Jenny Shin played a new Srixon ZXi driver last week.
Sam Hodde/Getty Images
There’s an old saying that “It’s not the arrow, it’s the archer” for gear nerds who try to fix everything wrong with their games by making an equipment change.
In the case of Jenny Shin, it turns out it was indeed the arrow.
Shin had been struggling off the tee this season, at least comparatively, as her driving accuracy of 73 percent is down from her career average of 78 percent. While that might not sound like much, at the pro level, that could be the difference between keeping or losing your card.
But Shin finally got to the bottom of it this past week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Shin, who has one of the more candid social media presences in women’s golf, said in a series of posts on X that she discovered she had been playing with a driver that was four swing weight points heavier than it was supposed to be.
This Tuesday, I found out that I was using a driver that was 4 swing weights heavier than what I’ve been using my whole career 🧵 👇🏼
LPGA drivers don’t creep past CT limits as often as they do on the PGA Tour, but with as long as Shin used that driver and how often she probably hit it in the same exact spot, it’s not surprising that it eventually got too hot.
In her Twitter thread, she explained she made do with a backup driver, but didn’t need it that much for links golf and ended up finishing T17. The search for a replacement, however, was tougher.
“Since then, I couldn’t find a driver that could replicate my original driver,” she said on X. “Somehow it just didn’t click. Sure enough, my accuracy went down and I kept missing fairways. Then this January, I managed to find one that I could hit somewhat straight.
“The miss was right, but it felt manageable. My GIR started dropping significantly compared to last year due to missing fairways. I started aiming more left and then my miss become (sic) push cuts.”
With Shin’s approximately five percent drop in accuracy, she also saw her greens in regulation percentage drop by about the same margin.
Then in April, she noticed her swing path was getting more out-to-in, with all her clubs, and she said it cost her 8-10 yards of distance.
Ive always had a very neutral swing path and I check my swing religiously on camera. On video it looked okay, but in April, my club path was -3.4 ~ -4.8 with my 6iron and my face to path was +4. I lost about 8-10 yards of distance and was baffled how it got there
She also saw herself last week on video and noticed the vertical movement of her body during the swing was “out of control.”
The discovery
This past week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Shin was banging balls on the range on Monday, she said, trying to correct the right miss that she was scared could penalize her at Fields Ranch East.
That’s when a Srixon Tour rep she knew noticed her and stopped to ask if she needed anything.
“I’m desperate, can you build me a driver that’s D0?” Shin asked the rep, referencing her preferred swingweight.
We then found out that the driver I was using was at D4 🤪 NO WONDER I CANT SQUARE UP THE FACE. It all made sense after that.
Most pros, even ones who aren’t gear nerds, are pretty familiar with their specs so that they can get a replacement or backup whenever they need. Shin’s previous gamer was D0 and so was the driver she was currently playing.
Or so she thought.
“We found out that the driver I was using was at D4,” Shin wrote.
Why this matters
The driver Shin was using was four swingweight points heavier than she was spec’d for. That ends up being roughly an 8 gram difference in the headweight (or something else, depending on any weight in the grip).
That doesn’t sound like much, but Shin was obviously very subconsciously sensitive to the weight change and it caused her to change her swing.
So while there was nothing technically wrong with the club, because of the heavier swing weight, she reacted by swinging more to the inside, causing a right miss.
Getting clubs fit for you can be as much about getting a club that makes the ball do what you want it to as it is getting a club that makes you do what you want to. While everything else could have been the same with the driver as a previous version, the extra weight was causing her swing to react in a way she didn’t like.
This is why it’s not only important for you to get your clubs fit, but also to verify the specs match what they are supposed to be. Your local golf shop will typically have all the tools needed to get this done.
These kinds of weight discrepancies are rare in professional golf, but they can happen. Matt Fitzpatrick went through a similar experience last season when he discovered he left a backweight under the grip of his driver.
The result
Shin had a new Srixon ZXi driver with a Mitsubishi Diamana RB shaft built for her and immediately put it into play last week at the Women’s PGA.
While Shin didn’t see a major uptick in accuracy or distance at a difficult Fields Ranch East setup, she did put on one of her best ball striking performances of the year, finishing 6th in the field in strokes gained: approach (1.35) on her way to a T12 finish, he second best showing of the year.
This is a wild week for me so far. The emotional roller coaster 🎢 ride has been real. To have a completely different swing feel in a matter of 24 hours and to see proof and build confidence again has been an unbelievable thrill
While it may not have been the driver that was directly responsible, having one that was the proper swing weight allowed her to regain her feel with the rest of her game and it showed up with her iron play.
She immediately blamed her swing for her inconsistencies throughout the season, but as it turns out, she was too quick to rule out her clubs.
Jack Hirsh is the Associate Equipment Editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.
