One of the most satisfying aspects of the PGA Tour resuming (post lockdown) has been the Jordan Spieth resurgence. His struggles have been well documented over the past couple of seasons and the why of it has been overcomplicated and oversimplified all at once.

What we are seeing is a still very young, very established future Hall of Famer going through the sometimes arduous process of trying to get better. Every player that goes through it deals with it differently, and there is no right way. Point is, he’s trending upwards again, and it’s only a matter of time before he starts winning. Jordan Spieth in top form is great for the game, on all fronts.

I have always appreciated Jordan’s relationship to his golf clubs. His bag, compared to most, has changed very little during his career. He’s like Tiger in that regard—his setup is a fixed point of reference that he works off of not the other way around. In simple terms, Jordan elects to not find it through drastic equipment changes, he prefers to leave the constants alone and adjust elsewhere—I wish I could do that.

The lifelong allegiance to Titleist is also something I find interesting. The argument could be made that he is indeed the poster child for the Titleist brand. AJGA, USGA, college, PGA Tour all the way through with Titleist golf clubs and ball.

So what’s it like working with him? For a player who tends to prefer simplicity, how hard is it to keep it simple? The two men that can answer that better than anyone are Titleist tour rep J.J. VanWeezenbeck and Vokey Wedge rep Aaron Dill.

JW: In regards to the fitting/testing process with Jordan, can you walk me through what it’s like and what steps are taken to ultimately get something in his bag?

JJ: It’s a teamwork event. We will normally travel to Dallas and schedule time with Jordan and Cameron McCormick. We always want to match Jordan’s preferred look and performance window, but also involve Cameron heavily to make sure the product is enhancing the swing feels he is trying to create.

AD: Working with Jordan from the beginning has been very simple. While the work can be challenging, the directive is clear, and we know what we need to do because Jordan shares insight into exactly what he wishes to get. The technical parts of Jordan’s game are very good, so when we are testing and working on wedges, the flights, spins, and trajectories are very consistent. Spotting issues is something that doesn’t take much time, and we are able to make adjustments quickly to create positive results.

JW: He is currently in an older 3-wood and hybrid. Why hasn’t he transitioned into a newer model? Can you give us some context on what the testing was around those two parts specifically?

JJ: Jordan has played a TS2 3-wood in competition a few times. A lot of the great that TS2 brings to the table is some of what caused the issue for Jordan. His first event with it he hit it twice on second shots into a par 5, both times he flagged it and both times it went just over the green. So all the ball speed that has been added to the new TS fairways is a great thing for you and myself, but we have some more work to do with Jordan on getting him the exact distance he wants with that club. We are always working on ways to get him the look, feel, and flight he wants with all his clubs.

JW: He has had loyalty to Graphite design AD DI shafts in his fairway metal woods and utilities for some time, what is it about that shaft vs the others that the response to.

JJ: As you can imagine players hit a lot of golf balls. When a certain shaft matches up well with a player they get to know it really well and understand how that shaft reacts with different swings. We can do so much in the clubhead these days and have so much flexibility that we don’t want to change those feels unless we see a big improvement in a shaft change. Plus the GDI DI is still a great golf shaft—Sungjae Im is another one of our players who has a lot of success with that shaft and continues to.

JW: Jordan has one of the most prolific short games in recent history. Can you talk me through his wedge setup and shed some light on any nuances that in his wedges that he prefers?

AD: Jordan’s wedge setup has been very consistent from the beginning. However, over time, small adjustments have been made and most of them stem from wedge nostalgia from past models that Jordan loved.

A great example of that was when Jordan was using a 60-04L—this wedge was in the bag for a while and the biggest adjustments we made to the wedge was in the profile reducing the par height to look slightly smaller and increase topline curvature. This profile was precisely the look Jordan needed to see to feel comfortable and it was my focus with every wedge I made. One day at Trinity Forest, Jordan was working with coach Cameron McCormick and saw an old rusty wedge resting against the wall. When Jordan picked it up he realized it was an old 60T that he has used ages ago. The moment this wedge was put in the playing position that old feeling came back. Jordan called me and said “I have this old 60T in my hands I just love this thing.  Do you still make this wedge?”

