It’s Ryder Cup Week! The 45th installment of golf’s premier team event begins on Friday at Bethpage Black.
It’s the U.S. vs. Europe. The Americans are looking to bounce back from a disappointing showing at the 2023 Ryder Cup and hope their recent trend of success on home soil will continue at Bethpage Black. Meanwhile for the Europeans, they’re coming off a dominant 2023 showing, and are looking to become the first team since 2012 to win an away Ryder Cup.
As the 45th Ryder Cup nears its tee time, we thought we’d take a look at the equipment that each player will be using at Bethpage Black, and see which trends stood out the most between both sides.
Top Trends Among Both Teams
Before we dive into the equipment trends of each team, let’s lay out some of the themes we noticed among all 24 players.
Titleist was the most popular Driver brand, with 8 players gaming a Titleist model. Callaway is the 2nd most popular brand with 6, while TaylorMade and PING each have 4 players gaming one of their drivers at Bethpage Black.
While it was pretty even for the most popular driver brand, and even irons, the same could not be said about fairway woods. There was a clear cut top brand among all players, with 11 different players gaming at least 1 TaylorMade Fairway Wood in their bag.
High-lofted fairway woods have continued to grow in popularity and while it isn’t an overwhelming trend at The Ryder Cup, it is of note that nearly one-third of the field has either a 7-wood or 9-wood in the bag this week.
Like fairway woods, wedges were also an area of the bag that had a clear preference, with 12 different players having at least 1 Vokey wedge in their bag, and 11 of those 12 having Vokey wedges as their primary scoring wedges.
But the two most dominant categories are in the types of putters and the golf balls being played at the Ryder Cup. 21 of the 24 players are playing some sort of mallet putter, with just 3 players choosing a blade putter (Dechambeau, Griffin, Aberg). Then in the golf ball category, 13 players will be gaming a Titleist golf ball, with 9 of those players opting for the Titleist Pro V1x or Pro V1x Prototype.
But enough about the top trends amongst all 24 players, let’s take a look at the top equipment trends of each team.
Top Equipment Trends of Team USA
Driver
Most Popular Brand
If you watch the Ryder Cup this week, there’s a good chance you’ll see a Titleist driver in every U.S. pairing with 5 players on the team playing one. Interestingly, every single American that’s using a Titleist Driver, is using a current in-line model, something that can’t be said about the other brands.
Most Popular Model
When it comes to an individual model, the Titleist GT2 narrowly edges out the GT3 for the most popular model with 3 players (Cameron Young, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay) playing it. Thomas, Young and Cantlay have all used a “3” model within the Titleist lineup prior to the GT3, with Cantlay gaming a TS3 back in 2023, Thomas playing TSi3 from 2020 until this year, and Young gaming the TSR3 from 2022-24.
Fairway Woods
Most Popular Brand
Unlike drivers, there wasn’t a clear consensus when it came to fairway woods for the Americans. Both Titleist and TaylorMade had 4 players each gaming at least one fairway wood. Callaway was the only other brand that had more than 1 player opting for one of their fairway woods.
Most Popular Model
While there wasn’t as much of a consensus when it came to top brand for fairway woods, there was a clear cut winner for the top trending model among the 12 Americans, with 4 players putting a TaylorMade Qi10 in their bag including Scottie Scheffler (3W), Collin Morikawa (5W), J.J. Spaun (3W & 7W) and Ben Griffin (3W & 7W) all gaming at least one.This is a club that isn’t just limited in its popularity among American players either.
Irons
Most Popular Brand
In terms of brand, irons were much more evenly distributed across the 12 players on Team USA, with 7 different brands represented. Titleist comes out on top with 4 different players gaming them.
Most Popular Model
Irons are a little more nuanced than drivers and fairway woods, due to the prevalence of combo sets, and even some prototype irons for specific players. For the Americans, the Titleist T100 is the most popular model, but there’s a catch. While Justin Thomas and Cam Young each have a Titleist T100 5-iron in their bag, they’re playing a newer T100 version, while Russell Henley, who games T100’s through most of his iron set, is actually playing the 2019 version. So perhaps it’s not the exact model, but in the same line.
Wedges
Most Popular Brand
It was a runaway for the most popular brand in the wedge category, with Vokey dominating this category with 7 players gaming them on the American Team. Three members of the team – Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Sam Burns – play Vokey wedges despite not being on Titleist’s tour staff. Schauffele, specifically, plays a Callaway Opus SP gap wedge in his bag in addition to two Vokeys.
Most Popular Model
Among those Vokey wedges in play on the American side, the Vokey SM10 was by far the most popular model, with 6 of the 7 players gaming them in their bag.
