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Patrick Reed - What's In The Bag | Golf Monthly
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Apr 14, 2025
We take a look inside the bag of 2018 Masters champion and now LIV golfer Patrick Reed! The American was playing in the LIV Golf UK event at JCB Golf & Country Club and Joe Ferguson was able to speak to Patrick about all the clubs in his bag, including the interesting story behind his unique Grindworks irons!
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0:00
But we are here at Live Golf UK at the JCB Golf and Country Club and I've got with me Patrick
0:05
Reid and we're going to do a quick what's in the bag aren't we? Perfect yes sir. So we'll just start
0:09
from the top in fact no we won't start from the top we'll start with an overview I look at your golf bag and I see a bit of an equipment geek is that fair? Oh yeah for sure. There's lead tape
0:18
always there's different shafts there's old clubs there's new clubs there's unknown clubs there's
0:23
all sorts going on here to get stuck into have you always been an equipment geek? I have um it's
0:28
It's kind of one of those things that I feel like there's not one single company that makes the 14 perfect clubs for every player
0:34
And because of that, when something comes out, there's tolerances of everything, how everything's made, how everything feels
0:42
Rather than sitting there and trying to always find the perfect one and go through, say, a million of one
0:49
a little bit of lead tape here or a different shaft change there or length
0:53
There's little things you can do to change it just to dial it in quickly, especially how much we're on the road
0:58
Correct. How does that process look for you then? So I'm looking at your pitching wedge, your 50, everything
1:04
We've got a lot of stuff here with lead tape on. Is that just you? Are you doing that with a swing weight scale
1:08
Are you doing that just to your feel? Mainly a swing weight. For me, I mean, my lies and lofts have always been the same
1:15
My lengths have always stayed the same. And, you know, so I weight everything out before I put anything together
1:21
to make sure that the overall weight's right. Because you can have the same swing weight
1:26
but if the overall weight is that different because of the different materials you're using because the tolerances in it
1:30
it's gonna feel different to me. And so for me, I make sure that I get the overall weight and swing weight correct
1:36
And so sometimes just a little lead tape, sometimes it's, you know, have to start for fresh and go, you know, to square one
1:43
But yeah, lead tape is a good friend because for me, I mean, this driver
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luckily I don't have to have lead tape on it or even the three wood, but there's times that, you know
1:53
The head becomes too light. I prefer to put lead tape than put hot melt in it
1:57
because I know exactly where that weight is. The Titleist GT3 driver, new out
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Talk to me about this. It's so good. They've done a lot of amazing work Titleist has on their new driver
2:07
and even their new 3-wood. For me, all the clubs, all the companies
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if you hit the ball dead center, it's going to be good. If you have the right spec, everything, it's going to fly how you want
2:21
But I feel like when I miss it, this one, it still has a little bit more speed in it and also stays a little bit straighter
2:28
So for me, you know, it sits really nicely and it gives me that confidence. To me, it feels like it sits a little flatter
2:33
And since my irons are really flat as it is, you know, I need something that looks that way
2:38
Because if I look down, it looks like the toe is pointing at me too much and too upright. And I'll start hanging on to it and start leading them out to the right
2:44
So you're kind of a visual guy. You like to see that toe going away from you all the time. I do. Because you don't want to see left
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No. Okay, cool. And do you know the specs on this? It feels short to me
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It is. It's a 44 and a half finished. So, I mean, I've always kind of been a guy that goes a little shorter
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I feel like I swing better when it's shorter. I feel like I swing a little bit freer when it's at that length
3:03
And, you know, I'm not one of these guys that hit just one shot. Like, I'll tee one down, hit the flat cut, you know, take some off
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I'll hit it full, send it up, and it draws. So, I like to work the golf ball. And when I get long shafts, it just seems like it's a one-dimensional golf shot for me
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And, you know, I really don't want that. Okay, interesting. And shaft-wise, we're in the new Acriti Z here
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How did you end up here? Ended up there, actually, in Germany this year
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because when they built this driver, I was always in my 125 Rogue
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Yes. An ancient dinosaur that no one can make it anymore. Okay
3:36
And so they haven't made that forever. And because of that, we had no abilities to get our hands on any more of those
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I think I have them all at my house. And so they said that this shaft through the testing
3:49
and everything and through the is really similar kind of on kick point how it is If anything this is a little stiffer in the butt part of the club up near the grip And so they say when you start going at it it should be a little bit more stable And so we went with it
4:04
And it's been great. It's been great since it's been in the bag. Ever since when I won at Augusta in 2018, that driver, the old G400 ping, the one right before this, before Germany, was still a G400 ping
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Trust me, it's my backup. It's in the room. but it's just one of those that when you get something
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whether it's old technology or new technology, if you're really comfortable with it, it seems like you get freer
