Peter Finch: What's In The Bag?

right good one for you today not only are we at the beautiful pinehurst we've got peter finch

with us we're going to take a look in your bag am i yes we are why does every video start with a

handshake even though we've like spent the last four days together go again it's double handshake

your hands are very warm by the way we familiarize i'd say unusually warm yeah that's that's something

i was across about to bear but let's not talk about that let's talk about equipment so i was

going to ask you where are you would you consider yourself an equipment nerd a bit of a gearhead but

I've been watching some videos of you and I think I know the answer to that. I think yes, there's a secret gear nerd in there

I mean, probably buried deep down. I want to know, certainly when I was reviewing clubs, I wanted to know a lot more

All I want to really know now is as much as I need to for me to be confident in what I'm using

It's probably the easiest way to say it. I think it's the same as anything. You can go really deep down into the tech, but I think if you get fitted

and you know that what you're using is correct for you, then I think that's probably as deep as you need to go

Like these clubs haven't really changed much this year, which for me is unusual

I'm usually changing this bag twice a year if I was reviewing clubs

But now I'm more settled. I can just stick to what I know. Your focus shifted a bit then, because obviously back when reviewing clubs

like you say, you need to know everything about everything. You've focused a lot more on playing now. So I guess you want some continuity there

Because as a club reviewer, I'm playing different clubs every week, and it's very difficult, isn't it

It's probably more rather than worrying too much about the performance of the golf clubs, which I know is there, this is more worrying about my own performance, if that kind of makes any sense

Yeah, it makes lots of sense. Because I do worry, I don't worry. And also, having watched the JJ video, your fitting video out at TPI

I think you can be pretty confident you're probably in good specs, right? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, it was an eye-opener in some respects

because I went over there with maybe some ideas about what I wanted, but it very quickly became apparent that they're much more knowledgeable than me

you know, it's never a nice revelation when you know and you realise you're thick

But when it does happen, I think it can be quite freeing. I can empathise, Pete

Yeah, you know this. I'm sure everyone kind of watching or listening to this understands

They're well aware of that, Pete. Yeah, which end of the bag would you like to start with, Pete? Big or little

I mean, I would say, I mean, we could start the top down

Okay, let's start top down. There's a driver. We are in. So you came out, I remember seeing in the video

you came out of my favourite driver, the Ping G430 Max 10K, and now we're in a GT3

and you picked up a ludicrous amount of ball speed that I saw on this. I mean, it was a bit of a weird one because I knew, obviously when I signed for Titleist

I kind of knew that switching into a different driver, but if I'm going to be honest, like almost

any driver, I knew I was going to gain some ball speed. I knew I was going to gain some distance

on the Ping. What the Ping was great for was I could literally just throw it at the ball

and I knew something was going to come out. No matter where on the face it was hit, it'd be okay

But during the testing and during the fitting for that GT3, I was able to keep it on the planet with my missed strikes

but then my good strikes with this club were just literally, we're talking like 20, 30 yards further

It's a big, big difference. It was hot, wasn't it? I was seeing some 180 ball. We played yesterday and I was surprised at the speed

I really was. It was very impressive. So GT3, 9 degree, D1 setting, Tensei 1K black

75 TX, so a little on the heavier side, do you know why you ended up in something a little heavy

or were you just paying attention to JJ? Yeah, so it's a little bit shorter as well

and it was kind of like the combination of I was swinging hard enough and hitting the ball far

enough that I just wanted a tiny bit more control. So for context you cruise about, you're 120 guy

really? About 120 yeah, about 120, I'm not sure about today. I'd happy to top out at 100 today

I'm being honest, but yeah, so around 120 and when I'm hitting it well and when I'm confident

I can swing a little bit quicker than that. But with a slightly heavy shaft, slightly shorter shaft, it's almost just reminding myself that I don't need to

You know, if I'm carrying it about 290, 300, like pretty much every course that I'm playing

even in comps, that's more than enough. I don't need to get any further than that. So it's just about then having a level of control

So in terms of set up, from looking yesterday, it was a pretty neutral ball flight

there wasn't too much movement left to right or right to left. Have you got it? Yeah. Do you like to see one shot or the other off the tee

I've been trying to draw it a lot more this year. So I was always a fade ball flight pretty much all my life

And then this year switched to something a little bit more shallow. I just wanted to see a draw because I couldn't really hit a draw that consistently

