No more than eight months ago, Jordan Gumberg, an Arizona U. alum, holed a wedge on the 72nd hole at the Genesis in South Korea, to keep his tour card. A zip ahead to March of 2026, and Gumberg is a DP World Tour winner again, and in safe possession of his card for some time. Gumberg’s heroics this week weren’t the only game on the planet. The LPGA headed to California, while the PGA Tour Champions teed up in Arizona. The LIV golf circuit dropped anchor in South Africa, while the PGA Tour concluded its month-long, Florida dalliance near Tampa. Two PGA Tour Americas qualifying schools were held, in Alabama and Florida. Respective winners were Patrick Sheehan (-17, by two) and amateur Calen Sanderson (-13, by one.) Eight golfers at each site earned full tour privileges for 2026.

There you have it. Much tournament golf to review, and even more tour equipment to assess. Let’s enjoy an end to winter (fingers crossed) with this week’s edition of Tour Tech Rundown.

PGA Tour @ Valspar: Fitzy finds first

A week after finishing second by a missed 72nd-hole putt, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick earned a third PGA Tour title with a survivor’s finish. In a manner not unlike Cameron Young a week ago, Fitzpatrick found a way to hang around. As third-round leader Sungjae Im fell away with a day-the-last 74, Fitzpatrick posted three birdies and fifteen pars over the closing 18. With a sense for the dramatic, he drove a wedge to thirteen feet on the final green and holed the putt to establish a one-shot advantage over David Lipsky. When Lipsky failed to post a birdie at the last, the title belonged to Fitzpatrick.

Xander Schauffele (65) and Jordan Smith (66) were the class of day four. Smith moved up eight slots, from 11th to third, while Schauffele elevated 21 positions, to a tie for fourth with Im and Marco Penge. Emiliano Grillo made the biggest day-four move. He matched Schauffele with 65, and jumped up 31 spots, inside the top seven.

Fitzpatrick’s Gear Bag

A Titleist GT3 driver, with a Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Orange 65 TX shaft, rocks a Titleist ProV1x 2019 model for the 2022 US Open champion. Two TaylorMade Qi35 fairway metals fill out the launch section of his bag. For irons, Fitzpatrick continues to trust PING heads that debuted in 2013 and 2018. His 3 and 4 irons are i210 models from eight years back, while his 5-iron through PW are S55 variety, from fourteen years ago. Fitzpatrick returns to the Titleist brand with three Vokey SM10 wedges, at 52, 56, and 60 degrees. The wedge trio stocks True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts, albeit with different stiffnesses. For a flatstick, Fitzpatrick puts his faith in a Bettinardi BB1 proto.

LPGA @ Fortinet Founders Cup: HJK bends, but does not break

A dozen years ago, Hyo-joo Kim made her first LPGA victory a major, at The Evian. Since then, she has added seven more titles, with the most recent coming Sunday in Menlo Park, California. Over those eight victories, Kim has held off Stacy Lewis, Karrie Webb, and other LPGA luminaries. Victory this week may have been sweeter than the others, as she stared down Nelly Korda down the stretch at the FFC.

Kim opened with 63, followed with 70-66, and carried a five-shot advantage into Sunday’s fourth round. Most of the top five faded away, and those that surged began too far back to mount any sort of threat. That left Nelly Korda as the only challenge to a wire-to-wire victory for the great Korean golfer. The one-time world number one (and current number two) won the season-opening Tournament of Champions and seeks a return to her form of 2024, when she won seven times.

Throughout Sunday, Hyo-joo Kim looked beyond vulnerable, with many anticipating that Korda would track her down in the end. Unlike prior rounds, Kim found herself amending a bogey with a birdie, or following a birdie with a bogey. She could not weave a low-number string that would dispatch Korda. A birdie at 14 appeared to give her breathing room, but she followed it with a bogey at 16 and 18. Fortunately for her, Korda made the last of her six birdies at the tenth hole and came home in plus-two figures over the closing eight. In the end, it was Kim at minus-sixteen, with Korda one back at fifteen-deep.

Kim’s Gear Bag

HJK has used a majority bag of Yonex clubs her entire career. The EZone line dominates her selection, with driver, two fairway metals, and hybrid all bearing that model’s GT line. Her two long irons are CB 701 models from the EZone line, while her remaining irons through gap wedge are CB 501 designs. Kim breaks from the standard with a pair of Vokey SM9 wedges, set at 56 and 60 degrees. Her putter is a unique Odyssey O-Works Tour R-Ball S, with which she rolls a Titleist ProV1x ball.

DP World Tour @ Hainan Classic: By Gum, It’s Gumberg!

Often written and never disproven, it’s difficult to win a professional golf tournament. Even more difficult is winning pole to pole. This week on Hainan Island, Jordan Gumberg did the even more difficult. The UArizona alumnus opened with 64, for a slim lead over Spain’s Jorge Campillo. Round two saw Gumberg post 66, and double his lead over Campillo to two shots. On Saturday, Gumberg’s total was 69, a number that allowed Campillo to track him down and match him on 199, thanks to a third-day 67 from the Iberian.

