3 Things I Tried This Year That Are Still In My Golf Setup

I try a lot of golf equipment over the course of a year. Some of it is good. Some of it gives me something interesting to write about. Very little of it changes the way I play golf months later.

These three things did.

Here are the three things I tried in 2026 that I’m still using.

TaylorMade Stealth 2 3-Wood

Earlier this year, I spent $150 on a used TaylorMade Stealth 2 3-wood after noticing how many PGA Tour players had continued using older TaylorMade fairway woods instead of immediately replacing them with something newer.

At the time, it was an experiment. Now it’s one of my favorite clubs.

The biggest reason is how easy it is to hit. It looks good to me at setup and I’ve gotten comfortable enough with it that it has become a great option on holes where I don’t want to hit driver. It has also made going after par-5s much more realistic for me.

Prior to having the Stealth 2 in the bag I had no 3-wood and was carrying 13 clubs.

I know what this club is going to do and I’m comfortable hitting it from the tee or the turf.

In fact, the Stealth 2 has worked well enough that it has me thinking about another change. My hybrid may be the next club to go. I’m not convinced I need to replace it with another hybrid and I wouldn’t be opposed to finding another used Stealth fairway wood with more loft.

I bought this one because I wanted to see why an older fairway wood was still hanging around in so many bags. Now I know why.

Zero-torque putter

This one is a little less settled.

I spent about 20 years putting with a blade so moving into zero torque was a much bigger change than switching fairway woods.

The Odyssey Ai-Dual Square 2 Square #7 gave me a pretty convincing reason to try it. It finished first in our 2026 zero-torque testing and the category as a whole was difficult to ignore. Our top 15 best putters of 2026 are all zero-torque.

Then I tested the Technologist RP1 Pro and was surprised by how well I putted with it. It’s still a zero-torque style but it allows for a little more face rotation than the Odyssey and I like that.

I still go back and forth between the Technologist and the Odyssey. I haven’t decided that one is permanently replacing the other.

What I can say is that, right now, the blade is out.

I’m not saying it’s gone forever. I’ve played golf long enough to know better than to make that declaration about a putter. But I’m getting the results I want from these zero-torque models and I don’t feel much urgency to go back.

Bag Boy Nitron Push Cart

I’ve never really been a push-cart golfer. If I walked, I carried.

The last push cart I owned was when I was a kid. It was metal, rusty and nearly impossible to fold. I figured out pretty quickly that carrying my own bag was less trouble than fighting with that thing before and after every round.

That opinion stuck with me for a long time.

Then I started using the Bag Boy Nitron this year. I wanted my kids to walk more and I decided that walking with them was one of the best ways to do it.

After walking with it for most of the summer, I’ve become a little hooked on it.

The Nitron folds down small enough that moving and storing it hasn’t been an issue and opening it takes just a few seconds.

And while this has nothing to do with performance, I like the way mine looks. I like the color and the setup at the top with storage.

I spent years assuming that if I wanted to walk, carrying was simply the better option. The Nitron changed my mind.

What new gear have you added to your setup this year?