Mercedes-Benz Championship
The European Tour is in Cologne, Germany this week for the Mercedes-Benz Championship. The event is once again being held at the Jack Nicklaus designed Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof, a course where water is a dominant feature. H20 is in play on 9 of the 18 holes and whilst the course has a reputation for rewarding good, aggressive play there is always a potential card wrecker waiting should your ball stray off the straight and narrow. The event features one of the smaller fields of the season with just 78 players teeing it up in Cologne. That said, the event provides an ideal opportunity for players to vault their way up the rankings on the inaugural Race to Dubai and qualify for their shot at the European Tour’s richest ever purse at the season ending Dubai World Championship.
The small field meant that things were a little quieter than normal for our team aboard the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV). With equipment requirements a little thin on the ground the team took the opportunity to head out to the range with the new Titleist AP2, CB and MB irons. The reaction was certainly positive with a number of Titleist Ambassadors using their practice time in Cologne to begin testing the new irons
Click here to view the slideshow
One such player was young Argentinean Tano Goya. Tano has been playing the original AP2 irons for some time now and was understandably itching to try out the new model. Tano’s initial comment was that they felt exceptional and were noticeably “softer” than his current set. However, he initially struggled to attain the same distances from the new set. A quick check of the two sets revealed that his current set were 1° stronger in loft but, with a quick tweak to the new AP2 set, Tano soon had them flying his usual distances. In addition to testing the new AP2 irons Tano has made a couple of tweaks to his equipment in recent weeks. His 909H hybrid is now sporting the Fujikura 904HB shaft in place of a Fujikura Rombax Prototype but the most significant change is to the flatstick. Tano is now ‘gaming’ a stunning Newport 009 with a ‘Triple Black’ finish. We have an image of Tano’s new putter in this weeks slideshow – it’s an absolute beauty!!!
On a separate note it’s worth checking out this week’s slideshow to see a couple of Tano’s juggling tricks. Some of the things he can do are highly impressive.
Another Titleist AP2 player that was keen to get his hands on the new irons was Scott Strange. Scott has played the Titleist 695CB in the past and was therefore keen to try both the new AP2 and new CB irons. The team put together a set of each in Scott’s specification and he’s taken them away for further testing. Our money is on Scott going with the new AP2 but we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for his official verdict. Much like Tano, Scott has also made a recent change to his bag with a new Scotty Cameron Kombi being added as his current gamer.
Other Titleist Ambassadors to place their order for the new irons were Frenchman Gregory Bourdy and flamboyant Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal. Gregory has been loyal to the Titleist 670 blade for a long time but loved the look of the new MB. Titleist Tour Technician Phil Dimmock assembled the clubs back at Titleist European HQ and the clubs will be shipped straight to Gregory to begin testing. Pablo on the other hand was typically enthusiastic about the new irons and has ordered a set of both the new AP2 and CB. Decisions, decisions!!! It’s a tough life as a European Tour professional!!!
During last week’s blog from the Omega European Masters we mentioned that Michael Hoey had become one of the first European Tour players to put the new Titleist MB irons in play. Obviously buoyed by the change, Michael was again back on board the TTSV this week in Cologne looking for more new equipment. The team worked with Michael on a new putter and settled on a centre shafted Kombi Long. Michael would like his Kombi long at 48.5” so a special order to the Scotty Cameron Studio in San Marcos was required. The putter is going through the studio as we speak. Michael has also taken away a new Spin Milled 54.08 Vokey wedge to plug a yardage gap in his current wedge set-up.
Another feature of the week in Cologne was the distribution of Condition of Competition (C-C) Vokey wedges. The new R&A / USGA groove ruling will come into force in January 2010 and all players using a non-conforming groove are required to make the switch. Titleist is already providing the players with Vokey wedges featuring a conforming groove. This will hopefully give them sufficient time to practice with the new wedges and make a smooth transition going into the start of the 2010. It’s certainly going to be interesting to watch the players using the new wedges and see how they adapt to the change in early 2010.
With two rounds played in Cologne at the time of writing things are looking good for Titleist with Ambassadors occupying four of the top five spots on the leaderboard. Denmark’s Soren Hansen is leading the way on -10 (with his new Titleist MB irons!!) but fellow Titleist loyalists Scott Strange, James Kingston and Ross Fisher are all well in contention going into the weekend. It promises to be a captivating weekend of golf.
Next week we are in the beautiful Austrian capital of Vienna for the Austrian Golf Open. The blog will be here same time, same place next week. Until then enjoy the action from Cologne.
Add comment September 11th, 2009
