Branden Grace 62. It’s something that will always be with the South African no matter what happens in the rest of this major or any other. He will always be the first.
So what equipment helped Grace to his record-breaking round? Well he’s a long-time Callaway staff player and has a mix of the old and the new in his bag at Royal Birkdale.
He uses the new Callaway Epic Sub Zero driver but still relies on the X Forged irons which are a few years old. The driver is actually the only club in the bag with a head cover this week as he’s ditched the 3-wood.
Key clubs for Grace have been the Callaway Apex UT long irons. It’s a tactic which most players have opted for on some of the shorter par-4s.
There’s the South African flag printed on the toe of the clubs too so he’s obviously a big fan.
He used one of the fairway on 17 for the birdie which took him to the magical eight under.
The stats off the tee showed he was on the fairway 71 per cent of the time but he managed to find the green in regulation 16 out 18 times.
Here’s how he plotted his way round on Saturday.
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His putter is an O-works Odyssey model with the new microhinge insert which we’ve seen players such as Phil Mickelson using.
With 28 putts and that many greens in regulation, it’s going to result in a very tidy score.
[skylab_video id=”42128″]Best & Worst: Branden Grace[/skylab_video]
Branden Grace 62 WITB
Driver: Callaway Epic Sub Zero 9˚
Utility irons: Callaway Apex UT 2&3
Irons: Callaway X Forged (4-PW)
Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy 2 (52, 56, 60)
Putter: Odyssey O-works Jailbird Mini
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Shoes: FootJoy Pro SL
More information can be found on the Callaway website.
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For more from Royal Birkdale, check out our dedicated Open site.
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Driver comparison: Callaway GBB Epic vs. GBB Epic Sub Zero
Equipment: FootJoy Pro SL golf shoe review
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