Putter
Most Popular Brand
The Titleist dominance within the American Team’s WITBs continues with putters. Five players game a Scotty Cameron Putter, which is more than double of any other brand.
Most Popular Model
Among the 5 Scotty Cameron players, four of them play a Scotty Cameron Phantom Mallet, with Cam Young opting for a 9.5 Tour Proto, Patrick Cantlay rolling a 7.2 Tour Proto, and both Justin Thomas and Russell Henley each playing a T5 Tour Prototype. Mallet putters continue to gain popularity and the U.S. Team has hopped on that trend with all but 2 players playing some sort of mallet. Ben Griffin and Bryson Dechambeau are the only two Americans that use a blade putter.
Top Equipment Trends of Team Europe
Driver
Most Popular Brand
Whereas the American side had a clear cut top choice for Driver brand, the European Team is much more evenly distributed. While 5 different brands are represented, four brands have more than 1 player playing one of their drivers. Callaway narrowly beats out Titleist, 4-3, for the most popular driver brand among European players.
Unlike the Americans and their Titleist drivers though, Callaway saw more players playing the previous generation Paradym Ai Smoke line than the new Elyte models. Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard and Sepp Straka each play a Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Version. Jon Rahm is the lone member of Team Europe playing a Callaway Elyte driver, also in the Triple Diamond model.
Most Popular Model
There was even less of a consensus on the European Team for the most popular model. Only 2 drivers have more than 1 player gaming one, and both of those drivers have just 2 players playing them, with both being prior generation clubs. Robert MacIntyre and Ludvig Aberg both game the Titleist TSR2, while Sepp Straka and Justin Rose each opt for the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max. Also of note, only 4 players on Team Europe are playing a 2025 driver compared to 7 members of Team USA playing a 2025 driver model.
Fairway Woods
Most Popular Brand
While TaylorMade was tied for the most popular brand in the Fairway Wood category for the American side, it was a runaway victor on the European side, with 8 players gaming at least 1 TaylorMade Fairway Wood in their bags. Of those 7 players, they played 5 different models, with a mix of current generation Qi35 fairway woods, and previous generation models including a 10-year-old TaylorMade Aeroburner still in play.
Most Popular Model
A recent change from Matt Fitzpatrick in his fairway wood choice changed the most popular fairway wood model among the European Ryder Cup Players. It was a three-way tie between the TaylorMade Qi10, Qi35 and Callaway Paradaym Ai Smoke TD for the most popular model with two players a piece, but Fitzpatrick recently switched from Titleist TSi2 fairway woods into TaylorMade Qi35’s, giving the current generation TaylorMade Qi35 the nod for most popular model.
Irons
Most Popular Brand
Once again there wasn’t a clear cut favorite brand when it came to irons, and with some unique combinations that even mix up brands, it made the consensus even more difficult. PING and Titleist each had 3 players gaming their irons, though PING had the most playing PING throughout their whole set, so they got the nod here for the most popular iron brand among the European Team.
Most Popular Model
It’s a challenge to determine the most popular iron model due to different combinations players use in their bag. While MacIntyre and Justin Rose both play Titleist 620 CBs, Rose only plays them from his 4-iron through his 6-iron and blends them with Miura MC-502s for the rest of his irons, while Bobby Mac plays 620 CBs throughout his set. So for this exercise, we looked at scoring irons to determine the most popular model, and with that in mind it was a tie between the PING Blueprint S Irons and the Srixon Zxi5/ZXi7 combination set with 2 players each opting for those clubs.
Wedges
Most Popular Brand
If there’s one thing the U.S. and European Teams tend to agree on, it’s Vokey Wedges. They’re the most played wedges for both teams, with 5 players on the European side playing Vokeys.
Most Popular Model
With Vokey being the most popular brand, it only makes sense for it to also have the most popular model, with the Vokey SM10 taking the crown with 4 players opting for at least one SM10 in their bags. The next closest competitor was either the PING s159 or Cleveland RTZ, with two players each playing them.
Putters
Most Popular Brand
While Scotty Cameron dominated the most popular brand for the Americans, it’s Odyssey and TaylorMade taking the title for the European side, with 4 players gaming each brand.
Most Popular Model
Putter models can get a little tricky too when you factor in the different neck/hosel attachments and finishes putters can have. In looking at them more as a series, it was clear cut which putter was the most popular, with the TaylorMade Spider Tour series being the only series with multiple players with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Bobby MacIntyre and Shane Lowry all using some variation of that line. Just like the Americans though, mallets were the more popular shape with 10 of the 12 players playing mallets.