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You seem to get a little bit more speed, and I wasn't finding anything that was going much farther than my 400
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and so because of that, I was like, all right, don't change it until I got this. This thing has been amazing the way it feels, how easy it feels to hit
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and you know it's just been one of those that I had to put into play. Cool and GT2 in the fairway
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wood, 15 degrees, same family of shaft there in the Acro, so again just matching feels? Yeah matching
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feels and really the only difference is my normal three woods are usually really strong and so they
5:02
come out really fast and almost sometimes go too far and when I was in Germany I needed something
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that went farther than my two iron but not quite as far as one of my normal three woods. You know I
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need that 255 260 carry and this club has been spot on so like when I went at Bethpage I had a
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five wood bent to a four wood and I didn't have a three wood and so this with having that it gives
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me gives me a little bit more playability more options I mean if I want to kind of float one
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in there I can but if I want to hit that stinger and keep it down I can so I can hit those shots
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that I need rather than another one of those these three woods these days are so hot that if you get
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low lofted and you come out flat I mean it's basically one dimensional. Okay down to the
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Now we're going old and a bit cool here. So we've got a very old Titleist TMB 716 two iron
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A little custom BBNFK ferrule. Yeah, exactly. Like that? You didn't even know the ferrule
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Of course I do. Of course I know the ferrule. Sits flat. Oh, yeah
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She's flat. She's down there in the 120. And in dynamic gold 120, X100s
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Just for a little bit more height. So just a touch lighter than the main set that we're down in here
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The standard. OK. Because, I mean, the biggest thing is hitting it full, it's good
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I mean, you can get height on it. but if you have to take a little off of it, you still want to get the ball in the air
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and have it be able to lance off for that opportunity. But yeah, this is the one that I basically used
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at Augusta in 18, and that thing was in bag forever. And I went away from it because the ball
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I changed balls, and so the ball wasn't coming in too flat, so it wasn't holding any greens
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and now that I went back to, I got a new ball that goes a little higher, this is back in play
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because it's just, it's a go-to. If I'm in trouble, I'll just hit that thing off the tee
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Ludwig had this in the bag for quite some time as well. He's only just come out of this. How did we end up in the Feral
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My wife had it because Grindworks, Grindworks USA has run out of
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we own it and it runs out of our house. So we had a couple of those hanging around
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and she popped that thing on it just to do it. And I loved it. I mean, I was like, man
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I wish I had enough to do the whole bag. Come on, we'll come to my garage. We'll sort it out. All right
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Okay, so we're into the main set now. So you just alluded to Grindworks. Talk to me about how that started
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and why that operates, you said, from your house. Right, yeah. So it started back, and what was that
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It was four years ago, roughly four years ago. And I was on the range at Bay Hill hitting some golf shots
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My coach was there. And all of a sudden, I just couldn't stop hitting the ball left. And I had no clue why
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So I was kind of having a moment with coach, like, what's going on? He's filming it. He's like, your swing looks great
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He's like, let's go check the specs. Specs are correct. And, you know, then we did a little test with the quad
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We put the stickers on the face. I was like, all right, when you hit one, I just want to know, did you hit solid, thin, heel, toe, like just the strike
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And it seemed like every time I said I hit it solid, the ball was out of the heel
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And every time I hit it I was like oh you know when I would hit it and it would be toe side I was like oh that dead off the toe dead center of the club So a lot of forged irons and forged clubs in general because it made out of one piece of metal the center of gravity is in the heel rather than in the center
8:04
Well, that's a problem. We're trying to hit the ball in the center of the face. So if you're trying to hit the ball in the center of the face and you do that, but then the CG's in the toe, every once in a while you can get that squirrely left shot that reacts like a toe hit
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and so Justine contacted Nimi Kieranari from Japan. He's in the Clubmaker Hall of Fame, just found out who he was
