Welcome to Bag Spy, a GOLF series devoted to understanding the crucial equipment choices that define a player’s bag. With the help of players and/or their expert fitters, we dig deep beyond the photos to examine setups, specs and the thinking behind them. In this installment, GOLF Associate Equipment Editor Jack Hirsh takes you inside Chris Gotterup’s bag as the three-time 2026 winner chases his first major.
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Chris Gotterup has arrived in the upper echelon of the game’s best players in a big way.
The 26-year-old has three PGA Tour wins this season and enters this week’s Open Championship as one of the favorites. He’s earned his place in his very own unique way.
Gotterup’s swing mechanics are far from orthodox, and his golf bag setup is similarly one of a kind. For starters, he’s the only player on the PGA Tour playing Bridgestone Golf’s latest muscle back irons.
The rest of his bag is developed around adding control to his power, which has him in the top-10 on the PGA Tour in driving distance. His driver is built for stability. His mini driver adds a level of control for tighter tee shots. His irons are customized to rein in his dispersion. His golf ball was chosen to keep his spin in check.
Gotterup’s is truly one of the coolest bags on the PGA Tour, and one that’s quickly becoming a blueprint for the modern PGA Tour power golfer.
Keep reading below to dive into the bag of one of the game’s hottest golfers.
Bridgestone Tour B X with Mindset
The only piece of equipment Gotterup is contracted to play is the new Bridgestone Tour B X golf ball.
It’s a relationship that goes back to Gotterup’s time at Oklahoma, where he was first exposed to the product through a few of his teammates. He was eventually convinced to try the Tour B X golf ball in competition late in 2022 and ended up finishing third in the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament that season. He decided to sign with the company after that performance.
With Gotterup’s previous ball, he often felt like his mid- and long-irons “hit a wall” in the air, causing them to come up short because of the extra spin.
“He likes to work the ball. He puts plenty of spin on the X model to be able to stop it on the greens, and whenever he needs to flight it a little bit more, he can definitely do that with the X,” said Bridgestone senior marketing manager Adam Rehberg. “He kind of said that was the proof in the pudding (after KFT Q-School). I trust the ball. I know it’s going to do the things I need with my long irons.”
Gotterup was instrumental in the development of Bridgestone’s newest generation Tour B series, released this year, and won the first event of the season with it at Sony. He also plays the version with the Mindset focus aid developed by Jason Day and his coach, Jason Goldsmith.
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Specs
Ping G440 LST 7.5˚
Actual Loft: 7.0˚
Ping Trajectory 2.0 setting: Dot (Standard)
CG shifter: 32 g, Neutral
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70 TX
Length: 45.375″
Tipping: 1″
Swingweight: D5+
If there’s anything fans have come to know about Chris Gotterup, it’s that he holds nothing back off the tee.
Over the past two seasons, he’s become one of the best drivers on the PGA Tour, finishing 9th in SG: Off-the-Tee in 2025, and he currently ranks 10th this season. His clubhead speed (averaging roughly 124 mph) hasn’t changed since his rookie season in 2024, when he was T48th in SG: OTT, and he’s still top-10 in driving distance on both measured drives and all drives.
But what has changed is a roughly six-point increase in Gotterup’s driving accuracy, and a lot of it owes to a switch to the Ping G440 LST driver. Gotterup has always been interested in Ping drivers due to the stability of the platform, Ping Tour Rep Kenton Oates told GOLF. He previously played a G430 LST.
“The 430 LST was very good for Chris, but still, if anything, had an extra right miss at times that he did not like,” Oates said. “The G440 model has in taken that away, which was the main reason for switching.”
The addition of a 7.5˚ head to the G440 LST line allowed Gotterup to play his driver in the more neutral “Dot” setting on Ping’s hosel adapter, allowing him a more square face and making it easier to start the ball left for his signature fade.
In addition to Strokes Gained, Gotterup is averaging career highs in Driving Distance (321.7 yards) and is just under the career high in accuracy (55.75%) he set last year. His right rough tendency is down nearly five points to 17.99 percent from 2024, when it was 22.80 percent.
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Specs
TaylorMade BRNR Mini Copper
Actual Loft: 13.5 degrees
FCT Setting: UPRT
Lie angle: 60.5˚
Weights: 15g Forward, 1.5g Rear
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black Gen. 4 80 TX
Length: 43″ CUT
Tipping: 1″
Gotterup is a tremendous example of how the modern player has gravitated toward the mini driver. While the primary shot shape with his driver is a cut, the mini driver’s smaller profile allows him to turn it over easier without giving up as much as a 3-wood.
“The BRNR Mini gives him a very specific ball flight,” TaylorMade Tour Rep Adrian Rietveld said. “It offers exceptional control from the tee while still providing enough speed when he needs it. For certain golf courses, it fills a gap that a traditional driver or 3-wood doesn’t quite cover.”
Gotterup replaced this club with his older TaylorMade RSi TP 1-iron for his Scottish Open victory last year, but it appears that was also the last time he gamed that club.