And with the driver, it's still a little bit tricky. Like I feel I hit a draw with my driver and what actually comes out

is a relatively straight ball flight. If I want to fade it, then that's fine

but getting that pure draw, still not quite there yet. We're all tough. You don't see many slingers off the tee

do you, full stop at a high level? There's not many people who can get modern drivers turning over hugely that I've seen

It kind of depends. I mean, again, it depends on equipment, depends on ball, like how much spin you're generating

But also I think what you'll find is a lot of the most consistent drivers certainly fade it

but if you want to be able to still produce the best numbers, you have to be able to get shallow

you have to be able to hit up, and that's always a lot easier for me when I'm kind of in my draw swing feeling

And then you look at some of the best drivers in the world, your Rory's, your Bryson's and so on

The longest drivers will generally still draw it. Yeah, sure. So GT3's been a bit of a unicorn

We see it in so many bags out on top, whether it's tightless players or non-contracted players

What do you think it is? It's just, to me, profiles, very player-friendly and it just does the business numbers well, isn't it

I mean, tightless drivers have always been a little bit classic. If you're a good player, like a tightless driver

just looks nice behind the ball. But this one for me was slightly different

Like GT3 head shape is more geared towards your better golfer. However, on the poor strikes, it's still really good

Especially out the heel. Like the toe you get a bit more of a draw which is usual But out of the heel it yeah it class And grips so we here actually spoiler alert we here on our Golf Pride trip so you got some Zed grip aligns on here at notice Going back through your grip history

you've tried a few bits and bobs, haven't you? I saw you in Jumbo Max for a while, super thick. How long were you in those? What was that experiment like and how we ended up back here

Well, I had like a few years ago, I had really bad kind of wrist issues and I don't think it's

based on any actual evidence but a lot of people were saying you know thicker grips and do kind of

help mitigate any kind of wrist injury so Bryson was using them at the time I used a grip which

wasn't quite as thick as his but it was still really really beastie and I used them over the

course of the year I didn't particularly play any better and that my wrist injuries seemed to kind

of dissipate over that time now I've gone back to a more standard conventional grip for this year

They're still jumbo size. In Golf Pride, just a tall velvet. And the wrist injuries have stayed away

Okay. So I don't know if it was just timing. I don't know if it was just more of a look thing

But in that point where I switched to the thicker grips, I definitely felt better with my wrist

Have you ever had much of a preference? Obviously, the Align Max there has got a very prevalent rib down the back

Between round and rib grips, are you someone who's sensitive to that? So I started to use, this year, I used the Putter Grip

which had a really heavy ridge on the back, like an unusually heavy ridge

And I just liked the way that it felt. I liked the fact that it felt like I could square the club up a lot easier

So then I tried a few of the Align Max clubs, and they were really good as well

I just felt quite comfortable. So it's just more of a feeling, and I think going into next season

I'm going to use it a little bit more. I mean, I've got the Z on these at the moment

but I think I might go for maybe the Align Max as well. because at the moment

these are only in mid-size. It's got a few extra layers under. So I think when the jumbo comes out

I'll probably switch into that. Question for you. I don't know how you find this. When you go down into the wedges

you see a lot of guys like Zander's a guy who goes align max through the bag and then gets the wedges

and goes round. Sheffield's the same because when you're opening and closing face

feeling that ridge is that not something that bothers you? Not really. I mean I look at it as

I look at it as almost a if I've got that alignment ridge

in the back and I open up the club face which is generally what you're going to be doing with your wedges if anything

opening up that club face, and if I feel that ridge kind of running a little bit more to the left of my left hand

then that's actually quite good for me, because I can be like, I know it's in that right position. Calibrating how open it is

Exactly, yeah. So that's the way I'm kind of looking at it, and I just like the idea of playing the same grips throughout the back

I don't want to switch and change too much on feel. Makes good sense. Just skipped ahead there

It's a hybrid. So what are we calling this? We're not calling it a mini driver

We've got our GT280, 13 degrees. GT280 mini driver. and this has been, I think this has been my favourite club this year

It's just so, it's just so good. There you go, club review

Great, thank you. You're welcome, everybody. Why did you get out of reviewing

I did find out when my vocabulary was lacking when it came to certain clubs

So I looked at my stats last season and I'm pretty sure it was only five times that I hit my three-wood

