NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Last year at the Shriners Children’s Open, Matthew Wolff tied for second place and vaulted to No. 12 in the world rankings. A few weeks before, he was runner-up in the U.S. Open and appeared destined for the same stardom that contemporaries Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland have attained.
That forward progress hasn’t happened for the former Oklahoma State Cowboy. Wolff has struggled both emotionally and with his golf swing in the past 12 months, failing to register a top-10 finish since October 2020 and dropping to No. 47 in the world as he began play last week.
Now, the talented 22-year-old Californian has made a gear change. Can it be an indication that the he will start making noise again?
Those high finishes a year ago at Winged Foot and TPC Summerlin came with Wolff using a set of TaylorMade P7MC irons. Despite the success, he switched to an old set of P750s and tried to make the clubs work as he grinded on a setup change. Wolff has been working on getting his hands lower at address, which creates a more consistent angle into the ball given his funky delivery.
What his team discovered is that a set of flatter irons allow his hands to sit lower naturally, without hindering his swing. This means that the grip of the club is closer to the ground as the shaft is more horizontal than upright.
TaylorMade reps offered to bend Wolff’s P750s to make them flatter, but his P7MC irons already were 1 degree flatter than his P750s – which could explain the difference in success in the first place.
Wolff went back to the P7MCs two weeks ago for the start of the new PGA Tour season at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He showed meaningful signs of life, ultimately finishing T17 while scaring the first page of the leaderboard for much of the week.
This past week, Wolff got himself into contention in Las Vegas once again, settling for solo second. He gained nearly four strokes against the field with his approach play.
Confidence is fickle in golf and sometimes a slight tweak can send a player in the right direction.
For evidence of how that can happen, Wolff only has to look at Sanderson Farms winner Sam Burns. The 25-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, was enjoying a respectable year in the strokes gained off the tee category when he went to a Callaway Epic Speed driver during the summer.
It took Burns 10 practice balls to realize the driver helped with his dispersion pattern. The evidence is clear as Burns has driven the ball at a different level since the change, gaining 6.16 strokes against the field off the tee in Mississippi.
“I switched to the new Callaway Epic Speed a few months ago and it’s really been a game-changer for me,” Burns said after his win. “I think as well as I drove it this week, it just set me up for a lot of the second shots on these holes, and it was a lot easier (for me out of the fairway). That was huge having that in the bag this week.”
Sean Fairholm