HENRIK STENSON: What's In The Bag? Iconic 3-wood From 2009!

Right, we are here at the Live Golf UK event at JCB Golf Club with Henrik Stenson and we are going to do a quick what's in the bag. So I've taken all the head covers off and we're going to start from the very top. And I don't know whether this is going to be the world's most interesting what's in the bag or the world's most boring what's in the bag. Most boring. You've had the same stuff for so, so long. Talk me through that for a start. You're just not a big changer, not a big experimenter with gear? No, I think once we've found stuff that we know works, then I tend to hang on to it. So with the three wood in particular, right? We'll get to that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So I'm not going to run away with it. We'll start from the top. So in the big stick, we've got the Callaway Epic Max LS and that's in your familiar Grafoloy Blue X. Now this is a shaft that was around when I was in my junior day. So it took in 20 plus years and this is just something you've always used and always been familiar with? Yeah, yeah. I like the feeling of it. It's a stiff shaft and it's done me a lot of good. So why change it? Absolutely. And we've got a couple of contradictory settings here. So we're down one in loft, which is opening the face a little bit, but we've got weight in the heel to encourage draw. Do you shape wise with this? Is it pretty neutral? Are you looking for neutral? Yeah, it's pretty neutral. I think over the years, I mean, I haven't put a lot of curve on the golf ball in general. I'm very much hitting it straight with possibly a slide draw most of the time. So yeah, all the clubs hopefully go straight. And grips wise, we've got an older grip here as well, so to go with the old shaft. So you've got to coordinate all the age ranges, have you? Yeah. Beautiful. And do you have any extra layers of tape? It feels pretty much straight on this. Yeah. No, we put half of one on the right hand. So just to take the taper out a little bit? Yeah. Similar with Ian? Yeah, exactly. Okay, well now the first bit I've been really excited about, the iconic three wood. So what iteration of the three wood is this? This is, I mean, I've gone through a couple of heads, but this is the 2009 Diablo Octane. I think I got it tested out just before the, would have been the first, I guess, race to Dubai final in 09, down in Dubai and came in the bag and has been in the bag most of the week since. And you still lean on this an awful lot off the tee? Yeah. I mean, some courses we definitely hit more drivers than three woods, but yeah, I mean, it's a trusty club. If you're standing there on the 72nd holes and you need a fairway finder, that has been in general the one that we go to, yeah. Are you a teeing up low guy or do you knock up a bit of turf? What do you do? A bit of both. Depends on the shot. Yeah. Depends on, but I think I've hit it off the deck more than most. Okay. I bet you have. And do you know the specs on it in terms of length or do you let other people get on with that stuff? I'd say it's probably about half an inch longer than standard. Yeah. As soon as I put it down, it felt to me, I was thinking 43 and a half, 43 and three quarters maybe. Okay. So then blending away from that iconic number, again, we've got another very old, what are we calling this? Forward? What do you call it? It's a forward. It's a forward, yeah. So Callaway X-Hot 17 degrees, the X-Hot Pro. Same shaft throughout. Again, the Grapploid Blue Tour X there. So Shuman, this is just, I mean, we've got a lovely wear mark here. You must be proud of that one. Yeah. We've hit a couple in the center, I guess. Yeah. Every now and then. It looks like you've got a few there. Interviewing Ian this morning with here's what's in the bag. He's artificially done his wear marks. He's sharpied out the bits around it to create a centered strike, so that's something you might want to bring up with him when you see him. Who is he trying to fool himself or the people watching? Well, yeah, this remains to be seen. So I guess from a yardage point of view, this just feels in the right gap for you. Yeah. I mean, the three wood is strong, right? It's about 12 degrees, so it's more of a two wood. So this is stated loft 13. Yeah. Is it bent? No, it's not really bent. I think that head is just a little bit stronger. And then this one at 17 degrees. So it's just kind of bridged the gaps and then down into the three yarn, really. So I'm looking in your bag here and we're getting into now the super iconic irons that have been in your bag for ages, the Callaway Legacy Blacks. Now, how many sets of these have we had? Oh, I got a whole garage full of them. They normally last a year, year and a half. These ones are very new, though. I just put these in a couple of months ago. I got one more brand new set at home. Then what? And then we're retiring. Then we're done. Yeah. As soon as the clubs are done with that. Yeah. OK, cool. Really interesting. We've got two three irons here. Talk me through that. Yeah. So coming fresh off the open, this set doesn't come with a two iron. So we took a three iron head, bent it down and lengthened it, obviously. So that's my two iron that's in