Aldrich Potgieter is using a rare PXG 1-iron at the PGA Championship, helping him lead after the first round. The course at Aronimink is proving challenging for players off the tee.
Key points
Aldrich Potgieter is using a PXG 1-iron at the PGA Championship.
He is tied for the lead after the first round.
The Aronimink course is challenging for players off the tee.
The 1-iron is considered one of golf's rarest clubs.
The article covers weekly golf equipment news.
Mentioned in this story
Aronimink
PXG 1-ironAldrich PotgieterPGA Championship
Richard Heathcote/Getty Images and Johnny Wunder/GOLF
PGA Championship contender (and Round 1 co-leader) Aldrich Potgieter added a PXG 1-iron to his bag for Aronimink. But his has a unique twist.Richard Heathcote/Getty Images and Johnny Wunder/GOLF
Welcome to Fully Equippedâs weekly Tour equipment report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if news warrants), GOLF equipment editor Jack Hirsh runs you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.
After one round, Aronimink is proving more difficult off the tee than originally anticipated, and one of the early leaders is navigating that challenge with golfâs rarest club.
Yes, Aldrich Potgieter is gaming a 1-iron this week, and itâs helped him contend at the PGA Championship (tied for the lead after the first round and the solo leader at the time of this writing on Friday).
Off-the-tee play wasnât much of a story in the lead-up at Aronimink, which is hosting a PGA for the first time in 64 years. The Donald Ross gem measures just 7,394 yards, short by modern major championship standards, and players contemplated bomb-and-gouge strategies for the layout.
âStrategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent,â Rory McIlroy said in his pre-tournament press conference. âItâs basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there. ⊠When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.â
That comment came back to bite McIlroy, as he hit just 5 of 14 fairways and lost nearly a half shot to the field off the tee in an opening-round 74. Turns out the wild undulations and firm conditions of Aroniminkâs fairways made them difficult to hold. Missing the fairway also proved unexpectedly penal, as the average proximity difference between the fairway and not on Thursday morning was nearly six feet worse than the average PGA Tour host course, according to Justin Ray.
While many players opted to keep their typical top-of-bag setups, Potgieter took the interesting approach of adding a 1-iron in addition to his regular PXG 2-iron. The slightly longer build checked in at just over 15 degrees of loft, which gave the club a touch of right bias.
Q&A
What is the significance of Aldrich Potgieter using a 1-iron at the PGA Championship?
Aldrich Potgieter's use of a 1-iron is notable because it is considered one of golf's rarest clubs, showcasing his unique approach to the challenging Aronimink course.
How did Aldrich Potgieter perform in the first round of the PGA Championship?
Aldrich Potgieter tied for the lead after the first round and was the solo leader at the time of reporting.
Why is the Aronimink course challenging for players at the PGA Championship?
The Aronimink course has proven to be more difficult off the tee than anticipated, presenting challenges for many players.
What other equipment changes are notable during the PGA Championship?
The article highlights various equipment news and changes on Tour, particularly focusing on the unique clubs players are using.
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Now, like many of the 1-irons you see on the PGA Tour from time to time, this isnât your grandfatherâs 1-iron. This is a hollow-bodied club with a graphite shaft designed to get the ball in the air. I wouldnât advise anyone to hold Potgieterâs 1-iron (which he referred to as a 3-wood in a press conference) up during a lightning storm.
The club is rare by PGA Tour standards and if ever seen, itâs usually during the Open Championship or Scottish Open.
But Potgeiterâs 1-iron has some unique abilities even among other butter knives. As PXGâs Justin Shepherd told GOLF, the new Gen 8 driving ironâs weight adjustability allowed Potgieter to add the club in place of his fairway wood because they could straighten out his ball flight more easily.
âPlaying with the weight and lie angle, as I went a little more upright ⊠he actually was losing some ball speed, so he obviously wasnât hitting it as well,â Shepherd said. âWe moved back to the lie angle fit, then we could work on the ball flight without changing the two things.â
Potgieterâs 1-iron features a 12g weight in the heel and a 7g weight in the toe to help him turn it over. His 2-iron is more neutral.
With the 1-iron, which is 5/8 of an inch longer than the 2-iron with the same Nippon Modus GOST shaft, Potgieter carries the ball only a few yards farther than the 2-iron, but its runs out nearly 30 yards farther while reaching 170-172 mph ball speeds.
While Potgieter hit driver off the tee 11 times on Thursday, his driving irons came in handy on three tee shots and his approach to the par-5 9th. It all added up to a share of the first-round lead.
Flatstick swaps
Brooks Koepka walks on the 18th green during the first round of PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club on May 14, 2026 in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
Brooks Koepka has a new unreleased Spider Tour V putter. PGA TOUR via Getty Images
One thing that has rung true about the challenge of Aronimink has been the difficulty of its signature Donald Ross domed greens. Was that the reason a number of players chose to make putter changes when tweaks during major weeks are usually more subtle?
