Tour gear: KJ Choi buys Mizuno irons from Ohio golf shop

Well-known equipment tinkerer KJ Choi has bought a set of off-the-shelf irons for this week’s Memorial Tournament.

The South Korean, who has no equipment contract and is thus free to experiment with clubs, normally gets his gear fix at on-site Tour trucks, but had to venture further afield this week as the golf-shops-on-wheels are banned from Muirfield Village.

The World No 96 was spotted in a Ohio Golf Galaxy store by GolfWRX.com, testing three sets of Mizuno blades and a set of Titleist 712 CB irons, all with standard shafts and grips.

He eventually settled on the brand’s MP-64, a split cavity blade that is designed to offer playability and style with forgiveness, and bought them straight off the shelf, with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips.

Doug Fleischmann, a players assistant at Golf Galaxy, told GolfWRX.com: “He tried a few different Mizuno irons, the MP-59′s, MP-69′s and MP-64′s. He also tried the Titleist CBs.”

He went on to say that Choi hit every club between five and 10 times and had employees check swing weights, loft and lies. He thought all sets bar the MP-64s had inconsistent swing weights.

He was right – a test of the MP-64s showed each club carried a D2 swing weight, while the other sets all ranged between D2 and D4.