Keegan Bradley's game gets boost from anti-slice driver

Usually when a golfer of any level resorts to an anti-slice driver, it is darn near end-stage desperation. But Keegan Bradley’s switch to TaylorMade’s new SIM Max D driver, which is geared in many ways to attack the weak right miss of average golfers (not tour players), had nothing to do with the former PGA champion becoming a hack.

Indeed, Bradley is lurking around the top 20 through the middle of Satuday’s third round at the Farmers Insurance Open, bolstered in part by putting in a driver that TaylorMade touts as offering “up to 20 yards of draw bias.”

So why would a tour player want a driver designed to beat the banana ball? Simple, Bradley likes the left bias. According to those familiar with Bradley’s 10.5-degree SIM Max D, which he put in play this week, it’s also the look of the club that appeals to him. While it features an adjustable hosel, the SIM Max D in the standard setting doesn’t appear closed to Bradley, either, and he also prefers the larger, deeper face.

While the standard SIM Max D features internal weighting toward the heel to help average golfers better square the face at impact, Bradley also added “hot melt” to the toe section on the inside of the driver to reduce that draw-bias weighting and better line up with his high-toe typical impact pattern. “Hot melt” is a malleable epoxy that is typically injected into a metalwood by a custom builder or tour van technician to customize the sound or internal weighting.

Bradley is T21 after three rounds.