It’s been a long time coming for Patrick Cantlay to finally upgrade from his Titleist 718 AP2 irons.
Cantlay has been a tour professional who is averse to change and loves to stick with what has worked for him.
However, PING have finally sent him a set of irons that he favours over his set of 718 AP2 irons from Titleist.
Cantlay secured a total of seven PGA TOUR wins with his previous irons in his bag so there was always going to be some hesitation.
Cantlay officially switched into PING’s Blueprint S irons at the 2024 Masters, marking the end of an era.
PING Tour rep Spencer Rothluebber reveals they first began sending Cantlay sets to test around December 2023.
“He’s very particular visually,” Rothluebber told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “We worked a lot on lie angles and making sure the lofts on his irons were right. But it’s also everything from top rail to leading edge. The numbers have to be there [spin and distance] for him, but it has to look right, too.”
PING sent him several different iron sets with various lie angles and lengths. But the real breakthrough came at The American Express 2024 when they were able to measure the specifications of his old 718 AP2 irons in order to match up the specs in a new set of custom Blueprint S irons.
The fully forged, 8620 carbon steel head boasts a clean cavity design and optimised CG for distance and trajectory control. Thanks to extensive work with professionals, these irons also have more forgiveness than your standard players iron.
During that intensive testing process, which continued through to even the 2024 RBC Heritage following the Masters, PING and Cantlay worked on zeroing in on the particulars, including dialling in the bounce, grinds, lie angles and lofts, to make sure no stone was left unturned in this quest for a new iron set.
In addition, while Cantlay continues to use his Titleist 915F 3-wood and TS2 21-degree fairway wood, he will change to a new Titleist TSR2 9-degree driver in 2024.
Cantlay has never been the sort of player to make many changes during his career, but it looks like 2024 will be a turning point for the eight-time PGA TOUR winner.