Campillo and Gumberg went off in the final pairing on Sunday. A trio of chasers would reach 15-deep at the end of the round. Among them was Chinese teen Yanhan Zhou. They would never threaten the leading duo, and would end in a third-place tie, three back of the eventual winning total. Campillo and Gumberg each made birdie at the opening hole, and Campillo would then take the lead with a birdie at the eighth. He returned shots with bogey at nine and ten, but made one more birdie, at the twelfth hole. As for Gumberg, he first lost the lead with a dropped shot at the third, but gained back a tie at the sixth, with birdie. Unlike previous rounds, when birdies appeared available at wholesale, Gumberg would make but one more, but it was enough. His birdie at 11 gave him a two-shot lead over Campillo, and he would make pars to the end, to hold off the Extremaduran by one.

Gumberg’s Gear Bag

According to the Titleist site, Jordan Gumberg is a company man throughout the bag. For the Hainan Open winner, a Titleist GT3 driver with Graphite Design Tour AD shaft creates the cannon. A Titleist GT3 18 degree fairway metal completes the heavy artillery. From driving club through the putter, it’s all Titleist, Vokey, and Cameron. A Titelist T250 2 iron, fitted with a Nippon NS Pro Modus3, widens the tight alleys. Titleist 620CB in the longer irons match with Titleist 620 MB blades in the shorter clubs. His wedges are all Vokey, at 46, 54, and 60 degrees. Beyond the 2-iron, all lofters are fitted with True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts. As a putter, Gumberg wields a Scotty Cameron Super Select blade putter. At the close of each hole, Gumberg plucks a Titleist ProV1 from the cup.

PGA Tour Champions @ Cologuard Classic: Alker slips past Paddy

Padraig Harrington seems so complete and compact, that we ask ourselves why he doesn’t win every time he enters a tournament. His final hole in regulation served only to fuel the frustration. After driving in the fairway, Harrington missed the final green at La Paloma and made bogey. He fell into a tie with a charging Steven Alker. The Kiwi had completed a flawless 66, with six birdies and zero bogeys, to move up four positions on Sunday.

Harrington and Thongchai Jaidee began Sunday at minus-eleven, one shot clear of Tommy Two Gloves Gainey. Jaidee posted 70 on day three, and fell to solo fifth place. Gainey held steady in third spot, with a 68. He was joined there by youngster Zach Johnson, a debut winner earlier this month. When Harrington made bogey at the 54th, a playoff was ordered. For Alker, it must have seemed eerily similar to 2025, when he made birdie on the first extra hole to win against Jason Caron.

The brief extra session saw Alker make quick work of Harrington. Both drove the fairway and reached the green in regulation figures, but only Alker converted the first putt for three. The win was Alker’s eleventh on Tour Champions, and his first since late October.

Steven Alker was nine (!) shots back starting his second round @CologuardGolf.

After a Saturday 62 and a playoff against World Golf Hall of Fame member Padraig Harrington, he ended Sunday with a trophy ? pic.twitter.com/8dKk76Wpcg

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) March 22, 2026

Alker’s Gear Bag

An 8.5 degree Callaway Elyte Three Diamond Max driver, alongside two (15 and 19 degrees) TaylorMade SIM, open the closet on Steven Alker’s equipment portfolio. A Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke 4 hybrid and a Tour Preferred 4 iron alternate occupancy, depending on course demands. For irons, Alker relies on New Level 702 CB model from 5 through PW. Alker has enlisted the brand’s SPN V3 S-Grind wedges at 50, 54, and 60 degrees. For his putter, Alker invests faith in an Odyssey Rossie White Hot OG S mini mallet.

LIV Golf @ South Africa: Battle of the Titans

Even prior to Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour, LIV’s two top dogs were Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. None of the other ex-pats has lived up to recruitment potential, so it’s up to the two Titans to carry the circuit. This week at The Club at Steyn City, LIV got what it wanted: a duel between two Titans. BDC carried a three-shot advantage over Rahm into round four, but the Basque behemoth lit a fuse with four birdies and an eagle over his first ten holes on Sunday. DeChambeau was nearly equal to the task, but Rahm was two shots better over the closing stretch.

The pair matched cards at 26-under for the 72 holes, with a tio of third-place finishers three shots in arrears. BDC and JR made the 600-yard trip to the 18th tee for an overtime session. It was finished in fifteen minutes. Rahm made par for the second time this day, but DeChambeau was able to coax a fourth shot into the hole for a winning birdie. Much will be made about BDC’s possible iron switch this week (see Gear Bag below) but on this day, despite his playoff heroics, he may have needed a new putter instead.

Bryson’s Gear Bag

Driver, 3 and 5-metal remain Formula Fire models from Krank Golf. BDC employs a Project X Prototype D70 shaft in the big stick, but switches to LA Golf BAD prototype wands in the fairway metals. An image from South Africa shows a rather straight-faced iron with the name covered in lead tape. It’s one iron, probably a driving iron, so no cause for alarm. Some in the GolfWRX forums suggest Takomo, the trendy irons from Finland. Others bet on Bettinardi, as BDC currently games its wedges.

Eschewing big names for smaller companies is BDC’s vibe, and his Avoida irons continue that trend. His eponymous Prototype model features 3 iron and 5 through PW, but the big man shifts to three Bettinardi wedges (yes, you read that correctly) at 49 (bent from 50) 54 (bent from 56) and 60 degrees. An LA Golf SIK Pro C-series Armlock putter takes care of business on the greens, in partnership with a Titleist ProV1 X 25 ball.