Equipment Report: Justin Rose reworks bag setup, almost wins Masters, more

History was made on Sunday at Augusta National, with Rory McIlroy adding his name to a short and select list of golfers to have achieved the game's ultimate prize: winning all four majors for the career Grand Slam. It was a moment 11 years in the making, but helped by a recent ball change that the now five-time major winner put in play earlier in the season.

Much has been said of the ball change for McIlroy heading into the Masters, but a minor tweak to his driver in his last outing before the first major of the year at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, set him up for victory at Augusta.

McIlroy made a small adjustment on his TaylorMade Qi10 driver and reduced the loft to help find the spin rate he was looking for.

“I felt like it was getting a little bit spinny, especially if I wanted to hit cuts off the tee, so I took a little bit of loft off it,” McIlroy said after the final round at Memorial Park. “Yeah, definitely went through the wind better today and felt a little more comfortable.”

Despite only gaining just over half a shot on the field for Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee, McIlroy was able to count on the faded driver swing on the 72nd hole and then again in the playoff.

“I've never seen Rory with this much controllable speed in my time working with him,” said Adrian Rietveld, TaylorMade’s senior Tour manager. “... his driver setting might need to just compliment the speed that he's generating now, where a little bit less loft might just hold that spin a little bit more.”

With the high moment of inertia of the Qi10 face and the fact that the center of gravity in McIlroy’s driver is low and towards the back of the head, Rietveld believed that by reducing the loft Mcilroy can “create less shape in the ball,” without losing forgiveness, accuracy or distance.

While McIlroy’s heroics and equipment changes have dominated the gear headlines this season, there were plenty of other storylines to track during the first major of the year.

Rose reworks bag for Masters

McIlroy wasn’t the only player preparing for the Masters with equipment changes. His fellow playoff partner Justin Rose had been making modifications to his bag to get ready for Augusta National.

As an equipment free-agent, Rose can use a host of different manufacturers and did so throughout his bag, from his trusty TaylorMade M6 3-wood to the bespoke Miura MC-502 irons. For the Masters, Rose made three changes that almost resulted in a green jacket Sunday.

Like McIlroy, Rose moved to a less-spinning golf ball in the run-up to the first major of the year. Rose, who had been playing with a Titleist Pro V1x+ prototype, switched to the 2025 Titleist Pro V1x.

“(Rose) found more optimal spin numbers throughout the bag with the ‘25 Pro V1x,” said Eric Soderstrom, director of Tour communications at Titleist. “He then brought it to the golf course, where he saw improved distance control and even better performance in the wind.”

This was displayed during the first two rounds, where Rose led the tournament after under-par rounds in gusty conditions that toppled the best of golfers.

The Englishman also switched from his Titleist 60-degree Vokey WedgeWorks L-Grind to a custom Cleveland RTZ lob wedge, to help with turf interaction and the different sand at Augusta National.

“It’s a take on the old Cleveland 588 wide sole that he played forever,” said Michael Jolly, director of Tour operations for Srixon Golf. “He likes the bounce and loves it from the bunker.”

Finally, Rose returned to an older Titleist TSr3 driver after using both the new generation driver from Titleist (GT2) and TaylorMade (Qi35 LS) during the season already.

Rose led the field with 24 birdies and the final round in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (4.59) while finishing fourth overall for the week at 2.35 per round, according to Data Golf.

Couples comfortable with headcover-heavy setup

Despite his age and injuries over the last year, Fred Couples made a run at making the weekend at the Masters. Already the record-holder for the oldest players to make the cut at Augusta, Couples is comfortable with his setup, joking that he’s “got a lot of head covers.”

His swing has always looked effortless, but as his speed has slightly slowed, Couples has ditched the long irons for a mixture of high-lofted fairway woods and hybrids, which help launch the ball higher onto the usually hard and fiery Augusta greens.

The perfect example, a 6-hybrid from 186 yards by the 1992 Masters champion at the 14th, that landed about 20 feet short of the hole before rolling perfectly into the center of the cup.

“I just piddled around, you know, hit a lot of good woods,” Couples joked after the first round. “I've been saying it for 40 years, I just love the course and I feel like, to be honest with you, last year I was not really very healthy at all. If I had the right clubs in my bag, even as bad as I felt, I really feel the way the scores were, I was disappointed when I finished, but I had a 7-wood, 9-wood, and those were so I could swing at them.

“Now I have a set of clubs I feel like I can hit around here. Tomorrow may be different. Maybe different shots. But it was fun. It was a very fun day.”

Couples’ full setup includes driver, 3-wood and 5-wood before deploying a 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-hybrid. Couples only carries three irons from 7- to 9-iron, before rounding out the bag with three wedges and his Bettinardi SS28 DASS Tour Department putter.

Schauffele switches big stick

It’s been a slow start to the season for the two-time major champion. A player who cracked the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2024, Xander Schauffele currently sits 164th. But, after injury hampered his preparation during the early part of the year, Schauffele reverted back to the driver that won him the PGA Championship and The Open Championship for the first major of the season, citing a lack of usage with this season’s new Callaway driver.

“I just haven't had a lot of reps with the new driver, so I kind of crawled back to my old one, knowing what it's done, just for the time being,” Schauffele said pre-tournament. “After coming off of injury, it's hard to sit and do driver testing and find the right head. I quickly went back to that old one knowing how much success I had with it.”

Schauffele returned to the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond 10.5-degree driver set at 10.1 degrees with a Mitsubishi Diamana PD 70 TX at 45.5 inches, tipped by 1 inch. Schauffele started the season with a Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond driver, with less loft at 9.5 degrees.

Going back to what worked helped Schauffele, as he ended the week at Augusta National hitting 75 percent of the fairways, averaging over 304 yards in Driving Distance, 10th in SG: Off-the-Tee and earned his first top-10 finish of the season.