New Year, New Gear

Graeme McDowell has a new look for 2011

As you will know from my blog post on New Year's Eve Graeme McDowell was my golfing hero from 2010.

I wasn't at all surprised to see that he had decided to leave Callaway for Srixon. It is a logical step where he will be a higher profile product ambassador and pocket a tidy sum at the same time. Srixon have certainly been trumpeting the arrival of their new signing via their website and social media.

As a regular golf forum reader there had been more than a few who thought G-Mac a tad barmy for switching clubs and ball after such a succesful year. I never really had those concerns and full expected him to retain the three main weapons in his armoury: driver, hybrids and that wand of a putter.

He confirmed my assumption on Twitter shortly after the switch "No change on Callaway FT Tour driver, Odyssey #7 putter and Adams hybrids. Still got the old faithfuls in the bag. Bag set up looks great."

I expected the transition to be seamless and with a steady start in Kapalua with a -2. However, his Twitter post told a different story: a tale of driving and putting woes. "Evening Tweeple (well here in Hawaii anyway). 17 greens today. Drove it awful. New irons were fantastic. Greens had me confused. 2 under".

Is this a tale of ring rust, an off day or heaven forbid the sign of early struggles with the Z-Star XV? Obviously, it's way too early to tell and one tournament (let alone a respectable opening round) does not a season make. I'm not cynical enough to believe it was PR spin to atone for the earlier transgression of hailing the Callaway stalwarts still in the bag. Others might be though...