NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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With the season’s second major on deck, a number of prominent players geared up with some significant equipment changes in a tune-up at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas changed out his driver to be ready for the long and straight required last week at Quail Hollow and this week at Valhalla, site of the PGA Championship.
Thomas swapped out his Titleist TSR3 driver he’s been using since 2022 for a TSR2, which has a larger footprint and slightly higher spin and launch characteristics. Thomas replaced only the driver head, fitting it onto the same Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60TX shaft he’d been using.
“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas told GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow. “I had used that style of head a couple years. I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mis-hits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving.
“This [TSR2] has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid – I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is – but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckleball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head. Maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”
Former U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson hopes to spark his game with a new Odyssey Ai-One “Cruiser” Jailbird broomstick putter that he put in his bag at Quail Hollow Club, replacing his Odyssey V-Line Tank Cruiser armlock putter that he started using after the USGA’s anchoring ban in 2016.
“Inconsistent putting,” Simpson told GolfWRX.com last week of his reasoning for the switch. “I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open-minded. I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’
“If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all [of a] sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’ ”
Rickie Fowler – who along with Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley sparked the Jailbird putter trend last summer – is tweaking his putter setup to a standard length before the PGA.
He spent a couple of weeks experimenting with a new custom-orange Jailbird 380 head with a 35-inch putter build instead of the 38-inch counter-balanced setup he had been using. He put it in play in Charlotte using a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with feel and speed control. Fowler told GolfWRX.com that his plan is to re-incorporate more feel in his hands after using the 38-inch counter-balanced setup to “neutralize” his hands.
Former Open champion Shane Lowry also made a significant putter change that helped him win his partnership with Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Lowry deployed a TaylorMade Spider Tour Z mallet with a short slant neck in New Orleans, deviating from the Odyssey 2-ball head and double-bend hosel that he traditionally used.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com in Charlotte. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it, and it's a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Scott Michaux