Wells Fargo Championship: Rory McIlroy's latest equipment change and Phil Mickelson swaps drivers (again)

Phil Mickelson continued his on-again, off-again, on-again trial of Callaway’s latest driver while Jason Dufner enjoyed the freedom of being an equipment free agent. Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, added one of TaylorMade’s newest fairway woods to his bag—his latest equipment change after making other tweaks over the past month. Such was part of the equipment scene at Quail Hollow Club for the Wells Fargo Championship.

Phil Mickelson has bounced back and forth this year between Callaway’s Rogue and newer Epic Flash Sub Zero drivers. At Quail Hollow Club it was once again the Epic Flash Sub Zero, a driver designed to lower spin on tee shots. The club also boasts an adjustable hosel and movable weight, but as he did at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year, Lefty took the weight completely out of the rear track section of the driver.

Rory McIlroy was a quick adopter to TaylorMade’s latest driver (he uses the M5 model), but stayed with older models of the company’s fairway woods. At the Wells Fargo, however, McIlroy switched to the company’s new M6 fairway wood (15 degrees), a club designed with a thin crown that saved weight relocated low and along the perimeter for a higher launch. The club also boasts the company’s Twist Face technology, where the face twists open at the toe and closed at the heel to bring off-center shots back toward the target. This comes after Rory switched to a 64-degree wedge at the WGC-Match Play before the Masters.

Being an equipment free agent has allowed Jason Dufner to make changes to the long and short end of his bag in recent weeks. The 2013 PGA champion switched to Cobra’s F9 Speedback driver at the RBC Heritage and in his next start added TaylorMade’s Spider X putter at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Dufner keeps the heavier 14-gram weight in the driver in the rear position to boost launch as well as stability, while opting for the blue-colored Spider X on the greens. Although Dufner struggled with his putting on the weekend after a solid first two rounds, he managed to rank 15th in strokes gained/off the tee en route to finishing T-4.