Equipment

The clubs Matt Kuchar used to win the Mayakoba Golf Classic

November 11, 2018
Mayakoba Golf Classic - Final Round

Rob Carr

Matt Kuchar had to work for his eighth PGA Tour victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. When he needed to put the tournament away on the final hole after seeing a four-stroke lead shrink to one, he did the thing that he had done well all week—put the ball in the fairway off the tee on the 458-yard finishing hole.

Kuchar got a nice bounce out of the right rough and left himself a mere 152 yards in on the finishing hole at El Camaleon Golf Club just south of Cancun, Mexico, from which he was able to make par to secure a one-shot win over Danny Lee. The fairway hit put Kuchar over the 80-percent mark in driving accuracy for the week (ranked third). Kuchar uses a Bridgestone Tour B JGR driver with 9.5 degrees loft along with a Bridgestone Tour B X ball—a sphere he recently put into play (and gave a pretty nice endorsement in his winner's interview on Golf Channel with Jim (Bones) Mackay.

Although Kuchar ranked 162nd out of 193 players on the PGA Tour in spin rate last year, he changed golf balls at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open from the company’s Tour B XS (a ball he had played since its debut more than a year ago) to the Tour B X, a lower-spinning version of the ball despite the fact it would appear Kuchar would benefit more from a ball with more spin.

Whatever the spin rate, at the Mayakoba the tee shot didn’t veer off-line all that much. And for Kuchar, that was all that mattered.

What Matt Kuchar had in the bag at the Mayakoba Golf Classic

Driver: Bridgestone Tour B JGR (Fujikura Atmos Tour Spec 6S), 9.5 degrees

3-wood: Titleist TS2, 13.5 degrees

Hybrids: Bridgestone Tour B XD-H (18 degrees); Ping Anser (20 degrees)

Irons (5-PW): Bridgestone J15CB

Wedges: Bridgestone J40 Forged (52 degrees); Cleveland RTX-4 (56, 62 degrees)

Putter: Bettinardi Kuchar Model 1