Matt Fitzpatrick debuts a new driver, goes low Thursday at Travelers
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CROMWELL, Conn. — Golfers like to say a putter is the most personal club in the bag, but for some, the driver isn’t too far behind. On Thursday at the Travelers Championship, Matt Fitzpatrick offered a reminder that the biggest-hitting club can also be the most frustrating.
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After weeks of searching for a replacement after a crack sidelined his trusted driver earlier this season at the Truist Championship, Fitzpatrick may have found his newest driver, a Ping G430 LST that he added to his bag this week. The results were, shall we saw, impressive.
Fitzpatrick hit 13 of 14 fairways, which helped him hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and open the tournament with with a 6-under 64 to put himself firmly in contention. Statistically, it was one of his cleanest ball-striking performances of the year, gaining 1.09 strokes off the tee and 1.48 strokes from the fairway.
“I just struggled off the tee,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to last week’s U.S. Open. “You’ve got to give yourself a chance at making some scores. Not only a chance of making birdies, but just trying to make comfortable pars.”
When asked why Thursday was so different, the 2022 U.S. Open champion didn’t dance around the answer.
“Yeah, I have a different driver this week,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s obviously new. Just getting comfortable with that and I had, you know, felt like I practiced well these first three days as well and just managed to find something that I felt was working a bit better.”
That “something” is the Ping G430 LST, built specifically to match what Fitzpatrick likes to see at impact.
According to Ping PGA Tour representative Kenton Oates, the search wasn’t simply about finding a head that launched the ball correctly.
“We found a good loft and setting to create solid contact and then it was just messing with the CG (center of gravity) to get the desired start line and curve,” Oates told Golfweek via text.
The build sheet shows just how specific Tour-level fitting gets. Fitzpatrick’s driver is a 9-degree head, but the actual loft is 8.2 degrees. The adjustable is in the standard, the finished length is 45.75 inches and it is fitted with a Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei CK Pro Orange 65 TX shaft that has been tipped 1 inch. Oates also positioned the 3 grams of wight was added to the heel area, and the 17-gram CG Shifter weight in the back is in the heel setting.
Those details matter more than many golfers realize. Fitzpatrick explained, he had been on a heater until his old driver cracked, and he’s been searching for just the right driver ever since.
“I played obviously very well up until Zurich,” he said. “My driver cracked on the Wednesday of Truist. Then, if you look at my off the tee from then, it’s quite telling that obviously there was something in that driver that was helping me out and I struggled to find one since.”
He praised the effort of the Titleist Tour staff that had been trying to replace it, stressin that the issue wasn’t a lack of effort, but the challenge was simply finding a club that matched his eye and swing.
Later, he offered perhaps the best explanation of why swapping drivers isn’t as simple as grabbing another one off the rack.
“The detail is really important,” Fitzpatrick said. “Everyone is different. Their habits, how they move the club, how they react to different clubs.”
Thursday suggested he may have finally found those details again.
At a tournament where birdies are plentiful and fairways are the gateway to low scores, a new driver might have changed far more than the logo on the sole. It may have changed the trajectory of Fitzpatrick’s summer.
David Dusek is a senior writer at Golfweek covering equipment.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Matt Fitzpatrick’s Ping G430 LST driver sparks 64 at Travelers