FLOURTOWN, Pa. — There’s a lot of cool stuff in Justin Thomas’ golf bag, from his prototype Mitsubishi Diamana driver shaft to his custom one-off set of Titleist 621.JT irons. But perhaps the most eye-catching is the blast from the past that is his Titleist 915d 5-wood, a club released in 2014, before Thomas even earned his PGA Tour card.
It’s been in the bag for all but the first two of Thomas’ 16 PGA Tour wins. Thomas was asked to recall the best shot he ever hit with the club on Wednesday at his pre-tournament press conference for this week’s Truist Championship.
“I don’t know,” he said, taking a long pause. “The one on 18 at Sawgrass on Saturday and Sunday kind of come to mind. At least that’s kind of what people remind me of. In terms of difficulty to repeat, I would say that’s not very far up there. It just was a situation and scenario that I think made it a better shot.”
Back in 2021, when Thomas won the Players Championship, he choked up on the 5-wood on the 72nd tee and hit a shot down the right side of the fairway before it started slinging left toward the water. The ball bounced seemingly forever before it narrowly avoided the pond. Thomas looked anxiously before club-twirling late, knowing he had found dry land.
Four years later, the club, with plenty of wear marks and a patch of paint missing on the shaft, is still in the bag.
Fairway woods are some of the hardest clubs for Tour pros to give up. Think of Henrik Stenson’s Callaway Diablo Octane Tour 3-wood, Collin Morikawa’s TaylorMade SIM Ti 3-wood or Tiger Woods’ TaylorMade M3 5-wood.
Thomas also carries a Titleist TS3 3-wood that was released in 2018, but the 915d 5-wood is two generations older. The club is one of the oldest non-putters on the PGA Tour, even outliving many Tour clubs from Nike, which exited the hard goods business in 2016, two years after its release.
But right now, Thomas isn’t even considering a new one.
“I think there’s definitely a reason it’s been in there,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t necessarily have as much to do with not being able to hit the newer stuff well or like how it performs. It’s more of just how it performs distance-wise is what I need.
“I’ve hit a couple of the latest 5-woods, like the last couple editions or launches, and they just go a little bit further than I would like in a 5-wood. It’s just kind of a perfect club for me, I feel like. It’s unique in the sense that I feel like I can hit it 230 yards if I need to, but I can hit it 265 in the air if I need to.”
Titleist GT3 Custom Fairway Wood
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The 5-wood is also a versatile club for many players and Thomas said he can hit clubs with the 915 that other options like a 2-iron just don’t afford him.
Thomas, who is close with Tiger Woods, likes to copy the 15-time major winner by using his 5-wood to chop balls out of thick rough from much shorter yardages than you would typically think.
Thomas said he has a couple of extra heads, but he won’t be giving them away anytime soon and why would he when he just found the winner’s circle for the first time in three years?
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