NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Cameron Young’s mammoth 375-yard drive two Sundays ago on the intimidating 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass – the longest drive ever recorded on the hole in the Players Championship – came with a club he’d only had in his bag for two weeks.
Young swapped out his 9-degree Titleist GT2 driver for a lower-spinning 11-degree GT3 the week before at Bay Hill, where he finished T3 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Young made the move seeking a higher launch to go with the prototype Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot golf ball, which flies a little lower than the standard Pro V1x.
The combination paid off at the right moment, as Young told himself on the last tee box, “I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here.” And he did.
“It’s a scary tee shot. To have hit that one in that moment, that’s pretty good,” he said.
While it was his 57-degree Titleist Vokey Design SM11 sand wedge that set up the 10-footer Young buried with his Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R Tour Prototype putter for birdie on the island 17th green to grab a share of the lead, Young’s setup includes unique Titleist 631.CY prototype 6-9 irons made just for him that he’s used since 2023. He’s spoken in the past about the creation of those irons (based on the 620 MB), which are custom-made with a pre-worn leading edge, a slightly wider sole to reduce digging and a lower center of gravity.
“It started as a question, which was ‘if your irons could do anything different, what could they do?’” he said. “I said, help me not dig as quickly into the ground at impact and launch a little higher. What Titleist did is grind the front and then widen the sole marginally over their standard blades. They also moved the weight further down, which helped increase the height and launch.”
Matt Fitzpatrick’s painfully close effort at the Players Championship came with a little something old and something somewhat newer.
Ahead of the Players, Fitzpatrick swapped out the Bettinardi DASS BB48 Prototype mallet he’s been using since last summer (including his winning efforts in the Ryder Cup and DP World Tour Championship) with a DASS BB1 blade he previously used for four years, including his 2022 U.S. Open win at Brookline.
The move brought positive results as Fitz gained nearly 1.5 strokes putting over the field (30th) at Sawgrass. He could have used one more 8-footer on the last to force a playoff with Young, but it was still a big improvement over his season average of -0.126 strokes lost putting, which ranks 104th on the PGA Tour.
As an equipment free agent, Fitzpatrick’s mixed bag once again includes the 13-year-old Ping S55 irons (5-PW). His Ping i210 3- and 4-irons are newer, having first come out` in 2018.
In 2024, Fitzpatrick finally switched out of his trusted irons for new Ping Blueprint S irons. “They look like my old ones (the Ping S55), just probably a little bit more modern. Everything about them is really good, I really like them,” he said then.
He then switched to the Titleist T100s ahead of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst before eventually coming back to his old tried-and-true S55s early in 2025.
Scott Michaux