Equipment news, August 2019

That's a wrap on yet another PGA Tour season. A season that has saw Brooks Koepka pick up the most wins with three, including his fourth major championship with his two stoke victory over Dustin Johnson at the PGA Championship. This was the second time the American had won the major, after defending his US Open title in 2018.

With the off-season approaching, some of you may look to change your golf equipment. And, if you need some inspiration for what to use we have yo covered.

Here are the most used winning clubs on the PGA Tour this season...

Manufacturer claims, not tested by NCG: Which clubs won the most PGA Tour victories?

The PGA Tour season came to an end with Rory McIlroy securing victory at the Tour Championship and claiming the FedEx Cup.

And it got me thinking. Which equipment claimed the most titles in the 2018-19 PGA Tour campaign? So I opened up a spreadsheet and got stuck in.

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Driver

Brand with most wins: TaylorMade

Model with most wins: TaylorMade M5

The two players battling it out for player of the year, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, have boosted the TaylorMade M5 winning stats both winning twice with the club in play. Overall this model recorded nine wins across 45 PGA Tour events.

2nd: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero

3rd: Titleist TS3/Ping G400

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Fairway woods

Brand with most wins: TaylorMade

Model with most wins: TaylorMade M5

Dustin Johnson claimed the first victory of the season for the M5 at the WGC-Mexico Championship. More recently we have seen Matthew Wolff and Colin Morikawa claim their maiden PGA Tour victories with M5 3-wood's in their set-up.

2nd: Titleist TS2

3rd: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Hybrids

Brand with most wins: Titleist

Model with most wins: Titleist 818

Interestingly only nine of the PGA tour winners this season were carrying hybrids, of these a third chose to play Titleist, including Patrick Cantlay in his win at Memorial.

2nd: Bridgestone Tour B XD-H

3rd: All other brands

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Driving iron

Brand with most wins: TaylorMade/Callaway

Model with most wins: Titleist 718 T-MB/TaylorMade P790/Callaway X Forged

Driving irons were much more popular among winners than hybrids but a wider variety of brands and models were used. All three winning models were in play during three victories on tour. Phil Mickelson had the Callaway X Forged in his bag when he won AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Irons

Brand with most wins: TaylorMade

Model with most wins: TaylorMade P730

TaylorMade irons claimed 10 victories on tour with 50% of them relying on the P730 irons.

2nd: Mizuno JPX919

3rd: Callaway Apex

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Wedges

Brand with most wins: Titleist

Model with most wins: Titleist Vokey SM7

More than 50% of winners on the PGA Tour this season has a Titleist wedge in their bag.

Tied 2nd: Callaway Mack Daddy 4/TaylorMade Milled Grind

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Putter

Brand with most wins: Scotty Cameron

Model with most wins: TaylorMade Spider

Just shy of a third of winners on tour had a Scotty Cameron putter in their set-up. The TaylorMade Spider continued to be popular on tour with numerous styles claiming victory in nine events.

• Has the Spider putter taken your fancy? You could win one here.

2nd: Scotty Cameron Newport

3rd: Odyssey EXO Stroke Lab 2-Ball/ Odyssey White Hot Pro #7

2019 PGA Tour winners clubs: Ball

Brand with most wins: Titleist

Model with most wins: Titleist Pro V1

Gary Woodland secured victory at the US Open with his Titleist Pro V1 golf ball. 12 other winners also used this ball en route to victory with 25 PGA Tour winners gaming a Titleist golf ball.

2nd: Titleist Pro V1x

3rd: Callaway Chrome Soft X

That was fun. Let me know in the comments below or you can tweet me if you have any questions – or if you're interested in seeing my spreadsheet.

Hello. This week I've been down at Woburn for the first couple of days of the AIG Women's British Open. Don't feel too sorry for me, it poured with rain and there was hardly anyone there on Monday after a rather unfortunate incident involving Lexi Thompson's passport.

But the course is in amazing condition and the practise facilities were some of the best I've ever seen...

Oh to be able to work on my game there every day.

I also spotted the Carryway buggies ready for the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles in September. Here's what Catriona Matthew will be cruising round Gleneagles on...

Manufacturer claims, not tested by NCG: AIG Women's British Open scripting

Staying with the WBO and, as always ahead of a major, the main brands treated us to some scripting for their big players.

Defending champion Georgia Hall will be wearing head to toe Callaway apparel throughout the week...

...while Lexi Thompson will be looking to bounce back after a missed cut at the Evian Championship in her usual fetching Puma gear.

Ping partner with Arccos

If you play Ping and you love data then you're in luck. They are the latest company to team up with Arccos to provide on-course data access and analysis to players.

Ping have also announced Golf Pride will be the exclusive supplier of the Arccos Smart Grip. This is engineered with an embedded sensor to automatically record and analyse every shot taken during a round of golf when paired with the Arccos Caddie app.

Ping see the collaboration with Arccos as a natural extension of their long-standing research into ball flight tracking. This started back in the early 1970s with the invention of Ping Man, the company’s robot.

There are three Arccos sensor options available in the deal:

Smart Grip: Available exclusively in the Golf Pride 360 Tour Velvet white and aqua installed on custom orders for Ping metal woods, irons and wedges.

Smart Sensor: Screws into the top of most grips and is used on all full-swing clubs.

Sensor Putter: Designed specifically for Ping putters and can be installed on adjustable or fixed-length steel shafts.

Whatever your choice, it will set you back £10 per grip. You can find more information on the Ping website.

A rangefinder... from Volvik?

Volvik took us all by surprise this week by announcing they have added rangefinders to their portfolio of products.

The V1 rangefinder can measure distances from five to 1,200 yards all to within a yard using the pin finder function. It is also water resistant, which is good for here in the UK.

There is a slope compensation mode which calculates elevation changes but can be turned off for tournament rounds.

The V1 rangefinder is available now and will cost you £199, which is a pretty good price for a rangefinder. For more information visit the Volvik website.

New Cleveland CBX 2 wedges

Cleveland make good wedges, we all know that, and the CBX wedges are built for golfers playing cavity back irons. They offer spin, control and, most importantly, all the forgiveness you need.

The CBX 2 wedges, I'm told, feature a new Hollow-Cavity design for maximum MOI providing forgiveness while still maintaining a sleek, attractive profile at address.

They also feature feel-balancing technology to provide a toe-biased centre of gravity. Combined with a Gelback TPU Insert for vibration reduction, it has a soft, satisfying feel and crisp feedback at impact.

They will be available from the September 6 2019 and you'll find more information on the Cleveland website.

Tracking your golf clubs

This is pretty cool. The Tile Pro is a powerful Bluetooth tracker used to find your belongings. The durable tracker has a replaceable battery, 300-foot range and is Tile’s loudest tracker yet, making it even easier to find your things.

It's really discreet and can easily be attached or tucked inside your golf bag, so if they are stolen, for example, you can just track them on the Tile app.

Tile say more than 12,000 golfers worldwide now use their tracker on their golf equipment, so what are you waiting for? It's only £30 and you can buy it from the Tile website.

That's it from me this week. As always, if you have any questions then drop them in the comments section below, or you can tweet me.