Q&A: Adam Scott deep dives into equipment, drawing swing inspiration from John Daly

As an equipment free agent in recent years, 2013 Masters Champion and 14-time PGA TOUR winner Adam Scott has emerged as one of the most frequent testers and switchers of equipment from week to week on the PGA TOUR. As a non-staffer, he’s free to play clubs from any brand, and he exercises that freedom by testing everything under the sun.

At 44 years old, he’s also experienced the many different waves of equipment design, giving him a background of knowledge about golf equipment that’s nearly unmatched among his peers.

This week, on Wednesday at the 2025 Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club, GolfWRX.com and PGATOUR.com had the opportunity to pick Scott’s equipment brain during a deep dive “What’s in the Bag?” interview, covering Scott’s current setup, switching into a new 3-wood this week, switching back into an old custom set of irons this week, his club collection and favorite clubs of all time, how John Daly’s swing has become an inspiration for his current swing thoughts and even his new Rolex watch:

GOLFWRX.COM'S ANDREW TURSKY: So we know you’re one of the most prolific gear testers on the PGA TOUR, can you talk through a bit of your testing process, whether you prioritize looks and feel, or certain data on the launch monitor?

ADAM SCOTT: Well the data is important, obviously it’s got to be within certain parameters, any club, to be considered in play. Looks and feel is also important because it sets the mood for a shot and can give you confidence. Although I think it’s less important for me today than it once was. I’m more interested in the raw performance of the club. I feel like my mind’s open enough to adjust to a different look or feel if it’s getting a better performance.

GOLFWRX: What’s your club collection look like, and what are some of your favorite clubs of all time?

SCOTT: Oh man. It’s probably not as many as people think, although I do every couple of years clear out the clubs. I probably have 10 sets of different clubs sitting at home, of irons. I have a lot of drivers and fairway woods from the last couple years, because I’ve tested a lot of them.

But as far as older clubs, I kept the set I turned pro with, which was a set of Titleist 681s. I have them, and I have the 975D driver, and the PT-15 3-wood with the bore-through shaft. Probably for sentimental reasons. I mean they look great, but probably for sentimental reasons, I kept them. I have the set that I won The Masters with, which was Titleist 695MB’s, but they’re on display at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the actual set. So I don’t know if I’ll ever get them back or not, but I know where they are. I kept them. And, what other clubs? Oh, I used a set of Bullet Invincible 2s when I was a junior, and I scorched golf courses with them. I actually still have them, and they look terrible today. They’re in really bad shape, they’ve rusted and the chrome is coming off, but when I look at them, I see why I like the things I like. For example, offset. I mean, if you look at clubs from the ’90s or ’80s and stuff, even on the blades, there was so much offset. And that’s what I grew up with. There’s way less on the clubs I use today, but I can see why offset doesn’t bother me.

GOLFWRX: Alright, let’s get into your current set and go through the bag. As you’re going through the clubs, can you offer up insight into what you like about the clubs, some testing you’ve done, or why they’re in the bag?

SCOTT: Well, we’ll start at the top end in the driver. I’m using a Titleist GT2. It’s a 10-degree head on a C2 setting. I think that’s minus 0.75 degrees of loft, I’m pretty sure. There are a lot of settings, but I think it is. And I’ve got the Diamana White Board, I think this one is maybe they’re most recent shaft that came out in the last year, or the last 12 months or so.

I put this driver into play at the U.S. Open last year. Titleist launched this GT series on Tour roughly last summer, and strong reviews around the Tour rumor mill. So I had to hit it. It’s really good.

Why do I like it? Titleist often makes a very clean, simple-looking driver. There’s nothing much on the crown. The GT logo is nicely positioned, and performance-wise, it was just really, really in a safe place for me. I get good ball speed, I get really balanced spin rates all across the face, even on the toe strike, the spin stays up, which is kind of important, and on a heel strike, it doesn’t go through the roof. So I’ve got a lot of margin to hit across this whole face. Yeah, and look, it’s been in the bag for like 9, 10 months, that’s good for me (laughs).

Then, this is actually brand new this week. So I’ve been using a mini driver BRNR for pretty much the last two years, and it’s been a staple in the bag. But I hit this earlier this year just on the range at Pebble, and it went nicely. I’d just been having this feeling like the driver and the mini were so close to each other, and I just felt like it seemed weird to have two of the same club. They got there different ways, but it was doing the same thing ultimately.

So this is a 16.5 high launch, but it really performs hotter than that. It’s really going strong off the tee, and a bit more versatility off the fairways than the mini. But I have hit great shots; I am a mini guy, really. So this was a surprise to even put a 3-wood back in. But it’s in, and it feels good.

This has probably been my favorite club in the bag for the last year. It’s the Qi10 5-wood. Just strong, stable, goes an incredible distance. Tight distance, too. You don’t get those hot ones that go 10-15 yards further. Really a consistent club that goes a long way, which is what you’re looking for when you’re 250 out and you’ve got water. You know how far it’s going to go, it’s a good feeling to have that.

This stays in the bag a lot more than I thought it would, but I have a 9-wood. This doesn’t go quite as far, it’s more like a 230-235 club. But the height it comes down from is incredible from the fairway. And also, just the versatility, just out of the rough, moving the ball like 200 yards out of the rough. If I didn’t have this, and was playing a 3-iron, I’d be hitting a 9-iron and hacking it out a little bit. The reality is I’m in the rough a little bit, I like that option. The only difference between this one and my other woods is that this has the Ventus TR Blue 9X in it. Just a little more stout handle to tip than the Diamana, and because of the loft on this, it easily wants to go left, and the stout shaft kind of balances out the draw bias, or the left bias, of the club. So it stays a bit straighter with this shaft in it. I can handle a big boy shaft in a 9-wood.

