My 5 gear takeaways I learned in 2025 and how they can help you in 2026

I have been playing golf for twenty years now and yet I am always amazed at how many new things I can learn.

This was my first full year on the equipment as GOLF’s Associate Gear Editor, so naturally it was a year full of lessons and “aha” moments.

Some were personal, like determining the types of shafts that best suit my swing or the grind I should use on a wedge, while others, like the one below, applied to everyone.

Keep reading below for my top gear tips of 2025 and how they can help your game in 2026.

1. Move to the opposite field

We’ll start here with an easy one because I understood this intuitively, but not technically.

I’ve always known that modern adjustable drivers are designed to be closed and add loft, giving them a draw bias. I also knew that you could turn the head of the driver in the opposite direction and open it up, which reduced the height of the club and made it fade-biased.

Although my natural shot shape has always been a draw, I have been playing my drivers a bit open in recent years. It turns out that’s how I have to do it!

Typically, you want to spin your driver in the opposite direction of your natural shot shape. Face angle affects the starting line of the ball, so for a golf ball drawer you want to start the ball to the right (for a right-handed player) and work it back to the left.

The reverse is true for someone who wants to fade the golf ball. They want to close the clubface to have the ball start on the left and work back to the right.

You see this a lot on the PGA Tour with draw hitters like Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, who both use higher 9- and 10-degree driver heads and open them up, while cutters like Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler use lower 8-degree heads and close the face to add loft.

So while I was already opening the club sheet to take the loft off, I now know why I liked it.

2. You never know how you will react

When you add loft to an iron, you would expect it to launch higher. But that doesn’t apply to me.

While trying on Titleist’s new 2025 T-Series irons, my fitter, Louis, discovered that when he took my irons two degrees weak from stock, I actually launched the ball lower and much more consistently.

This is a great example of how getting a new device can make you react differently, whether you know it or not.

What I’ve learned is that when I get more loft – like the 35 degree 7-iron I’m playing with now as opposed to the 32 degree iron I started the year with – I cover the ball better and come in with less dynamic loft, resulting in a lower launch, but higher spin and higher peak heights.

That’s also huge for consistency for me.

3. Shafts do not launch or rotate

This is one that has been on the market for a while, but please ignore it any time you hear a salesperson say a shaft is “low-launch” or “high-spin” or something of that nature.

I’m a high launch player who used to get ‘low launch’ shafts (like Ventus Black or Tensei White) to reduce my ball flight and spin, but it actually had the opposite effect. For much of 2023 and 2024 I played with a driver with only 7 degrees of loft to combat spin.

But when I got fit for the first time at TaylorMade, I was put in the Ventus TR Red, which is marketed as a “high-launch” shaft, but took my launch and spin to a better window.

My point is: Shafts may not actually control launch and spin as they are marketed. An axle is a timing mechanism and everyone’s swing times are a little different.

The most important thing is that you find a shaft that fits your swing, not one that is marketed to achieve the ball flight you want!

4. Mini drivers have a purpose

I was a mini driver skeptic when I first saw them released, but when I started playing the TaylorMade R7 Quad Mini Driver this spring, I saw major benefits.

My mini driver gives me a club that allows me to swing with the forgiveness of a driver but the distance of a 3-wood.

Because I hit the ball far enough, I rarely use a 3-wood off the deck, so the 3-wood/mini driver’s place in my bag is almost strictly a tee club. I can knock the mini off the deck, but that’s a rare practice.

Ultimately, I prioritize off-the-tee performance from this spot in the bag and I’ve found that in a mini driver.

5. Maybe low-torque putters are on to something

I really wasn’t sure what to post here as I was also a low torque (or ‘zero torque’) skeptic, but I also have one in my bag to end the year.

While I never imagined myself playing a low-torque putter, I’ve learned that I’m actually a very good candidate for it because I don’t have a lot of rotation during the stroke.

I started messing around with low-torque putters and decided on an experiment: I’m going to use one until March and then switch back to see what it does to my putting stroke.

So far, the putting analysis I’ve done has shown that I’m a significantly more accurate putter with the low-torque option in the bag – so I might not switch in March after all.