The latest RBZ FW must be good!

By Zak Kozuchowski

GolfWRX Managing Editor

Many GolfWRX users speculated that Mickelson was playing a 3 wood of some sort with a slot on the bottom at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. While the club appeared to be a black-painted TaylorMade RBZ fairway wood, the photos were inconclusive, leading to theories that the 3 wood was actually using a soon-to-be-released Callaway product.

We’ve learned that Mickelson is indeed using an RBZ 3 wood in China, albeit a heavily modified one. It is bent 11.5 degree and includes a lighter-than-normal shaft for Mickelson as well as a lot of lead tape to lower the center of gravity.

How do we know? Frequent GolfWRX poster and Callaway Senior Vice President of Marketing Harry Arnett confirmed it in the forums. Read his post in its entirety below, in which Arnett rewards a GolfWRX member for discerning from photos that Mickelson was using an RBZ 3 wood with a prize, and provides other members with a dozen HexBlackTour golf balls.

Callaway_HarryA:

“First of all, these guesses here were awesome. And I am going to make our R&D and product guys read this thread because there were some killer ideas/concepts you guys threw out. Should have known that the dark knights of club ho-edness could come up with some cool stuff.

Here’s the answer, and I think it will surprise many of you. But like I said when we jumped into this and as part of our mission to be a “different” company, a new company, we are going to do things differently and be more straight shooting and transparent.

About two weeks ago, Phil said that the HSBC at Mission Hills isn’t a course where he can hit driver at all. He doubted he would hit driver on any of the holes. He wanted to play a high COR fairway wood there because he wanted a club that went farther than his current 3 wood but not as far as his driver. He knows we have one coming and he asked to play one of our prototypes. Unfortunately we are not ready to launch this product yet and didn’t have the right lofts in left-handed for him. Our primary interest is supporting our players at all times so we told him to play whatever he wanted until he thinks we have the best possible product for him which we believe we will have imminently. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for us. Not well known to many is that Phil has one of the most flexible equipment contracts of any top player and has played other equipment from time to time during his relationship with us, and is well within his right to do so.

That, gentlemen, in Phil’s hands, is a modified RBZ 13 degree, bent to 11.5, “driving 3-wood.” Phil painted her up matte black because he thought that looked cool, put in a lighter shaft than normal so he could actually launch it in the air, and put a crap load of lead tape on the bottom of it to move the CG location so it could actually get up in the air. Result? He has a mini driver that’s good for 290 [yards] off the tee, right between his current 280 3 wood gamer and his 305 driver. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Phil Mickelson, the Crowned Prince of this Forum and club junkies everywhere.

SethPistol gets the win. Seth, HashtagChad will be reaching out to you to pick/claim your prize.

Everyone else who played? Since nobody’s a loser with the new Callaway, we’re going to send you all a dozen HexBlackTour golf balls. HashtagChad will DM you for your address.

Thanks for playing. Tip your waitresses on the way out….

ps: we have a product coming that will instantly replace this FrankenFairway in his bag…”

One of my golf kakis recently drove the ball more than 220m effortlessly with the latest RBZ FW ... I guess I have to invest in a RBZ FW too ... I actually wanna consider a R11s FW ...

TM rocks!

One reason why RBZs fly is that they have stronger lofts than other brands and shafts that are about half inch longer.

If one can control these 2 factors, RBZs go a mile.

simoner wrote:

One reason why RBZs fly is that they have stronger lofts than other brands and shafts that are about half inch longer.

If one can control these 2 factors, RBZs go a mile.

My RBZ Fw is 15 degree with 43" length. Still go a mile....

I got a couple of RBZ FWs a few months ago and I must say that I'm loving them...

Phil used it at the BSO too...

3131T wrote:

Phil used it at the BSO too...

Is it? I saw him on the last round, hitting a old titleist 3 wd, if I see it correctly, it's 980fw

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

Phil used it at the BSO too...

Is it? I saw him on the last round, hitting a old titleist 3 wd, if I see it correctly, it's 980fw

U followed him... how close r u then? 2 meters, 3 meters?

Does the 980fw has a slot at the base?

3131T wrote:

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

Phil used it at the BSO too...

Is it? I saw him on the last round, hitting a old titleist 3 wd, if I see it correctly, it's 980fw

U followed him... how close r u then? 2 meters, 3 meters?

I was on the tee box 1, I would say only 5m away, when he finished 9 holes. The base of the 980 is unmistakable because of the roundness especially if you are talking abt white of the RBZ.

Anders Hansen was using a R11s fitted with a Mamiya Attas 3, 10.5 despite full bags of Titleist.

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

Phil used it at the BSO too...

Is it? I saw him on the last round, hitting a old titleist 3 wd, if I see it correctly, it's 980fw

U followed him... how close r u then? 2 meters, 3 meters?

I was on the tee box 1, I would say only 5m away, when he finished 9 holes. The base of the 980 is unmistakable because of the roundness especially if you are talking abt white of the RBZ.

Anders Hansen was using a R11s fitted with a Mamiya Attas 3, 10.5 despite full bags of Titleist.

Meaning u r only at tee box n saw it once?

Phil is a Callaway player... do u think he can put a white rbz in his bag?

Read the article by bro Turbo.... its a modified rbz...

3131T wrote:

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

enwee wrote:

3131T wrote:

Phil used it at the BSO too...

Is it? I saw him on the last round, hitting a old titleist 3 wd, if I see it correctly, it's 980fw

U followed him... how close r u then? 2 meters, 3 meters?

I was on the tee box 1, I would say only 5m away, when he finished 9 holes. The base of the 980 is unmistakable because of the roundness especially if you are talking abt white of the RBZ.

Anders Hansen was using a R11s fitted with a Mamiya Attas 3, 10.5 despite full bags of Titleist.

Meaning u r only at tee box n saw it once?

Phil is a Callaway player... do u think he can put a white rbz in his bag?

Read the article by bro Turbo.... its a modified rbz...

Bro, many pros, especially big players like phil, they'll have option to choose whether it suit their game, just like Tiger's legendary 3 woods despite full bags of Nike, the base of the 3 wood is definitely is a Titleist on the 4th round, cannot be a RBZ as not only a crown but the base of the titleist the 2 black patch is obvious. Round 1-3 maybe he did use cannot be sure as I did not saw him.

Ok lor.... he used the 980fw lor....

Having walked 20 plus holes with Phil at BSO still mistaken a rbz from a 980fw... sigh, think better give up golf....

Rbz 3 wood, and 980f 5 wood ... I followed him too

TourSwing wrote:

Rbz 3 wood, and 980f 5 wood ... I followed him too

omg....meaning....he's using 5 wd and yet..so far???? pengz...

Anyway so many players, can be covering the head with another cover, just like donald.

TourSwing wrote:

Rbz 3 wood, and 980f 5 wood ... I followed him too

Thumbs up to you bro...

Its 3 wood we r talking abt...

The rbz was done up black right?

Yup, exactly as mentioned in Turbos post ... Customized black matte finish with a lot of tape at the bottom!

Not totally uncommon for top players to use other manu's clubs in spite of seemingly "one brand" endorsement deals that they are synonymous with -

Luke - uses TM driver and fw
Poults - uses vokey wedges

JimB976 wrote:

Not totally uncommon for top players to use other manu's clubs in spite of seemingly "one brand" endorsement deals that they are synonymous with -

Luke - uses TM driver and fw
Poults - uses vokey wedges

Good to know, I think I will keep my Rbz 3 woods now....