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The biggest adjustment was to TaylorMade’s Twist Face bulge-and-roll profile, which has exaggerated characteristics to help players with 130+ mph swing speeds, like DeChambeau, keep the ball in play. Extreme bulge-and-roll profiles are nothing new for DeChambeau. That was core to the design of his previous gamer, the Krank Formula Fire Pro, and the driver he designed with LA Golf. Since the 2024 Masters, he’s also played irons with curved faces to mitigate misses.
“When a shot is hit off-center, especially at the force and speed that he’s hitting it at — this happens for every golfer, but obviously it’s amplified in his case,” Bazzel said.
The forward CG DeChambeau requires to keep his spin down also makes the driver more susceptible to opening and closing on a miss, which is why the face curvature becomes so important.
TaylorMade is uniquely positioned to create faces with those profiles thanks to their carbonwood technology. Not only is the material lighter than titanium faces, but it can be created with tighter tolerances and with more accurate shaping.
“You’re designing to zero tolerance, and then you also have the benefit of the consistency of the face,” Rietveld said. “Bryson hits a lot of drivers. Bryson hits a lot of balls at high speed. That driver will hold its shape and hold everything for thousands of shots.”
Carbon faces also allow TaylorMade to create new iterations faster than they could with titanium.
The shape is very particular to help it move through the air, and it’s a shape Bazzel said the average consumer wouldn’t go for.
“When you look at the shape of the product, you’ll notice it’s a little bit more toe-shaped, which a lot of average golfers probably would not want that,” he said. “But from an aerodynamic standpoint, it’s advantageous.”
It’s truly a driver optimized for the extreme end of the bell curve. But DeChambeau, along with TaylorMade, thinks more extreme swing speed players are coming.
The two drivers that landed on the conforming list this week are actually the second iteration of prototype heads developed with DeChambeau, Rietveld said. The first testing was done with DeChambeau using the standard Qi4D heads just to see how the platform would hold up with his speeds.
A significant round of testing took place around Masters week in Dallas, where Rietveld gathered data and feedback from DeChambeau before TaylorMade created the current prototypes for this week.
So far, DeChambeau seems to like what he sees. On the range this week at Shinnecock, he was intentionally hitting balls off the heel and toe that were still flying on target.
The driver has a stated loft of 7 degrees, again to help manage DeChambeau’s spin, and is actually set one click lower from the upright setting to help him produce his desired draw ball flight. That’s key because, as Rietveld points out, they could take a 9-degree head and make it 7 degrees using a loft sleeve, but starting at 7 degrees lets them get the face and lie angles exactly where DeChambeau wants them.
He’s also playing the new Project X Titan Black 70TX shaft after playing a Project X prototype for much of the year. The build he’s using at Shinnecock puts his launch around 13 degrees with 2100 rpm spin.
Johnny Wunder contributed to this report.
Golf Pride continues to be the best in class
After the first round at Shinnecock, eight of the nine players to shoot 68 or better played Golf Pride grips.
In total, 142 of the 156-player field played a Golf Pride Grip.
Check this out
This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. This week, check out the custom oil can finished X Forged and Apex MB prototype irons built for Min Woo Lee to test.
Odds and Ends
Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.
Adam Scott was one of more than 70 pros — including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland, Chris Gotterup— opting for a 2- or 3-utility-iron this week in place of a high-lofted fairway wood because of the high winds. This is after just a few pros used utility irons last year at Oakmont… Patrick Cantlay switched to a Spider Tour X DBL Bend … Sahith Theegala added a new Ping G440 2-hybrid, replacing his 4-wood and retiring his older G425 “Frankenhybrid” … TaylorMade blew away the fairway wood count with 102, 47 percent of all in play, 40 being Qi4D models … Fujikura swept the driver (45.9%), overall wood (44.1%) and hybrid shafts (37.9%).
3 things you should read/watch
A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.
