Spend time on the driving range during Open week and you’ll quickly notice something different.
While Augusta National might require towering iron shots and the US Open rewards precision, links golf presents an entirely different challenge. Firm fairways, unpredictable winds and awkward lies force players to think differently about every club in their bag.
Where players typically game high-lofted fairway woods, and even hybrids, week-to-week on the PGA Tour those same clubs are usually swapped out for old school long irons.
There isn’t another tournament on the calendar that changes what’s in a golfer’s bag quite like the game’s oldest major.
That has lead to some unique choices. Here are some of the most unusual clubs that have featured in Open Championships through the years…
1. Todd Hamilton’s Sonartec Md
You’ll be forgiven if you hadn’t heard of Sonartec. Before starting writing this article, I hadn’t either.
They were a small fairway wood-focused brand that garnered quite the cult following in the early 2000s which included a loyal following on tour.
Todd Hamilton arrived at Royal Troon in 2004 with a 17-degree Sonartec Md hybrid that had been bent down to 14 degrees and built to almost the length of a 3-wood. Rather than using it like a typical hybrid, he used it for almost everything.
Its versatility proved invaluable as he went on to win the Open Championship that year.