Oh, wow. In the year. play through our comps. Now, I'm not playing full seasons at all

but it was still a lot of rounds. And to only hit it five times, it was a bit of a wasted club

Correct. I love my hybrid, so I didn't want to change that. So I was like

well, what's going to fit in that gap? There's no point doing five wood, that's not going to change anything

And since I put the Mini Driver in, I've used it loads. Like, it's a great option off the tee

and I can still hit it off the fairway. And it's just, it's just class

It just feels so good. What are you carrying that, do you think? So, like, my full driver

I'm getting about 290, so this is about 270. But I can get a little bit more out of it if I want to

and I can also kind of hit this beautiful little kind of 250 cut as well, if I really want

Squeezy little cut. So it's a club which has, I've got like three or four different shots

I can play with it that I know and I'm confident with, and that's kind of all I'm really looking for

Setup-wise, so we are basically same driver sharp in 85 grams, the TX, the 1K black

Is that something you've always done? Do you like to match feels of shafts as well? Yeah, yeah, I don't

Again, it's one of those things where, you know, shaft heads might get a little bit more into this than me

but I kind of feel if there's something that I like and the shaft is of a good quality

there's no reason why I can't use that. Like, it's rather the top end of my bag

I could get into the minutiae of it a little bit more, but I just don't think it's necessary. And the guys at Tylus again fitted, as I said

yeah, numbers are great, so yeah, just trust it. So why mess with it? So talking of the Hutt Club, you love

you hit this a lot yesterday, round number two. Yes, it's class. A little GT3, 19 degrees, C4 setting

so we're just going progressively up in weight as we go shorter in shafts in the 95 hybrid shaft, then the 1K black

Just from what I saw yesterday, you can do a bit of everything with this, can't you? Yeah, I mean, I used to hate hybrids

I just really didn't understand them. I didn't get them. But then I used a tail made one last year

and I had a KBS, I think it was like a, I want to say it was 100 and..

The 105. It was 105. Yeah, the Proto, the red band. Yeah, it's the one that Rahm was using

Yeah. And it was just effectively a hybrid, but it just had the stiffest shaft

heaviest graphite shaft kind of possible, carbon shaft, sorry. And I just loved it

I absolutely loved it. So when I switched into the title, I was like, I just want to find something

Replicate this. Which can do this job. And the GT3 has just done that

And it's just great. I love it. I mean, there's very few clubs in the bag, which I could tinker with and I could change

but that's not going anywhere. Have you been tempted, obviously, because the contract you found with Titleist

and being essentially a Titleist star player, the places you can go, the people you've got access to

the tour, it's like sweet shop stuff for people watching this as well, right? You been very disciplined to not mooch about too much right Yeah so something I found with and it might sound like an absolute dream and in many respects it is

but if you're like a staff player, tour player, and the guy's on tour, what you'll notice about their bags is the consistency, and they very rarely switch

They'll only switch into something if there's a big problem, or there's a very specific need

and usually that change isn't a great deal. These guys play week in, week out, consistency is what matters

You don't really want to be introducing a variable that you don't control straight away

So for me, having the consistency of the clubs is going to be key moving forward into the comps

because I just want to know what I'm doing with each one. I don't want to guess too much anymore

No, surprises is a good thing in equipment generally, isn't it? So then we go into the irons and T150s, that was a surprise to me

So what was the thought here? So four iron through to pitching, where to pitch, which is 44 degrees

Why T150 over T100? Was it a loft thing, a launch thing

It was. What I really did, so obviously if you're playing with slightly stronger lofts

than conventional, you say, the worry is you're going to have a lack of spin

You might get a bit more launch, for example, on some clubs. But for me, we tested these

and again, against just a normal T100. Numbers-wise were very similar. Very similar

I didn't drop off much spin. Okay. So I was kind of like, well... gained a bit of pop yeah so i was kind of like well why don't i just play something which is

probably a little bit more forgiving as well um and yeah we just kind of netted out on that

i've got to be honest i kind of wanted again i went into the fitting and i was trying to

620 mbs oh no no the opposite oh really yeah so i had the t200 iron i love the t200 iron t250 the

new one uh at the time it was like the t200 and it was it was just i loved it i loved the feel i

I loved the look, I loved everything about it. Did you not have the fore iron of that for a little while

