Welcome to Fully Equipped’s weekly tour gear report. Every Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if the news calls for it), GOLF Equipment Editor Jack Hirsh brings you some of the biggest news about golf clubs on Tour, including changes, changes and launches.
Viktor Hovland was featured this week RBC Canadian Open with a driver. Normally, this would not be very important, but the driver Hovland brought it wasn’t the same one he used in his last start at the PGA Championship or for the last six years.
“This is one way to go,” Ping Tour representative Kenton Oates told GOLF. “Leave your security blanket in Oklahoma and call it a day.”
Oates was not on site at TPC Toronto this week. The Canadian Open is typically a quiet outfit week on the PGA Tour, as the Tour trucks that normally serve players don’t make the trip north of the border for logistical reasons. It also means companies send a much more limited Tour staff.
This week, Ping sent Spencer Rothluebber, who texted Oates earlier this week to say that Hovland didn’t even bring his old Ping G425 LST player to Canada.
The only driver he had was one Ping G440 LST, a driver Hovland has worked to bag for much of the past two seasons.
Hovland has been working with the Ping team every few months lately testing the G440 LST and the newer G440 K drivers. He’s even played both new models at various points, with LST looking at the bag at last year’s Masters AND K will play in this year’s WM Phoenix Open. But he keeps coming back to his safety net of G425 with which he has captured all but one of his seven PGA Tour victories.
PING G440 LST Custom Driver
The G440 driver family (MAX, LST, SFT) is optimized to deliver more ball speed through numerous advancements, including PING’s deepest CG in a driver to date and a shallower, thinner face, while still providing the game-changing forgiveness expected of a PING driver. The G440 LST (Low Spin) design appeals to players with faster swing speeds, providing lower spin and more control at 9° and 10.5° loft with the three-position back weight. VERY FORGIVING Lighter head weight allows for more back weight. FASTER FACE Shallow, thinner face increases ball speed for more distance, higher release. SOUND DESIGN New moulding, carbon crown and internal ribs produce impactful silent experience. FREE-HOSEL DESIGN Saves weight to lower CG, increase forgiveness. Allows more heel-side face flex for consistent ball speed across the face.
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Oates said the 440 outperforms the 425 in every category in testing. The hold was peak height.
“I tried the new 440 last year because it’s faster,” Hovland said earlier this year in Phoenix. “The spin consistency from the face is a joke. If I heel or toe it with a 425, the spin discrepancy is too big. Like if I toe it, I can spin it under 2000. If I heel it, I can get up to 3000. Against the other 40 maybe a lot. 2600, so a big gap.
“However, the problem is that it launches a little higher for me. And for some reason, just with the setup I’ve been testing with, it tends to go a little more to the right. Right now with my golf swing, when I get stuck, my miss is already a high miss to the right. If I hit this driver, it’s just going to be wiped out.”
When Hovland last tested at the Truist Championship and PGA Championship, Oates initially thought the 440 K would have the edge, but as they continued, the LST had a clear advantage at the starting line, just a touch fairer than the K.
Hovland finally got comfortable at home in his three weeks off between the PGA and this week. A big factor was a shift in Fujikura Ventus TR Black+ 6-X shaft, which has a stiffer midsection, more like the Speeder 757 shaft he sports on his 425.
“As he tightened up his uppercut a little bit, it seemed to me like he was coming off the right starting line every time,” Oates said. “The TR Black Plus was a straight home run on paper because it should have taken the spin out of it and should have given it a better feel.”
With the new build, Oates said Hovland could finally take advantage of the 3-4 mph of extra ball speed he got from the 440 header.
specification
Ping G440 LST 9.0
Current attic: 7.4
Ping Trajectory 2.0 setting: Flat Dot
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black with Velocore+ 6-X
Tip: 1″
Length: 45.75″ EOG
Swing Weight: D5+
Grips: Golf Pride MCC Black/Blue 60R (+1 wrap)
Check this out
This section is dedicated to interesting photos we’ve taken recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. This week, check out 2024 Canadian Open winner Robert MacIntyre’s highly customized Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R.
;)
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
Odds and ends
A few more gear changes and notes we’re following this week.
Alex Noren returned to Maxim Quantic D after a short stay in Paradym Ai-Smoke Max D… Nick Taylor and Taylor Moore joined Hovland in the move to the 440 LST … Wyndham Clark returned to his Ping G440 Max 3-wood and went from 10.5˚ to 9.0˚ loft on his Qi4D driver … Hovland also added a new TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood … GTS3 driver … Tom Kim re-added his Titleist 20˚ GT1 hybrid along with the GTS3 His 5-wood, opting for a three-wedge setup … Kensei Hirata added the new TaylorMade Spider Tour V Torched … Michael Thorbjornsen added a TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood.
