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I had the opportunity to watch four live rounds of a Nationwide Tour event, as they visited a nearby course this past week. I spent 3 rounds in the gallery and a round as a volunteer whence I was able to walk with the players (Richard Johnson who tied for 2nd, Greg Chalmers, and Gabriel Hjerstedt) and accompany them on the tee boxes and fairways.

It was a great experience and I made some surprising finds after watching the players over the course of 4 days.

The first comment I'd like to make is that the majority of them hit the ball very low with their irons and wedges. All of their shots from 100 yards and in were also on a very low trajectory. The course was very receptive and the wind wasn't a factor so I was quite surprised.

Second, none of them took rips at the ball like you'd see Tiger Woods or Bubba Watson or JB Holmes doing. They swung the club with 70% effort almost every time. The only time I saw Johnson swing hard was on the tee of a 584 yard par 5.

Distance-wise, I saw everything from a 260 yard drive to about a 320 yard drive. I watched lots of players for lots of holes and there were no 380 yard bombs. Of the players in contention, they all drove the ball very, very straight. None of the players near the lead had many 2nd shots where they had to punch out.

Equipment-wise, I saw some things worth noting. DA Points had the new PING G10 fairway woods and hybrid in play. Of the manufacturer-sponsored players, I witnessed 5 guys with Taylor Made, 2 guys with Nike, 5 guys with Mizuno, 1 guy with Nickent, 1 guy with Titleist and 3 guys with PING. Of the players who did not have a sponsor (probably 20 or so that I saw), half of them had Mizuno irons in their bag and the other half had Titleist irons... nothing else, interestingly enough. Of the guys sponsored by Mizuno, ZERO of them were playing a Mizuno driver. Of the whole field, the most popular hybrid club was surprisingly Nickent... even three of the players with deals with other companies had a Nickent hybrid in their bag. Another surprise, I saw only 1 Cleveland driver in play and no Cobra drivers. The Cleveland driver I saw was an older Launcher Comp... no Hi Bores in any bags I saw all week.

Shaft choice was about what you'd expect. Some guys were using Graphite Design, some Aldila VS Proto shafts, some Fujikura. Amongst the iron shafts, I saw more Rifle Project X than anything else.

Well, this post is getting pretty long and I'm sure there's more I can add... but I'll cut it here for now.

Also...

Fade is the shot. All I saw were soft fades all week. I could probably count the draws that the tour players hit on my hands. From drivers to wedges, almost every shot had a little cut spin on it.

And, suprisingly enough. I saw lots of players chewing. Not that they had monster dips in their mouths and spit all over the place like baseball players, but they had chew or the little pouches. None smoked on the course.

Boo Weekley dips. In the latest Golf Tips Magazine he said there are plenty of tour players who carry around dip on the course.