The clubs that Tiger Woods used to win the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool
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Inside the bag that Woods used to successfully defend The Open title
GolfWRX.comTiger Woods won’t be teeing it up in The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club this year, but you can guarantee that highlights of his 2006 win at the course will be played on repeat.
That’s partly due to the fact that Woods, arguably the greatest golfer ever, once won The Open Championship at this year’s venue and partly due to the fact that Woods’ unique strategy led him to use his Nike Sasquatch Tour 460 driver just once in the 72-hole event.
On the lone hole that Woods hit driver, which was the par-5 16th hole on Thursday, he missed the fairway but still made birdie (he made 19 birdies that week to go along with three eagles).
“As I was playing the golf course, I would hit a couple of drives, and the driver would go 350, 370 yards,” Woods said after his victory at the 2006 Open Championship. “How can you control that out here? You can't control that. The fairways…they're hard enough to hit as it is, and you add driver, and they go that far, now how hard is it to hit? So I just felt in the end if you stayed out of the bunkers this entire week and had just a decent week on the greens, I felt that I would be in contention on the back nine… Guys who were trying to hit the ball over the bunkers, they're going to have shorter clubs on the greens, no doubt about that, but a lot of these flags you can't attack with wedges.”
Ultimately, Woods hit a whopping 85.71 percent of fairways that week, opting mostly for his Nike Ignite T60 3-wood or his Nike Forged Blade 2-iron off the tee. Around that time, Woods usually opted to have a 5-wood in the bag rather than a 2-iron during typical PGA TOUR events on a week-to-week basis. Due to the expected firm, fast and windy conditions that are characteristic of The Open, however, Woods would typically remove his 5-wood and replace it with a 2-iron or driving iron. And that’s what he did at Royal Liverpool in 2006, too.
Certainly, The 2023 Open Championship participants will factor in Woods’ 2006 driver-less strategy into their pre-event preparations.
Will Woods’ bunker-avoiding tactic prove valuable again 17 years later? Or will a more aggressive approach win out?
Time will tell at Royal Liverpool in 2023, but until then, we take a look back at Woods’ entire winner’s bag from the 2006 Open Championship. Enjoy the trip down memory lane!
Driver: Nike SasQuatch Tour 460 (8.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana White Board 83 TX
3-wood: Nike Ignite T60 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana Blue 103 TX
Irons: Nike Forged Blade (2-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Nike Pro Combo (56 degrees), Nike Forged Blade TW (60 degrees)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS prototype
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Ball: Nike One Platinum TW