Here’s why Jordan Spieth changed driver shafts at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge
2 Min Read
Jordan Spieth's Round 1 highlights from Charles Schwab
Jordan Spieth is not known to tinker with his equipment much, but he’s made a few significant changes in the past two weeks. Ahead of the 2019 PGA Championship, Spieth switched out of his Titleist 915F fairway wood, which he’s used for about 4 years, into a new Titleist TS2 fairway wood.
Then this week at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge, Spieth switched out of the driver shaft that he’d been using in his Titleist TS3 driver throughout 2019, into a new Fujikura Ventus 6X shaft; he’s still using the same Titleist TS3 driver head model, at 10.5 degrees.
Coming into the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge, Jordan Spieth was ranked 204 on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy off the tee, hitting just 51.94 percent of fairways.
The Ventus shaft Spieth changed into, however, is designed to reduce twisting at impact with a multi-material bias core, which Fujikura calls “VeloCore,” or “Velocity at its Core.” The core of the shaft is made with Pitch 70 Ton carbon fiber material that’s “three times stiffer than your standard mod,” according to Fujikura’s Fitting and TOUR representative Marshall Thompson. Back in February, PGATOUR.COM went in-depth with Thompson about the shaft, and Thompson said that “upwards of 80-to-90 percent of people had an easier time hitting the center of the face” with the Ventus shaft, due its twist reduction qualities through impact.
According to Fujikura, Spieth also found the center of the face more often using the Ventus shaft. Ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Fujikura said: “The increased tip stiffness moved his toe impact locations to more center face with Ventus. His ball speed was similar at 170-172 (mph), but the misses were better so he decided to put it in play.”
Although Spieth shot 65 (5-under) in the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Thursday, he hit just half of his fairways, missing 6-of-his-7 missed fairway to the left.
“I still had some scar tissue on shots today where I’ve had some foul balls to the right this year where that’s been my miss,” Spieth told PGATOUR.COM. “… I played away from that shot because of the potential of what’s been there this year.”
If Spieth can heal the mental scar tissue off the tee and continue hitting the center of the face more often with his new driver setup, his driving accuracy could begin trending up.