Tiger Woods is making his 2019 debut at Torrey Pines this week, and will be doing so with new clubs in tow.
Overnight, Woods shared a photo of the equipment he’ll be using at the Farmers Insurance Open, and ostensibly most of the 2019 season:
Always fun to put new toys in the bag. Excited and ready to get 2019 started. #TeamTaylorMade #FIO19 pic.twitter.com/M6CXU4CZSg
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 22, 2019
One of those new toys includes the TaylorMade M5 driver. The M5 includes the company’s bulge and roll curvature pattern called TwistFace found in last year’s M3 and M4 models, where the face is curved slightly open on the high toe and slightly closed on the low heel to help correct those common mis-hits (and the face angles that typically accompany those mis-hits), curving them more closely back to the centre line. What’s interesting about the M5 is that the driver face flex is initially illegal, then injected with a precise amount of resin (through blood-orange ports) to make it as close to the conforming limit as possible.
Featuring carbon-composite crown and sole panel technology, the M5 driver will be TaylorMade’s most adjustable driver ever. It features a T-shaped track in the sole with the top of the T curving around the sole’s rear perimeter. Two 10-gram weights allow for independent weight placement. Combined with the 12-way adjustable hosel that changes loft by plus/minus two degrees, the M5 boasts more than 21,000 possible settings.
Woods also added the M5 fairway 3-wood. A compact titanium body and face and a lightweight carbon-composite crown freed up considerable discretionary weight, allowing for 65 grams that can be rotated for draw or fade bias. For the first time, the fairway wood features TwistFace technology.
Perhaps the biggest change is a new set of irons for the 43-year-old. Playing last season with a TW-Phase 1 TaylorMade prototypes, Woods has switched to another version of muscleback blades, stamped with P-7TW. Tommy Fleetwood was seen with a version of these clubs last week at Abu Dhabi. The irons are nearly identical to the P730 irons, which can be found at retail.
Not every stick is new for Tiger. It appears he is using the same TaylorMade Milled Grind wedges from last season, as well as the TaylorMade M3 5-wood. Woods’ putter remained under the cover in his photo, but don’t expect a switch from his trusty Scotty Cameron Newport 2 anytime soon.
Woods has won eight times as a professional at Torrey Pines, the last coming at the 2013 Farmers Insurance Open. He begins his 2019 campaign on Thursday with Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau.