So this week I’ve actually gone back to an old faithful, the KBS 130X shafts. I used this shaft pretty much for about 12 years straight. There were a couple of tests in that 12 years, but I won The Masters with this shaft, I got to world number one, won a bunch of PGA TOUR events with this shaft. And I wanted to go back to them to see what it felt like, and they were sitting in a set of these Titleist 681 as heads, which were made for me a few years ago, so I took them out to hit, and the feeling was good. And so the whole set has made its way back into the bag for the first time in about three years, would be my guess.

You know, this is a really like, old-school look. There’s a bit of offset, it’s not as uniform in the head shape as irons are today. Irons look very smooth, and there isn’t like a real progression in the set. These are very individual. Some people may not like it, but I’m quite used to it and I don’t mind it. What I mean by that is the 7-iron has a really straight top edge line to a high toe. It’s very straight. But then, the 8-iron is a really rounded-shaped head, and it almost looks like they could be from two different sets, but, they have their own character. I kind of like that, and you develop a real feeling for that.

Also, the blade length is probably a little longer on these irons than most musclebacks today. For me, again, like with offset, which I like, and that long blade length, I think the release pattern of the club really matches. It’s how I grew up, so it matches my DNA of my swing, and there’s a comfort feeling with that longer blade length and how the club closes down or squares up, hopefully. So that’s a familiar feeling, and we’ll see how that goes this week.

And I’ve always been a Vokey wedge guy. The 48 in the pitching wedge, and I put the KBS shaft in this one. This is actually an SM9, so I haven’t moved into the 10 with that, but I have with the other two. The 54, I call it a sand wedge, but gap wedge, pretty standard 10-degree bounce. Versatile. But this has the S400 shaft. Very similar to the KBS I’d say, the S400, in weight and feel, but for some reason I’ve always stuck with the Dynamic Gold in the wedges. Just what I know. Nice feel.

Then my 60 is an AD+, which is this modified M grind done by Aaron Dill, who’s the master. This is actually an SM10 also, and the only thing I add to it is I hook (the heel area) a little bit so it hooks into the hosel. It kind of fakes a little offset look. It’s not super offset, but it looks like it is. If you really wanted to picture what this looks like, it’d be more like a less extreme version of a Ping Eye2 lob wedge that has this offset and a hook up into the hosel. It’s a very subtle version of that. When I put it on the ground, it just sits better for me for some reason. Maybe because the leading edge looks more on the ground and flush. Again, that’s the perception that gives you the confidence that you’re going to strike it the right way.

Then the putter. The putter, most people have seen me with this blue Mezz.1 Max for the better part of two years. This guy’s been in, and I’ve just putted so well with it. It’s hard to get away from it. Obviously, all the L.A.B. putters swing really smoothly. Some of the design I like on this are these lines that aren’t filled on the topline, it just helps the instinctual aim. I don’t really pay attention to them, but it just frames the putter and the direction really well for me. I think alignment is such an important part of putting, especially with a L.A.B., which is so stable and hard to manipulate the start line, you need to be aiming it well. This putter has done me well for a couple years, so it stays in.

GOLFWRX: We always see you testing putters early in the week, but you don’t change. Why do you do that testing?

SCOTT: I always come back, and this guy (his gamer putter) feels great. When I’m at home, I pretty much never play with my gamer. I putt with a short putter, I’ll test a different one, and then when I come back, this always feels great because obviously I’ve putted well with it. I have good vibes. But having those good vibes is an important thing. Like you’re excited to hit putts, so I don’t mind going out and trying some different stuff that maybe isn’t perfect, but then I come back, and this feels better. And that’s a positive thing for me.

Golf ball, I play the Titleist Pro V1, the 2021 model. Scottie Scheffler plays it. Viktor Hovland, so a couple guys who have done well with it. I’m looking to add to that.

GOLFWRX: People obviously love your golf swing. What are some of your swing thoughts, or what are you working on these days?

SCOTT: Yeah, there’s always something going on. A lot of the time it’s developing feelings for me without changing the theme of my swing. Feelings come and go. Generally, I don’t want to change my swing. It depends, I have rhythm thoughts, but I’m not really working on that. I’m actually more interested in a little more inside plane, let’s say at the moment. I’m thinking of John Daly for that. Back in the day, he used to whip that club in off the ball. I’ve been kind of letting it drift out a little bit, and so, if I think of John Daly, I’ve watched some YouTube stuff of him from ’95, or even early 90’s, it’s just amazing swinging. Just so good, the way he moved at it. But when I see that online of him just whipping it inside, I kind of try and copy that. I don’t think I actually do take it inside, but it feels like it. So, at the moment I’m going with the John Daly takeaway.

GOLFWRX: And last question for you. I know you’re a watch guy, what do you have on the wrist?

ADAM SCOTT: This is cool. This is pretty new. This is the Rolex Yacht-Master in titanium. It’s a wild watch. It’s so light. It’s like I’m not even wearing it, it’s incredible. I don’t know the weight of it, but it’s not many grams. It’s a cool watch. I like the matte bezel, and lowkey-ness of it, and the brushed titanium is a cool look. It’s kind of an under-the-radar killer.