Of all the gear trends we have seen in Tour Golf this season, the high-lofted fairway wood has been the most talked-about topic by far.
The poster child for this trend would most likely be Tommy Fleetwood (along with the mini Driver) but the topic really hit the gas pedal when World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler literally bent the knee and surrendered to the benefits of it all.
On this week’s episode of Fully Equipped, I had the chance to spend an hour with TaylorMade’s sports marketing manager and Scottie’s personal club guy, Adrian Rietveld, to walk through how the Qi35 7-wood finally landed in Scottie’s bag.
Rietveld goes quite in depth on the mechanics of what it takes to get a club in Scottie’s bag, and oddly enough, the biggest challenge he has is that Scottie kinda hits whatever he wants with whatever club you hand him. That sounds like a benefit, but if you’re trying to nail home a new idea that you know will help, finding the right moment is a challenge. Hopefully at some point you get an assist from the person who’s livelihood also depends on Scottie’s success: caddie Ted Scott.
“After the Torrey Pines event, the chatter amongst the caddies going back to Torrey for the Genesis was that you cannot play this golf course without a high-lofted fairway wood, you are giving up shots, and Teddy knew this,” Rietveld said. “Then [Scottie] turned up to Torrey, he skipped the range and came straight to the truck with Teddy for a meeting. ‘I think I need a 5-wood.'”
Keep in mind that this process started a year earlier, where the idea of a 5-wood or 7-wood was suggested to Scheffler after playing a practice round with Sam Burns (Callaway Apex UW 21) and Justin Thomas (Titleist 915 FD 5-wood). At that time Scottie wasn’t convinced that his gamer Srixon UT 3-iron couldn’t do the same thing that those other clubs couldn’t do … until he started to play outta the rough.
Old habits die hard but when they do, well … in Scheffler’s case, the rest is history. Since his switch he’s won four times, including two majors.
To watch the full episode with Johnny and Adrian on Fully Equipped’s YouTube channel, click here, or watch the video below.
