How Scottish Open Champ Chris Gotterup Works The Golf Ball

Links golf requires all the shots — low, high, draws, and fades.

Chris Gotterup showed us how he works his @bridgestonegolfinc TOUR B X golf ball both ways earlier this year – and it came in handy at the Renaissance Club for a 2-shot win at the Scottish Open.

Hi, I’m Chris Goddup and I’m gonna show you how I work my Tour BX Bridgestone. All right, we’re going to hit some drivers. Uh we’re gonna start with driver and then we’re going to go into some long irons, mid irons, and a couple short irons and just show you what what a normal shot looks like for me and how far and and what I expect out of the golf ball. Obviously, obviously I got my driver here. Um we’re going to we’re going to hit a couple. I usually float around 185 ball speed um give or take, you know, weather and and stuff like that. I try to keep it in the 2500 spin range. And I think I like to keep my ball lower. Some people may not think it’s lower, but for me, the window is a little bit lower and it looks like a pole almost, but it should cut back to the to the right. So, a little pull cut and uh and hopefully, you know, hopefully we’re finding the fairway. So, we’ll hit uh we’ll hit a couple here and and see how far they’re going. pretty good there. Yeah, it should be Yeah. Yeah, that was that was 315 carry. Um, a little lower spin on that one, which is fine. I mean, 2200 and uh and about 185 ball speed, 184. So, not not too bad for for Tuesday. We’ll try to ramp it up for later in the week. But all right, we’ll hit another one and see if we can see if we can get it a little faster. That was a good one, too. Yeah, that was that was good. A little faster there. That was 186. similar spin numbers. So, I that’s what I like to see the most is I like it being as consistent as possible. Um, spin- wise, you know, if I’m hitting it off the center and I know it’s going to do the same thing, um, I really don’t have to worry about what what I’ve got in my golf ball. So, I can really worry about my myself and make sure it’s make sure it’s all on me, not equipment, cuz that’s the last thing you want to worry about is worrying about your equipment and and stuff like that. You can go down a dark hole with that stuff. All right, we’ll go one more. Yeah, that one was good. Yeah, those are those are three pretty good ones about that’s probably pretty stock for me. About 315 and mid 180s ball speed. So, um that’s probably what I would play with on the course and then you can give a couple if I if I’m downwind and I got some fairway, give it some give it some real real power. But that’s that’s pretty standard for me. All right. So, sixiron for me goes about 210 give or take obviously, but um similar similar motion. I I like I like feeling that little pull cut. Um and for me, I like the longer irons to kind of high cut feel and shorter irons, I’ll try to draw them a little bit. So, for here, this will be a longer longer high cut feel. Um, and weather’s pretty good. It’s warm. It should go about 210. So, we’ll see. Uh, we’ll see what we got. That was a good one. Yeah, that was right around our right around our number. That was 209. So, um, yeah, I mean, it’s very everything’s everything’s similar in terms of I’m looking for consistent spin numbers, which I think I get out of my Bridgestone, and I’m looking for similar ball flight, similar similar repeatability. So, that’s all I’m looking for. And and at the end of the day, I’m going to make the number do what it’s supposed to do. So, as long as it’s uh flying similar every time, it’s I’ve got good good trust in it. What part of your game would you say you’ve seen the most? I would say I don’t know statistically, but I feel like I’ve noticed a difference short game and wedges. Um, for me it spins a lot more. Not maybe not on this, but I feel like I have more control with it. Whether it’s on the club face for just, you know, a millisecond longer, it just feels like it sticks sticks on the face better. I don’t know what the reasoning is or I I’m sure it has something to do with the cover and whatever they’re using on it, but I think if you dropped a, you know, a title list or a tailor made and then had some Bridgestones and just shipped a couple and you caught a couple, you would be like, “Oh yeah, I noticed a difference.” But when you’re hitting a sixiron hard, it’s hard to tell a feel difference, I think. But you can see flights and stuff, too. Like if it’s really windy, you can tell a difference. Like when I did my original testing, we did uh a couple out of a bay and we were testing some different brands and they were going picking up into the wind and the