Welcome to Fully Equipped’s weekly Tour gear report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (more times, if news warrants), Jack Hirsh, GOLF Equipment Editor walks you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.
“It looked like he was holding a hockey stick,” Wright told GOLF. “And yeah, I saw that and my immediate thought was, oh, my setup would be so much better, you know, it could work for Tony.”
It’s no shock that Finau’s hockey addiction clicked for Wright. He is the founder, inventor and CEO of Caliber Golf, a putter grip company based in Wisconsin. Caliber’s flagship product is a unique hockey stick-shaped putter grip that attaches to a traditional putter shaft and runs almost all the way to the putter head.
A few months later, Finau is using Caliber’s hockey-stick grip this week at the PGA Tour’s Biltmore Championship in what Wright called a “breakthrough moment” for the company, borrowing a hockey term.
“It’s a dream, for every golf company that’s out there on that PGA Show floor, just waiting to be recognized on the Tour,” he said. “Because this is the ultimate goal is to find something that works for one. All it takes is a player.”
Finau never put the broom putter in play, but about four weeks ago, Wright got a call from Finau’s team that he was interested in trying one of the Caliber grips.
Wright built a Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onsetthe putter Finau has been in use since Januarywith the stickier version of Caliber’s two grip options. He made the putter an inch longer (38″) than Finau’s typical build to allow Finau to experiment for himself where he wanted to put his hands. Given the grip’s weight distribution, Wright says the feel is significantly altered based on your hand placement.
Got some other angles from PGA Tour Live and it appears to be a take from Caliber Golf, a hockey-inspired grip maker out of Wisconsin.
He sent it to Finau at his home in Utah and heard nothing until last week. Finau called him directly.
“I thought, ‘Oh my, Tony Finau is calling me,’ but it could be one of two things,” Wright said. “He needed a different setup, which is fine, but it turned out he just had a really simple request.
“Then he said, ‘Tim, you have to tell me, is this legal?’ Because it hasn’t left my bag since I got it. And I just need confirmation.”
Wright worked directly with the USGA over the past eight years while creating the grip to ensure it would be legal for play. Wright’s original idea was a hockey puck, but that proved difficult since hockey pucks don’t deflect equally in all directions, requiring a putter under USGA rules, he said.
The solution was to create a hockey-shaft-like grip that would be installed on a traditional shaft.
“He actually said, ‘You have a really nice product,’ and that’s a direct quote,” Wright said proudly. “And I like to hear that because someone to put something together like this, believes in the product itself. And then they start selling through the online channel that we have, to feel that at the highest level, it’s pretty special.”
Finau is not using a split grip with the putter this week, although Wright says many players, including himself, are opting for it. But the unique square shape, Wright said, helps a player stabilize their wrists unless they’re actively trying to rotate them.
This week in North Carolina, Finau missed the cut after rounds of 78-71 where he lost more than seven tee-to-green shots, but it provided a huge week of exposure for the small company.
Dahmen gives Hanna Golf the biggest moment
Joel Dahmen played a new Hanna Golf Co. putter. Denver this week.
Talk to the founder of the company @DoerflerJared this morning who said it’s the first time the small boutique milled putter company out of Iowa has had its putter in play on the PGA Tour.
Finau isn’t the only big name giving big exposure to a small brand this week.
Joel Dahmen it also marked the PGA Tour debut of boutique putter maker Hanna Golf Co. playing a customized version of his Denver deck this week at Walnut Cove.
Founder Jared Doerfler told GOLF it was the biggest moment in the brand’s short three-year history.
“There’s no monetary value attached to it, and you know if it does well, sure, maybe you’ll get some orders here and there. I don’t really care,” Doerfler said. “The fact that we have someone on the PGA Tour playing our putters, that’s the coolest thing.”
Dahmen and Hanna have been connected since Doerfler quit his job in 2023 to launch the brand out of his garage in Iowa, with just one CNC milling machine and no idea how to use it. Dahmen bought a putter through the company’s website just weeks after its first contactless launch. Doerfler wasn’t even sure it was really him.
He was the winner of the PGA Tour and Netflix “Full Swing” favoredwho about a month later said he used the putter to shoot 60 in a random round. Since then, without putting the putter in play on Tour, Dahmen has been a supporter of the brand, helping Doerfler make connections in the industry and even using Hanna Golf putters in sponsor-related appearances.
But late last month, Dahmen decided he wanted to test several putters during the time off between the Wyndham Championship and this week. He reached out to Hanna to build a putter for that test, but the small team only had a week and a half to return.
Doerfler and his team put in a 17-hour day milling and created a modified version of the Denver mallet for Dahmen to test. Dahmen liked the basic shape of the Denver, and had done well with it in the past, but it needed some visual adjustments. Hanna changed some angles and tool paths of the first line to make the putter look tighter, adding a Battleship Gray finish.
Those changes ended up being a winner and Dahmen told Doerfler just before starting his round Thursday that the putter was going in the bag.
“Days like yesterday were pretty cool, probably the best day of my professional career,” Doerfler said Friday. “(Joel) really came up through the ranks and was a big underdog. And he’s been really successful at what he’s done. And I think he just sees that in us a little bit.”
Dahmen opened with a 33 on his front nine Thursday, but slowly backed up and missed the cut.
Doerfler didn’t see the putter going in the bag as the end goal. There is still more to do to establish their brand.
“This is not winning. I don’t think (it’s) success, but I just think it’s part of the road to success and part of the journey,” he said. “It’s the biggest milestone we’ve ever had, and it just validates where we are in the process.”
Check this out
This section is dedicated to the fantastic photos we’ve taken recently on the Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. This week, check out Jacob Bridgeman’s TaylorMade Qi4D 9-wood, which is bent to a 7-wood spec.
Jacob Bridgeman’s 9-wood is a spec 7-wood.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
Odds and Ends
Some other changes and notes we are following this week.
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