WITB of Past PGA Championship Winners

It’s Major Championship time again! The PGA Championship has headed to Southern Hills Country Club as the world’s best golfers hope to be leaving the course on Sunday with the famous Wanamaker trophy in tow.

The top brands have all seen recent success at the PGA Championship, with Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist all being represented in four of the last winners golf bags. Some players, like Mickelson had Callaway right the way through the bag whereas Brooks Koepka had a combination of multiple brands in the bag on his way to back-to-back PGA Championship victories.

We’ll start with Phil Mickelson’s bag from 2021. Kiawah Island was the longest course in Major Championship history, so Mickelson built a driver for distance, not accuracy. A Callaway Epic Speed head was his choice, partnered with a 47.9-inch shaft, only .1 of an inch short of the USGA limit of 48 inches. He also dialled the head down to 5 degrees of loft, allowing him to hit, as he famously calls them “bombs”. The Callaway Epic line is a brand that isn’t on the shelf for long, it goes absolutely miles and that’s a huge selling point for amateur golfers. We all want to hit it further, don’t we?

2020 was the year when Collin Morikawa propelled himself onto the world stage. Morikawa was the youngest golfer to win the PGA Championship at the age of 23, in only his second start at a Major Championship. Despite being hailed as one of the best ball strikers on tour, Morikawa opted for a combo set, with his 4 and 5 iron being from the P750 range which offer slightly more forgiveness in the longer irons. He then had the P730s from 6-PW to complete his set up. With minimal offset, and a small compact head size, they are a ball strikers dream.

2019 and 2018 are where things get interesting with Koepka winning in back-to-back years. However, Koepka didn’t have a club sponsor for either of these events. After Nike announced in August 2016 that they were no longer making golf hardware it left multiple big names as free agents. Many of which were signed up by TaylorMade, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

However, in five years of free agency Koepka racked up seven wins and soared to World Number One in 2018. Every club in his bag was perfectly suited to his game, and this showed the true benefit of not having a club sponsor. A mash up of TaylorMade, Nike, Mizuno and Titleist saw Koepka win back-to-back PGA Championships.

We see people all the time coming into our store who are loyal to one brand and ended up leaving with a mixed bag, it’s important to be open minded when it comes to building your golf bag. We’re here to find the right clubs for your game. If it worked for Koepka, it’ll work for you.