The putt didn’t drop but the beat rolled on for Wyndham Clark at the Players Championship. After a relatively slow start to his 2024 campaign (T-29 at Sentry and T-39 at the American Express), Clark made a driver change that has brought impressive results.
Reluctant to swap his Titleist TSi3 after his breakout 2023 season – that included winning his first major championship at the US Open at Los Angeles Country club – Clark came to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February with a more open mind.
Clark had experienced immediate speed gains with the new TSR3 during his initial testing sessions last year, but really explored the possibilities on the Tuesday at Pebble Beach, working with J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s director of player promotions, to dial in his specs. The session included something everyday players should take note of, specifically, that if you make a swing change, your equipment probably needs a tweak, too.
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According to Van Wezenbeeck, Clark’s swing had evolved in recent years to become much more neutral, allowing for a more neutral setup in his driver. The result was a 9-degree Titleist TSR3 with a Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 60 6.5 shaft. The adjustable SureFit hosel was set at D1 (-.75 degrees loft, standard lie angle). A 12-gram centre-of-gravity weight was slotted in the H•1 setting (slight draw). Clark found the combination delivered a better spin-to-launch ratio with the increased speed he had already seen.
“[When] I switched to the TSR3, it had a touch more ball speed and a little more spin for me, which was huge,” Clark said. “And then I was able to keep it straighter. I sometimes tail it off too much with fade. And so [at Pebble], kind of Monday, Tuesday, we did some fittings and honestly, that was one of the biggest keys.”
Indeed, the hosel setting is significantly different from his previous setup. At a Golf Digest photo shoot shortly after his US Open win, Clark’s driver was set in the C-1 position, which is a bit upright and open.
As for those results, Clark won the weather-shortened Pebble Beach event and finished runner-up to Scottie Scheffler at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. Although some might wonder why Clark didn’t switch sooner, perhaps another lesson is to not change until you’re ready to fully embrace it.
