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Affectionately dubbed golf's "5th Major," THE PLAYERS Championship boasts one of the strongest–if not the strongest—field of the PGA TOUR season. However, this week's strength-of-field is just the beginning of the challenge. The annual home to THE PLAYERS is Pete Dye's TPC Sawgrass—a daunting (some may even say "Dye-abolical") track that places a premium on accuracy off the tee and requires a healthy mix of left and right shot-shaping to be successful. As a result of the strong field and difficult course, many players will even say that this event is harder to win than a true major championship.
Despite the challenge at hand, Team TaylorMade has several athletes with the game and the confidence to take home THE PLAYERS Championship in 2018. Most notably, this event's 2016 champion and last week's Wells Fargo champion, Jason Day, looks to ride his momentum from Quail Hollow into another victory at TPC Sawgrass. Tiger Woods, fresh off the debut of his new TaylorMade "TW Phase1" irons, hopes to channel the success he saw in prior Florida events this year (12, T2, T5) and pick up his third career PLAYERS win. World No. 1, Dustin Johnson, also has his work cut out for him this week as TaylorMade's Jon Rahm and Justin Rose each have opportunities to dethrone DJ as the top-ranked player in golf.
Beyond the hunt for World No.1, it's also worth noting that heading into THE PLAYERS, Team TaylorMade now has 5 of the top 10 players in the world (#1 Dustin Johnson, #3 Jon Rahm, #5 Justin Rose, #7 Jason Day, and #8 Rory McIlroy).
Earlier this week, Dustin Johnson was also spotted testing out the new Spider Mini putter on the greens of TPC Sawgrass during his practice rounds. Having already logged tournament rounds this year using Spider Mini's perpendicular alignment system that he helped popularize, and he didn't hesitate putting in the new flat stick at THE PLAYERS. His move has paid off early—he rolled his way to a bogey-free 66 in his opening round at TPC Sawgrass.
"The forward CG of Spider Mini allows DJ to feel the putter release in a similar manner to a blade, and the mallet shape gives him the stable feeling of the Spider Tour. Based on that, he immediately liked the concept of the Spider Mini being a blend between his two preferred putter shapes."
— Chris Trott, TaylorMade Tour Director
To take a look inside the bags of all of TaylorMade's top athletes, we've listed out their complete "What’s in the Bag" info below. Scroll through to see their tools of choice as they take on TPC Sawgrass, and follow the hyperlinks to explore and shop their equipment for yourself.
M3 Driver | 460cc | 8.5° | Tensei CK Pro Orange 70TX
M3 Fairway | 15° | Tensei Orange 90TX
Tour Preferred Driving Iron
TW Phase1 Irons (4-PW) | True Temper DG Tour Issue X100
M3 Driver | 460cc | 9.5° | Fujikura Speeder Evolution (X Flex)
M3 Fairway | 17° | Project X HZRDUS Black (6.5)
P790 3-Iron | True Temper Tour Issue X100
P730 Irons (4-PW) | True Temper Tour Issue X100
MG Wedge | 52°, 60° | KBS Tour 120S
HI-TOE Wedge | 64° | KBS Tour 120S
Spider Mini Red Putter
TP5x Golf Ball | #1
M3 Driver | 460cc | 8.5° | MCA Tensei Orange TX
M4 Fairway | 15° | MCA Tensei 80 TX
P790 2-iron | Project X (7.0)
P750 4-Iron | Project X (7.0)
P730 Rors Proto Irons (5-9) | Project X (7.0)
MG Wedges | 48°, 52°, 56° | Project X (6.5)
HI-TOE Wedge | 60° | Project X (6.5)
TP Collection Black Copper Soto Putter
TP5x Golf Ball | #22
M3 Driver | 440cc | 9° | Accra Tour (X Flex)
M4 Fairway | 15° | MCA Tensei CK 80 TX
M3 Fairway | 19° | MCA Tensei CK 80 TX
P790 4-Iron | KBS C-Taper 125 (S+)
P730 Rose Proto Irons (5-9) | KBS C-Taper 125 (S+)
MG Wedges | 48°, 52°, 56° | KBS HI-REV 2.0 135X
HI-TOE Wedge | 60° | KBS HI-REV 2.0 135X
Spider Tour custom
TP5 Golf Ball | #99
M3 Driver | 460cc | 9.5° | Neutral Weights | TPT Golf Shaft (X Flex)
M4 Fairway | 16.5° | TPT Golf Shaft (X Flex)
P790 2-Iron | True Temper X7 X100
P730 Irons (4-PW) | True Temper X7 X100
MG Wedges | 50°, 56° | True Temper X7 X100
HI-TOE Wedge | 60° | True Temper S400 Tour Issue
Spider Tour Red Putter
TP5x Golf Ball | #5
M4 Driver | 9.5° | Aldila Tour Green 70 TX
M3 Fairway | 17° | Aldila Tour Green 70 TX
P790 2-Iron | Project X (6.5)
P750 Irons (4-PW) | Project X (6.5)
MG Wedges | 52°, 56° | Project X (6.5)
HI-TOE Wedge | 60° | Project X (6.5)
Spider Tour Red Putter
TP5x Golf Ball | #10
Shop the equipment of all 6 of these TaylorMade athletes HERE.
In other putter news, TaylorMade's Tour athletes were treated to a little surprise this week with customized headcovers for their putters—each featuring subtle nods to the players' personalities and heritage.
Custom TaylorMade putter covers GALLERY:
