The story behind Tony Finau’s bizzare hockey-stick putter grip | Gear

Welcome to Fully Equipped’s weekly Tour equipment report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if news warrants), GOLF equipment editor Jack Hirsh runs you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.

When Tony Finau was spotted trying out a unique split grip broomstick putting method earlier this season in Charlotte, a light went off in Tim Wright’s head.

“It looked like he was holding a hockey shaft,” Wright told GOLF. “And yeah, I saw that and my immediate thought was, gosh, my setup would be so much better, you know, might work for Tony.”

It’s no shock that Finau’s hockey-style grip clicked for Wright. He’s the founder, inventor and CEO of Caliber Golf, a Wisconsin-based putter grip company. Caliber’s main product is a unique hockey-stick-like putter grip that attaches to a traditional putter shaft and runs nearly down to the putter head.

A few months later, Finau is using Caliber’s hockey-stick grip this week at the PGA Tour’s Biltmore Championship in what Wright called a “breakaway moment” for the company, borrowing a hockey term.

“It’s a dream, for any golf company that’s out there on that PGA Show floor, just waiting to get recognized on the Tour,” he said. “Because that’s the ultimate goal is finding something that would work for one. All it would take is one player.”

Finau never actually put the broomstick putter in play, but about four weeks ago, Wright got a call from Finau’s team that he was interested in trying out one of the Caliber grips.

Wright built a Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset, the putter Finau has been using since January, with the tackier version of Caliber’s two grip options. He made the putter one inch longer (38″) than Finau’s typical build to allow Finau to experiment on his own with where he wanted to place his hands. Given the weight distribution of the grip, Wright says the feel is significantly altered based on your hand placement.

He sent it off to Finau at his home at Utah and didn’t hear anything until last week. Finau called him directly.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, Tony Finau is calling me,’ But that could be one of two things,” Wright said. “He needs a different setup, which is fine, but it turned out he just had a really simple question.

“So he said, ‘Tim, you gotta tell me, is this legal? Because it hasn’t left my bag since I received it. And I just need confirmation.’”

Wright worked directly with the USGA over the past eight years while creating the grip to ensure it would be legal for play. Wright’s original idea was a hockey shaft, but that proved difficult as hockey shafts wouldn’t deflect equally in all directions is is required of a putter shaft under USGA rules, he said.

The solution was to create a hockey-shaft-like grip that would be installed over a traditional shaft.

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All Finau needed was Wright’s reassurance.

“He actually said, ‘You have a really cool product,’ and that is a direct quote,” Wright said proudly. “And I loved hearing that because for someone to put something together like this, believed in the product myself. And then I start selling them through the online channel that we have, to hear that at the highest level, it’s pretty special.”

Finau isn’t using a split grip with the putter this week, although Wright says many players, including himself, opt for that. But the unique square shape, Wright said, helps a player stabilize the wrists unless they actively try to rotate them.

This week in North Carolina, Finau missed the cut after rounds of 78-71 where he lost more than seven strokes tee-to-green, but it provided a huge week of exposure for the small company.

Dahmen gives Hanna Golf it’s biggest moment yet

Finau isn’t the only big name giving a small brand huge exposure this week.

Joel Dahmen is also marking the PGA Tour debut of boutique putter maker Hanna Golf Co. by gaming a custom version of their Denver mallet this week at Walnut Cove.

Founder Jared Doerfler told GOLF it was the biggest moment in the three-year-old brand’s short history.

“There’s no monetary value attached to this, and you know if he does well, sure, maybe you get a few orders here and there from it. I don’t really care,” Doerfler said. “The fact that we have somebody on the PGA Tour playing our putters, that’s the coolest thing.”

Dahmen and Hanna have actually been connected since Doerfler quit his job in 2023 to launch the brand out of his garage in Iowa, with just one CNC milling machine and no knowledge of how to use it. Dahmen purchased a putter through the company’s website just weeks after their launch with no prior contact. Doerfler wasn’t even sure it was really him.

It was the PGA Tour winner and Netflix’s “Full Swing” favorite, who about a month later said he used the putter to shoot 60 in a casual round. Since then, short of putting the putter in play on Tour, Dahmen has been a supporter of the brand, helping Doerfler make connections in the industry and even using Hanna Golf putters in sponsor-related appearances.

But late last month, Dahmen decided he wanted to test several putters during off time between the Wyndham Championship and this week. He reached out to Hanna to build him a putter for that test, but the small team would only have about a week and a half to turn it around.

Doerfler and his team put in a 17-hour day milling and creating a modified version of the Denver mallet for Dahmen to test. Dahmen loved the basic shape of the Denver, and had putted well with it in the past, but needed some visual adjustments. Hanna changed some corners and the top-line tool paths to make the putter appear more narrow, adding a Battleship Grey finish.

Those changes ended up being a winner and Dahmen told Doerfler just before he started his round on Thursday that the putter was going in the bag.

“Days like yesterday were pretty cool, probably the coolest day of my professional career,” Doerfler said Friday. “[Joel] really came up the ranks and was a huge underdog. And he’s been really successful in what he’s done. And I think he just kind of sees that in us a little bit.”

Dahmen opened with a 33 on his front nine Thursday, but slowly backed up and will miss the cut.

Doerfler didn’t see the putter going in the bag as being the ultimate goal though. There’s still more to do to establish his brand.

“This is not winning. I don’t think [it’s] success, but I just think it’s part of the path to success and part of the journey,” he said. “It’s the biggest milestone we’ve ever had by far, and it just validates where we’re at in the process.”

Check this out

This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. This week, check out Jacob Bridgeman’s TaylorMade Qi4D 9-wood, which is bent to a 7-wood spec.

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Srixon launched new golf balls on the PGA Tour this week with promotional videos that seem to indicate one is a new Z-Star Diamond … Titleist “split arrow” Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls appeared on the USGA conforming list … Neal Shipley has a new Ping i240 4-iron this week with reduced offset … At the BMW PGA Championship in England, Adam Scott switched to the new Titleist GTS2 driver from his longtime GT2 … Nicolai Hojgaard has a new Odyssey Ai One Milled Eight T with a custom butane finish in the bag this week … Tommy Morrison switched to a silver Odyssey TRTL double bend and Callaway Chrome Tour golf ball on his own on the Korn Ferry Tour … Shane Lowry switched to a double bend putter hosel before his Irish Open win … Billy Horschel and Brice Garnett switched into Odyssey’s TRTL prototype … Jackson Koivun and Steven Fisk added TaylorMade Qi4D 16.5-degree fairway woods. Fisk also added a 7-wood … Eugenio Chacarra added a Spider Tour S Long and Rico Hoey added Spider Tour Long.