Dustin Johnson was one of six TaylorMade staffers to use the new R1 Black in Memphis.
(Stan Badz/PGA TOUR)

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

TaylorMade debuted R1 Black on the PGA TOUR at the FedEx St. Jude Classic with a number of staffers putting the driver in play the very first week. Dustin Johnson, Brian Gay and Peter Hanson were the biggest names that switched from the white R1 to the glossy black-painted crown of R1 Black.

Overall, six decided to play R1 Black in Memphis, a number that seems even more astounding when you consider there were 32 R1 drivers in play in Memphis.

That means 19 percent of players in the field felt confident with the new paint job to switch after a couple days of testing. Five of the six using R1 Black made the weekend, including Dustin Johnson, who finished T10 for the week.

English goes back to old PING driver, fairway wood: Harris English punched his ticket to the PGA TOUR with a PING G15 driver (10.5 degrees) and PING G5 3-wood (15 degrees) in the bag last season. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the 23-year-old picked up his first win with the trusty clubs in the bag.

English had recently switched to PING's G25 driver and 3-wood but decided to give the old clubs a try on the range at TPC Southwind. He ended up having such a positive range session that he went back to the G15 and G5.

Plenty of players on TOUR carry old clubs, but English may be one of the only guys who can boast having a club in the bag from high school. The 15-degree G5 English carried this week has been a part of his bag in some capacity since his senior year of high school.

Dustin Johnson gets fresh grooves for Merion: Dustin Johnson's notable equipment change was switching from TaylorMade's white R1 to R1 black. However, he also made another change that likely flew under the radar.

Looking ahead to Merion, Johnson switched the face plates in his TaylorMade TP xFT wedges to promote maximum spin on the greens for the second major of the year.

Adams sets new PGA TOUR hybrid record: Less than a month after Adams set a PGA TOUR record with 59 hybrids in play at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, the company broke its own record with 64 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. The 64 by Adams represented 50 percent of all hybrids in play in Memphis.

Snedeker tests new woods: Brandt Snedeker didn't make any equipment changes at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, but he did spend time during the week working with a PING G25 3-wood (15 degrees; Aldila Tour Blue shaft) and TaylorMade's new R1 Black driver (8.5 degrees; Fujikura Fuel 2.0 shaft).

Snedeker is one of the few holdouts on TOUR still using TaylorMade's Burner SuperFast. Even though the Burner SuperFast was in the bag on Thursday, Snedeker tested out R1 Black during Wednesday's Pro-Am.

Gates adds new fairway wood, ball: It's rare that you hear a player on TOUR ask for less distance with a fairway wood, but that was the case this week in Memphis for Bobby Gates, who asked Callaway reps for a new fairway wood that didn't go as far as his Callaway X Hot Pro.

Reps built him a standard X Hot 3-wood that went the exact distance he was looking for with a higher ball flight and a little more spin. Gates made one more adjustment to the club, bending the lie angle 1 degree flat to 58 degrees, before it went in the bag.

Gates also switched to Callaway's new HEX Chrome+ ball. He liked the soft feel around the greens and how the ball held on approach shots.

Divots: In an attempt to lower his driver ball flight, Scott Langley switched from PING's G25 to PING's Anser. ... Scott Gardiner requested a new counterbalanced TaylorMade Spider Blade putter on Tuesday and put it in play on Thursday.

Dustin Johnson will use a black TaylorMade R1 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic pro-am. (Twitter: @TaylorMadeGolf)

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — TaylorMade's new R1 Black driver has only been on TOUR for a couple of days, but the new club has already received a positive response from a number of notable staffers.

Defending FedEx St. Jude Classic champion Dustin Johnson tested out a 10.5-degree R1 Black (Fujikura 2.0 X shaft, neutral face angle, 7 heel, 7 toe) on Tuesday afternoon and launched drives over the back of the range with ease.

Johnson liked the driver so much during testing the he decided to put it in play for Wednesday's pro-am. Depending on how the round goes, there's a chance the seven-time PGA TOUR winner could become one of the first to put the new driver in play during competition.

Other TaylorMade staffers requesting R1 Black driver builds this week included Boo Weekley (9.75 degrees, Fujikura 6.1 Speeder X shaft, neutral face angle, 6 heel, 6 toe), Sean O’Hair (9.5 degrees, Matrix TP7HD X, neutral face angle, Tipped 1”) and Brian Gay (9.5 degrees, Oban Purple 65 X, O1 face angle, 6 heel, 6 toe).

Casey Wittenberg was another TaylorMade staffer who spent extensive time doing comparison testing between R1 and R1 Black (Mitsubishi Diamana shaft) on Tuesday morning.

Following the productive range session — both drivers were producing really good numbers on the range — Wittenberg took both drivers on the course for additional testing.

The group of Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson and Billy Horschel tees off at 1:39 p.m. ET in Friday's second round of THE PLAYERS Championship.

You can watch every shot from that group exclusively on PGATOUR.COM (click here for details).

To get you ready to watch that threesome, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider Jonathan Wall provides an equipment update on each player. Check it out below.

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

Two notable names on the PGA TOUR could have new putters in the bag at the Honda Classic.

After using an original Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter recently, Gary Woodland switched to Odyssey's new Versa 2-Ball on Monday.

Update (12:10 p.m. ET): Dustin Johnson's first round with the Scotty Cameron Notchback prototype was extremely positive. Johnson, who went off early at 7:25 a.m., fired a 4-under 66 and only needed 29 putts to get around PGA National. 

For more information or to buy the Odyssey Versa 2-Ball 90 putter, click here

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

Dustin Johnson has put new woods, irons and wedges in the bag over the years, but through all the changes there has been one club that has managed to weather the equipment storm: a Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport 2 prototype putter.

