The gear changes Keegan Bradley has made since last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP win

2 Min Read

Equipment

The gear changes Keegan Bradley has made since last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP win

Written by GolfWRX

Keegan Bradley is defending his title at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP this week. Last year’s victory ended a four-year winless drought and led to Bradley’s first multi-win campaign since his Rookie of the Year season of 2011.

Throughout his career, Bradley hasn’t been the type of player to test new equipment every week or make constant changes. He prefers to make adjustments only when necessary or when he finds something that truly performs better.

Since winning last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, Bradley has made a few notable tweaks to his club setup.

The most noticeable change that Bradley has made is with the big stick.

When Bradley won in Japan last year, he employed a Ping G430 LST driver with a Fujikura Ventus Black 6X shaft. Since his victory, Bradley has switched it out for a TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver head that features the same Ventus Black 6X shaft. Bradley’s average ball speed has jumped more than a mile per hour this season to 174.2.

Bradley has already proven the new driver successful, using it for his second victory of the season at the Travelers Championship.

A look at Keegan Bradley’s TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver. (GolfWRX)

Additionally, Bradley has switched things up at the top end of his iron set. While he used a mixed set of Srixon irons to win the 2022 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP (ZX5s for the 3-5 iron and ZX7s in the 6-PW). He now uses a new Srixon ZX MKII driving iron for his 3-iron and now has ZX7s for the remainder of his iron set (4-PW).

All things being equal, Srixon’s ZX7 irons have thinner toplines, more compact heads, and narrower soles than the ZX5 models. Although the ZX7 irons give up some overall forgiveness compared to the ZX5 irons, a consistent ball striker such as Bradley could find that the ZX7 irons offer slightly more spin and trajectory control.

A look at Keegan Bradley’s Srixon ZX7 8-iron. (GolfWRX)

Aside from the tweaks to his driver and irons, however, Bradley hasn’t changed anything. Why mess with what’s working? Besides making his first TOUR Championship in five years, Bradley ranks second in average proximity from 125-150 yards and 21st in proximity from outside 200 yards. Bradley also has been one of the TOUR’s top putters this season, ranking 20th in Strokes Gained: Putting thanks to the Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter, which was also used by Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark this season.