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NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Unsurprisingly, Dustin Johnson’s equipment tends to align with his personality.
The 10.5-degree TaylorMade SIM driver that Johnson used during his Masters romp is about as low-maintenance as they come given that the head is almost identical to what consumers would find if they were to walk into their local golf shop. Johnson doesn’t like hot melt or any other customized adjustments that are unique to him – TaylorMade gives him the driver as it was designed for everyone else, Johnson moves the clubhead weights around to his liking and off he goes into competition. At the Masters, Johnson moved more weight toward the toe to help with his trusty fade.
In terms of his driver shaft, Johnson has been using a Fujikura’s Speeder Evolution II Tour Spec dating to his time at Coastal Carolina University. He makes his own tweaks to the loft sleeve based on TrackMan numbers and overall feel during his range sessions.
That simplified approach hasn’t seemed to hurt the two-time major champion throughout his career, especially this past week. Johnson averaged 306.7 yards a drive and hit the fairway 78.5 percent of the time.
While Johnson won’t be changing much heading into the new year, it’s back to the laboratory for Bryson DeChambeau. We won’t see the bomber on the PGA Tour until the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, but rest assured he will be working hard to make necessary tweaks to get ready for 2021.
Next on his radar is making adjustments to his golf ball.
“We’re going to try to work on a golf ball that will fit it a little better with my wedges,” DeChambeau said after his T34 finish at the Masters. “My wedges are still – this week I’d hit wedges in, on No. 1 I hit one and it spun 30 feet back and off the green. I can’t hit anything less than what I did. It was a 110-yard shot and I took it back halfway and went through and it spun back 30 feet.
“I’ve got to work on some ball stuff. I’ve gone through the whole club scenario. That’s as much as I can do there. So hopefully we can come up with a ball that will do some more things that will be helpful.”
DeChambeau signed a long-term contract with Bridgestone earlier this month to ensure he will be playing the company’s golf balls for many years to come.
On the subject of golf balls, two-time PGA Tour winner Kyle Stanley routinely collaborates with Titleist tour reps JJ Van Wezenbeeck and Fordie Pitts to decide which model of Pro V1 or Pro V1x will best suit his game in a given week. Last Monday, Stanley texted Van Wezenbeeck to inquire about the new Pro V1x balls – Stanley had been testing them at home and preferred the higher flights and ball speeds he was seeing.
“As we tested each club with his previous golf ball, we saw Stanley’s peak heights, especially with his longer clubs, had gotten very low, preventing him from stopping the ball on greens the way he wanted,” Van Wezenbeeck said “The switch from a previous generation Pro V1 to the new Pro V1x gave Stanley increased launch and spin that was very beneficial with his longer irons and hybrids resulting in more stopping power and better gapping.”
While on the practice facility at the RSM Classic, one of Stanley’s former college coaches joined the team to discuss how to help Stanley further increase his ball speed when using driver.
“While the New Pro V1x increased his speed some, we also explored the new TSi3 driver with a new shaft option,” said VanWezenbeeck, who inserted a Fujikura Speeder VII 661 at 46 inches. “Moving to a slightly longer and lighter shaft paired with the new TSi3 versus the TS3 at 45 inches, we saw Kyle’s ball speed increase 4 to 6 mph.
“We also saw increased launch and a decrease in spin, resulting in a total distance increase of 10 to 20 yards. The (moment-of-inertia) properties allowed him to achieve all this without sacrificing control which is an integral part of Kyle’s game.”
Pitts joined Stanley on the golf course for a few holes to confirm what they had seen on the range and to make sure he was comfortable with how the new ball was performing. Stanley hit shots in various conditions and commented how much he liked the flight and control he was getting.
The moves seemed to work quickly for Stanley as he opened with 67-65 to put himself in contention. He wound up T6 for his first top-10 finish since February.
Sean Fairholm