Gear Smart

Ryan breaks down the fresh 2026 launches of the week, including Mizuno irons, drivers, and putters, TaylorMade's Qi4D driver, and the Titleist ProV1x Left Dash.

Then he brings back Ryan's bargain bin, and answers questions from the listener hot line.

If you have a gear question for Ryan, leave him a message at 747-224-1868 ☎️

Ryan wraps up gear news in 2025 and answers YOUR questions from our new listener hot line!

Do you have a gear question for Ryan? Give him a call at 747-224-1868 ☎️

Gear heads, rejoice! Ryan is joined this week by the Club Junkie himself, Brian Knudson of GolfWRX to chat about the year's new clubs, trends on TOUR, and more.

Have a gear question for Ryan? Our Gear Smart hotline is now open! Give him a call at 747-224-1868 and he might answer your question on the next episode!

Ryan breaks down new equipment at the Australian Open and Hero World Challenge then dives into new drivers that hit the conforming list, PXG's Lightning Series launch and explains why club technology is so important.

We're going back-to-back weeks to talk about all the latest in golf equipment as brands are dropping gift-friendly items. Then Ryan breaks down the gear of the year and shares a fun new toy he's got in the workshop.

The new 2026 releases are slowing starting to appear in the bags of players. Ryan breaks down new TaylorMade and Ping drivers spotted in Abu Dhabi and the latest in equipment drops.

Ryan dives into the equipment implications of The Sentry's cancellation, the latest gear releases from this past week, and an epic haul of used clubs from his trip to the desert.

Ryan dives into the details of the latest drops in golf gear and answers your questions.

Ryan is joined by Fujikura tour rep Marshall Thompson to chat about the Ventus line, product development, their major success this year and more.

Ryan Barath is joined by St Andrew's only independent club fitter Adam Legg to talk about how he got into the industry, the expectations people should have for putter fittings, why he went from club building to fittings, and the time he almost burned down the St Andrews workshop.

Ryan dives into Tommy Fleetwood's breakthrough PGA TOUR win at the TOUR Championship before being joined by Callaway's Zack Oakley to discuss iron and wedge development, the trend of high-lofted fairway woods and more.

Ryan Barath dives into Cameron Young's Wyndham Championship victory using a prototype Titleist ball before chatting with Matt Bovee, TaylorMade's Global Category Director of Irons, to discuss his role, the new MG5 wedges, forged vs. cast, groove design, testing with players and more.

Ryan sits down with Titleist Director of Iron Development Marni Ines to talk about the new T-Series line, creating irons that merge technology and aesthetics, the challenges of making great clubs better, how he got into the golf industry after an engineering career, and watching Cam Davis hit a 3-iron 172 feet high in the air.

Ryan breaks down his two weeks across the pond, including his golf trip in Scotland and the Open Championship before chatting with TaylorMade Director of Product Creation, Andrew Oldknow, about the company's innovation, the Spider putter, their Grand Slam winning fairway wood and more.

Callaway Golf Global Director Brand and Product Management of Golf Balls and Packaged Sets Jason Finley joins this week's episode to chat with Ryan about golf ball development over the years, increases in visual technology in balls and more.

Golf broadcaster, podcaster, and author Shane Bacon joins this week's episode of Gear Smart to chat about being a lefty, playing baseball as a righty, caddying at the Old Course for a summer after college, tinkering with clubs, old school drivers, the first big club purchase he made and more.

This week Ryan opens the show discussing the many new releases from this week in gear, including Cobra's Chipotle Collab, new Wilson Wedges, and more. Then its a deep dive on questions sent in from listeners.

Ryan breaks down Bryson's unique irons used during the PGA Championship, dives into Titleist's sneak peek of their latest T-series irons debuting on tour this week, and chats with Callaway Tour Content Manager Johnny Thompson on all things gear.

R&D veteran Jeff Sheets joins Ryan Barath on this week's episode to discuss building clubs, driver designs, playing with blades and more.

Nico Darras of Golf Blueprint joins Ryan on this week's episode to talk about their shared loved for gear, how he got into the game, the proper way to get fit for clubs, and how a study on golfers' central nervous systems helped him improve his players' practice and performance.

Ryan chats with Titleist golf ball R&D expert Courtney Engle and Golf Ball R&D Project Manager Doug Jones about ball flight, testing, spin axis, materials and more.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Skratch's Gear Smart, a golf gear and equipment-focused podcast intended to help make you smarter about your equipment to help you make informed decisions on the golf course, in your next fitting, or when you're looking to fill that next spot in your bag.
To kick off this new series, host Ryan Barath - Skratch's Gear Editor offers up some background on himself and what the show is all about and answers a couple of listener-submitted questions.