LISTEN: Charles Howell explains his move to Titleist, why driver is more important than putter

In the debut episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast, hosts Jonathan Wall, Golf Magazine’s Managing Editor for Equipment, and Tim Briand, True Spec’s Director of Fitting and Sales, spoke to three-time PGA Tour winner Charles Howell III about a myriad of equipment topics, including why the driver was so important during his move to Titleist this season.

“This would start a debate, but I’d weight the driver over the putter,” Howell said. “When I tested Titleist stuff, I hit the TS3 and knew immediately it would be a good fit. It was what I was most excited about. Throughout my 20 years on the PGA Tour, I’d never really heard people get really excited about the Titleist driver until the TS2 and TS3 came out. And then I heard a lot of people talking about it. That’s when I knew it the right move for me.”

Howell made the jump to Titleist the end of last year and won just four starts after completely overhauling his setup. As the son of a surgeon, he credited a data-driven approach that made it possible to cull through numerous club builds to pinpoint the best setup for his game.

“If you go to the hospital, you’re going to get an MRI, CT scan or an X-ray to see what in the world is going on,” he said. “I’ve always looked at it that data is the first thing, whether you want to use TrackMan or Foresight.”

In addition to the Howell interview, Jonathan and Tim discuss Tony Finau’s recent change in driver shaft length and Scotty Cameron’s new T22 Teryllium putter line.

You can check out even more of Howell’s thoughts in the podcast below. Subscribe to the GOLF.com Podcast on iTunes here.