Yanhan Zhou, 18, signed a multi-year deal with the equipment manufacturer that puts a full set of Callaway clubs in his hands—driver, woods, irons, wedges and golf ball—along with an Odyssey putter. He'll also sport Callaway headwear and carry a staff bag.

The résumé is already impressive for a teenager. Zhou won seven times on the China Tour last season to claim the Order of Merit and a DP World Tour card, pushing his professional win total to 11. He hasn't slowed down since earning his card, either, with a runner-up at the Danish Golf Championship, a T-3 at the Hainan Classic and a top-10 finish at the KLM Open during his rookie campaign.

Zhou isn't shy about his ceiling. His stated goal is to become world No. 1. Callaway is betting he gets there.

The new Phantom OC Spec III putters take their name from the automotive world, where "Spec III" denotes a fully optimized build with every part working in sync. Cameron's version is an all-black package (PVD finish, black steel shaft, black mid-size Matador grip) with three high-visibility sightlines for alignment.

The limited offering comes in two models: the compact, winged Phantom 5 with an SCS insert, and the rounded, high-MOI Phantom 11R, also available in left-handed.

The OC version differs from the traditional Phantom, with the shaft sitting behind the leading edge, in line with the center of gravity (CG), to reduce face rotation. The putters retail for $800 and hit shops on Oct. 1.

The addition of Titleist's Pro V1 and Pro V1x "split arrow" golf balls to the USGA's conforming golf ball is a strong signal that updated versions are ready for the company's seeding and validation process that typically occurs before a product is released to the masses.

The "split arrow" naming isn't a new version of V1 or V1x, but rather how the USGA differentiates the forthcoming 2027 offerings from previous versions. Titleist didn't mention any testing occurring at the Biltmore Championship, so we'll have to wait and see which event they tap for the first round of tournament testing.

Nothing about that sentence is a major detraction from what Srixon has done in the past. But there's one model that deserves a deeper conversation—and that's ZXi5+. On this week's Club Lab podcast, Uncle Gene and I discuss why Srixon's foray into the premium players-distance space has the potential to shake up a category that continues to boom.

We also dive into our latest robotic test on strong-lofted irons, the return of Brooks Koepka's trusty gamer and more. Listen to Club Lab on Apple, Spotify or wherever you consume podcasts.

There, we sat down with Frederick Waddell, director of golf ball product management, to talk through how golfers should actually go about testing balls, what it takes to bring Pro V1 to market, and the ball that's had everyone talking—Pro V1x Double Dot—and its potential to complicate an impending rollback. Listen to the full episode here.

After a stretch with various mallet offerings in the bag this season, Koepka returned to a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Teryllium that looked eerily familiar. It's his first start with a blade putter since the Farmers Insurance Open, but the head isn't the T10 Select Newport 2 that carried him to four major titles in two years (2017-19). This is the updated Teryllium TNP2, the version that was in his bag when he won the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

The distinction matters because Koepka doesn't appear to be chasing nostalgia by reinserting the exact putter from his major run; he's going back to the last blade that actually worked. Unfortunately, his opening-round 75 didn't provide any warm fuzzies.

The newest addition joins a family built on the idea that accomplished golfers don't all want the same thing from a forged iron. The S-1 muscleback leans into workability and direct feedback. The S-3 cavity-back, oddly the first club released in the family, added stability. Now the S-4 ($215 per club) pushes another step toward playability, though its compact profile keeps it in the better-players category.

Every S-4 head is forged in Hiroshima, Japan, from a single billet of 1025E carbon steel and run through Mizuno's Grain Flow Forged HD process, with a copper sandwiched in between to soften feel at impact and Harmonic Impact Technology tuning the sound on top of it. None of that's new to the family. What's different is the shape: a curved muscle that pushes more mass low in the head, with a wider sole, deeper center of gravity, and a lower sweet spot, all aimed at making the long irons launch easier and keeping mishits from leaking distance.

That shaping tapers through the set—more offset and topline for confidence that's carefully scaled down through the scoring irons. The Triple-Cut Sole's beveled edges handle the rest, letting the head slide through turf instead of digging on steep contact. It's a forged iron for players who'll admit they want a little help, as long as it doesn't show.

Charlie Woods, Tiger's son, was unveiled as the newest amateur golfer to ink an NIL (name, image and likeness) deal with the brand. The rising Benjamin School senior and Florida State commit is already using a TaylorMade-heavy bag (Qi4D driver, 3-wood and 7-wood, P·7CB/P·7TW irons, MG5 wedges and TP5x ball), which makes sense when you consider his dad is a TaylorMade staffer. He joins a TaylorMade amateur roster that already includes future FSU teammate Miles Russell, Asterisk Talley and Logan Reilly. Woods tees it up at the Junior Players this week at TPC Sawgrass.

In the early 2000s, pros were still using one iron model through the bag, which meant the long irons were unforgiving blades in many cases. The philosophy began to change around 2010, as blended sets (using more than one model) surged in popularity. In most cases, that meant replacing a blade 3- or 4-iron with a slightly more forgiving cavity-back or hollow-body model. Today, more than 60 percent of tour pros have a blended set—and it's even more commonplace at the recreational level.

This brings us to Chris Gotterup, who was one of the few remaining holdouts still wielding a blade 4-iron (Bridgestone 220 MB) on tour. That recently changed at the BMW Championship when he inserted a prototype Bridgestone B-Forged 100CB 4-iron. The cavity-back model gives Gotterup a bit more heel-toe forgiveness, which is a nice-to-have on Sundays when the pressure cranks up. The B-Forged is already available for pre-order in Asia, so there's a chance Gotterup's newest addition will make its way to the States.

The portable putting device has been a common sight on the PGA Tour this season and was spotted being used by Ryan Gerard and Justin Rose on Monday at East Lake. Like most high-tech devices that get trotted out on tour, SPG has been readily available to tour pros and high-level amateurs, but a retail offering was noticeably missing.

According to co-inventor Phil Long, that will be changing in the coming month. Long confirmed SPG will be available to consumers later this year, with a street price of $12,500.

The unit features a high-speed camera system that captures a face-on view of the putter at impact, as well as speed, line and impact data as the ball goes through the gate. The unit is designed to eliminate guesswork during a putter testing session, providing visual confirmation and real-time data that can help a pro decide a head-to-head battle between two putters.

As I strolled past the practice green at East Lake, I spied a gold putter resting safely inside a Toulon staff bag. Co-founder Joe Toulon, who's in town giving pros a peek at their latest wares, confirmed that the gold "Leucadia" blade is part of the putter company's new Coastal California collection, which launches this week.

Joe and his brother Tony, who also helped found Toulon, grew up north of San Diego and both chose the University of San Francisco for college. They know the California freeways well.

Interestingly, the new Coastal California face mill on these putters draws from classic California highway signage. The "golden sand" PVD finish and "ocean blue" accents are meant to evoke the place where sand meets sea. Four distinct models, each reflecting the places that shaped them, will drop this week on Toulon's website.