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found out, you know, and his information, sent him an email just saying
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hey, would you make my husband a set of clubs? His name is Patrick Reed, and he's like, oh, I'd love to
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They'd heard of you, had they? Yeah, yeah, but it was one of those that, you know
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I'm sitting there thinking he's just going to take one of the heads that they've already designed, put it together, and send it to me for me to test
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And now we started from a block of metal. And so we designed the cavity backs and the blades
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It took us 18 months for the cavity backs, about two years for the blades. And it was like, all right, we went down from the weight to how the bounce is, how the sole is
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what kind of grooves, where the grooves start, the look and everything
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And, you know, I just kind of went to the irons that I loved in the past
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the way I like to, you know, and then I put a mold together from, you know, like the Nikes
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I liked how flat they were on the bottom. But then I liked on the Calloways when we would actually pre-wear that leading edge
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so there's a little bit more bounce on the edge. So even though it sits flat on the ground with that leading edge there
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it plays like there's a little bit more bounce if you go into it. The biggest thing there is because one day you're playing on concrete
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and so you don't want the iron sitting way up. And then if it gets soft and also you start going in, you don't want that just to dig
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So that's why you have that pre-wear. The worst feeling is to set up to something and feel like I can't get to the ground
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And so then you're just going to lean on it. You're going to do something to try to get down to it
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rather than just make a normal golf swing. And, you know, I mean, with all the hard work that they've done
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to get the center of gravity of these things in the center, and then also from pitching wedge to forearm
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they work up and down the face because a pitching wedge, you're going to kind of go more down onto it compared to a forearm
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So the center of gravity is not just only heel to toe, but it's also north-south
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That's very important. And so, you know, we've done an absolutely amazing job
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it's unbelievable and uh yeah the biggest thing for me was to take away that factor of okay if i
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make a swing and i hit one and the ball goes for him and left or right okay what was that well i
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know where the center of gravity is on these i know exactly how they are so whatever i do in my
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golf swing that's what's going to the ball's going to do it's not going to be the club which is yeah takes ownership for you but it's reassuring right gives you the peace of mind okay that's really
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cool and they look great the head profiles are lovely thank you quite long heel to toe to me but
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I think that's possible because I play more upright in the flatter. Right. Yeah, they're down there
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Yeah, they certainly are, which is a lovely setup. And you start, you've got the cavity back in the four iron
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blades from five through to pitching wedge. Right. With a little bit of lead tape everywhere
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And I love this. It's a nice touch. Just have your initials on stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so the ones that we made are the PR-101s
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and then the cavity backs will be the PR-202s. And so just, you know, because they came out with other ones
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other irons, because Grindworks makes other irons than just mine. and so yeah I've been on that website don't worry I've seen them all right okay now down into the
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wedges so I thought I was going to see some artisan wedges no you've played artisan for a little while didn't you right so actually uh Mike's Mike's been working on a couple things for me to kind of test
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and get back there but you know I've been so busy recently it's just kind of hard to to test anything
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rather than just keep uh all faithfuls in the bag right now cool so 50 degrees got a Cleveland RTX
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zip core 10 degrees of bounce a big lob of lead tape on there to get swing weight and total weight
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Right, as we know. Done a bit of work on the leading edge there
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Or is that as? No, that's just wear and tear. Okay, yeah
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That's just the wear and tear of it. Cool and then we go into the 56 degree in SM9 which is bent to 55 Yeah bent to actually so that was old That was an old stamp so it actually bent to 57 So I go 51 57 61
12:01
Okay, interesting, because I was expecting, again, this is something I bang on about, very few pros take a wedge and deloft it because it adds offset and obviously reduces that bounce
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So when I saw 56 in stamp 55, I thought I'd found an exception
