Equipment Insider: Titleist dominates winners' bags

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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.

Check out more of Adam Barr's equipment coverage at AdamBarrGolfGearGuide.com.

Video: In the Bag

What do players carry when they head out on TOUR? We take an inside look at the adjustments they make to their clubs ... and they show us other things (ball markers, training aids) that make their tools of the trade unique. Archive: In the Bag MORE IN THE BAGS Phil Mickelson Anthony Kim Padraig Harrington

Wins by Ben Crane (Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA TOUR), Robert Gates (Michael Hill New Zealand Open on the Nationwide Tour) and Robert Karlsson (Commercialbank Qatar Masters on the European Tour) made the folks in Fairhaven, Mass., happy: 38 of the 42 clubs in the three winners' bags were from Titleist. And all three men played a Pro V1x golf ball.

In Crane's bag: a Titleist 909D2 driver with 10.5 degrees of loft, a 909H hybrid (21 degrees), AP2 irons (5-PW), and three Vokey Spin-Milled wedges (51, 55, and 59 degrees). The driver is the more mid-flight version of the pear-shaped of the 909 line, which also includes the 909D3 (lower) and 909DComp (higher); Bill Haas used the D2 to win the Bob Hope Classic the week before. The hybrid has a substantial head and a long face, plus a special steel face insert to promote maximum allowable ball speed.

Crane credited some outside-the-bag factors for his win as well. His teacher, who is a big part of the Titleist Performance Institute, helped Crane overcome chronic back issues.

"I've been working with Greg Rose, my instructor and trainer, and he basically said, 'Look, your lower back is the only thing that moves; everything else is tight.'" Crane said after Sunday's round. "'The problem is all around your lower back, not your lower back [itself].' So we've been working actively. I get treatment before and after every round to try to loosen up my upper back and my hips because if I can allow the things around my lower back to move more, then I can take some pressure off my lower back."

There's a lesson there. Who among us hasn't had back problems? Your body is equipment too.

STAGE SET FOR RESOLUTION?: PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem met with TOUR players Tuesday at the Northern Trust Open, and he's expected to comment Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET (live on PGATOUR.COM) on the intricate legal anomaly that allows Ping Eye 2 wedges to circumvent the new condition of competition limiting the size and edge sharpness of iron clubface grooves.

Ping chairman and CEO John Solheim, son of company founder Karsten Solheim, who fought both the TOUR and the U.S. Golf Association on the groves issue in the 1980s and 1990s, reminded the TOUR that the Eye 2 wedges made before April 1, 1990 remain legal clubs. Those wedges have grooves that would contravene the condition of competition if not for the 1990 and 1993 lawsuit settlements grandfathering them into compliance. But Solheim also said he will work with the TOUR to resolve the issue.

Four players in the field at the Farmers Insurance Open used old Eye 2 wedges, including Phil Mickelson. His use of the club prompted controversial comments from fellow TOUR player Scott McCarron.

It's not clear at the moment whether players are actively searching for the old Ping wedges. "Millions" of them still exist, said a source close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. That source also confirmed that when the deadline came on April 1, 1990, Ping stopped production of the wedges, as well as scrapping an inventory of clubs and clubheads that added up to a substantial amount of units and dollars.

GETTING THE SHAFT: In a good way, we mean. True Temper Sports doesn't pay players to use its Dynamic Gold steel shafts, so it doesn't use their names in its marketing materials. Nonetheless, both Crane and Karlsson were playing the popular shafts in their recent wins. Advances in steel technology have enabled manufacturers to make steel shafts much more flexible, which in turn helps fit players more accurately. A low, penetrating flight is the hallmark of Dynamic Gold performance, True Temper noted