Why Zac Blair is using Ping irons made for Viktor Hovland

It’s not unusual for TOUR players, especially the increasing number of equipment free agents, to use clubs from multiple manufacturers.

Their irons are usually built by a single brand, however. But not Zac Blair. In a search for the optimal set, the PGA TOUR veteran has settled on irons from two different companies for this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship (with clubs from a third company in his bag during practice rounds). And some of those irons were originally designed for one of the world’s best players, FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland.

Inside of Blair’s navy blue staff bag this week were irons from three different companies: Titleist, Ping and Miura.

Many TOUR players use a mixed set of irons, featuring short irons with a smaller, less-forgiving design for more control and cavity-back long irons that offer more forgiveness, but rarely do those sets consist of clubs from completely different brands. That’s why Blair’s set stands out.

Blair said he’ll likely use Miura MB 001 short irons (7-9) and Ping i210 long irons (3-5) this week at the Country Club of Jackson. He’s still testing the Titleist long irons. Blair’s bag is always in flux as he finds clubs that fit his liking.

“I’ve fluctuated back and forth; it’s like, let’s try this 7-iron, let’s try this 6-iron; this 6-iron isn’t working, let’s try the 7-iron,” said Blair, who ranks 94th in this season’s FedExCup after a runner-up finish at the Travelers Championship in June.

It is the Ping clubs that have the most interesting background story.

Blair’s i210 long irons were custom-made for Hovland. Hovland prefers an iron sole with less bounce so that the club engages more with the turf at impact, and the clubs caught Blair’s expert eye as he was perusing the Internet one day.

“Ping made them for Viktor Hovland a few years ago, and I was reading about them, and I wanted to try ‘em, so they gave me a set of them,” Blair explained.

Apparently Hovland was really onto something, since the irons have continued to pass Blair’s extensive and constant testing processes, and Blair is confident they will remain in the top end of his bag this week in Mississippi.

“I try to figure out what works well first,” Blair said. “I like to try a bunch of different clubs, and see how they perform on the golf course, and in the sense of real golf. And then I try to figure out how they’re actually performing (on a launch monitor). Are they spinning enough, or too much, on paper?”

The Ping i210’s in Blair’s bag this week actually made up the entirety of his set at different times in recent years. So have the Miura MB 001’s. The Titleist experimentation, however, is relatively new.

“I would say I tinker a fair amount with stuff, sometimes just to try things,” Blair said. “You can always get better, and if you don’t, you can always go back to what you like.”