NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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For pretty much his entire professional career, Matthew Fitzpatrick has been a Ping iron guy, playing with the S55 irons for a decade before switching to the Blueprint S earlier this year.
At the U.S. Open, however, Fitzpatrick made a big transition into Titleist T100 irons. It was a shift that followed his move in May at the Wells Fargo Championship from the 2019 to 2021 Titleist Pro V1x golf ball.
“To me, I just needed a little bit more flight and a little bit more spin, and the combination of the ball and the irons did that for me,” Fitzpatrick told GolfWRX.com at the Travelers Championship, noting that his T100s have a special “Fitz grind” on the leading edge to help attain his desired spin and height.
Plenty of equipment companies could boast leading stats in the recent U.S. Open.
Odyssey lays claim to being the top putter brand at every men’s and women’s major championship this year, including 16 players in the U.S. Open using the Ai-One or Ai-One Milled Jailbird Cruiser to navigate the devilish greens at Pinehurst No. 2. Although it didn’t keep its winning streak alive at Pinehurst, where 25 players put them in play, Callaway’s Chrome Tour and Tour X balls got a boost with Xander Schauffele (PGA Championship) and Yuka Saso (U.S. Women’s Open) winning the previous two majors.
Titleist golf balls led the U.S. Open field (101 players, 65 percent) for the 76th consecutive year and got the win with Bryson DeChambeau using a Pro V1x Left Dash, with the equipment wonk saying after the third round: “It’s not a spinny golf ball, and you need a lot of spin to control the golf ball around here. But it’s what I’m comfortable with. It’s what I like using for my irons. It’s what flight I need for wind.”
Fujikura’s Ventus was the top driver shaft at Pinehurst, with nearly 44 percent of the field deploying one, including runner-up Rory McIlroy and all six players who led the field in driving accuracy – topped by Sepp Straka’s 88 percent of fairways hit using a Ventus Blue 6-X.
Over at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee, Brooke Henderson hoped to find a familiar spark with a putter change – the same thing she did eight years ago when she won her first major in the same event on the same course after switching putters two days before teeing off.
Henderson, who hadn’t finished better than T27 in her previous five starts after posting five top-10s early in 2024, replaced her TaylorMade Spider with a TaylorMade M37 mallet-style putter on Tuesday before the Women’s PGA.
“I’m hoping to rekindle some magic there,” said Henderson, who received an honorary membership to Sahalee and had a plaque in the 18th fairway dedicated to the 7-iron she hit to make her winning playoff birdie in 2016. “Yeah, different look, different feel. I feel this year I’ve tried a few different things with my putting – pin in, pin out, left-hand low, more of a traditional grip – so just trying to feel it out and trying to find something that works.”
Scott Michaux