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the problem is the distance. So, you know, you get a T200 in my hands with a seven iron

and I can get that like 200 yards. It's a redundant kind of set in many respects

unless I can carry all those distance gains as we get into the woods. So, but I just love the feel, I love the look

I love the forgiveness. So I was trying to convince everybody that I'd just create an iron swing

or I'd be swinging like 10 miles an hour slower. Trying to convince everyone trying to convince yourself everybody yeah i just i just love the idea of like slowly turning into

like an old man golfer yeah i just massive graduating into some 70 gram graph yeah exactly

just little monty swings just like pap it down there that's my dream didn't work out no they

said i've been an idiot so i've been getting too quick okay and then so x100 dynamic gold tour

issue this is our this is our like north star of every what's in the bag we do yeah i'm gonna go

with x100 tour issue do you you somebody graduates down softer in the wedges or do you go x100

throughout what I really loved about the the tightless fitting was like they said do they

would basically say do you have a preferred shaft and I played x100s really pretty much all throughout

when I was a junior um and then when I was like messing around with club fitting over the past

few years when I've been doing reviews I was trying out all these different shafts and you

know got fitted into a variety of different ones but when I went to the tightest fit and said do

you have a preferred shaft so well x100 that's what I've always used I said okay cool we'll just

will build around that. Because it's like if you know a feel, you know what you like

we don't need to mess around with this. Do you know what? We've heard that a lot. We did a thing with Trotty out of the kingdom

and he was not playing down the shaft element of it, but he said that's the last thing we tend to look at

in a fit with really good players, because it's just a feel and timing thing. If they're used to something, that's going to work in something else

And if you actually want to make tangible changes to flight and launch and spin, a click of a wrench will do that just like that

like shafts can make a difference, they can and you know you can have

experiments and you can play around and you can see which one's gonna work best for you but I said if you can have something which you're comfortable and

confident with that's more important really in this respect and like X100s I just know what I'm gonna get, I just know what I'm gonna get

Cool, so down into the wedges, relatively strong pitching wedge at 44, is that playing 44 do you know

Yeah, so I'm effectively going from a pitching wedge at 44 into a standard, like, well, this is 49 degrees, the wedge

Sorry, I missed this out. I was thinking there was something in between there. So I've kind of got, as far as traditional lofts go, I've kind of almost got two pitching wedges

The pitching wedge in the 44 degree, that's creeping towards more of a 9-iron kind of traditional loft

So I've stuck another gap wedge in there as well. So, I mean, it depends how you think about your iron and your wedge makeup

But for me, I don't think about my iron so much as it's a seven iron

it should go this distance, it should be this loft. I've just got a variation of different lofts

And as I get to my wedges, I've got that nice little bit of gapping now. Okay, cool

So fairly standard full-sole grinds, 48, 10F, 54, 14F. So quite a high bounce

So we've chrome in the two lower loft wedges and then into the raw in the lob wedge

We're blending aesthetics here. Put me through that. there's nothing really to it

They just gave me a roar in the 60 and I was kind of like, yeah, okay, cool

I kind of like the look of it. We've got a ding here, Pete. Oh mate, I've got dings all over the place. When did that happen

Oh, I don't know. I've hit off a lot of car passes, yeah. So it's not a massive surprise

Yeah, this one's kind of mashed up on the bottom. So 60 V grind

Talk me through the wedge fitting process with you. With Vokey. Again, it was one of those where I was

I had a pretty conceived notion of what I wanted. I wanted pretty standard with the kind of grind

pretty similar bounce angle, but then again, they took me through the whole kind of fitting process

and yeah this is what came out and this is what was recommended So I just trusted what they said Feels like you got the right people Let finish on the flat stick Before we get to that I think you might be one of the pioneers

of the lie angle balance movement. You're one of the first people full out there

rocking that DF 2.1, was it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, when that all came out

and when we were the first to try it, there was me, a car was one of the first

there was a few others, Rick kind of reviewed them a little bit later, that when those reviews came out

Lab just went massive. And it's not just me saying this. Like, you know, I've spoken to the guys at Lab as well

and they say it was an absolute game changer for them. It really kind of got them going. They're getting a commission for it

Yet. We'll pass it on to Sam. Thanks. We'll see how that goes. But I think, honestly, it was a weird moment

because I was chatting to him at the Open. It wasn't this year. Was it Troon

I think it was at Troon. and I knew and I know that the videos that we make have a certain amount of influence you know

that's where the name comes from I suppose but that was maybe the first time where I was like oh

I'm being told about a real tangible huge difference to a small company which is now

going to be in a really big company and obviously they've done the work to get to that point but it

was kind of nice to review a product really enjoy it and to see the success that they've had

How did that make you feel? Does that make you feel sort of a sense of responsibility or pride? A little bit

I think it made me feel a bit more conscious of some of..

