The 2019 Masters will remain for me - and so many others - one of the most emotional golf tournaments I have ever watched. Tiger Woods was such a formative figure in my childhood and adolescence, to the point where I sincerely doubt if golf would have captured my interest enough without his presence to stick at it, and I would have probably drifted away down some other career path. So I guess, thanks, Tiger!
However, after years of injury and controversy in his personal life, by 2018, it really felt like he was done. Then in late 2018, there were signs of life. An impressive victory at the Tour Championship that year had us all wondering if he had something left in the tank in the majors, then the 2019 Masters rolled around, and we all know what happened next!
As it is that wonderful time of year again when the eyes of the golfing world descend upon Augusta National Golf Club, I decided to partner up with GolfClubs4Cash and take a deeper look at what was in the great man's bag that week. With everything conveniently in stock, I ordered it all up through the app, and took it out for one of the most enjoyable practice sessions I have had in years! Here’s what he used that fateful week…
Driver - TaylorMade M5
By this era, Tiger was very much a TaylorMade athlete as the rest of his bag will also demonstrate, and he was using the M5 driver in 9 degrees. This driver featured one of the most adjustable CG weighting systems of all time with a huge “H” track along the sole allowing players to dial in a multitude of flight preferences.
Tiger shifted his two weights into the rear section of the track to maximize MOI, and then split them slightly, with one slightly towards the toe and the other all the way to the heel to potentially allow more of a draw shape that we know is preferable on so many holes at the Masters including the 2nd, 10th and 13th.
Tiger played this driver with the Mitsubishi Diamana D+ White 60 TX shaft, which is one of the most tip-stable models I have ever tried.
3 Wood - TaylorMade M5
Tiger played Augusta that week like a grand master playing chess, and hitting less than driver off many tees to prioritize angles and positions were central to his strategy, and as such he needed a 3-wood he could rely on. He once again selected one of the best fairway woods in the M5 from TaylorMade which featured a massive 65g weight shifter in the middle of the sole!
This is the largest moveable weight in a golf club that I can think of and any move away from neutral had a huge effect on ball flight bias, so it is no surprise that Tiger opted to keep this in the neutral setting. He did however loft it down from its stated 15 degrees to play at 13 degrees which on TaylorMade loft sleeves has the knock-on effect of making the lie angle more upright and also opening the face angle. Once again he opted to use this in the Mitsubishi Diamana D+ shaft, this time in 70 TX flex.
5 wood - TaylorMade M3
Tiger clearly loved this particular model as it is still in his bag to this day, some 6 years later! The TaylorMade M3 5 wood came in at 19 degrees and Tiger opted to play it on the upright side of the TaylorMade loft sleeve, presumably to encourage a slightly more draw bias ball flight. As with the driver and 3 wood, he opted to use this in the Mitsubishi Diamana D+ shaft, going up to 80 grams in this TX flex.
Irons - TaylorMade P7TW
Woods used the stunningly beautiful TaylorMade P7TW irons in his 2019 Masters victory. These irons were built with meticulous attention to detail, even down to matching the CG of his old sets. He has always preferred irons with a longer blade length, very thin sole, and squared-off toe, which is what TaylorMade managed to achieve in the P7TW design.
The P7TW irons were a game changer for Tiger as the soles are CNC milled, eliminating the previous inconsistency of hand grinding for a player who was incredibly particular about sole width and radius. The P7TW has a flatter sole radius and a little more bounce than typical designs which really helps ground interaction. The grooves on the irons are a touch narrower than normal, but there are actually more grooves present than in many other retail models.
The irons received final approval from Tiger after tungsten dots were added directly behind the impact area which dialed in the exact feel of what he was looking for. Woods has generally used the same iron specs since he was in College, only ever changing the lie angle to match swing changes he was making at any given time.
As he always has done, these irons were fitted with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts, and interestingly, Tiger employed (and still does) a very old vibration-dampening technique of having wooden dowels slotted and glued into place at the tip end of the shaft!
Wedges - TaylorMade Milled Grind
Tiger used TaylorMade wedges in 2019, opting for the Milled Grind raw options in 56 and 60 degrees. Now the interesting thing about his wedges is that he has such a big loft gap between his 56-degree sand wedge and his 49-degree pitching wedge. Almost all other players on the PGA Tour would fill that gap with some sort of gap wedge, but Tiger has said he feels very comfortable hooding the face of the 56-degree wedge to squeeze a few more yards when necessary.
The soles are also very interesting and were for many years unique to him until TaylorMade was able to replicate this for the masses with CNC milling. On his 56-degree, he has some of the heaviest heel relief I have ever seen on a wedge, which he says is very much due to the fact that he loves to manipulate the face of his 56-degree and plays the majority of his short game shots with it, seeing the 60-degree as more of an emergency option.
The 60-degree wedge also had a very interesting sole design, with little to no bounce across the main portion of the sole, before the front couple of millimeters sharpy ascended to lift the leading edge quite a long way off the ground. So while the main portion of the sole may be somewhere around 2 degrees of bounce, the leading edge portion is probably closer to 25!
Putter - Scotty Cameron GSS Newport 2
Perhaps one of the most famous pieces of sports equipment of all time is the ‘Elder Wand’, or more specifically Tiger’s Scotty Cameron GSS Newport 2 which has won 14 of his 15 majors! The design - like so many others - is derived from the original Ping Anser (Woods even used an Anser 2 for a period), however, he ultimately settled on the Newport 2 GSS, and in hindsight, it seems like that was a smart decision! Notably, the putter head is relatively light compared to modern standards, weighing 326 grams. For context, many modern putters fall in the 340-350 gram range although Woods has been known to add lead tape to his putter head at times, adjusting the weight based on his current stroke and feel.
An interesting detail is the iconic "cherry bombs" on the putter. These were essentially a happy accident. In 1999, Scotty Cameron had a prototype (non-GSS version) ready to ship to Tiger, but it was 2-3 grams too heavy. As such, he quickly drilled two small holes - one in the cavity, and the other in the heel, filled with red paint - resulting in those now-famous markings.
Woods used a Ping Man PP58 grip, which is a very thin, pistol-style grip. Whereas so many of today's grips are much thicker in attempts to reduce the influence of the hands, Woods preferred to encourage feel and movement in the hands with his thinner grip.
The putter also does not have a sight line, featuring only a red dot for alignment. Specs-wise, it was 35.25 inches in length, 3.5 degrees of loft, and a D7 swing weight.
