FLOURTOWN, Pa. — It’s a week of firsts for Collin Morikawa. The Truist Championship marks his first week playing Philadelphia Cricket Club, his first week working with new caddie Joe Greiner — and the first time he’s gamed a 9-wood.
You read that right: A 9-wood!
High-lofted fairway woods have been having their moment on the PGA Tour the past few years, with more and more players seeking versatility out of the spot that would formerly have been occupied by the 4-iron.
TaylorMade’s Senior Tour Manager, Adrain Rietveld, told GOLF, “These 9-woods are basically pitching wedges for a 225-yard shot.” In fact, TaylorMade has three other 9-woods in play this week, including Tommy Fleetwood, who games the club just about every week.
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Morikawa only hit the 9-wood once Thursday at the Truist Championship on his way to an opening-round 63, which left him two shots off the lead.
In fairness, that swing wasn’t a good one as Morikawa pulled his tee shot on the 222-yard par-3 8th long left of the green, nearly on one of the tee boxes for the 9th hole. But Morikawa wasn’t one-and-done with the club, confirming it would be in the bag again for Friday’s second round.
As for how it got in his bag of one of the best iron players of his generation? That has to do with his new caddie.
“I never even thought about a 9-wood,” Morikawa said Thursday. “When we were flying here, Joe, I was just asking about 4-irons. It’s kind of a club, not that I struggle with, but I want to find the perfect distance and launch, especially in certain conditions.”
Morikawa normally switches between a TaylorMade P7CB or P770 4-iron, depending on conditions, per Rietveld, who said that the optimal carry number he looks for is around 222 yards. With the P7CB, his miss can fall all the way to 207-208. With the more forgiving and larger P770, the miss only loses about 7 yards, down to 214-215 yards, but that club isn’t as workable, making it harder for Morikawa to hit his trademark cut.
After Greiner mentioned the idea of a 9-wood, remembering his former boss, Max Homa, had tested one last year, Morikawa asked Rietveld to build him a TaylorMade Qi35 9-wood with a Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX shaft to test this week at Philly Cricket. No one, Morikawa included, expected him to immediately game the club, but the results spoke for themselves.
TaylorMade Qi35 Custom Fairway Wood
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Rietveld said Morikawa had no trouble easily hitting his desired 222 carry number and could even step on it and fly it up to 226 or 227 yards. Even mishits would still carry 218 to 219.
Meanwhile, he was getting the added benefits of launching the ball higher and spinning it more, allowing him to control both the shape and the roll-out better.
Rietveld was keeping track of dispersion and by Tuesday evening, after Morikawa had tested the club throughly on the range, on the course, from the tee, rough, etc., Rietveld asked him a hypothetical: If you’re on 18 at Torrey Pines on the last day and you have 20 balls of 4-iron and 20 balls of this 9-wood, how many tournamentwould you win with the 9-wood and how many tournaments you went with 4-iron?
The answer was clear.
Upgrade your game with a high-lofted fairway wood
It was one of those rare times when a player just has to throw look preferences out the door in favor of obvious performance benefits. It might seem crazy that one of the best ball strikers on the planet would opt for a extremely high-lofted fairway wood originally designed for hackers, but these guys are always seeking consistentcy. If there’s a club that’s going to mitigate misses, they’re going to try it.
Morikawa is comitted to the club for this week, but with him playing well, T5 and five off the lead after two rounds, it might get some staying power.
Collin Morikawa’s 9-wood specs
Head: TaylorMade Qi35 core
Loft: 22.5˚
Lie: 58.5˚
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX
Tipping: 2″
Length: 41″ EOG
Swingweight: D3
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet 58R, logo down, 1 extra wrap + 1 lower hand
Two other changes
While a Signature event the week of a major is normally a quiet time for gear changes, Morikawa made several.
In addition to adding the 9-wood, Morikawa has switched back to his Qi10 LS driver from last year, despite coming into the week ranking 14th in strokes gained: off the tee and second in accuracy on the PGA Tour.
And after playing two events with a TaylorMade Spider Tour V putter, Morikawa has gone back to his trusty TaylorMade TP Soto blade putter.
This switch seemed to be imminent just two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic when Morikawa left a Monday practice session with coach Stephen Sweeney with just the Soto in the bag, but the Spider survived the first two rounds in New Orleans before he and partner Kurt Kitayama missed the cut.
However, Morikawa insists he hasn’t ruled out going back to the Spider.
“The last few days at home I was putting, I went back to the blade and made a lot of putts and felt comfortable,” he said. “So why not stick with that instead of kind of going out on the putting green and spending an hour or two trying to figure out do I use this, do I do that? Just stick with what I’ve been seeing at home.”
During Round 1, Morikawa gained more than two strokes on the greens, but took a step back during his second-round 70 in more difficult conditions Friday, losing 1.2 strokes.
Morikawa has been known to make a mid-tournament switch before, but with better conditions ahead Saturday, I’d expect he’d keep going with the blade.