Because obviously when you're doing reviews, I think it's easy to be a bit flippant about some things

Not just clubs, but balls and everything. And to kind of try and understand that actually there is a company behind that

And behind that company there are people. And these things actually might make more of a difference

than maybe I would have thought. So it was a nice moment to just reflect on me

like, okay, this is probably more than what I thought it was

So, yeah. Okay. So flat stick at the moment. Actually, one more before we get into that

I keep thinking of stuff I remember seeing you playing. P2 grips. I was a big P2 grip, man

Yeah, yeah. With the messed up core. Messed up core is probably a bit harsh

Getting you more in on the deviation, higher hands. I was a big fan of that. You rocked that for a little while

Yeah, yeah, a little bit. I mean, listen, I'll try anything. I've noticed because back at our cottage at number eight, Pete's got, how many putters

you brought with you Pete? I've only brought four. Only four, four this week. Also, you've been

re-gripping them, you've been cutting them down, what's been going on? However, this is because

I want some kind of consistency again. So again, the grip I was using putter-wise for most of this

year was a two thumb, not a two thumb two thumb, but they had a variation of like a, it was kind

kind of like a no taper kind of heavy ridge along the back yeah it almost to the point where it felt

like it was an error in design okay like it felt too sharp and it felt too the ridge was too much

but i started putting with it i'm like oh my god i could just i could square i feel like i could

square this up so easily and i'd go fried i've got the kind of pro only and it's the same thing

so what i've done is i've taken the four putters i've cut them to uh 33 which is the preferred

length I like yeah and I put the same grip on every single putter so I can have a level of

consistency with that you've got your squad they're all set up identical exactly so I'm so happy with

how that that golf pride grip feels I'm like you know what I'm just going to stick to this okay and

I'm going to keep it I'm going to be consistent with it and I'm going to kind of get set even

before next year begins I already know kind of what the putters are going to feel like in my hands

so I'm open to like changing potentially the head shape but no that grip stays have you tried any of

the Scotty Cameron, the sort of, not zero torque, the low torque patterns that they've just released

Yeah, so I was having a lesson with Phil Kenyon this year

I'm not sure when this is coming out, 2025. And- We've got a very slow edit today. Yeah

So if you're watching this, it's 2027. Thank you for watching the channel

It was great while I was here, but I'm in a better place. And the kind of lesson was all about alignment

and it was an incredible lesson, actually. If you want to check it out, it is on my channel

and it's one for real nerds. It was almost like a four-hour lesson

and we spent all of that time, not all of it, but pretty much all the time on body positioning

alignment, where my eyes were, how I was perceiving putts, and it became pretty clear that the way I look at putts

and the way I see lines is so much better when I have quite clean front edge

nice solid alignment but also I was aligning this style of putter better than I was like a

zero torque style of putter okay yeah based on where the face is relative to shaft forward and

back yeah yeah yeah and I've tried the I've tried all the scottish stuff and I do like them but I

think I've been putting with this style of putter now mallet um for the most of this year and you

know I'm kind of I'm happy with that feel I'm pretty sure this is one you came out with in the

video. Yeah so I've been using a couple of different styles again

mostly based on what the alignment aid is. This is the putter I was using

during open qualifying in most of my comps this year so I'm confident and

happy with it. I just wanted to experiment with a bit of a longer line on my second putter. Perfect. Finally, ball, what we empty

Pro V! Pro V, straight down, no left dash, no Pro VX, just a Pro V. Based on what, softer feel

softer feel softer feel um just a bit more distance slightly lower flight so when i get

when i get the x i can i can smash it but i hit the ball i'm hitting the ball a lot higher this

year and the x was just a bit a bit too much so probably i can just control a little bit more

perfect well that is really interesting looking at your bag so for taking up so much of your time go well today pete pleasure thank you thank you thanks

Thank you