The most notable move was Brooks Koepka, who moved into a new TaylorMade 2026 Spider Tour V from his previous 2025 Spider Tour X. Koepka reportedly broke his previous putter at the One Flight Myrtle Beach Classic last week, necessitating the change. He spent several hours working through various mallet putters on Monday before settling on the new Spider Tour V.
We still donât know much on the new Spider Tour V, which appears to have been redesigned from the previous version thatâs in Shane Lowryâs bag. The previous Spider Tour V was the most forward CG mallet in the TaylorMade lineup, making it feel like a blade.
Koepkaâs new Tour V appears more compact and the weight ports are forward in the head, which seems to indicate a similar goal. Koepka is likely looking to find something that feels like his previous Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Teryllium putters.
But more surprising was that Alex Fitzpatrick, fresh off a Cinderella three-week run after winning the Zurich Classic team event, swapped putters.
The young Fitzpatrick went from his silver Odyssey Ai-ONE No. 7 S to a Navy Ai-ONE No. 7 CH.
While the change from silver to navy is interesting, it turns out the change from a slant neck to a crank hosel is the key switch.
Odyssey reps Harry Shih and Cody Hale handled the change because Fitzpatrick, a gear-free agent, said he felt like he was leaving the face open at impact. In his first two events as a PGA Tour member, Fitzpatrick lost nearly a half-shot per round on the greens.
âJust gave him more face awareness,â Shih told GOLF. âHe felt like the face was hanging open so we went to the crank so he could square the face up easier. Quintic data confirmed it.â
Hale added that the Crank Hosel matched his stroke rotation better.
âWe also went 1 degree more upright to better match the shaft plane to his forearms, which he and his putting coach Andy Paisley like to see in his arm structure,â Hale said.
Sahith Theegala also went back to his Anser 2 gamer after a one-week trial with an Ally Blue H mallet.
And continuing a trend of what might become the PGA Tourâs next hot putter, Tom Hoge added a new Phantom 9.5R, the same model putter Cameron Young uses and Justin Thomas recently added.
Spieth goes longer; Fowler goes shorter
Thursday was a bit of a trip back in time for Jordan Spieth as he chases the career Grand Slam, but it was the driver that was dialed for Spieth, unlike how it was 10 years ago.
Spieth gained 1.93 strokes off the tee on the field in Round 1, ranked second in the field. He missed just two fairways.
Turns out he made a tweak to his GTS2 driver last week after putting it in play at Doral, going to a longer, 46âł Fujikura Ventus Black shaft.
Thanks to the increased stability of the GTS2 head he found he was able to go longer and down in loft (from 10 to 9) to get more speed. Spieth also has his GTS2 front weighted with 9g in the front and 3g in the back to get even more speed.
He gained .663 strokes a round off the tee at the Cadillac but then picked up more than a stroke a day at the Truist with the longer build. Since adding the GTS2, heâs gone from 113th in SG: Off the Tee to 77th in just two weeks.
But on the flip side, Rickie Fowler shortened his driver this week.
After using a 45âł driver for the last few weeks, Fowler is back again using a shorter build, but this time at 43.25âł, almost certainly the shortest driver on the PGA Tour. In fact, itâs the same length as his mini driver.
Fowler is having one of his most accurate seasons on the PGA Tour in terms of driving accuracy and has used a 44.125âł driver for much of the season. He opened with an even-par 70 on Thursday.
Golf Pride again dominates grip count
As is typical, the overwhelming No. 1 grip at the PGA Championship was Golf Pride.
All but 11 of the 156 players in the field at Aronimink played Golf Pride grips this week, continuing the most dominant run in golf equipment.
Check this out
This section is dedicated to cool photos weâve snapped recently on Tour, but havenât had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Christiaan Bezuidenhoutâs new PXG 0317 Tour prototype irons.
PXG 0317 Tour irons.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout just added a set of these unreleased irons. Jack Hirsh/GOLF
Odds and Ends
Some other gear changes and notes weâre tracking this week.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout added PXGâs 0317 Tour Proto irons (above) with KBS Tour 125 S+ shafts ⊠Lucas Glover switched to the GTS2 driver after adding the fairway woods last week ⊠Max Greyserman added Callawayâs Quantum TD driver with Ventus Blue 6-X ⊠Viktor Hovland added a Ping G440 Max 3-wood and G440 3-hybrid to his bag ⊠Greyserman and Ryo Hisastune switched to Vokeyâs A+ grind to get faster through the turf ⊠Haotong Li is following in the footsteps of Fowler and Gary Woodland by adding a Scotty Cameron GOLO 7 CS ⊠Denny McCarthy (GTS2 9.0) and Luke Donald (GTS3 9.0) added new Titleist GTS drivers non-contracted ⊠Fujikura lead the driver shaft count with 46.2% of the field ⊠Maverick McNealy switched to the new Fujikura Ventus TR Black+ 6-X in his driver.
3 things you should read/watch
A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.