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but obviously you're telling me I'm correct, which I'm really pleased with. And then into the old wedge, we've got SM10
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I see the T-grind, so many players in this T-grind. It looks like you've done a bit of additional to it as well
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Oh, yeah, we've took off even more bounce. So this is next to nothing. Yeah, there's very little bounce on it
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We've straightened the leading edge just a hair. But the biggest thing is with having less bounce
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it's also wider because of how we've done it. So whether it's square or open, it still plays to the same bounce
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Because I draw my chips. Everyone else cuts their chips. I draw them, so I need that thing sitting flat
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And I want it to sit flat, but not when I open it for it to have no bounce
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So when I open it, we're able to work on where it basically stays uniform all the way across on whatever face angle I presented at
12:56
Short stick again. I was expecting to see something a little different. I was expecting to see an Odyssey
13:00
Yeah. We were playing a Scotty Cameron Circle T, Timeless 2.5. We wore through the face on my Odyssey
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Oh, really? Yeah. So it has a little indention in the middle. I've had that for, what, since 13, 14
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So I've had it for over 10 years. And couldn't find a replica or just fancied a change
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I was on the road to Germany and wanted a little bit of a change and kind of had to have a change at that point because Al has come off and this thing has been amazing
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And this is how you can tell you're a gear guy as well. We've got sharpied on alignment lines
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So you've added an alignment line yourself. Pure gear guy. I've always had the top line and putter that they had on the van didn't have a top line
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So they were able to kind of draw one on there for me
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I was hoping that was going to be a you thing. No, I told them, I asked them to do it. And they had the thing to actually do it correctly
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Because if I would have gone there, who knows if it would have actually been a straight line. Yeah, there is always that
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And what ball are you in, Patrick? So I'm in the new Pro V1X+. Okay
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So it's the spinniest ball they make. But for me, I mean, I like to hit a lot of partial shots
14:01
And I mean, the spin decay on the golf ball seems to, I mean, for me, I feel like the tightness
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the spin falls off the golf ball a little quicker than the Calloways I used to use
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Okay. And because of that, even though if I'm hitting an 8-iron, say a spin at 8,400
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I mean, yeah, it's spinning a little too much maybe right off the face, but it's losing its spin quicker, so when it actually lands, it lands correctly
14:22
What did you refer to that as? Spin decay? Spin decay. Okay, I've never actually heard that term
14:25
Yeah, so everyone sits there and they focus on what the spin's doing right off the golf ball
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but people don't focus on how much is the ball losing spin downfield
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Which is where it matters, right? Right, and so I was able to really kind of dial in with the guys at Titleist
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to figure out what ball was best for me, even though right off the ball, the number might not say the right thing, but when it's flying
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and how it's reacting on the green, especially on the partial shots, and even on the full wedges, it's not spinning off the planet
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I mean, it's a really good golf ball. I mean, it's been great into the wind. It's been great downwind, and I think that's the biggest thing
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is it's just not sitting there on a perfect, flat, calm day. It's how is it in the nasty stuff
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That's what I want to see, and the ball's been great. and I was glad to get into that one
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and we're looking forward to the rest of the year with it. Yeah, we got a little scoop on that last week at the Open
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from some of the guys on the tour van, so it's interesting to hear about that. I'm going to let you go now because the rain's starting to come down a little bit
15:16
One more thing. Have you got any go-to training aids or anything that you use all the time
15:20
Yeah, so I use a glove under my right arm, obviously, and then I have a tiny stick I always use
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So actually, I'll put that underneath the arm as well so that when I go back, actually, my arm will hit it
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so it'll definitely tell me to stop because with a glove, I mean, you can still stay connected
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but your arms can lift and can kind of keep going. So that's to stop your arms running too long
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Because when you get here, once it hits, it's like, all right, now it's time to go down and go forward. Makes perfect sense. Brilliant
15:45
Well, that is a great, interesting look in a proper gear guy's bag. Really cool to see that
15:49
Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Staying out in the rain. That was really cool. Patrick Reid, everyone
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