Equipment
Two of the PGA Tour's longest hitters made driver changes at the Genesis Open
It was an interesting equipment week at the Genesis Open, with forecasts of bad weather on Wednesday making players work on their games Tuesday instead of perhaps trying new clubs. Still, a pair of the game’s longer hitters—Cameron Champ and Luke List—made driver changes last week as they prepared to take on Riviera C.C.
Yong Teck Lim
Cameron Champ leads the PGA Tour in driving distance at 316.1 yards, but that didn’t prevent the young bomber from seeking to improve his game off the tee ahead of Riviera. Champ—who won the Sanderson Farms event in the fall—put Ping’s new G410 Plus driver in the bag. The club’s actual loft checks in at 8.9 degrees, with it being in the flat-dot setting and measures 45.25 inches with a Fujikura Pro White Tour Spec 63-X that is tipped one inch. The club is the first Ping driver to feature movable weight, and Champ put the weight in the heel to promote a slight draw bias. Interestingly, the driver was slated to be Champ’s backup G410 Plus, but he preferred this one to the driver originally slated to be his gamer so he put it into service.
Harry How
Luke List has enjoyed a career resurgence the last few years, ranking inside the top 60 in earnings the past two full seasons and currently sits inside that mark again. Part of that has been his prowess off the tee. List currently ranks third in driving distance on the PGA Tour at 314.6 yards. Still, List, who had missed two of his previous three cuts using a Callaway Epic Flash driver at the Desert Classic and TaylorMade’s M5 at the Farmers Insurance Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open, opted for TaylorMade’s more forgiving M6 model with a Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-6 shaft at the Genesis Open. List ranked second for the week in driving distance as well as strokes gained/off the tee in finishing T-15.