Tommy Fleetwood makes shock equipment change post Masters

After a T21 finish at The Masters, Tommy Fleetwood has made a shock equipment change this week at the RBC Heritage PGA Tour event.

I think we can safely say that Tommy Fleetwood had a fairly decent Masters campaign this year, with a two-under-par total placing him nine shots behind eventual playoff contenders Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy.

This week he was seen testing a few clubs, and one of them has made it into his bag. On the 18th hole at Harbour Town during the practice round Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa unloaded drives with the new R7 Quad Mini driver, which was really good for Tommy, who was seen doing extensive testing on the range on Wednesday and will continue to put it through its paces at home during his two weeks off.

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He went through an extensive putter testing session on the practice green on at the beginning of the week. Fleetwood tested both a prototype zero-torque Spider and Spider Tour Black to try and account for his slightly left aim and closed face at impact. A flatter Spider Tour allowed Tommy to get his hands lower and create natural face opening and arc back into his stroke.

It wasn’t straight forward as he preferred the micro-milled alignment aid on the zero-torque putter, so TaylorMade’s putter rep James Holley recreated the milled line sight line on his Spider Tour with a ruler and a sharpie. There are five silver sharpie lines on the left and right with a brown line in the middle serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

On the putter, Fleetwood explained the unusual alignment system.

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“The thick lines allow me to put the putter down, not have to rely on a line on the ball and just hit the putt. The width of all of these lines together makes it easy to visualise a centre face strike.”

And so far, the change seems to be working. Combining that visual aid with the natural stability of Spider, Tommy fired a first round 67 at Harbour Town, gaining 0.711 strokes on the greens.

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James Tait is bunkered’s Gear Editor. Want to know how the latest Callaway driver, Vokey wedge or Scotty Cameron putter performs? He’s the guy to ask. Better yet, just watch his videos on the bunkered YouTube channel. One of the biggest hitters in the UK, James also competes on the World Long Drive circuit and is a descendent of former Amateur champion Freddie Tait.

Gear Editor