One of the biggest perks of playing professional golf without an equipment contract is the freedom to experiment. When you’re not tied to one brand, you can chase whatever setup best suits your eye and your swing. Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari and Patrick Reed each proved that point in 2018, enjoying career seasons as ‘gear free agents’ and making it fashionable to play without a club deal.
RELATED: Jason Day returns from long PGA Tour break… with Bryson DeChambeau 3D printed irons
Even now, the majority of players on tour maintain equipment contracts, but that hasn’t stopped a handful of high-profile names from choosing independence over endorsement.
Jason Day has been one of them since 2021, when he and TaylorMade ended their long partnership. The 37-year-old Queenslander has continued to play a Bridgestone ball under contract, but his clubs have been entirely his choice ever since.
Day’s setup has remained largely consistent during his four-plus years as a free agent. But with the offseason approaching, he saw an opportunity to make some meaningful adjustments before this week’s Bank of Utah Championship.
Only these weren’t your run-of-the-mill club changes.
Day’s setup more closely resembled a prototype lab than a tournament bag as he arrived in Utah. New irons. New shafts. New grips. Even a new hybrid. Yet, somehow, only 13 clubs made the bag for the opening round at Black Desert Resort – an equipment anomaly that might tell you everything about where Day’s at with his setup right now.
The early returns? Pretty solid. Day opened with a three-under 68, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and missing just four greens with a set of Avoda prototype irons that had a Bryson DeChambeau-esque vibe to them: JumboMax JMX Zen Lite grips and KBS TGI Tour 110 graphite shaft.
“Hadn’t been hitting my irons great at all,” Day said. “I decided to have a chat to my coach, Colin [Swatton], and say, ‘Do you reckon we can go out and just maybe have a look?’
“I don’t have an OEM sponsor, so I’m a free agent there so I can go out and see what the best of the best is. Stumbled across Avoda in a way… obviously, Bryson had some success with it. He won with the Avoda irons at the US Open at Pinehurst. But I just told my coach, ‘Just have a chat to the guys, see what they think.'”
A look turned into a full-on reset. Day has never been afraid to shake things up – he’s bounced between blades and cavity backs from TaylorMade and Ping this year – but the set he put in play this week represents a significant shift.
Enter Avoda Golf, a boutique equipment company that’s been making quiet waves with its 3D-printed designs. Working closely with the brand, Day helped design a prototype set featuring the same progressive face curvature that DeChambeau currently employs. The concept is simple but clever: a curved face that fights sidespin on off-centre strikes, effectively tightening dispersion and keeping the ball online.
Multiple 3D-printed prototypes later, Day’s set is a one-off – built for his eye, feel, and preferences. Unlike DeChambeau, he’s sticking with traditional shaft lengths, though he hinted there are more modifications ahead.
“After this week, we’ll get back together and see what needs to be improved,” he said. “I’d like to see a tiny bit more offset – help me turn it over a bit more and get it launching higher. That’d be nice.”
Along with new iron heads, Day added oversized grips for the first time and swapped in KBS graphite shafts. Asked why he went from his old True Temper Dynamic Gold X7s (a beefy 136 grams) to a lighter graphite; he plans to play the same shaft profile in all of his clubs – Day offered up an answer that most amateur golfers can relate to.
“It’s definitely easier on the body,” he said. “I’ve got the same shaft profile from lob wedge through driver. The goal is just one swing, one feel – same shape, same shot, over and over.”
Despite the iron overhaul, Day’s bag isn’t yet full. Callaway’s Apex UW (21 degrees) brought the club total to 13 for round one – one short of the 14-club limit. For the moment, he’s light a club as the search continues. Lucky for him, he doesn’t have to play favourites as a gear free agent.
“I would like to play a 23-degree, and that would fit perfectly between the 21-degree and the 5-iron that I’m playing,” he said. “It goes about 230, 229. The 21-degree [Callaway Apex UW] goes about 250 in the air, so I need something right smack between it and that should cover the whole thing.”
