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| Jonathan Wall |
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One of the unnamed players behind Callaway's Quantum Mini Spinner just won on the LPGA. When Callaway announced the Quantum Mini Spinner, the company said the club was inspired by several JLPGA players who wanted more stopping power from their high-lofted fairway woods. What Callaway didn't share was their names. Consider the introduction made for one of the pros. Yuna Nishimura, a six-time winner in Japan, picked up her first LPGA title last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, closing with a 66 at Pinnacle Country Club to win by five. The Quantum Mini Spinner 7-wood she helped develop was in the bag. Nishimura's problem will sound familiar to anyone carrying multiple lofted woods. Her 7-, 9- and 11-woods weren't generating enough spin or a steep enough landing angle on approaches into par 4s and par 3s, so she asked Callaway for a club that launched high and stopped quicker. Since the Mini Spinner went in play, Callaway said her spin is up 600 to 700 rpm, and her peak height has climbed too. Callaway calls it "the scoring wood," and the recipe runs counter to most modern fairway woods. Rather than a low center of gravity (the head's balance point) built to knock spin down, the Mini Spinner pairs a high CG with an Ai-optimized face designed to add spin. It also plays 0.75 inches shorter than a standard fairway wood for more consistent contact, with a taller face that offers more usable hitting area out of the rough. Callaway said the Mini Spinner is already the No. 1-selling fairway wood in Japan. Now the club can add an LPGA win to its resume.
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| Mike Stachura |
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Time was when we thought a young college player getting a PGA Tour invite was cute—now it's just another sign of prudent investment in elite talent. Kihei Akina, a sophomore at BYU and NCAA Freshman of the Year, is playing in this week's Bank of Utah Championship on a sponsor's invite. He's the latest young player to snap up an NIL deal, with Ping announcing it signed the 20-year-old Hawaii native to play 14 Ping clubs, carry a Ping bag and wear a Ping hat in all non-collegiate events. Akina, who reportedly was offered scholarships from 50 college programs after a junior career that included earning individual medalist honors three times in the Utah state high school championships, became the youngest Utah Open winner since 1934 when he won the title as a 19-year-old in 2025. He was a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team this year, a quarterfinalist at the British Amateur, and a Fred Haskins Award finalist. Akina finished T-16 at the Puerto Rico Open in March on the PGA Tour and set the Big 12 conference tournament scoring record with a 63 at Prairie Dunes earlier this spring.
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| Jonathan Wall |
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It's possible some golfers could have lie angle pegged wrong. On an episode of Golf Digest's Club Lab podcast, Chris Marchini, Golf Galaxy and Dick's Sporting Goods' director of golf performance and innovation, laid it out plainly: on a well-struck shot, the ball is gone before the club ever bottoms out. So the toe isn't digging in and flaring the face open. What lie angle actually affects? That'd be start direction. If you're leaking shots right or pulling them left, that's your tell. Robotic testing with Golf Laboratories at plus or minus five degrees backs it up—the directional shift shows up clearly in the numbers. The bigger issue is how fitters apply it. A blanket two-degree across-the-board adjustment is a red flag, because you don't deliver a 4-iron like a wedge. Marchini's fix: order the clubs, get them built, then bring the player back in to bend each iron individually. There's also a tour precedent here. Lee Trevino once walked into a van and asked the builder to set his irons up so he wouldn't miss a 3-iron right or a wedge left. The result was a lie angle that curved progressively across the set rather than sitting static. It's called the "Trevino Curve," and if your iron spec sheet features the same number across the board, it might be worth a second look.
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