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Golf tools has modified significantly within the final 20 years. We’ve seen titanium overthrow metal; adjustable weights develop into the norm within the woods class; the arrival of the hollow-body blade; and mallets go from an entire outsider to a standard sight at your native course — and on Tour.
It’s essential to place this era of speedy gear develop into context when discussing a chunk of apparatus that hasn’t modified throughout this timeframe. That may be Bubba Watson’s pink Grafalloy BiMatrix driver shaft.
In a sport the place gamers change tools to remain forward of the gear curve (and their friends), Watson has remained steadfastly loyal to the multi-material driver shaft that True Mood first launched within the late Nineteen Nineties. Deemed a contemporary marvel on the time it was launched, the shaft featured a metal tip part connected to a light-weight graphite physique.
Geared for these with immense swing velocity who required a secure half to pair with their driver head, BiMatrix nonetheless produced a excessive trajectory, making it a worthy choice for contemporary low spin golf balls.
Watson discovered the shaft to be the proper complement for each Ping driver he used, courting again to earlier than he turned professional in 2002. Regardless of the hefty weight (80 grams), Watson had no drawback main the tour in driving distance on 5 separate events, together with three straight years from 2006 to 2008.
“I’m a really feel participant,” Watson mentioned a number of years again. “At all times have been. Working the ball is essential to me off the tee, and that requires a sure stage of belief within the tools. Ping has all the time made me nice drivers, and that shaft has all the time labored with them. It’s a well-recognized really feel for certain.”
Up till final week, Watson was enjoying the oldest driver shaft on Tour. However like all good issues, there comes some extent the place even the longest hitters on Tour should query if a chunk of drugs that helped them attain the head {of professional} golf is now holding them again. It’s a reminder that Father Time remains to be undefeated.
In Watson’s case, a lower in velocity was the impetus behind a driver shaft change final week on the AT&T Byron Nelson. At 43, Watson felt a transfer away from an 80-gram shaft into one thing lighter may assist him acquire again a number of the velocity he’d misplaced within the final yr.
Watson requested a number of shafts to check at house, together with a Undertaking X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 60TX shaft that acquired a particular shoutout on his social media feed. At 60 grams in weight, the HZRDUS Smoke RDX is a full 20 grams lighter than BiMatrix however nonetheless offered the required stability Watson requires to work the ball in his optimum launch home windows.
“He was positively enthusiastic about extra distance,” mentioned True Mood Tour rep Paul Loegering. “For somebody who has been a distance chief for therefore lengthy, it was essential to try to discover a technique to keep lengthy by going lighter with out sacrificing dispersion and stability.”
As soon as Watson had completely vetted the shaft, his workforce reached out to True Mood to see if there was a technique to get Watson a customized model. As somebody who’s recognized for his hot-pink gear, Watson needed to maintain the look of his gear constant.
With provide chain points snarling a lot of the business, True Mood was nonetheless in a position to ship a customized half to Watson in Texas
“Now that we’re operating a bunch of various sports activities out of the identical facility, it’s extraordinarily busy to get stuff in via the queue,” mentioned Loegering. “On this state of affairs, we have been in a position to take the present RDX Black shaft with out the paint and managed to get a customized paint job on there in 4 days. It’s similar to making a prototype in the case of the graphics, which is the enjoyable half.
“We stayed involved with Bubba’s workforce in the course of the course of to make sure he was good with the ultimate look. I noticed 5 variations [of the shaft] the week prior after I was in D.C., which tells you we didn’t simply go along with the primary set of graphics we got here up with.”
The ultimate model of the shaft options “Bubba Smoke” emblazoned behind a pink backdrop. Watson formally put the shaft in play final week, together with a second HZRDUS Smoke Black 80 6.5 shaft in his Ping G425 Max 3-wood — an indication that he’s attempting his finest to get acclimated to one in all Undertaking X’s hottest elements.
With accuracy at a premium this week at Southern Hills, Watson will want a mix of distance and dispersion to remain within the combine. He’s hoping the brand new shafts present the proper recipe for achievement.
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