Following his first PGA TOUR victory ever at the 2019 RBC Heritage, PGATOUR.COM spoke with C.T. Pan about his relationship with golf equipment, how he uses Trackman, switching to a Titleist TS driver, his University of Washington pride, purple wedge shafts, how a Nike driving iron ended up in his bag, and the touching story behind how he marks his golf balls.

Enjoy the full Q&A below, and click here to see all of the clubs and shafts that Pan used to win on Sunday.

PGATOUR.COM: How would you describe your relationship with golf equipment; are you someone who likes to test a bunch of clubs and shafts and tinker a lot, or are you more of a set it and forget it player?

C.T. Pan: I’m kind of a set it and forget it guy. Honestly, the last year I only went to the [Titleist Tour Truck] maybe four times. So I’m not one of those guys who likes tinkering around.

Only four times, wow. There’s some guys out there who will go to the truck four times at one event.

Yea, I’ve heard some stories like that.

A lot of the younger players seem to rely on Trackman a bit more than the older players out there. Are you a kind of player who likes to setup on the range before a round looking at Trackman and working on your numbers?

Not really. I bought my Trackman last year, and I’ve used it a couple times. But I don’t use it right before a round. I use it during a practice round for a while. I would say I’m not very statistical. I’m not using my Trackman a lot, but I do use it.

When you do use it, are you mostly looking at carry yardage, or do you get into the weeds with spin rates and face-to-path ratios?

Yeah, usually I’m working on my yardage with Trackman. And also I’ll look at the club to make sure everything is on the right path to hit a good shot. If something is off, I can find out right away.

You’re playing a Titleist TS2 driver now, and I think before that you were playing a TaylorMade M4 for a while. What was the reason that you made the switch and when did you make it?

Well last year when they came out with the TS drivers, I heard a lot of guys talking about it and I heard it was a big improvement, and I heard it’s the best Titleist driver out there. That’s when I got really interested and I told myself, ‘I want to try it,’ which I did. And I really like it. I think it’s by far the best driver they ever made and it fits me really well. Obviously last week it worked out really well for me under windy conditions, and it helped me on a lot of shots out there.

When did you start playing Titleist equipment? How long have you been using mostly Titleist through the bag?

Well when I was a junior player I used Titleist equipment mostly. In college … well pretty much my whole career I used Titleist stuff. Maybe here and there I might use a TaylorMade driver, but mostly I used a lot of Titleist stuff.

I thought it was interesting that recently you put in a Nike Vapor 2-iron since obviously Nike doesn’t make golf clubs anymore. How did that club end up in your bag?

It’s a driving iron. As you know, at Harbour Town you have to hit a lot of fairways in order to have birdie opportunities out there, and I did. I think two years ago I put a 2-iron in play and I did really well. Last year I did not and in the final day I felt it cost me quite a bit because it was really windy the final day and I did not have a 2-iron to use. So I told myself that I have to put that one in for this year, and it worked out really well.

With your wedges, you show a lot of pride in the University of Washington with the purple shafts and the wedge stampings. Is that something you instructed your wedge builder to come up with, or how did that come about?

Well the shafts it’s actually a very interesting story. Two years ago I saw this Twitter post, or maybe Instagram, by True Temper and they were coming out with this purple shaft. I think I retweeted it and said I want to get them. Their manager is a UW graduate and he was so pumped when I said that on Twitter. Then he sent me a bunch of purple wedge shafts.

For the stamps, Aaron Dill, I told him I want him to be creative on my stamps on the wedges and that’s what he did. He did a really good job. He knows how much I love UW and he did a perfect job for me.

How would you describe your college career?

I loved it. I loved every second of it. I wish it was longer, honestly. College golf is so much fun. You got this group of guys traveling together, playing golf tournaments, doing stuff together, it was just so much fun back then. And coach was a great guy and a great coach, and he kept it very casual when we go to tournaments we still had fun at the same time. That was the best time period of my life, those 4 years at UW.

What you might have to do is donate one of those purple-shafted, purple stamped wedges back to the university so they can put it in a trophy case or something like that.

Yeah, I talked to the coach and all that and he’s really excited. So I’ve put [the wedges] in storage to make sure they get back to UW.

As for the golf ball, you’re playing a Pro V1x. What version of that ball are you playing, and what do you like about it?

I played the ’19 X, and it was only my second tournament using it. It’s really good. I feel like the difference is small but it’s a lot of improvement. More speed, less spin, which helped me a lot less week because it was really windy and you have to keep it under control. It’s more reliable and consistent, and I wish that I had stated to use it earlier this year.

How do you mark your golf ball? Do you use a special purple marker or anything?

I use a regular purple sharpie … I draw a “W” for school, and the other reason is the way I look at it is, if things are going south, I just flip it over and it’s an “M” for my wife Michelle. So if things go south, I still have my wife supporting me.