bridge just kept flying like pretty pretty straight and not really getting hit that hard. So, um it’s definitely it was an adjustment for me at the start, but uh obviously you want your ball not get hit by the wind as much, too. So, it was a good adjustment. I just needed to learn for it, too. So, it’s it’s it’s very good. Um, it’s very good and no no other no other complaints, but it definitely is. It It’s for a firmer ball, it feels very soft around the greens, which I like because I want to be able to spin it, but I also don’t want to lose distance off the tea because that’s part of my advantage I think I have. So, we switched to an eight iron here. This is about 180. Um, yeah. And I think I think the 600 was flying about 210. So we should get pretty similar similar numbers here. And these are the ones I start to try to, you know, draw a little bit or at least straighten it out and not try to hit a big cut. Um, and these should have a little height on them, too. I like to hit hit the ball harder. So, could be three quarter still, but I like to move the ball, too. So, I like to be able to hit a draw, hit a cut and flight it down, or if I need to go up, I can go up. So, it’s really more like how I visualize it because obviously you could hit if the pin’s in the middle, you can get to the pin six different ways, but you know, front left pin, I’d like to draw it in there, give myself more room, and I think I can do that with this ball effectively. So, um, it also is is wedges wise, too. It’s good off speed and it it keeps the keeps the spin in the same ballpark where you don’t lose as much um when you go off speed. It it it hangs in the ballpark pretty pretty nicely. Yeah. So, like that was 8,500 spin and about 180. So, this one will probably be a little bit lower spin-wise and obviously not carry carry as far if we’re trying to do a little 3/4, but we’ll do a little 3/4 cut here. So yeah, that was down 500 spin. So that was right around eight and it flew 170. So that make like that would be an accurate where if it’s really windy, you know, I live in Oklahoma, so if it’s really windy, that would be a shot that we pull off a lot. Um, and it’s just nice to have if you’re if you’re in between clubs and you don’t want to, you know, rip a nine or, you know, whatever the circumstance would be. You obviously need to need to be able to do that. So, um, and it’s it’s very predictable with this ball. All right, we’ll go wedge. You want a pitching wedge? You want a You got like a 52? Yeah, let’s do a 52. It’s perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think for me it was important because I realized how much spin I was getting around the greens that these wouldn’t spin too much. uh because obviously, you know, you get some softer weeks and you rip the ball off the front, it doesn’t do you any good either. So, I haven’t really noticed a problem with that. So, that’s been that’s been a really good benefit of this ball as well. Um, so we let’s hit one. This should be about 125 and probably in the 10 to 1100 11,000 spin on a full one. Yeah, that one that was 126 and 11,500. So, for me, that just shows me that with some good height, if we’re playing at Mirfield or somewhere where we know it’s going to be really firm, I can land it on my number and know it’s not going to go 10 yards past. it’s gonna hit, go, and then maybe come back a little bit, but it’s going to be in that ballpark of where if I’m hitting my number, I have pretty good control and being able to stop it on some firm greens. So, that’s good. And then and like you said, being able to hit punch shots with it is important, too. And and keeping the keeping the spin up without losing distance. So, we’ll hit a little 3/4 wedge. It should go like 120. And I’m curious to see what the spin spin hangs at with this one. Yeah. So, that was 120 and that was about 11 10,500. So, I mean, pretty like we saw at the 8 iron, just goes down a little bit, but it’s still up there in terms of control and and keeping it in a predictable predictable ballpark. So, we’ll go one more. We’ll go full full tilt wedge. Don’t hit too many of these, but we’ll see if we can get the spin up up pretty high and see what we can get it to. So that’d be like if I really needed to step on one and get some get some stoppage. Yeah, that was 12,000 spin and 130. So that would be in between her and trying to get to a front pin and have no choice but to hit that shot. That would be that’d be one that we would try to hit. So yeah, I think I think either I’m swinging it great and I know my numbers pretty good or the ball’s pretty good, too. So yeah, it’s it’s it’s good for sure. It’s helped my game a lot.