Equipment
PGA Championship 2021: Phil Mickelson cracks 1-iron before final round, forced into emergency equipment switch
Gregory Shamus
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — As if bidding to become the oldest major champion in history wasn’t hard enough, Phil Mickelson will have to do it with a club he had no intention of putting in the bag on Sunday at the Ocean Course.
According to CBS’ Dottie Pepper, Mickelson cracked his 1-iron just 15 minutes before his final-round tee time at the PGA Championship, where he held a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka going into Sunday. The club is a 16 degree X-forged UT, with an MMT 105tx shaft, and it's one inch longer than his 4-iron. Mickelson can get this club up in the air and carry it 245-250, or he can hit low burners with it that roll a mile.
Upon discovering the crack, Lefty’s caddie/brother Tim sprinted to retrieve the emergency replacement: a Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero 4-wood, the same club he used at the Wells Fargo Championship and the Valspar Championship earlier this year.
This last-minute development also explains why Mickelson was seen on the range, hard-at-work, just minutes before his 2:30 p.m. tee time.
Mickelson now has a driver, a “2-wood” and a 4-wood in the bag. The 2-wood has been quite the weapon this week—as our Johnson reported, 2-wood isn’t exactly correct. Despite Mickelson’s best efforts to conceal identifying markers, the club is a TaylorMade Original One Mini driver with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7x shaft. It was designed for additional control and functions more like a mini-driver he can also hit off the ground, and Mickelson said it’s been his go-to stick for the piercing draw he’s turned to a number of times. It’s also the club he snap-hooked into the water on No. 13 on Saturday.