Inside Sahith Theegala’s mixed bag of Ping clubs

Sahith Theegala suffered another close call last week in his quest for his first PGA TOUR title. Still, the T2 finish at the Travelers Championship continued his promising debut season on TOUR. He rose from 55th to 37th in the FedExCup thanks to his third top-5 of the season (T2, Travelers; T3, WM Phoenix Open; T5, the Memorial presented by Workday).

Theegala is one of this year’s standout rookies and his bag stands out, as well, because his equipment setup is different than many of his contemporaries. That’s because he typically plays without a fairway wood, opting instead for more irons and wedges.

Although Theegala travels with both a Ping G 5-wood (17.5 degrees) and Ping G425 hybrid (17 degrees), he opts to use just the hybrid on most occasions. Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates says Theegala reserves the 5-wood for courses where he needs added height from the fairway for his second shots into par-5s. Aside from those circumstances, Theegala plays with just a Ping G425 LST driver (10.5 degrees), the hybrid and a Ping i210 3-iron at the top end of his bag setup.

Theegala equips his 3-iron with a Graphite Design Tour AD-DI Hybrid graphite shaft, whereas the remainder of his iron set has Project X 6.5 steel shafts. The graphite shaft helps Theegala take advantage of slightly more speed and height in the 3-iron for longer and higher shots.

He also uses a mixed set of iron heads. While his 3-iron is a Ping i210 model, the rest of his set is made up of Ping iBlade (4-6) and Ping Blueprint Forged irons (7-PW).

The iBlade irons have slightly thinner toplines than the i210, as well as less offset, narrower soles and a more compact profile for slightly more control. The i210 acts as a slightly more forgiving, longer, and higher launching option as his 3-iron, but in his 4-7, Theegala gets more workability and trajectory control. The Blueprint Forged irons offer even thinner toplines than the iBlades and less offset, thinner soles and a more compact shape. Although Theegala gives up a bit of forgiveness in his short irons compared to his long irons, he gains more control over ball flight and spin.

In another interesting point of note, Theegala’s average driving distance has increased an average of 8.7 yards per drive over last season thanks to adding an additional inch to his Ping G425 LST 10.5-degree driver.

“I'm like, if I'm going to hit it off line, I might as well hit it a little bit farther and funny enough I'm hitting it way straighter,” Theegala said in October about the driver after a first-round 64 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he finished T8.

In addition to the added inch, several changes were made to Theegala’s Ping G425 LST driver to dial in the cut he likes to play off the tee and eliminate the dreaded double-cross.

Back in the fall, Ping’s Korn Ferry Tour rep, David Bray, installed a new shaft in Theegala’s driver – True Temper’s Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 6.5 – and made it 45.25 inches long. The shaft was “tipped” 1.5 inches – Bray said he usually tips players’ drivers about an inch -- to control the spin and dispersion of Theegala’s shots, as well. “Tipping” a shaft means removing length from the clubhead end instead of the grip end. This makes the shaft stiffer and also increases its resistance to twisting.

Bray also added hot melt to the toe of the club to promote a fade. Also known as “rat glue” by gearheads — owing to the similarity between the properties of the substance and the material found in glue traps — hot melt is injected into clubheads via a hot glue gun with a long nosel.

The changes dropped about 500 rpms off Theegala’s tee shots, to about 2,500, and an increase of 3-4 mph of ball speed.

“He hits a high ball to begin with. This just controlled the spin for him,” Bray said. “He likes to cut the ball, so he’s going to have more spin, but this is more penetrating. It’s not ballooning on him. I would say he probably picked up 3-4 more mph because he was hitting it more in the center of the clubface than the heel misses he had before.

Theegala fills out his bag with two Ping Glide 4.0 wedges (50 and 54 degrees), a Ping Glide 2.0 lob wedge (58 degrees), and a Ping Anser 2 putter.

Check out Sahith Theegala’s full WITB setup below.

Driver: Ping G425 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 60

5-wood (option): Ping G (17.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-DI Black 8 TX

Hybrid: Ping G425 (17 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-DI 95 Hybrid X

Irons: Ping i210 (3), Ping iBlade (4-6), and Ping Blueprint Forged (7-PW)
Shafts: Project X 6.5

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50 and 54 degrees), Ping Glide 2.0 (58 degrees)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Ping Anser 2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1