This falls under that hard-to-believe category but on Tuesday of last week at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, eventual champion Justin Rose made an important equipment change.
Rose switched to a new set of irons.
Rose has spent time the past few months testing equipment but that Tuesday, two days before the start of the tournament, Rose asked to test the new King irons by Cobra.
At first talk was about testing them with various shafts at a later date. But Rose took a set to the range. He like them and the Cobra tour rep, put together a set that started with a King Tour four-iron then added King CB irons for the five and six iron. The seven through pitching wedge are King MB irons.
Range tests showed Rose a tighter dispersion reading and Rose was able to flight the ball to his satisfaction. Came in handy with the winds blowing in excess of 25 miles per hour at times.
With all four rounds in the 60s, Rose won by three this past Monday.
Rose has had some strange equipment stories as well. Back in 2019 he was highly-paid to become the main ambassador for Honma club. He won the 2019 Farmers and it looked like the relationship between Rose and Honma was off and running. But in a head-scratching twist, Rose and Honma parted ways five months after that.
The Phoenix Open Makes Big Money:
It draws more spectators than any other golf tournament in the world — The WM Phoenix Open.
Back at the 2018 Phoenix Open, attendance figures for the week were reported to be 719,179, including a mind-boggling 216,818 on Saturday. The reports were challenged as to accuracy seeing as there were no turnstiles at the entrance areas so the event quit releasing attendance figures after that.
Back in 1991, the event drew 365,000 for the week, including 100,000 on Saturday.
From 2015 to 2018 attendance grew by 27 percent — big jump.
And the crowds that attend are thirsty. At last year’s event, an estimated 750,000 individual beers were sold at $9 each — that beer math of $6.75 million!
