It’s not just ‘new gear season’. As well as lots of new equipment hitting the shelves over the coming weeks, we’re also expecting plenty of brands to announce new signings.
Here’s the first one - and it’s a biggie. England’s Marco Penge, a powerful hitter and a player very much on the up, has become the newest member of PXG’s tour roster.
The former Mizuno player, who is preparing for his debut season as a PGA Tour member, will commence the year with a bag line-up that includes the PXG Lightning Tour Mid driver, PXG Secret Weapon Mini driver, Prototype PXG 4-iron, and PXG 0317 ST irons (5-PW).
“From the first conversation, it was clear PXG is obsessed with performance,” said Penge, the three-time DP World Tour winner who narrowly missed out on Ryder Cup qualification last year.
We’re looking forward to seeing where one of the longest drivers in the game finishes his first PGA Tour in the averages will his new weapon(s) of choice.
On the apparel front, Johnnie-O has signed PGA Tour winners Jake Knapp and J.T. Poston to multi-year deals.
The double signing represents a significant milestone for the premium lifestyle brand, which was founded in 2005 by John O’Donnell.
“Just like me, they approach the game with a performance-first mindset while embracing their West Coast roots and style,” said Knapp, winner of the 2024 Mexico Open.
Ping Prototype Spotted
We’re also excited to see a new Ping model appear on the USGA Conforming List, because it’s another one of those popular drivers a growing number of tour players are adding to the bag.
Yes, that’s right, it’s another mini driver.
This club has become more prominent over the last few years, but this is the first one we’ve seen from Ping.
Being the week of the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Dubai Invitational, it’s more than possible the “Prototype” model will make an appearance in the coming days.
Information is limited at this stage, yet the pictures show an adjustable weight port at the back, which is clearly identified by 'fade' and 'draw' settings.
There's also an adjustable hosel, as well as spinsistency on the face, technology we've seen before with Ping's fairway woods and hybrids.
Reportedly, the model will be limited to tour players only, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t become available to buy a little further down the line.
New From FootJoy
It’s not just hardware that gets our juices flowing - we love our shoe launches, especially resident shoe expert, Dan Parker.
What have you got for us, FootJoy? Well, the market-leading brand has recently reached the final stage of its rigorous performance development process: tour validation.
Dan will update you on exactly what that means in the coming weeks. Basically, FootJoy's Performance Lab, which is located at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, California, enables the brand to do some pretty serious testing.
On the back of this, players are now being fit into the brand’s next-generation Tour-performance footwear - two reimagined models: the Pro/SL and fully updated Premiere Series.
Will Zalatoris gives the performance of his new Premiere Series a “12 out of 10” and says he feels “like I’m at a competitive disadvantage if I’m not wearing these”.
Meanwhile, Sahith Theegala describes his new Pro/SL as “the best shoes I’ve ever tested”. High praise for two models that were already very highly rated.
Dan will provide his own review/rating in due course, although we can say with some certainty that no shoe is able to score 12 out of 10 during our testing, no matter how good it is.
Still, it does look rather nice.
