South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence offers motivation during the 2024 Open Championship.
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Royal Troon’s demanding layout has forced a field full of top golfers to step off the gas and seek an alternative off the tee at the Open Championship. In most cases, the smart play was to swallow your pride and reach for the fairway wood or the long iron. But not everyone plays it safe.
For four days, Thriston Lawrence warned in the wind and fully sent almost all holes, regardless of the situation. What made the aggressive gameplan even more impressive was how often Lawrence found the fairway, even in bad weather.
Take a look at last week’s stats and you’ll notice that the South African was leading the field in SG: Off-the-tee (plus-6.30) while ranking 99th in driving distance (299 yards). Those two numbers alone highlight Lawrence’s efficiency with the big stick. Putting yourself in a scoring position was crucial to success in the Open.
Raw distance is always the best way to get an edge on your peers, as long as you know where the ball is going. In some cases, sacrificing a degree of accuracy can unlock a level of consistency that was previously unattainable. Which brings us back to Lawrence’s impressive performance off the tee.
The Ping G430 Max driver he used is already considered one of the most forgiving and consistent drivers on the market. But did you know it’s faster too? In our last round of putt testing with Golf Laboratories, the G430 Max was just 0.3 mph behind the fastest driver in our 95 mph putt test — a difference within noise. It should also be noted that the driver had a single digit loss of 8.3 yards on all 9 punts tested.
Having a forgiving driver again fast can give you a leg up on the competition. Of course, there is another aspect of Lawrence’s driver design that must be analyzed: shaft length.
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To measure your approach into a long par 4, to a par-5 double, you want 100% confidence that your fairway wood will give you solid contact, speed and high ball flight to get you home. On the G430 fairways, we developed the Carbonfly Wrap to deliver more distance by placing the CG closer to the line of power to increase ball speed, resulting in higher, longer carry. The PING G430 MAX Fairway Wood fits a wide range of golfers with four options (3W/15°, 5W/18°, 7W/21°, 9W/24°). CARBONFLY WRAP A lightweight composite crown wraps around the heel and toe sections of the skirt, creating a weight saving of 10 grams that can be repositioned to achieve a lower CG and increase ball speed. The combination also plays a role in the pleasing sound. FACE WRAP TECHNOLOGY FaceWrap Technology, variable stiffness, high strength steel face wraps in one place and stainless steel head crown, producing more flex for faster ball speed and higher launch distance. SPINSISTENCY Spinsistency’s variable roll radius improves performance across the face (especially on short shots) by reducing spin to increase ball speed from the face of the maraging iron. TUNGSTEN BACK WEIGHT The tungsten backweight extends the weight of the round to ensure maximum forgiveness. TRAJECTORY TUNING 2.0 Trajectory Tuning 2.0 offers eight hosel positions, adjusting the top position (+/- .5°) and lying (up to 3° flatter than std).
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It’s hard to give an exact number, but the shaft length of a typical driver on Tour is about 44.75 inches, give or take a half inch either way depending on your preference. Take a look at Lawrence’s club specs and you’ll see that his Ping driver comes in at 43.75 inches, somewhere between a Mini Driver and a 3-wood.
We’ve done stories about what happens when you put a 3-wood shaft in the driver’s head in the past if you want a deep dive. If you choose the abbreviated version, just know that it is shorter in length it can be it leads to a decrease in the speed of the ball. But don’t let that stop you from considering the idea of taking a short trip to heal a restless driver.
There is also a strong chance that you can get longer off the tee by going shorter. Yes, for a long time. Back in 2019, Tony Finau did a head-to-head test with the short Ping driver (44.75 inches) versus his regular build (45.25 inches) that saw his ball speed increase by 2-3 mph due to contact and the face in the middle.
In almost all cases, a consistent driver that gets you closer to the magic 1.5 “smash factor” will be the best choice for your game. Maybe a long-shafted driver will get you there, but chances are you’ll see efficiency increase meaningfully the shorter you go, especially for mid-to-high handicappers with a less aggressive driver.
And if you’re going for something shorter than 44 inches, be sure to take the swingweight, feel and fly into the equation before making the final call. There’s no guarantee that you’ll turn into Thriston Lawrence overnight, but there’s a very good chance you’ll see a meaningful improvement in your average face contact.
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