Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news. This week’s roundup highlights Kevin Chappell’s gear superstition, a quirk with Joaquin Niemann’s wedges and how Bryson DeChambeau added 750 RPMs of spin.

One and done

Countless players on the PGA Tour are superstitious. For example, Justin Thomas has three ball markers he rotates on a regular basis depending on how the round is going. It’s not something Thomas has to worry about during the course of play — when things start to go sideways, he simply pulls out a different marker and starts fresh.

This differs greatly from Kevin Chappell’s superstition, which requires him to carry an ample supply of Titleist Pro V1s when he’s piling up the birdies. After every circle he adds to the card, Chappell will replace the “birdie ball” with a fresh pellet.

Why? Because Chappell believes a ball has only one birdie in it.

Most weeks, this isn’t an issue. But on Friday at the Greenbrier, things got interesting for Chappell following his 11th birdie of the round. Chasing a sub-59 round, Chappell reached into his bag on No. 8 — his 17th hole of the round — only to realize he was all out fresh balls.

“We ran into a problem here,” Chappell said after the round. “That could be why I didn’t make the putts on the last few holes. When I made birdie, I reached in there on 8 tee and there was no more balls in the new ball pile.”

Not good. Without a new ball at his disposal, Chappell wound up reusing one of the old birdie balls.

“Reused a ball on 8 and didn’t like the way that went,” he said. “I put that back and reused a ball on 9. My whole thing was I would never bring out more balls than birdies I’ve made in a round.”

Chasing the elusive 58 — a score only Jim Furyk has recorded on the PGA Tour — Chappell would go on to finish par-par to shoot 59.

It sounds crazy to blame a silly superstition on the vanilla finish. Then again, Chappell was 11 birdies deep before the golf ball issue reared its ugly head. Next time he should consider carrying a full dozen, just in case.

Wedge flex

It’s not uncommon for a Tour player to use a slightly softer shaft flex in their wedges. The shaft can improve feel and add a lower, more controlled flight in the scoring clubs — something elite players tend to prefer. Unless you’re Joaquin Niemann.