Throughout his career, Phil Mickelson has played golf fearlessly; he’s not afraid to hit any shot or to do things differently. The same goes for his equipment, too. He’s willing to try anything, such as playing with two drivers, or with no drivers, and he’ll put lead tape just about anywhere on his clubs.
Recently, on our latest Fully Equipped podcast, Mickelson’s longtime Callaway club fitter, Gerritt Pon, joined the show to discuss Phil’s unique testing process. As you’d probably expect, he doesn’t do things according to the norm.
Luckily for us, we can learn a lot from Mickelson’s process when it comes to testing new clubs. Here are 3 things Lefty does that can help you during your next club testing session.
1. Be open minded
Given Mickelson’s caliber of ball striking throughout the years, you wouldn’t expect to see him even try game-improvement irons, let alone put them in the bag. According to Pon, however, that’s business as usual.
Pon says that just about every time Callaway comes out with new clubs – whether they’re made for high-handicappers or not – Mickelson gets a set to try. Due to Mickelson’s feels and swing tendencies, Pon says he hits game-improvement clubs well because of their CG (center of gravity) locations, upright lie angles, and draw-biases.
“For the whole season this year he’s been playing [long irons] that you would typically see in the ‘Silver Flight’ of the country club member guest tournament; that being the Epic Forged irons,” Pon said. “That’s a club you would find in a 10- or 20-handicapper’s bag usually.”
So, even if you’re a better player, don’t just assume you should play a certain style of head because of your handicap. Give everything a try and see what actually works for you. That’s what Mickelson does.
2. Take it to the course
Since Mickelson lives close enough to Callaway’s Carlsbad testing center, Pon says Phil is able to stop in fairly regularly. When he does so, however, he’s not just there to test on the range and get Trackman numbers to determine what clubs are best. It’s not that Mickelson avoids Trackman completely, but Pon says that he relies on testing on the actual golf course to get a feel for new clubs or adjustments.
For someone as inventive with his shots as Mickelson, I suppose this isn’t surprising.
“He’ll take [different iron sets] and start doing some trial work on the course with them,” Pon said. “Sometimes he’ll do a little bit of testing here at the test center, but not a ton. It’s more like, ‘OK, here are the clubs, let me go play with them. I’m going to give you some feedback, and based on that feedback we’re going to make some adjustments to it.'”
What was that stuff on Phil Mickelson’s putter at the PGA Championship, and why was it there?
This could be a helpful mindset for golfers who tend to get too focused on Trackman numbers and forget about performance on the course itself.
3. Don’t forget about the putter
The proper fit and build on your putter can be just as important as it is on any club in your set. And think about how often you use the putter!
Mickelson, who currently has lead tape on the hosel of his putter, has left no stone unturned when it comes to dialing in the flat stick.
“He’s been looking at launch, looking at spin, looking at the acceleration through the ball; all the things that Quintic can measure, all the things that SAM (Putt Lab) can measure,” Pon said. “And he’s leaned on the data that he’s been able to collect from those systems pretty heavily, just trying to dial in the lie angle of the putter, to try and dial in the loft.”
Bonus fact: Pon confirmed that Mickelson applies lead tape on his own clubs himself!
Hopefully Mickelson’s testing process helps you during your next session. For more insight on Mickelson’s equipment, check out the full podcast interview with Gerritt Pon below!