[Photo: Orlando Ramirez]
One of the more fascinating equipment changes to surface on tour in recent memory happened quietly last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and it’s worth a closer look.
In photos of Collin Morikawa working out of the bunker, eagle-eyed observers may have spotted something unusual in his TaylorMade MG5 lob wedge: a True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid shaft. Only this wasn’t just any Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid shaft. It was a 6-iron shaft affixed to the lob wedge head.
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For context, Dynamic Gold Mid features a reinforced mid-section and a more active tip designed to help increase launch. On tour, it has historically been used in irons to increase launch, but not in the wedges due to the need for a lower, more controlled flight from inside 100 metres.
TaylorMade rep Cory Johnson, who spearheaded the unique build, cut down a Dynamic Gold Mid 6-iron shaft – trimming more than five inches off the butt end to reach a 35-inch playing length – to fit it into the lob wedge.
The goal was specific: find a combination of shaft, grind and sole design that allowed Morikawa to maintain his characteristic shaft lean while still producing softer, higher-spinning shots around the greens.
What Johnson essentially built is an extreme version of soft-stepping – the practice of installing a shaft from a longer club into a shorter one to produce a softer, more flexible feel.
Tour players have long used soft-stepping (and its opposite, hard-stepping, where a shorter club’s shaft goes into a longer one for a stiffer feel) as a way to fine-tune trajectories and shot-shape without switching shaft models entirely.
A player who wants a slightly lower, more penetrating ball flight might hard-step their irons; one seeking higher, softer landing shots might soft-step. But dropping a 6-iron shaft into a lob wedge? That’s several steps beyond conventional. (It’s important to note Morikawa has soft-stepped wedges in the past, but never to this extreme.)
Johnson tested multiple builds – a Dynamic Gold Mid 8-iron shaft, a wedge shaft, and several S400 options – before Morikawa gravitated towards the 6-iron version. During testing, the extra flex allowed the 6-iron shaft to load and release through impact, effectively adding dynamic loft and spin even when Morikawa leaned the handle forward.
“I put the [6-iron shaft] in there trying to make something very different to see what he said,” Johnson told Golf Digest. “He loved it around the greens. Was hitting shots he couldn’t with his gamer.”
Johnson plans to debrief with Morikawa at TPC Sawgrass this week to evaluate performance on half and full shots and determine whether any adjustments are needed.
“That’s why Collin is the best,” Johnson said. “He’ll always test, and his feel gives incredible feedback.”
It’s an unconventional solution, but for a player as precise and feel-oriented as Morikawa, that’s kind of the point.
