Tommy Fleetwood spotted testing irons with Tiger's initials on them at Abu Dhabi HSBC

In one of the most entertaining golf equipment stories of 2018, Tommy Fleetwood was down to his last set of Nike VR Pro Blade irons. He tried to buy Paul Casey’s extra set, but Casey wouldn’t budge. That means Fleetwood was risking an iron breaking during competition and not having a backup set to fall back on.

It looks like Fleetwood is considering moving on from his last set of VR Pro Blades, though, as he was spotted testing new irons at a practice round for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

These aren’t just any irons, however. After zooming in on the photo, it’s clear Fleetwood is testing TaylorMade prototype irons stamped “P-7TW” on the back cavities. While unconfirmed by TaylorMade, these P-7TW irons bearing Woods’ initials could very well be prototype irons made for Tiger Woods.

In 2018, Tiger Woods, instead of switching into TaylorMade’s P-730 series blade irons, began playing mysterious TaylorMade TW-Phase1 irons instead that were specially made for him. The last time we saw Woods in competition at “The Match” against Phil Mickelson, he was still playing the TW-Phase1 irons. But now, clearly, there are “P-7TW” irons in existence; will Woods use the new prototype irons when he makes his 2019 PGA TOUR debut?

Keep in mind that Fleetwood was testing the new irons during a practice round, so it’s not confirmed that he’ll put them in play at the HSBC. It does, however, confirm that there are TaylorMade P-7TW prototype irons being made.

We’ll keep you up to date on whether Fleetwood officially makes the switch, and whether Woods has new irons in play when we first see him out on TOUR.