for probably about four or five tournaments a year. Then the forward goes out and this one, this driving iron is in the bag instead. Do we know what we're going in this week? We driving iron or forward? What, have you not seen the course yet? I haven't seen the course yet. I think. Are we doing two iron or forward this week, Lordy? OK, so two iron is out. Two iron gone. Yeah. Flat out, completely gone. On that, your man Poulter told me to mention some stuff about the durability of your clubs. He said heads tend to last quite a long time. Some of the shafts. They don't last as long. No, they're pretty brittle, these motorshafts. Fine, that's a bit of a cage. Yeah. They normally need some assistance, though. OK, that's interesting to see. And you also, again, without wanting to go too far off track, he asked to mention the expensive nature of the front panel of these golf bags. Yeah. How much are they to replace? Would you know anything about that at all? They're not as durable as steel plates. No. OK, understood. We'll move on from that. So we've got essentially, not two iron now, that's gone, three iron down to pitch and wedge in the Legacy Black. So why have you stayed in these for so long? Again, it's just, I'm assuming a case of you've found something you like. What's been changing? I really like the look of them and, I mean, the big reason we came straight off the US Open at Marion that Justin won in 2013. And I was playing pretty good that week, but the irons I had, I think it was the Razor Tours or something like that. And I had a number of flyers that cost me daily that weekend. We came to Munich and we asked the guys, like, what do we have that's not going to fly as much? And they came up with these ones. They got the multi-groove. So there's 19 grooves on the face of these. I don't know if you know that's a more spin, less chance of a flyer, I'm guessing. Yeah, exactly. That was the whole thing. So, I mean, we're not really catching many flyers, but they also, you know, they go short rather than first cut in particular. And I'm a high spinner of the golf ball. So there's always that give and take when we're playing into the wind. You hit a bit hard and with a high spin, then it's always a tendency to stall a bit. But on the other end, I've been known to be able to stop, like, my mid to long irons on slightly firmer greens than a lot of the other players. So it's always going to be a give and take somewhere. Just balancing that trade off all the time. OK, that's brilliant. They're into wedges. So less wedges than some of the guys I've seen. So we've got kind of a three wedge set up, if we're including your pitching wedge, go 52 and 58 in the Callaway Jaws wedges here. And I see on the 58 we've got, I'm not going to say a messy sole, but it's had some work done. What specifically do you do grind wise? Take off a little bit here on the heel when you need to lay it open. And especially, especially on firmer turfs, then, yeah, it can bounce a little bit too much otherwise on the heel. So we shave a little bit off that. And in terms of, I've tried at times to take out the three iron, I strengthen the four iron a little bit and try and work in four wedges. But I always felt like I was, probably because of the two wood, four wood, it was a big gap down that end. And that's always been a strong part of my game as well with a long iron. So I felt like I exposed myself a bit too much there and not gained enough on that. So I've always kind of bounced back to three wedges. So if I would have had a fourth one, that would have gone as well. And are you a guy who changes his wedges for the venue and the ground conditions or you just have your set up and you adapt from there? Because you play a lot of different grasses, right? Yeah, I tend to have the same ones. I tried a little bit last week at Troon, have one, one of the new Callaway wedges that had less bounce on it and it was a bit sharper. But then out of the bunker, you feel like it's always a bit of give and take. So, yeah, I tend to stick with the same ones. OK, brilliant. And then finally, into the putter. I've always been intrigued by these grips you use on putter, the Garson grips. Yeah. So what got you in that? So for those who don't know, we've got a ridge that sits all the way down the front of the grip here. You sort of guide your wrists into a more... Yeah, you kind of end up on the outside of that reminder instead a little bit. So it's, yeah, I just, I tried them out. My putting coach, Phil Kenyon, he wanted my left hand to be a bit weaker and then that kind of matched up well with that grip. And then I've tended to use this model in different finishes for quite some, quite a long time over the last 10 years. So we've got the number seven here, Stroke Lab, big seven and some nice Swedish custom colours there for you. Yeah, yeah. Really nice. And ball wise? Oh, there's a little bit on the wedge. Got a bit of customisation throughout the set there. So that's great. That's a really good look inside the bag. Can you just tell me ball wise, what do you play? I play the regular Pro V1, the 23 version. OK, great. Well, thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate that and great luck this week. Thank you. Thanks.