Equipment Insider: Emergency surgery for Phil's driver

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Each week in the Equipment Insider, Adam Barr -- PGATOUR.COM's equipment columnist -- will provide breaking news, notes and analysis focused on PGA TOUR players. Adam will also appear in video segments for PGATOUR.COM.

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Phil Mickelson's third Masters win was wire-to-wire guts and glory. But getting there took some coast-to-coast help.

Phil cracked the crown of his Callaway FT Tour driver while playing in the Shell Houston Open the week before the Masters. It's not typical for crowns to crack like that, but with all the practicing Phil does, plus tournament play, plus the force he brings to the ball -- well, physics did its thing.

But with fairway-hitting being so important at Augusta National, naturally Phil was concerned. So he sent the driver back to Callaway to see what could be done. This wasn't just a matter of sticking the backup driver in the bag. This was on the eve of a major championship week, and Phil was devoted to his "gamer," the driver that got him to this dance.

At Palomar Airport, the small-jet terminal on the plateau above Callaway headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., Dr. Alan Hocknell waited anxiously. It was Easter Sunday. The damaged driver arrived, and Hocknell, Callaway's senior design and engineering VP, who is known around Callaway and the TOUR as Doc Hock, got down to the business of diagnosis.

Then his phone chimed.

"How bad is it, Doc? Is she gonna make it?"

It was a text from the driver's nervous owner.

Monday morning of Masters week, Hocknell and his research & development staff got to work. If the gamer was to be saved, they would have to try something bold.

"We decided to remove the carbon composite body from the face, and we've never done that before, so everyone was a bit nervous," Hocknell said. "But through a lot of teamwork, we had a new body and weights installed by 1:30 p.m. on Monday."

Callaway FT Tour

Glue had to dry, and Callaway's Volume Bonding team checked carefully that the titanium cup face and the skid plate on the sole were just right. But by 3:30 Monday, the driver was heading back to the east coast. And Tuesday morning, Callaway tour rep Barry Lyda was standing on the eighth tee, with a grin on his face and the driver in his hands.

Mickelson smiled broadly and put the cherished gamer back to work. Later, he thanked the Callaway team for their efforts.

"They are the best. I've got a lot of confidence in them," Phil said. "The driver played just like I hoped, with the same great feel. It feels identical to the way it was before." For the week, Mickelson averaged more than 297 yards off the tee and blasted several drives more than 350 yards.

Back in Carlsbad, the "medical" team waited hopefully.

"It's great to be able to show our capabilities, to react quickly and do something to a very high level of performance," Hocknell said. "As the driver was going out the door, we looked around at each other and said, 'Imagine if he wins...'."

Imagine, indeed.

Golf Street Premier

HAD TO BE THE SHOES: Even though the result wasn't optimal, Fred Couples' solid play at Augusta at age 50 resonated with a broad group of golf and sports fans worldwide. Ever the laconic pitchman, Couples did nothing overt, and did it to perfection, to promote his unique golf shoes. The boat-shoe-like kicks, made by Danish company Ecco, are called Golf Street Premier, and they're designed with hybrid technology in mind. The uppers are leather, and the sole has molded "traction bars" instead of traditional cleats or spikes.

The idea, says Ecco, was to create a "one-shoe-fits-all proposition," a "sport-casual" model a player can wear all day, on the course and off. The quiet little dashes of style are what Ecco calls "funky color pops -- cactus green, fanta orange, chili red and silver."

A language all its own, that shoe business.