Over the past several years, equipment sponsorship deals on the PGA Tour have changed dramatically with more players opting to go the “free agent” route and not sign a deal that ties them to a single manufacturer. As this “use what works best” approach continues to pick up steam, Kevin Chappell has become the first tour player to officially partner with brand-agnostic club-fitter True Spec Golf, as it launches its Tour Department Program.

To dial in his new gear, Kevin worked with Tim Briand, True Spec’s Executive Vice President—who we should note took part in our GolfWRX’s fitter panel to help determine our “Best driver 2020“. Interestingly, Chappell went through the same fitting process any other golfer that chooses to get fit at True Spec Golf would go through; using launch monitor data alongside the company’s club component matrix.

I had the opportunity to speak with Tim about what it was like working with Kevin on dialing in his gear, any equipment preferences he had going into the process, and the areas where Kevin saw the greatest improvements.

RB: When you started working with Kevin, did he come in leaning towards certain clubs based on previous experience, or was he looking for a top to bottom overhaul of his equipment?

TB: When we started working with Kevin, he was 100 percent committed to the process of finding the best 14 clubs for him and his game. The one factor we didn’t change and used as a constant during the process was his golf ball—the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash. Kevin was really comfortable with its performance around the greens and the window it created on full shots.

Beyond that, it was game on from top to bottom in figuring out which clubs would ultimately end up is his bag.

RB: How did it work when you started the fitting process?

TB: Like with any golfer that comes to us at True Spec for a fitting, it all began with a conversation around what he likes, and any issues he felt he had with hitting certain shots, distances or trajectories, along with blueprinting his current clubs.

It was through those conversations that Kevin told us his favorite irons he had ever used were his old Nike VR Pro Combos. Since he had worn out and no longer had the short irons we blueprinted the remaining 4-iron from the set that he did have and used that as a testing baseline. For Kevin, that iron checked every box; feel, looks, ground interaction, flight window, everything. As you can see from his WITB, it’s a club he still carries, and in a way it further justifies our agnostic fitting process—if it’s not broken don’t try and fix it!

RB: With that in mind, let’s talk about irons. How did you narrow it down to the final set?

TB: The great thing is Kevin truly came in with an open mind to look at, and test everything. We basically laid out all of the available iron heads and began the process of elimination.

What started at roughly 20, quickly got chopped down to around 10 based on looks, and Kevin’s preferred head shape. From that 10 we started to test and hit balls to whittle down clubs based on feel and ground interaction. At that point, we had 4-5 irons that checked all the boxes, and then we began the detailed process of looking at total performance to determine the best irons for him. The end result was as mentioned already, meant keeping his Nike VR Pro Combo 4 iron and going with a set of Wilson staff model blades from the 5-PW.

RB: Let’s move into the longer clubs, specifically the fairway woods. Looking at his final setup, he has non-matching fairway woods from 2 different OEMs. Did he start with a matching set?

TB: When we started out, Kevin was using a matching 3 and 5-wood, but we quickly determined the 3-wood was underperforming in the areas where he needed that club for particular shots. Just like with amateur players, a 3-wood has to be extremely versatile since it is used in all kinds of scenarios, so just like with the irons, we started with every option before coming to the final decision.

The interesting note with his 5-wood is, it actually plays like what I would call a “6-wood”, to get the ball higher in the air and increase the descent angle to hold greens.

RB: Last but not least, since you just mentioned greens, did you do much work with Kevin’s putter, or was that another club that didn’t need any tweaking like the Nike 4-iron?

TB: Kevin came in with a putter he loved (custom weld neck Scotty Cameron) so we used Quintic to take a look at his launch conditions and made some minor lie and loft tweaks to optimize roll. He also ended up in a new grip.

Beyond that, we left it alone and worked with Kevin to send the new specs of his putter to the team as Scotty Cameron to produce a backup since its a total custom weld-neck and not something that could be easily replaced.

Kevin Chappell WITB 2020

Driver:  TaylorMade SIM
Shaft: LA Golf Partners Trono

3-wood:  Titleist TS3 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

5-wood:  Cobra SpeedZone
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo (4), Wilson Staff Model Blade (5-PW)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 120 X

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (52, 56, 62 degrees)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Custom Circle T

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x (Left Dash)