Rory's Driver

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By AntD

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  • 7 Replies
  1. AntD

    AntD
    Hampshire, UK

    It occurred to me that despite all the marketing hype and multi-million dollar deals for pro's to play a specific brand, do the players and the brand really benefit from it.

    Take Rory at The Players using the second version of the TM driver for the first time in tournament play (possibly under orders) when he was having a pretty good season with the old one. Oops and a missed cut. And previously DJ preferring v1 and not v2 of the previous TM driver.

    When TSR's are used by the leading tour pro's in advance of the launch and with success (I believe 1st and 2nd at 150th Open). Possibly those drivers being tested and bedded in well in advance and without pressure to play them.

    So has Titleist got it right with the mid-season tour validation before launch, and does the two year upgrade give the pro's more confidence to switch rather being pressured to play the latest?

    With Rory's discomfort at having to bed in a driver he doesn't want to use and his switch to Vokey wedges any chance we could see him with more Titleist in the bag soon?

  2. Ant,
    I'm probably biased..... No, I am biased.... If I were Rory, I'd add the TSR's to the Vokeys and Scotty which seem to have appeared in his bag!
    That said, I'm pretty sure he is not under the same financial constraints as the rest of us and I imagine if he wants a couple of driver heads, he would only have to ask his provider and something would turn up.
    Perhaps he should consider "Running In" a couple of driver heads so he wouldn't wear out the "Advanced"
    carbonwood face of the model he is tied to.

    JT
  3. Just also shows however good the player and the equipment they have they are only human and not machines
  4. It appears Rory has a 12 club contract with TM, as he had two vokeys in the bag but one was replaced with a TM wedge once the Scotty went in.
  5. Don O

    Don O
    Madison, WI

    Right, he doesn’t have the same financial constraints we do. His clothing and equipment deals are worth millions every year.
    New models every year is almost tantamount to end users being beta testers. My guess is carbon fiber is still not built to the same tolerance as titanium metals. It wasn’t just being a version II. Face distortion to the point of failure in field testing by the USGA from club head speeds of 120 mph is real. His last driver was likely close to the limit. Falling back to the old wasn’t an option.
    If Tiger can tell the difference with his duplicated Scotty, I can imagine TM showing up with a box of heads for Rory to find the feel he is looking for.
  6. At this moment in time rory has found a TM driver he is very happy with
  7. Christopher W

    Christopher W
    Oxford, UK

    I don't think Rory's moving back to Titleist any time soon. I think all of the big manufacturers have fantastic premium products that we can buy as consumers, so the tour guys will get access to pretty much exactly what they want / need. If something needs a tweaked face angle or a bit weight here or there, then there's there ability to do that. However, they are humans, and look / feel / superstition will come in to their thinking. If a player convinces themselves that club A is or isn't going to work for them, then there's always going to be something at the back of their mind telling them that.
    One thing I've genuinely enjoyed since swoosh pulled out of the hardware side of things, is seeing where players landed with other manufacturers, but also the increase in players not getting full bag deals and "shopping around" for what works for them. Jason Day is a good recent example of this, he's had health struggles but has always had such an amazing short game, arguably the most "feel" part of the game, so I thought he'd have stuck with previous clubs (TM), but I think he's currently got some Vokeys and a Scotty mallet in the bag.
  8. Thierry M

    Thierry M
    Beaconsfield

    For me, it did highlight (again) the importance of Fitting.
    Rory Having a driver head and just putting his old shaft Ventus Black wasn't the solution for performance.
    After getting fitted, the change was also to change the shaft from Ventus Black to Ventus TR Blue and now he is happy and ready for Augusta.

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