Ben Griffin put a new putter in the bag as he won his 3rd career PGA Tour Tournament, and third tournament of this season with a victory at the World Wide Technology Championship. In this 2nd Swing Thoughts segment, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald and 2nd Swing Master Fitter Harrison Arnold break down Ben Griffin’s WITB including a major change with his putter as he swapped out his Scotty Cameron Concept Tour Putter for a TaylorMade Spider Tour X Black. They not only discuss why Ben Griffin potentially made this equipment change, but also highlight a few of the most intriguing clubs in his bag plus they discuss what we are seeing in fittings with these specific clubs.
00:00 Introduction
00:30 PING G430 Max 10K Driver
03:00 Mizuno Pro S3 Irons
04:30 Mizuno Pro T1 + TaylorMade MG5 Wedges
06:40 TaylorMade Spider Tour X Putter.
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] And now welcoming back on Second Swing Thoughts podcast. It is Harrison Arnold. Um we’re going to go over the winning bag of Ben Griffin the Worldwide Technology Championship. Um not the first time he’s won this year. He’s been in the winner circle a few times already. Um so we’re familiar with his clubs, but let’s kind of go through it again. Harrison from your perspective. Um, right at the top we’ve got an interesting driver. Ping G430 Max 10K. Uh, not one you see a lot in tour players bags, but talk to me about this one. How it works you think for Bend and then also what you’ve seen in the fitting bay with it. Yeah, so I mean obviously that driver is built for maximum forgiveness, right? It’s the highest M driver on the market. Doesn’t get more much more forg forgiving than that, right? um interested to see him playing it out of everything, but I think it kind of stands out really for how much he um prioritizes hitting the fairway. Um I think that’s really a thing that we kind of gloss over of how far the ball’s going recent in the last five five to 10 years is know we think we’re just trying to get that ball as far down as we can. For someone like him where precision is everything and it’s real minor tweaks, maybe having this 10k max in there is making him hit a few more fairways and he can get to his control distances on his yard shot a little bit easier is kind of what how I see that. Yeah, I mean I’ve played the 10k and it is forgiving. It is stable. Um I know I I sometimes my again this is kind of being picky, but my one qual with it was sometimes I would miss left and I’d have that tendency especially as someone who comes inside to out. Uh, I think if you’re somebody who, you know, prefer to play, you have a kind of maybe inside out path and you’re looking for something straight, consistent, forgiving, you can do a lot worse than than this driver. So, I think it’s very applicable for a lot of people. Exactly. And I think for him more so than anyone, he’s got a lot of speed. So, he’s not really chasing distance. He just he’s just chasing pure control, really. Yeah. Exactly. And then the shaft too, I know you wanted to hit on as well, the US Mamaya uh link. This is the pro a prototype uh V17TX. uh talk to me about that shaft. What uh what is he getting out of that? Yeah, so it’s still kind of in the process of um of them getting this out to consumers, but it’s been on tour for a little while. So, we kind of know a few little things. Very low in launch, very low in spin, which is kind of what you need if you’re going to pair it up with that 10k max head cuz it’s more stable, more forgiving, tends to be a little bit higher in spin. So, you need something like that. I think one really cool feature they’ve added into this shaft is that they’ve got a graphic on there that shows the launch and um spin characteristics of it. So if you have we have some pictures of it. It has like five or six bars on there and the first one or two are just colored in. So kind of a cool little thing that they’re doing there. I hope more manufacturers going to move to that. Yeah, it would be kind of fun to see. You know, I think we have like in our fitting uh fitting matrices at at Second Swing. There are labels on on the shafts, you know, just for the sake of the fitters, but um just for the for the customer, for the golfer, that can help a lot, too. So in the irons, Mizuno Pro S3, he’s been using these all year. He’s won now three times with these irons. Um what do you see from these? I I I just like how my personal favorite thing is how great they look. Yeah. Um but talk to me about what you see for for him and and of course if you fit any of these um in store. Yeah. So obviously he’s playing those kind of for that classic Mizuno look, classic Mizuno feel, you know, all of the above. They’re not quite the S1’s which are kind of that true bladed style. The S3 is has a little bit more forgiveness to it. I use forgiveness very loosely. They are still a bladed iron. Um, but they tend to be a little bit lower in spin. So, um, with his iron play kind of being a strength for him, you know, the setup just really just gives him a touch more forgiveness, maybe a little bit more spin control in those windier conditions. He probably can probably flight those a little bit better just cuz they’re a little bit lower in spin. I know that from my testing with them, that’s kind of what I’ve noticed. I can just keep that ball flight down a little bit easier on those sort of partial shots. Um, but yes, but in the fitting bay, I wouldn’t say I’ve done a lot with this because you kind of really are targeting a very niche golfer, right? a very low to mid- handicap range who loves the look of um and feel of a Mizuna blade. But I have done a few combo sets this year where we’ve had those in the bottom half of the bag and we combo with something a little beefy on the top. Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Um I I it’s almost, you know, so you’d say it’s probably on the lower end of the spectrum as far as spin for this category. Yeah, definitely. So that’s something to note, too. You know, there’s a lot of players type irons like this out there. Um a little bit on the lower end of the spin there. So, into the wedges. Kind of a fun little combo here. He’s got Mazuno Pro T1 for um I think it’s a 51 degree technically is where he’s got it walks out and then a tailor made MG5 uh duo of wedges in the 56 and 60. Talk to me about that setup there. Um what you’ve what you noticed between those those two different models. Yeah, so I think he changes up the different models just because he wants to keep some familiarity in those sort of full shot um clubs. So that not surprised to see the T1 there. Um I think the the more you can keep that consistent the whole way throughout the golf bag, especially with those full swings, you’re just going to he I mean he’s playing for precision, right? So I think that is the main reason he’s doing that. I think those MG5s have been really great around the around the green um off some really cool bouncing soul um so width on those. So, I think he’s probably looked tested a lot of those around the greens and he’s why he’s probably picked those MG5s, but the T1’s there more so as that full swing wedge to kind of keep it very similar to what he’s playing in these irons. It’s kind of an interesting um conversation. And I know we’ve talked before, but just in if you use a wedge for a full shot, like even here, it’s almost as it’s kind of in a way a combo set by putting, you know, Mazuno T1 wedge as sort of a full swing wedge at the bottom of a Mazuno set of irons there with the the Pro S3s. Uh kind of an interesting way to to blend that and almost then transition to you your wedges that you will use for finesse basically around the green. Um, it’s probably something that, you know, golfers can take for themselves as as kind of an idea of how to make that transition because I think there’s a lot of questions usually about that gap wedge in the bag. Yeah. And I think that’s kind of what we see. I’m starting to see a lot more this year in the fitting bay was when I was fitting people for a set of irons, we’re including that utility wedge, we’re including that attack wedge, what whichever brand, wherever they the U or the A, whether they’re chucking in there. um just kind of keep that familiarity in there because if we’re only we’re not going to use that for little partial shots um for sort of you know half swings 3/4 swings well there’s no real need to go to a specialty watch right exactly so uh last thing this is probably the most important part as far as his win here is concerned is the switch he actually made with a putter. So, um I feel like we see this a lot where players will make a putter switch and I mean immediately see results and here the switch was to a tailor made Spider Tour X, a model that has had a lot of success on professional tours. Uh famously gained by Scotty Sheffller the last couple of years switched from a Scotty Cameron Concept 2 blade. So, talk to me about the Spyder Tour X. Um, what you see from Ben and and then I don’t know how much fitting you’ve done with Spider Tour X, but it’s been a very successful lineup of putters for Tailor Made. Well, I’ve seen a very successful couple years for that putter. I mean, so yeah, interesting to see kind of him do that this week. Not surprising. A lot of guys have kind of been doing that, but like very much so that honeymoon period, right? Right. He’s We’ll see how long that one lasts. We thought the same thing was going to happen with Scott when he first moved. he started winning straight away. But this the honeymoon is extended quite a long way. Um but yeah, so I think a lot of guys I see kind of switching from that bladed style to a spider. It’s quite an easy switch just because that spider does set up very square like a blade does, but you get the extra um MOI from that putter. You get a little bit more forgiveness just I think I think just visually gives you a little bit more. I think was Fleetwood recently made that change too some to something called maybe not a SP. He doesn’t use a tox. I think he just used the just the tour. I can’t remember. I know it’s something close. Yeah, he he’s using a spider of some sort at least. But um yeah, very unsurprising. See, just because of how square that thing is, it’s a very easy switch. Sure. Um I mean there’s certainly a I mean we I know around the RDER Cup, we made note on on the show of just I think it was 21 or maybe 22 of the players in the RDER Cup were playing a mallet versus a blade. And that is overwhelming number. Ben Ben Griffin at the time was one of the blades. And so we’re talking about almost every player in the RDER Cup was using uh a mallet putter or is now using a mallet putter with with Ben Griffin making a switch and then winning right away. So I think that’s a very it’s very underrated part of the game to to I mean blades look great and you want to play them but if you can take some forgiveness why not right like I remember I was at the US Open qualifi final qualifying this year and he had a bunch of the live golf was there tour players and I was astounded about how many mallets were on the green you know especially the original DF1 saw a lot of those on older tour players I remember the Brian brothers were playing with them and stuff and so it was interesting just to see how much much they oh they’re sort of um valuing forgiveness in their butts. Yeah, it seems like it’s it’s a trend that’s definitely catching on with the the professional level. Um and you’re seeing it now in the amateur level as well. Just enough players and that’s just what the options are too. There are a ton of mallets out there. So um but yeah, that’s that’s that’s the look at Ben Griffin’s winning clubs, what you’ve seen in the fitting bays there, Harrison, as well. We thank you for joining for the breakdown. Of course. [Music]
