Why Steve Stricker is using the same irons this week that he used in 2006

DUBLIN, Ohio – Steve Stricker is throwing it all the way back to 2006 with Titleist 755 Forged irons in the bag ahead of the 2019 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide.

Stricker recently won the 2019 Regions Tradition – his first senior major championship victory – using new Titleist 718 AP2 irons. That’s especially noteworthy because Stricker said he had been using Titleist 710 AP2 irons (released in 2009) for “forever” before switching. He was still using the 710 AP2 irons as of the 2019 Valspar Championship

Despite the success with the new 718 AP2 irons, Stricker wasn’t satisfied with the new head-shaft combination, so he went to use his older KBS Prototype shafts that he had in the Titleist AP2 710s, and simply put those shafts into the new 718 AP2 heads. Except there was a problem; the tips of the shafts were bent. The KBS iron shafts, however, are not easily replaceable; they were one-off prototypes from “6-7 years ago,” according to Stricker.

“That was really the only set that [KBS] knows of,” Stricker said. “It was a one-off shaft that they made. I don’t know what it was. So I’ve been struggling to try to find a head and a shaft that I really enjoy playing.”

Now what?

Before using the Titleist 710 AP2 irons, Stricker used Titleist 755 Forged irons, which released in 2006. Those were equipped with the original Project X Rifle shafts with a satin finish.

The 755 Forged irons, which Stricker used as far back as the 2006 U.S. Open championship at Winged Foot Golf Club, have been sitting in Stricker’s home office since he replaced them with the AP2 710 irons, sometime between 2009 and 2011. The 755 irons aren’t on the bench anymore, though. Stricker had them in the bag on Tuesday at the Memorial, and the irons are equipped with the original Project X shafts in them.

While the USGA lists the grooves of the Titleist 755 irons as non-conforming, Stricker says he had the grooves checked in Hawaii in 2011, and they were approved for competition. As a reminder, the new groove rules went into effect in 2010. Stricker says he also has a backup set of the 755 irons, but he has not had the grooves approved yet for competition.

Stricker will most certainly use 755 Forged irons (4-PW) this week, but he has both a 755 Forged 3-iron and a 718 AP2 3-iron that he’ll decide between come competition time on Thursday.

Either way, Stricker’s irons will undoubtedly be the oldest irons in the field this week. He does, however, have fresh Golf Pride grips on the irons.