Connect with us

News

5 Questions with Honda Classic winner Matt Jones

Published

on

After his win at the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour, we had the chance to catch up with Australian golfer Matt Jones to talk about his propensity for quick play, his equipment, and his excitement for the rest of the year, including the Masters.

RB: One of the first things most people notice about your game is your relatively quick pace of play and preshot routine. Is that something you have always done or did it develop over time?


MJ: A lot of people ask me about my pace of play and preshot routine, and the reality is I have always been a pretty quick player. The whole process plays out in the same order every time before I address the ball: I take 2 to 3 practice swings to support a positive feel, and once I have that I step in and hit the shot.

I’ve worked with some people in the past that have tried to slow me down, but it’s just my natural rhythm that allows me to not think too much and execute.

RB: The final round was a windy one and you hit 17 of 18 greens on a tough course in tough conditions. What allowed you to be so comfortable out there in the wind?

MJ: Growing up in Australia we played in a lot of wind, and I have always been comfortable playing in the type of conditions that call for more flighted shots. My preferred ball flight is a bit lower compared to a lot of golfers on tour, and I find it very easy to see shots move in both directions with the wind. I think that just leads me to be very comfortable.

RB: Did you make any changes to your equipment for the week because of the wind?

MJ: Leading into the week I hadn’t made any changes, and the last change I made was in Phoenix when I worked with the guys on the Titleist van to get a new 3-wood (Titleist TSi3 16.5° – Matt Jones winning WITB). I was struggling a bit and wasn’t seeing the ball flight I really wanted so we built something up, and after playing around with the hosel we dialed in a setting and I was good to go. It won’t be leaving my bag any time soon.

Having a club like that, along with using a Pro V1x, allows me to feel really confident when playing in windy conditions. The thing I love about my 3-wood is I can use it off the tee to really drive it, but off the deck, I can hit it like an iron to have it come in high and soft. Courses aren’t getting any shorter on the PGA Tour, and having a club with that kind of versatility is fantastic.

RB: It has been 7 years since your last win on the PGA Tour, was there something that felt different this week, that you believe helped lead to the win? 

MJ: I feel like all year I have struck the ball well, and this week it was really strong. My distance control with my irons was awesome, and I was hitting a lot of fairways, which certainly helps on a course like PGA National. I think my confidence playing in the wind with my iron play was the difference.

RB: Last but not least, winning on the PGA Tour comes with a lot of perks. What are you most excited to take advantage of with this win?

MJ: Last time I won it was the week before the Masters, and that resulted in the whole experience really feeling like a big blur. This win gets me into a lot of events that I’m really excited about like Kapalua, and it now puts me inside the top 50 in the world, which gets me closer to a goal that I set at the beginning of the year.

I very excited to begin prepping for the Masters and I’m planning on heading there next week to check out the course.

 

Your Reaction?
  • 42
  • LEGIT3
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK1

Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

on

Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

Your Reaction?
  • 11
  • LEGIT2
  • WOW2
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

Published

on

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

Your Reaction?
  • 29
  • LEGIT8
  • WOW3
  • LOL4
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP2
  • OB0
  • SHANK5

Continue Reading

Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

Published

on

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

Your Reaction?
  • 19
  • LEGIT1
  • WOW1
  • LOL2
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK8

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending