What clubs in Steven Fisk’s WITB are a fit for your game? Steven Fisk won his first PGA Tour Tournament at the Sanderson Farms Championship with an interesting mix of clubs that includes a Mizuno Driver, a 7-Wood, an iron set combination with three different models, and a popular Odyssey putter series. In this 2nd Swing Thoughts segment, Master Fitter Jake Montgomery shares his fitting insights into Steven Fisk’s WITB, and what he’s seen in the fitting bay in regards to Fisk’s clubs and his WITB setup.
00:00 Introduction
00:40 Fisk’s Mizuno Driver
02:00 PING Fairway Woods
03:40 Mizuno Combo Set
06:25 Iron & Wedge Shafts
07:50 Odyssey White Hot OG
The 2nd Swing Thoughts podcast, presented by 2nd Swing Golf, covers anything and everything in golf equipment and club fitting. The 2nd Swing Thoughts will feature experts in the golf industry sharing insights and latest trends in golf clubs and club fittings. 2nd Swing Thoughts will also cover the latest in professional golf.
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[Music] We now welcome on Mr. Jake Montgomery, fitting manager at the Minneapolis store today to go over Steven Fisk’s winning what’s in the bag from the Sanderson Farms Championship. Uh a an impressive and very I guess important win for Stephen. Um Jake, I know you’ve looked through the bag a little bit. There’s some unique things here. Um, I think I’m going to start at the top with you just because we don’t see a lot of these and it’s a winning driver from Mizuno, the STZ230. Um, you know, I’m sure you’ve worked with this one a lot less than maybe some other more popular drivers, but what do you know about this one? Yeah. So, I mean, the STZ is definitely less common, especially on tours. I mean, it’s it’s pretty cool to see someone winning with a Mizuno driver. Yeah. Um, what I would say I see with it in the bay a lot of times is it’s pretty consistent as far as spin rate goes. that doesn’t bounce around a whole lot. Where they lose the battle a lot is kind of in terms of ball speed. Now, he’s not a player that’s necessarily chasing ball speed is he’s got pretty good club head speed already. Um I find the players that do end up in Mazuno really like the look andor feel a lot. Um they definitely have a more unique feel where it’s almost a bit more of a a crack than other drivers at impact. Um that could be a reason that’s kind of leading him into playing that. But I would say I mean I I do some of them in store where especially if someone’s looking for a good deal on a driver. I mean you can pick them up for under $200. So from a value standpoint there is definitely uh a selling point there for golfers coming into our stores. But yeah, it’s pretty unique to see a Mizuno driver in the winter circle. Yeah, you don’t see a lot of them. I mean again we’ve we’ve talked a little bit about uh you know some Mizuno pros that have won recently name I know Keith Mitchell still plays one and he is um you know one of the longer players on tour. So, it’s not like they don’t provide, you know, a punch or or, you know, some distance to them. Um, but I think it’s just you just don’t see a lot of them. So, I think I wanted to make note of that. Um, another kind of wrinkle in his bag. So, I’m on the golfwx.com kind of the website and, you know, they have the actual inhand photos of the clubs. Yep. Um, I noticed that in the listing of the products or that are in the bag, there’s no mention of a three iron. And then you look at the photo and you see what looks to be a Mizuno Pro Fly High three iron. M um also has a sevenwood. So I imagine that’s kind of a based on course or weather situation that they’re swapping those out. So how often do you have that type of discussion or even maybe a fitting itself with players maybe at this level where they’re kind of that tuned into their game where they have both options there? Yes, I mean for really elite level players, I am fitting them to have multiple options based on the course setup or conditions. Um, if it’s blowing 20 miles an hour out there, you might want to have that driving iron instead of the sevenwood as it’s just going to have a lot more penetrating ball flight. Or if you’re looking for something that you can hit just something low and controllable, especially if you’re playing some Lynx golf where you just want to have that ball rollways and just be pretty accurate, that’s when you’d throw that driving iron in there. Otherwise, if you’re playing a longer course and especially a firm one or you need to get the ball really high and spinning to get it to stop on the greens, that’s when you’d kind of pull that sevenwood out. Yeah. And I think again, I’m sure they both, you know, we’ve done all kinds of content on this before, but they probably go a similar distance. Um, it’s just a matter of how the ball gets to that distance and what it does once it hits the ground. Yeah. I bet the carry on them’s pretty close. Yeah. But there’s probably a 30 40 foot peak height difference and a spin rate variance of at least 5600 RPMs. Yeah. Cuz then when you get into his iron set, so if like in the instances where he is playing that pro fly high, he actually has four different irons in his bag. Yep. Um, but from the 4 iron all the way down. So, he’s got the Mizuno Pro 245, 4 iron, uh, Muno Pro 243 and the 5iron and then the MP20 kind of muscle back irons. Yeah. From 6 through 9. Um, all with, by the way, KBS Caper 130X shafts. Um, talk to me first on just combo sets. You know, how often are you piecing together three different models for a player? I’m sure a lot of times it’s two irons. How often do you see three? I would say three irons is definitely more rare. Um, I’ve done countless sets in a two uh kind of set makeup. Yeah. Um, the reason for that really is just more forgiveness and ballflight characteristics. The the bigger the head gets, the lower center of gravity is going to be, the higher it’s going to launch, the more forgiving it’s going to be. So, in his three iron, he’s playing that 245, which is a more traditional hollow body iron. He’s looking for more forgiveness and just maintaining peak height with that club. uh when you move into that 243, you’re getting still a little bit of forgiveness there, but a lot more consistency, especially when it comes to ball speed and spin. For players on tour, a 4 iron can be a scoring club. So, you don’t want that to be too jumpy. You still want to have a lot of control there. Um and then as you kind of get down into the rest of the set, those MP20s, those are your true scoring clubs where consistency, predictability, and shot shaping is really what you’re looking for from there. So, that kind of getting into why he’s playing a split set like that. I have done a a couple scenarios where they have three irons in there. Especially if three or four iron is going to be really more of a traditional driving iron. That’s when you might see like in a title, you have a a U505 and then a T250 and then T150s and right, heck, maybe even a T100 in there. But yeah. Yeah. I mean that it that’s now how these manufacturers are are designing series of irons. I mean, this is one where really the only difference that I’m sure he could easily go into Mazuno Pro 241s for those muscle backs. there’s probably not a huge difference. I think the main reason is probably just a certain shape or something of the MP20 is probably what he likes, but it wouldn’t be a huge transition for him to go to the 241s and have the whole set of those Mizuno Pro, you know, 2024 series irons um in his bag. And then I wanted to ask you too cuz kind of going into his wedges plays a few Mizuno T22s, but I thought it was I’ve heard different perspectives on this of playing different shafts. Maybe something softer in wedges. Yes. But he’s got according to Golfware X the same shafts in his wedges, which is KBSC Taper 130X. Um again, what uh what would be the reason to play the same or maybe what would be the reason that players would opt for something softer? Yeah. So, I mean, the first thing I noticed when I looked at his bag is he plays extremely stiff shafts from 60° all the way through his driver. In all his woods, he has TX and then he’s playing C taper 13X. They’re all heavy, too. Yes. Um, C tapers are about as stiff, low launch, low spin of an iron shaft as you can get. If I have someone that’s got a ton of speed and they’re trying to kill spin and kill height, C taper is one of the first shafts that I go to. And yes, traditionally players do opt for something a little bit softer. Um, it was kind of popularized by Tiger Woods when he was playing X100s all the way through. Switched into some S400s and those higher lofted wedges. Had immediate success with them. Um, I actually heard that story directly from Bob Voki. So, it’s a pretty cool little tidbit there. Um, it’s definitely something I recommend to a lot of players as well. I find that it just gives you one, a little bit more spin and two, a bit more feel around the greens as well. I’m traditionally not trying to drop weight too much because I think weight is very important to tempo. And tempo is key when it comes to chipping and pitch shots, but giving something a little softer is a bit more responsive, especially when you’re not full swinging your 56 or your 60 all too often, where a softer shaft might give you a little bit more feel on a partial shot. For him, I think that he just likes the feeling of something really rigid in his hands when it comes to how that shaft is going to deliver to the golf ball. Yeah. And then, so I think that’s a good point. I’ve done both actually and I think that I like especially as someone who likes to really open and close and get get creative with my 60°. It is nice to have a little softer feeling shaft. Yeah. Um kind of where you can feel a little bit where that club head is when you’re hitting the big flop shot. Um and last thing I want to ask you about was just the putter. And I had made this comment as well, but the white hot OG series. I feel like Odyssey did a great job with that. And it’s I feel like you see a lot of those putters out there. Have you had similar successes with that with kind of the players that you’re working with and especially when it comes to the uh feel of that insert? Yeah, I mean it’s still one of our our better selling putting lines as far as used clubs go. Um they really knocked it out of the park as far as looks. I mean it in the name OG. They really kind of go back to the original there as far as look and feel goes. Uh and then that white hot insert, I mean it’s it’s up there in terms of putter lore where I mean that that insert’s been around for such a long time. players keep going back to it because of the way that it feels and the way that it sounds coming off the face. If you’re a player that’s looking for an insert, I mean, Odyssey is going to be one of the first things that you take a look at. Yeah, it’s uh it’s an it’s an awesome putter insert. I mean, so many player the reason they brought it back is because so many players were opting for either putting that in their putter or opting for really old, you know, Odyssey putter that still had that insert. But, um, yeah, that’s a look at Steven Fisk’s what’s in the bag. Some kind of unique insights there from Jake. [Music]
