Until this week, pros could be testing all sorts of gear, but come Masters week, their bags are dialed.
Each year, the Masters winner has a “Masters Moment” that propels them to victory and there’s usually a story about how that club got in their bag.
Take a look back at the key clubs from each of the last six Masters champion’s wins.
Scottie Scheffler’s putting woes were well documented in late 2023 and early 2024. He tried a multitude of different blades and mallets, some Tour-only prototypes, others from a then-little-known bespoke maker. But Scheffler finally settled on an off-the-rack TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-neck at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational and went on a tear.
It was a good story because just before Scheffler made the switch, Rory McIlroy commented that Scheffler should try a mallet, and that’s exactly what he did, even using a very similar model to McIlroy’s.
That switch paid dividends immediately for Scheffler as he won at Bay Hill, then defended his title the very next week at the Players Championship. The following month, he won his second green jacket and kept on winning, racking up seven PGA Tour titles in 2024, plus the Olympic gold medal.
At Augusta, Scheffler took just 109 putts for the week, 18 fewer than in 2023 and made two putts during the third round from over 30 feet, including a 31-foot make for eagle on the 13th hole that helped him take command of the tournament.
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Scheffler’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X specs
Hosel: L-Neck
Length: 35.5’’
Sight Line: True Path with Full Line
Loft: 3°
Lie: 72°
Insert: Surlyn Pure Roll
Grip: Golf Pride Pistol
At the 2023 Masters, Rahm put on a ball-striking clinic, hitting 52 out of 72 greens for the week (72 percent) using a set of irons that had been largely unchanged since he joined Callaway’s Tour staff two years prior.
Rahm’s weapons of choice then were the Callaway Apex ’21 TCB (he’s since upgraded to the ’24 models), which feature Project X 6.5 shafts that are soft-stepped one club.
Soft-stepping (the opposite of hard-stepping or tipping when you’re talking about wood shafts) is when you build a set of irons with a 3-iron shaft in the 4-iron, 4-iron shaft in the 5-iron, 5-iron shaft in the 6-iron and so on, which makes them play a touch softer than stock.
For Rahm, because he hits down on the ball so well, he needs slightly softer shafts in order to get his spin numbers right in the sweet spot (about 6,000 rpms for a 6-iron).
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Rahm’s Callaway Apex ’21 TCB iron specs
Set comp: 4-PW
Shaft: Project X 6.5 (Soft stepped)
Length: 37″ 7-iron (Std)
Lie: 62˚ 7-iron (Std)
Loft Progression: 23.5/27/30.5/34.5/38.5/42.5/47
Swingweight: D3
Grips: Golf Pride MCC Midsize + 1 wrap
Perhaps the most iconic shot of Scottie Scheffler’s first Masters win followed one of his worst with the exact same club.
After his approach from the pine straw at the 3rd hole during the final round came up short and rolled back down a slope and into a hole, Scheffler grabbed his lob wedge again and bumped it into the hill and scooted up onto the green and into the hole for an unlikely birdie-3.
The legend of Scottie Scheffler’s short game really began that week at Augusta with the chip-in and the fact that Scheffler tied for second in the field in scrambling that week.
The Vokey low bounce K grind Scheffler used during that win, is a lower bounce version of Vokey’s popular wide-soled K grind, which is dubbed the “ultimate bunker club.” The grind was developed out on Tour and then offered as a WedgeWorks exclusive, but just starting in 2025, Titleist added the 06K grind to the regular retail lineup.
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Scheffler’s Titleist Vokey SM9 WedgeWorks lob wedge specs
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Loft: 60˚
Bounce: 6˚
Grind: Low Bounce K
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Perhaps no one has a larger Scotty Cameron putter collection (or cooler in Scotty Cameron’s words) than Hideki Matsuyama.
He’s often known to travel with several putters at a time, but around the time of his Masters win, Matsuyama repeatedly went back to what he called his “ace” putter, which was a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS with three large black dots in the cavity.
The head shape and material was popularized by Tiger Woods, who won 14 of his 15 majors with a similar model. Matsuyama also followed Tiger that week at Augusta by adding a new Lamkin Deep-Etched Full Cord grip to his wand, something Woods had done a few months prior.
Matsuyama took command of the tournament thanks to a back-nine 30 on Saturday that gave him enough cushion to stave off Sunday charges by Will Zalatoris and Xander Schauffele, despite a Sunday 73.
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Matsuyama’s Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Circle T GSS specs
Length: 34.75″
Loft: 2.5°
Lie: 71°
Grip: Lamkin Deep-Etched Full Cord
Like Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson loves to tinker and test out different clubs, even dipping into the mid-tournament switches every so often.
Johnson drove the ball beautifully at the 2020 November Masters, 306.5 yards off the tee and hitting 78.57 percent of his fairways on the softer course, on his way to setting the tournament scoring record of 20 under. But as TaylorMade’s Keith Sbarbaro revealed later on GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast, Johnson almost went with a 47-inch driver build that week.
It even got as far as going in the bag for a Tuesday practice round at Augusta National.
“The fact that he had a game [on Tuesday] where he was playing with other great players and had to play well, I think that was a huge benefit to get that club out of the bag,” Sbarbaro said in November 2020. “Sure enough, by the end of that practice round, the 47-incher was gone … He is intrigued by the 10 yards, but it just wasn’t the time to do it.”
Ultimately, Johnson went back to a 45.75-inch build and ended up with his second major title.
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Dustin Johnson’s TaylorMade SIM specs
Loft: 10.5˚@ 10˚
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 X
Length: 45.75″
Lie: 59˚
Swingweight: D4
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet 58R (1 wrap 2-way tape + 2 wraps left hand, 3 right hand)
After joining TaylorMade’s staff in 2017, it was a long process to develop a set of irons that matched Tiger Woods’ exacting specifications.
For a while after Nike left the golf club business, Woods was using irons with the TGR Foundation logo on them, then in early 2018, the TaylorMade branded TW-Phase1 irons appeared in the bag.
Finally, at the start of the season in 2019, Woods’ P7TW irons were ready for their debut, complete with a milled sole and tungsten slugs so everything was exactly up to Tiger’s snuff.
Woods was dialed at the 2019 Masters and completed one of the great sports comebacks of all time, winning his 15th major 11 years after his last and 14 after his most recent Masters. For the week, Woods hit 80.6 percent of the greens in regulation, the most by a Masters winner since Woods himself in 2001. He led the field in strokes gained: approach per round (1.73).
No approach was better than the 8-iron Woods struck on 16 in the final round that caught the slop and rolled just past the hole, settling a few feet away for what was ultimately the crucial birdie.
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Tiger Woods’ TaylorMade P7TW iron specs
Set comp: 3-PW
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100
Length: 36.875″ 7-iron
Lie: 61.5˚ 7-iron (Std)
Loft Progression: 22.5/25.5/29/32.5/36/40.5/45/49
Swingweight: D4
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R
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