If you follow this blog, then you’re familiar with “What’s in the Bag.” This is a different spin on that idea. This is “What’s in the Workshop.”
Brad Faxon turned pro in 1983 and enjoyed a long career on the PGA Tour. He has 8 wins under his belt and was a 3 time PGA Tour putting leader. Several years ago he made the transition to broadcasting and part-time play on the Champions Tour. Faxon is in the booth when FOX Sports televises the U.S. Open and other USGA championships.
In this video, Faxon welcomes viewers into his golf workshop in his home in Barrington, Rhode Island. It’s a short distance from Rhode Island Country Club, where he learned the game as a caddie and junior golfer.
“This golf room is a little bit of my museum,” Faxon says.
(That’s an understatement as viewers soon find out when Faxon shows off clubs he has used over a career that spans more than three decades.)
Faxon “loves” this room, saying, “This is a little place for me to get away, where I can come down, fiddle with my clubs, fix lies, lofts, grips.”
He reaches to the top of the club rack.
“I think it’s fascinating to see how golf clubs have developed over the years. I always get a big kick out of showing people the old wooden clubs.”
A commemorative 1953 Ben Hogan driver is one of his favorites.
The technology has drastically changed, as Faxon points out. “Today’s shaft is 60 grams, so it’s half the weight,” he says. Driver heads are four times larger; shafts are two inches longer. “So it’s not just the ball that’s going [farther].”
He holds up a pair of his old leather golf shoes with metal spikes that were made in Brockton, Massachusetts. Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler have never played in shoes like these.
Then Faxon grabs his shiny Titleist 1-iron. Now that’s a relic.
“You used to be defined [as]a good ball striker if you could hit a 1-iron,” he says. “Jack Nicklaus would have been that guy.” Greg Norman and Arnold Palmer also hit 1-irons like real men. Laughing, Faxon says he never used his 1-iron (the clubface shows no wear), but adds “it’s something you got to have in your golf shop.”
He also has many old putters, including a Bullseye model with a tiny sweet spot and at least one Scotty Cameron prototype putter, the kind that makes collectors salivate.
“Proud to be a Titleist guy,” Faxon says about the equipment company he has represented for his entire career. “The putter stuff in here is something I like to show off the most.”
Putting was and is Faxon’s golf superpower. He was among the best on tour and has coached players like Rory McIlroy, who regained his mojo on the greens earlier this year after some help from Faxon.
Faxon won eight times on the PGA Tour and played on two U.S. Ryder Cup teams. He has won twice on the Champions Tour.
Below Faxon discusses putting with two golf legends you might recognize.
Think a few putts have been made by these 2 gents? Fun in the air with @garyplayer & @BradFaxon talking about how to roll it. pic.twitter.com/GBNq9pjcNE
— Jack Nicklaus (@jacknicklaus) April 23, 2018
Do you have a golf workshop of your own? If you could create one for yourself, what would it look like?
Neil Sagebiel
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