Dustin Johnson to add TaylorMade SIM woods and rescue at Kapalua
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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Dustin Johnson with a rescue club. Yep, you read that right. And he won’t be alone.
Johnson has been spotted at the Plantation Course at Kapalua testing the new TaylorMade SIM range of woods and expects to play the driver, 3-wood and rescue club at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
It is of course not uncommon for the first event of the new year to provide new equipment on TOUR and Johnson is likely to be joined by Jon Rahm, Matthew Wolfe and Collin Morikawa with the new gear.
Johnson has been spotted with the “SIM Max” version while the others have the “SIM”.
“I'm playing the Max. I've got the Max driver and 3-wood, and I'm actually going to play a rescue club which I never thought that would happen,” Johnson confirmed on tournament eve.
“I've been hitting it the last few days. I hit it quite nicely. I don't know, we'll give it a run for a little while, see how it works.”
Johnson says he last played a rescue club back and forth in his early years on the PGA TOUR depending on the course but the 20-time winner might make it a more permanent switch now.
“I took out the 3-iron (this week). We'll see. I don't know, I'm going to go hit some on TrackMan and see how far it's going,” he added.
The new drivers landed on the USGA’s list of conforming driver heads on Monday morning and showed the unreleased product has a redesigned sole with a raised section in the back. There are three models with the “SIM” appearing to have a weight that slides in a track toward the front of the sole. The “SIM Max” does not have the weight track, nor does the “SIM Max D”.
It appears the clubs will still contain the “Speed Injection” and “Twist Face” type technology introduced previously to create more speed and also assist straighter shots.
More details are expected over the coming days with other TaylorMade staffers, including FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy, also likely to bring the clubs into play.