Over the last few seasons, Johnson has worked with a number of putters, including a TaylorMade prototype Ghost Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ghost prototype, and an all-black, prototype Scotty Cameron for Titleist Newport known as a "Jetsetter". But he's always gone back to the Newport 2 prototype putter at some point.

On Wednesday at the Northern Trust Open, Golf Channel cameras caught Johnson on the practice putting green working with another new putter — an Odyssey Versa No. 7 WBW (white/black/white).

Johnson not only spent time working with the putter early in the week, he ended up putting it in play on Thursday. Hoping to get his putting on track, Johnson struggled mightily on Riviera's greens, finishing the day at 5 over.

The putter switch wasn't the only equipment change Johnson made this week. On Monday, the seven-time PGA TOUR winner shelved his RocketBladez Tour irons for his old set of TaylorMade Tour Preferred Forged MBs.

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- When Dustin Johnson tweeted a photo of his new TaylorMade R1 golf bag Monday afternoon, he actually broke some equipment news regarding what is in the bag. 

Johnson's new clubs happened to be his old ones, a set of TaylorMade Tour Preferred Forged MB irons he used last season to win the FedEx St. Jude Classic.

At the beginning of the season, Johnson had switched to a new set of RocketBladez Tour irons, which he won in Hawaii with and kept in his bag for the next three starts.

But following a missed cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, an event he won in 2009 and 2010, Johnson showed up at the Northern Trust Open with his old irons in the bag.

Considering Johnson already has a win under his belt for 2013, the decision to go back to them following a three-start stretch that included a WD at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a tie for 51st at the Farmers Insurance Open shouldn't come as a big surprise.

With the Masters less than two months away, Johnson is likely doing what a lot of players are doing at the moment and that's find a setup that gives him the best shot to win his first major.

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson and Jason Day helped adidas introduce the adizero Tour shoe earlier this week during a media event held in conjunction with the Farmers Insurance Open.

You can buy the shoe, made in four different colors, in stores today -- the same day Snedeker, Johnson and Day put them into play at Torrey Pines. At the media event on Tuesday, the three TOUR pros piloted remote-controlled aircraft that were built in their likenesses, wearing the same clothes and adizero shoe that each will sport in the first round of the tournament.

The shoe weighs just 10.6 ounces, the lightest 10-cleated shoe adidas has ever made, and joins the adizero footwear family, made popular in football, soccer and basketball. A sprint frame and spring web help make the shoe so light.

Other players wearing the adizero shoes this week are Martin Laird, Casey Wittenberg, Charles Howell III, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, Andres Romero, Blake Adams, Charlie Wi, Chez Reavie, Greg Owen, James Driscoll, Matt Bettencourt, Tim Petrovic, Boo Weekley, Alex Rocha, Scott Verplank and Robert Allenby.

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

One of the biggest names on the PGA TOUR will have a new golf ball in play at the Farmers Insurance Open after TaylorMade Golf confirmed that Dustin Johnson would be using the company's new Lethal ball.

Johnson had been playing TaylorMade's Penta TP5, but following his win at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, he decided to open testing again with the Lethal.

After working with it for the last couple of weeks, Johnson finally felt comfortable enough with the ball's performance in the scoring zone to make the switch official at Torrey Pines.

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.com Equipment Insider

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Dustin Johnson isn’t in the field at the Humana Challenge, but that didn’t stop him from stopping by the TaylorMade truck early in the week to pick up a new set of fairway woods.

The seven-time PGA TOUR winner was in town on Monday and Tuesday for a Dick’s Sporting Goods/Golf Galaxy photo shoot and had the staff build him three RBZ Stage 2 Tour fairway woods with Aldila RIP 90 Alphia X shafts — 14.5 degree 3-wood, a 16.5 3-wood with high loft and 18.5 degree 5-wood — to test during his off week before his third start of the season at the Farmer Insurance Open.

Johnson, who currently plays an R11S (15.5 degrees) and R9 (19 degrees) with Aldila RIP 90 Alphia X shafts, had a chance to test the new fairway woods out on Tuesday before taking them home for the week.

Dustin Johnson hits his final drive on the par-5 18th on Tuesday at Kapalua. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR)

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

Dustin Johnson’s four-shot win at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions earned him a return trip to Maui next year for the winners-only event.

But Johnson wasn’t the only winner on Tuesday -- TaylorMade Golf also picked up a big win as Johnson notched his seventh PGA TOUR victory using the company’s R1 driver, which was released on Jan. 3.  

Johnson employed a 10 degree R1 with a neutral face angle and an 8-gram shot shape weight in the toe and 2-gram shot shape weight in the heel for the 54-hole tournament. He averaged 275.9 yards off the tee and recorded a 405-yard drive during the final round, which was the longest in the field during Tuesday’s final round.

He also became the second player to win with TaylorMade’s RocketBladez Tour irons, joining Sergio Garica, who captured the Johor Open in December. 

Even though Johnson spent some time working with the irons during the offseason, he felt his irons were a bit too upright and had the entire set bent 1 degree flatter prior to the first round.

Dustin Johnson’s bag at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions:

DRIVER: TaylorMade R1 (10°) with a Fujikura Fuel 2.0 X shaft
FAIRWAY WOODS: TaylorMade R11S (15.5°) and R9 (19°) with Aldila RIP Series X shafts
IRONS: RocketBladez Tour (3-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts
WEDGES: TaylorMade TP xFT (54°, 60°) with with KBS Back Nickel shafts
PUTTER: Scotty Cameron for Titleist Newport prototype
BALL: TaylorMade Penta TP5