Gary Woodland is finding success with Rickie Fowler's Cobra driver

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Cobra Tour rep Ben Schomin is one of the most respected voices in the gear space. Rickie Fowler swears by his club insights, and Max Homa was swayed to join Cobra after spending time with Schomin.

Gary Woodland is a big Schomin fan as well, but he isn't the 40-year-old's main "club guy." That, interestingly enough, would be Rickie Fowler. As Woodland revealed on the latest edition of Golf Digest's Golf IQ equipment podcast, he rarely does club or golf ball testing without consulting Fowler to get his thoughts on the equipment.

"I blame Rick for everything," Woodland said. "I call him my club guy because he knows so much about [equipment]. When I test something, I always have to say, 'I gotta call my club guy.'"

Case in point: Woodland's current Cobra DS-Adapt X driver. During the month of December, Cobra left its tour truck in West Palm Beach, Fla., and gave Woodland and Fowler the keys to the gear kingdom. With literally every head and shaft at their fingetips, the duo got to work testing different builds on the range and course.

It didn't take Fowler long to notice DS-Adapt X was a good fit. Woodland noticed his "club guy" was testing something new, so he had to try it for himself.

"I saw Rick hitting it and he was hitting it so good, I just had them build me the same weighting," Woodland said. "The [DS-Adapt LS] was a little faster, but the forgiveness of this head is so crazy. It's as confident as I've been standing over a driver right now. I've been driving the eyes out of it."

While the weighting in Woodland's driver is identical to Fowler's—two 3-gram weights in the sole—the former U.S. Open champion made some personalized modifications to the head, turning down the loft and going to a more upright hosel setting.

Then came the more intriguing modification. Instead of placing additional mass in the toe to induce a fade, Woodland went the other direction and concentrated more mass in the heel to unlock the ability to shape the ball off the tee.

"I've always been low loft and flat," he said. "Then we went more heel weighted when I've usually been toe. I usually don't like to go left. But we went the other way [with the mass] and it's forcing me to use my hands more to cut it — and I've been driving the heck out of it. It's been so nice. I don't fear it overcutting, and I have to try and cut it. It's a simpler process for me, and I'm able to work it both directions. I haven't worked a driver in both directions in 10 years. This is as excited as I've been about a driver in a long, long time."

Woodland's first two weeks with the driver build produced T-16 and T-22 finishes. Even more impressive? He's currently 20th in SG/off-the-tee and third in driving distance (324 yards) heading into an important early stretch in the season.

As for Woodland having success with his club guy's driver, Fowler's more than happy to be a second set or eyes and a sounding board. It's something he's done over the years as a way to help his friends on tour.

"I love to be able to help out," said Fowler. "Hopefully Gary continues to play well. That'll be better for my job as a club guy. A lot of that comes from the testing [Ben Schomin] and I do. I'll see things that I feel or work for me. But based on how I see things work for me or what that feeling might be for me, there might be a setting or distribution that doesn't work for me that I know that could be something that could work for Gary or might be something Max might like.

"I'm thinking about the other guys; I love to help out. That's the fun part of it. When you have an idea and share it with someone else and maybe that go on to play well with that club or a version of it, I get a lot of satisfaction from that."

It's always good to have friends in high places.