Winner's Bag
The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup
Kevin C. Cox
Viktor Hovland made the most of his eight-under headstart and held off an impressive rally from Xander Schauffele to take the Tour Championship and with it, the FedEx Cup title, earning $18 million dollars in the process.
Schauffele—who started six in arrears—came out swinging, putting up a front-nine 30, yet hardly made a dent as Hovland countered with a 31, starting with a 15-footer for birdie at the first. A dart from 172 yards at the fourth ignited a stretch of three in a row.
The Norwegian used a strong tee-to-green game at East Lake. As he did at the BMW Championship, he led the field in driving accuracy with his 9-degree Ping G425 LST driver with a 45.75-inch Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX shaft. Hovland also used the club to rank first in strokes gained/off-the-tee.
Into the greens, Hovland ranked second in greens in regulation with his Ping i210 irons with KBS Tour-V 120X shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips with one extra wrap of tape underneath.
G430 MAX / G430 SFT / G430 LST / G430 HL
WHAT IT DOES: The engineers at Ping like to say, “We don’t really drop things that tend to be working.” The G430 line continues to employ a heavy dose of forgiveness, stability and the aerodynamic efficiencies of turbulator ridges on the crown. But the G430 lineup further amplifies an ultra-forgiving design by introducing an improved variable-thickness face pattern and structural support for more energy transfer at impact.
WHY WE LIKE IT: Ping gets ample credit for the big things, like its clubhead stability, but it does the little things well, too. The G430’s face curvature, with less loft on the lower portion of the face, reduces spin so that weaker shots fly more efficiently. Read more>>>
As Hovland stalled out with a string of nine pars starting at the seventh, Schauffele made inroads with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 to cut the deficit to three. Hovland, however, rolled in a 23-footer for par after a scratchy chip shot at the 14th and then knocked in a 10-footer for birdie at the next to effectively end things. He added a 12-footer for birdie on 17 for good measure then capped it off with another on the 18th hole.
On the greens Hovland uses a Ping PLD DS72 prototype that has a stepless 36-inch shaft and 2.5 degrees of loft. In addition to ranking fifth in strokes gained/putting, he went a perfect 50 for 50 on putts from five feet and in for the week, resulting in a tournament-low two bogeys.
And a season-high paycheck.
The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus, 15 degrees
Irons (3): Titleist U505; (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 56 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72 prototype
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