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Specs
7-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D 21.0˚
Lie: 59.5˚
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 83 TX
Length: 41.5″
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D 18.0˚
Lie: 59˚
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 83 TX
Length: 42″
3-iron: TaylorMade P770
Lie: 59˚
Shaft: KBS C-Taper 130 X
Length: 39″
This is the part of the bag that changes the most depending on the course setup. While the 7-wood was in the bag for Gotterup’s most recent win at the John Deere Classic earlier this month, it was the 3-iron that saw action last week and will likely be called upon again this week.
The 3-iron comes into play when the course demands lower flight, more rollout and precision off the tee, Rietveld said. “It’s an excellent option in firm conditions or when positioning is more important than maximum carry.
“The 5- and 7-woods are chosen when Chris expects to hit more long approach shots or needs additional stopping power into greens. The higher launch angle and steeper landing angle allow him to attack pins from longer distances.
“It’s less about one club being better than another and more about building the best 14-club setup for the challenges each golf course presents.”
With his fairway woods specifically, Gotterup also prefers square face angles, rather than open, and prioritizes turf interaction and spin to make sure he can hold fairways and greens in firm conditions.
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade
Specs
Bridgestone 220 MB 4-9
Shafts: KBS C-Taper 130 X
Lofts: 22/25/29/33/37/41
Lies: 59.5/60/60.5/61/61.5/62
Length: Standard (37″ 7-iron)
Swingweight: D2
Chris Gotterup is the only player on the PGA Tour using Bridgestone’s 220 MB irons. He’s also not contractually obligated to play them.
When Gotterup signed with Bridgestone, he wanted to remain a free agent for clubs so he could play whatever performed best. To Bridgestone, that actually made him the ideal candidate to put in their new 220 series irons, which were released just ahead of his PGA Tour rookie season. They were the first clubs the company had released in North America in five years.
Gotterup’s contract with Bridgestone doesn’t require him to play any clubs, but there are incentives if he does. He initially started testing the 221 CBs before finding success with the 220 MB.
“The boy loves to cut the ball. He likes to fight it. So the MBs work very well for him,” Rehberg said. “We worked through a lot… different grinds, taking different weights off the hosel and adding, and got him to a good place where he feels comfortable.”
One of those customizations includes his KBS C-Taper 130 X shafts being inserted 2 mm deeper into the head and using a longer ferrule to help stiffen the shaft tip. Bridgestone’s Tour Director Todd Corum said that it helps keep Gotterup’s spin in check and tightens his dispersion.
Gotterup loves to tinker and is constantly checking the lofts and lies of his irons, which is key given his steep delivery.
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Specs
TaylorMade Milled Grind 5
Lefts/Grinds: 46-SB, 52-SB, 56-SB, 60-LB
Lies: 62.5/63/63.5/64
Shafts: KBS C-Taper 130 X (46), Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Black Onyx (52-60)
Lengths: 36.25″, 35.75″, 35.5″, 35″
Gotterup has played TaylorMade wedges since his college days.
Rietveld calls it a great example of a player choosing equipment purely for performance reasons.
“The scoring clubs are where players develop enormous trust,” he said. “Chris has complete confidence in the look, feel and consistency of the MG5 wedges. Distance control, trajectory management and spin consistency are everything inside 120 yards, and he feels MG5 continues to deliver exactly what he wants. Tour players don’t switch wedges for the sake of it — they switch because performance improves.”
That’s exactly what happened when TaylorMade brought out the MG5 wedges. Gotterup switched from his MG4s to the MG Protos last summer and then moved seamlessly into the MG5 later in 2025.
“We spent time comparing launch, spin rates, carry numbers, dispersion and, equally importantly, his feedback on feel,” Rietveld said. “Around the greens we evaluated how the club interacted with different turf conditions, rough and bunker sand because those are often the deciding factors.
“Once Chris saw the performance benefits and, just as importantly, developed trust in what he was seeing, the transition became very natural.”
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade
Putter:
TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck
Length: 33.25″
Lie: 70.5˚
Loft: 1.25˚
Insert: White Pure Roll
Alignment aid: Short line (No TruePath)
Shaft: Black Stepless
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol 2.0
This season, Gotterup has seen a dramatic uptick in his Strokes Gained: Putting, going from outside the top-100 on the PGA Tour the past two seasons, to 27th this year, picking up .376 shots on the field.
A lot of that improvement can be owed to switching from a previous-generation Spider Tour X to a 2025 Spider Tour X Black with a short line at the 2025 U.S. Open.
Gotterup holds his putter very vertically at setup, so finding something that soles properly on the ground can be a challenge.
“For most of that year prior to the U.S. Open, we would test different putters in order to find one that sat correctly on the turf,” TaylorMade putter rep James Holley said.”We were able to match the face angle of the old Spider with the new Black. And with the short line and no TruePath he lined it up better with his hand position.”
Holley said they’ve tried putters with more upright lie angles, but that usually ends up throwing off Gotterup’s wrist angles and rotation in the stroke.
The putter has lead tape caked on the sole instead of heavier weights because Gotterup wanted the weight spread out evenly as opposed to a deeper CG that the heavier backweights would cause.
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip 58R (1 wrap)
The author welcomes your comments at Jack.Hirsh@golf.com.
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