NOV. 12 UPDATE: Well, Spieth missed the cut with his faithful 915 woods in the bag. Guess they weren’t the secret weapon this week.
I saw this article from PGATour.com pop up this week heading into the Mayakoba Golf Classic and I found it fascinating. The short version is that Jordan Spieth is putting his Titleist 915 D2 driver and 915 fairway wood back in his bag which I believe have been with him since his 2015 Masters win up until putting the new TS woods in his bag. I find this interesting because the 915 line was notorious for not having the same distance as its competitors as well as more recent Titleist models. That said, the 915 lineup obviously brought Jordan plenty of success. I also find it interesting because Jordan’s long-term struggles over the past year have been due to dismal putting, which is shocking in itself. Last week, I read something saying that he actually feels like his putting has come around, but he’s lost confidence in his long game. If that’s the case, I can see why decided to make this switch to some old friends during the aptly named “Goofy Season” of the PGA Tour.
Making his first visit to the Riviera Maya for the Mayakoba Golf Classic this week, Spieth, the 2015 FedExCup champion, has gone back to the driver, 3-wood he’d played for the last five years. And it’s gone so well, he said, Vegas is a distant memory.
“It’s way more positive than that,” Spieth said after his pro-am round on the El Camaleon Golf Course at Mayakoba on Wednesday. “Last week I just, I was looking at something different, and the performance just wasn’t coming out the same. It’s been totally different the last couple days for me here. I’ve been striking the ball extremely well, hitting a lot of the fairways, and the short game has been just—trying to improve a little bit more.
Spieth rightly pointed out that getting to the greens in the first place is no picnic. The course is tighter off the tees than he expected; beautiful but narrow.
“You’ve got to keep it in between the beacons,” he said.
In other words, the old driver and 3-wood could be huge.
I guess come Sunday we’ll see if the change to the old 915 woods paid off for Jordan!