Tommy Fleetwood has put on one of the most efficient driving performances in recent memory.
Going into today’s final round at the Travelers Championship, he has hit 21 consecutive fairways on a course that isn’t that wide open.
The interesting thing to look at here is how he is doing it. Fleetwood currently sits at 135th in driving distance on the PGA Tour and 36th in accuracy, giving him a middle-of-the-pack rank of 82nd in Total Driving. He’s not long by comparison, accurate for sure and in a nutshell, we would call him a middle-of-the-pack driver of the golf ball.
There are some things this week that really changed for the better, and it’s a testament to the continuing work done by Fleetwood and TaylorMade Tour Rep Adrian Rietveld.
I was able to walk a few holes with Fleetwood at the US Open this year, and what I saw was a player who was dialed in from a technique standpoint, but something was a hair off. Nothing crazy to speak of but just something that took his trust levels from “kind of” to “ultimate”. This is where Rietveld and his tireless pursuit of getting it right come into play. What I found interesting was that he could sense it from his work with Fleetwood and instead of letting it ride and allowing the player to figure it out, he stepped in and made some decisions.
You have to keep in mind that Tour players are always pretty dialed equipment-wise; they have every lever to pull at their disposal and reps to ensure that it’s proper. Nothing is left to chance from a 35,000-foot view.
But things change, constantly, hence the reason why Tour trucks are there. And it’s also the reason why players are assigned to one main rep week in a week out. This creates a relationship and a track record with each other to measure success vs failure.
This week at the Travelers, it was a driver and mini driver shaft change that seemed to create that “trust” I referenced earlier.
At the US Open and all of 2025, Tommy had been playing the Fujikura Ventus Red Velo + 6X in his Driver and mini driver. This profile has a VERY stiff handle with the shaft getting progressively softer down to the tip section. What this allows (in theory) is the ball to “get up” easier, all while keeping spin down. For players like Fleetwood, who like to stay on top of it — neutral/ish angle of attack — it’s a way to cheat launch and spin without having to hit up on it to get it airborne.
Now, it needs to be said that shafts are a very personal component to a golf club. Any profile “could” work for any player, depending on the goal and how the player delivers the club. I don’t advise seeing a shaft’s flex and profile and immediately pre-qualifying it as “not for you”.
This is why getting properly fit is so key. Take someone like Rocco Mediate, for example, he’s 60+ years old, swings it maybe 100 MPH and uses a 70+ gram Tour X shaft.
Why? Because it complements his shot shape and feel. No, it’s not too stiff or heavy, it’s perfect for him.
After Oakmont, Fleetwood and Rietveld took stock of where they were heading into the tail end of the year. What they discovered was a few things
- He has lost a bit of distance with the driver.
- He hit last year’s mini-driver set-up straighter
- There was about 200-300 RPMs of spin to mitigate to make it all work.
Then the testing began…
Rietveld went in with a few options shaft-wise that could work. Tommy had been playing Ventus Blue TR in both driver and mini last year with success but swapped into Qi35 at the beginning of the year because although Qi10 worked, it still had a big miss.
The TR blue profile is VERY tip stiff and gets progressively softer up to the butt section. Almost the polar opposite of the Red. Shaft changes a lot of the time come down to feel. Giving the player a feel that allows them to put the clubhead in a position to swing freely. Sometimes it’s clear as day, and sometimes (in this case) it’s more of a subconscious thing.
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The easiest part of this riddle was with the mini-driver; putting Ventus TR Blue in the R7 Mini with the new weight configuration was almost plug and play. The R7 allows a fitter to move weight north/south and east/west.
The new setup has a 10g weight in the toe, a 15 g weight in the heel, and two 3 g weights in the back. This moves CG heel side and forward, allowing Tommy to hit a draw (with spin) with little to no effort. It’s also faster, and the spin went down 300 RPMs (3300 RPM to 3000 RPM)
The driver was a little more complicated, but the result remained the same. There were four options presented to Fleetwood, some with the Ventus Red setup but with a slightly stiffer tip (TX tipped 1″ vs X Tipped 1.5″) and the TR Blue setups.
Fleetwood needed to kill spin without sacrificing loft. He needs more loft for control, and since going to a 10.5˚ driver setup, his accuracy is there, but distance wasn’t. Most of the loss was due to increased spin. Keep in mind that the current setup worked fine; he could have played on with it all year, but this is Tommy Fleetwood. No stone unturned.
Qi35 has a different CG package than Qi10, allowing fitters to move weight up and back in the middle of the head vs the heel side and internally.
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His new driver configuration shored up a better strike point, took the spin down to that 2400 RPM range that he loves, and separated itself from the mini-driver, so his gapping was proper.
It may not seem like a HUGE gear change, but on Tour and for YOU, it’s the little things we need to look at to get it just right.
Fleetwood is putting on a tee-ball clinic this week. Is it because of the gear swap? Maybe. All we can do is tell the before and after story, and the shaft change is the one variable, equipment-wise wise that has shifted. It’s not often that a gear change results in an uptick in performance to this degree, so obviously we have to take a look at it.
Seems to make sense though, Fleetwood is driving the cover off of it with both hitting 34 of 42 fairways heading into today’s final round. Something is working, I’ll tell you that.
Here are the specs of the new setups.
Tommy Fleetwood’s Driver and Mini Driver setups
Driver
Head: TaylorMade Qi35 (DOT) 10.5˚@ 9.8˚ (58.5˚ Lie, 15g forward, 5g back, 1.5˚ FCT Sleeve at STD/UP)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6-X Velocore (Tipped 1″, 45.25″ EOG, D3)
Mini Driver
Head: R7 Quad Mini 13.5˚ @13˚ (10g Toe, 15g Heel, 2x 3g back, 2˚ FCT Sleeve at 1 click lower than Upright)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6-X (Tipped 1″, 43.5″ EOG, D4)
Want to find the best mini driver for your game? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.
