On this week’s episode of Subpar, Marty Jertson, Ping VP of fitting and performance, sat down for a chat with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz about some tech-heavy topics.
In addition to designing Ping clubs for nearly two decades, Jertson is also the co-founder of popular swing speed trainer TheStack, which he developed with golf biomechanist Sasho MacKenzie.
View Product
It goes without saying that Jertson, a talented player who has qualified for several major championships, has an informed and compelling perspective on modern golf technology. During Subpar’s “Emergency Nine” segment, Knost and Stoltz peppered Jertson with tech-related questions, including what the modern game would look like if ball technology never progressed beyond the balata.
Jertson said he thought the top of the World Ranking would look very different, with less emphasis on big hitting and more of a premium on ball-striking artistry, shaping and ball-flight control.
On that note, Knost shared his take that the advent of better technology hurt rather than helped Tiger Woods.
“In my opinion, Tiger’s the greatest to ever play. But I think technology hurt him. It brought the rest of the players closer to him,” Knost said. “He was so far past everyone else if the technology would have stayed what it was 10, 15 years ago.”
“I agree,” Jertson replied. “I think you could look at [Jack] Nicklaus in a similar light as Tiger. They put all those kind of things in there, some of the technology caught up. And Tiger was a late adopter to some of those things. The steel shaft, he was a late adopter to that, he was a late adopter on the ball change a little bit.
“When he played Riv[iera] this year, he played the [Bridgestone] Tour B X ball, from the Tour B XS, which is a ball you could curve more, and he loved it,” Jertson continued. “So he was even a late adopter to that, and he was bombin’ it out there, obviously.”
“I’m with Colt,” Stoltz said. “If they never changed it, he would’ve won everything.”
“He pretty much did,” Knost replied. “But yeah.”
For more from Jertson, including a deep dive on his speed training system, TheStack, check out the full interview below.
