(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
All eyes have been on Tiger Woods’ balky putter of late, but a longer club in his bag got some love during the first round of this week’s Honda Classic.
Woods split the 16th fairway of PGA National with one of his patented stingers — his go-to shot back in the day when he was the leader of the pack — with a Nike VR_S Forged iron. The club, according to Golf Channel yakkers, helps Woods achieve a ball speed of 157 m.p.h. that equates to 280 yards, but it’s not purely the 2-iron they claimed it to be.
As GearEffectGolf noted last month, Woods took a 3-iron and bent it to play like a 2-iron when he added the stick to his bag for last year’s Presidents Cup. Nike says the world’s 21st-ranked golfer will, depending on course conditions, occasionally swap it with a Nike PR Pro Limited Edition 5-wood.
Unfortunately for Woods, the VR_S Forged didn’t help him on the greens, where his Nike Method 001 flat stick continued to let him down. After missing only three greens in regulation on Thursday, he needed 34 putts to card an opening-round 1-over 71 and was seven strokes off the pace set by Davis Love III, who fired a course record-tying 64.
