rarely switches his gear up, but he added four new clubs to the bag this week. Check out his entire new gear setup in the link below.

Tiger Woods’ full WITB at the 2022 PGA Championship

2) Webb Simpson ditches his blades

For essentially his entire career, Webb Simpson has been an old-school blade iron user.

Well, not anymore.

Simpson switched from Titleist’s 620 MB irons into the company’s new T100 irons this week. He spoke to the media on Thursday following his first-round 69 regarding the switch:

“I’ve had a couple of short stints with non-blades in my career but not many.”

“I haven’t been hitting my irons great. Approach to the green is typically a strength for me; this year it’s been a weakness, and I’ve struggled out of the rough. I keep getting told that these the irons I’m playing are better out of the rough, better with distance control, better with mis-hits, and so I guess I was being stubborn but finally listened and I really like them.”

“They’re not a whole lot different than mine the way they look, but we’ve had good results with them so far.”

According to Simpson, his caddie Paul Tesori played a role in Simpson’s intrigue in the new T100 irons.

“Yeah, honestly I hadn’t considered it that much at all. Paul  mentioned it at Wells Fargo after that first round or maybe after I missed the cut on Friday. Then he came to Charlotte last Wednesday and we were doing some testing, and we were seeing some crazy numbers out of the rough with my blades.”

“Thankfully I live on the golf course, so we drove to my garage, picked up this other set — honestly I didn’t know if I had this other set still. I don’t know if Titleist will like this or not, but if I don’t use a set I give it to a friend. I’m trying to spread the word for Titleist, you know. So I might have given to a friend, but I see them in there, we bring them out, and all the numbers we tested were way better.”

“So I still wasn’t certain that I was going to put them in this week so I have both, but yeah, the biggest thing for me is when I look down I want to make sure it looks good, and then after that all I care about is the numbers and how it’s going to perform out of the rough, and so far they’ve passed the test.”

The lesson here for amateurs is to test a range of different irons to figure out exactly what suits your game best. Even the world’s best ball strikers sometimes opt for more forgiveness.

See more photos of Webb’s new Titleist T100 irons here

3) Dustin Johnson switches to a new putter

Dustin Johnson tests multiple different putters every week leading up to just about every single tournament he plays in. While he typically ends up back into his blacked-out TaylorMade Tour Limited Spider, this week he called up a new Spider GT Splitback putter into his starting lineup.

Here’s what TaylorMade Tour rep Bucky Coe had to say about the switch:

“It’s all about the aesthetics. From the feedback I got from him, he grabbed it off the putting green because he liked the longer shape in the back and felt it was more forgiving with the CG placement. The combination of a white cavity and the single sight line allows him to set it up square and align the ball easily.”

TaylorMade also provided the full specs below.

Model: Spider GT Splitback
Loft: 2 degrees
Lie angle: 69 degrees
Length: 35.75 inches, end of grip
Swing weight: E7
Grip: SuperStroke Pistol GT 1.0
Shaft: LA Golf prototype

4) Custom PGA Championship gear

It goes without saying, but major championships are a big deal in the golf world. Adding to the hype and intrigue, golf manufacturers and apparel companies typically create custom gear that’s special to each of the major events.

With Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the artistic inspiration, golf companies developed their best tributes to the city’s culture and colorways. Which company do you think did it best?

(For reference, in the photo above, Callaway’s staff bag is on the left, Odyssey’s putter covers are top middle, Scotty Cameron’s “Golden Driller Statue” covers are in the middle, Axis1’s putter covers are bottom middle, and TaylorMade’s staff bags are on the right.)

See all of the custom PGA Championship gear

5) John Daly’s wild equipment setup

As we covered in our report for PGATOUR.com this week, 56-year-old John Daly came to the 2022 PGA Championship with a stunning gear setup.

Daly has so much lead tape on his TaylorMade P-770 irons that, honestly, it was difficult to immediately decipher what brand and model he was using.

After speaking with Scott “Scott E.G.” Garrison – his club builder – Daly needed the excessive lead tape because his oversized SuperStroke grips (with 6 wraps underneath) weigh in at 82 grams, which is about 30 grams heavier than standard. In order to offset the grip weight, Daly needed significantly more weight on the heads. Thus, his irons are absolutely caked in lead tape.

Daly also revealed a new PXG “TD” prototype driver; PXG is yet to comment on the driver design, but we’ll update you on GolfWRX.com’s front page as soon as we know more.

John Daly’s full WITB from the 2022 PGA Championship

6) Xander’s new Callaway wedge

The world is waiting on five-time PGA Tour winner Xander Schauffele to win his first major championship. Golf equipment fans are also waiting on more information about his new Callaway Jaws Raw 52-degree wedge. Unfortunately, we don’t know much yet, but we do have photos in his full WITB below from this week.

Xander’s full WITB from the 2022 PGA Championship

7) Patrick Reed’s new Grindworks driver

Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters Champion, has been playing a bag full of Grindworks irons since the end of 2019. The limited edition “PR-101A” irons are forged from S20C soft carbon, and they’re made to his exact look and feel preferences.

The Grindworks connection hasn’t stopped at just the irons, though. Earlier in 2022, Reed revealed a set of custom Grindworks “Barrett” wedges. Now, at the 2022 PGA Championship, Reed put a new Grindworks “Equinox X420” driver in the bag (at least, as of Wednesday ahead of the event).

Reed is a prolific gear tester, so it’s uncertain how long the driver will stay in the bag come competition time, but either way, he helped most of the golf world see the Grindworks driver for the first time.

Patrick Reed’s full WITB from the 2022 PGA Championship

And with that, we say goodbye to Tulsa and the 2022 PGA Championship. We’ll see you next week in Fort Worth, Texas for the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge at the classic Colonial Country Club.

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 PGA Championship