Why Daniel Berger remains committed to decade-old irons

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – They are an old story and Daniel Berger is sticking to them.

“I’ve just done a bunch of testing and it’s the best iron for me. So, I don’t see why I need to go out there and look for something else,” Berger said Tuesday as he talked to the media as defending champion of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

At question was Berger’s decision to remain committed to the TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC irons that he first used in 2011 as a high schooler. When he was a free agent in the equipment world in 2020, Berger signed with TaylorMade, but what fit him best was not the latest equipment but the older stuff.

“I’ve just stuck with them (through the years),” Berger said.

The issue, of course, is when Berger needs backup help for this forged cavity-back design, because TaylorMade, like all manufacturers, had moved on to newer models. That’s where social media helps.

“I’ve got a couple different sets and they’ve come from all over the place,” Berger told GolfWRX at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open. “I bought one set online, just from some guy on the internet.

“He messaged me online on social media. It’s a perfect set. I don’t know if he worked at TaylorMade at some point, but the box and everything was from TaylorMade. They were brand new.”

That was not a one-off, either. Berger’s search has turned up others who have, or could, come to his rescue.

“There are sets available online and people have reached out to me, so I’ve got an extremely large amount of backup sets sitting at my house,” he told GolfWRX.

But Berger, who has finished T10, T5 and first in each of his three starts in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, thinks he would be wise to be proactive with his equipment.

“I think if I were to do it right, I would have a set at home that I would use to practice with and a set at home that (would be my game set),” he said.

Thanks to his presence on social media, however, “I have plenty of clubs right now to last me for a while.”