I made Jordan a newer version and he couldn’t have been happier. It was like reuniting with an old friend. Some other changes we have made have come with time and testing, moving from Project X 6.0 to Project X 6.5 in the 46 was one of those changes. Experimentation and learning from Jordan have taught me a great deal about what I need to focus on when making his wedges–so much is in the details.

JW: Jordan has been committed to the Ventus Blue in his driver for the past 2 to 3 seasons, what performance traits did he gain vs his older Graphite Design model?

JJ: Jordan first put the Ventus Blue 6X in his TS3 driver at Colonial 2019, coming from a GD IZ 6 that he had had some good success with as well. At Colonial, he had been working with Cameron and was going through some changes in his release sequence that were causing some toe strikes. With the Ventus, we were able to keep some really good feel and move the strike to a better face location and let him be more in charge of the face-to-path relationship vs gear effect having some issues at the time. Jordan isn’t normally keen on changing equipment as he is working on swing changes.

JW: Jordan had a big hand in the development of the T100 irons. Where in the iron do we see his influence specifically?

JJ: The profile of this iron would be a big area you would see his influence. Marni Ines, our Director of Irons Development, came to LA years ago and got a lot of feedback on all the performance variables Jordan loved about his irons and some aesthetic things he would love if he could have it all. Marni and team did a great job of getting even better performance in T100 in a more players driven package of offset, top line, and blade length.

JW: Have you ever tested other iron shafts with him besides PX 6.5 and 6.0 in wedges?

JJ: Briefly, at TPI around 5 years ago, I think we made it three swings with a few options. From what I was able to find, Jordan moved into a 5.5 PX in 2009, and he has stayed in that profile ever since, moving to 6.0 in 2010 and 6.5 in 2016 after he gained a decent amount of speed. Like we discussed earlier, these guys work hard at their games and really learn a golf shaft, especially in their irons. They need to be able to work the ball up/down and left/right to attack a golf course at the level they are competing at. With the evolution of irons products, we are able to keep up for Jordan in performance without having the change how the shaft loads and unloads for him.

AD: Project X has always been the go-to shaft with Jordan. For whatever reason, this feel and performance have just made sense with him. Since March 2009, this has been the go-to shaft. I don’t recall ever changing or testing other shafts.

JW: Is Jordan a player that grinds on his gear week in and week out or is he someone that will play with something until it basically breaks down….he doesn’t seem to tamper much.

JJ: Jordan very much goes to work at an event. Normally at an event, we will do his grips and loft/lie.  Occasionally he may weaken a loft or two to hit just the right number based on conditions for the week, but any major club work we would do somewhere other than at an event.

AD: Lofts and lies mainly and a fresh 56/60 wedge when spin decay begins to start.

JW: Any misses you guys build-out of his bag? Any new shots you build in?

JJ: The biggest thing is trying to get him equipment that enhances center strikes for him. He is such a good ball striker he can tell within a dimple or two if his strike was off-center—it’s really remarkable. When we test drivers we will mark things up and he will tell you “dimple high, and dimple toe” and always be right.  So really pushes you as a fitter which is great.

JW: Any fun testing stories or equipment memories with Jordan?

JJ: One of my favorites was one of my first times working with Jordan and also kind of outside my lane. Cameron and Jordan had come to TPI to work on metal woods, wedges, and golf ball. We were in our north fairway testing balls and wedges. The number of shots he was hitting was amazing to watch–low cuts, high draws–really watching and analyzing how the golf ball reacted on the green to each shot and controlling the spin. He quickly said “Yep. This golf ball is going to be great—don’t even bring my old ball to the tee.” We worked with the new golf ball with the driver and were able to get him matched up. Just his attention to details on the feel and ability to hit some many shots with a wedge was really impressive–at the time he had only had one win on Tour, but you could immediately see what he had the ability to do.

Jordan Spieth WITB w/specs

Driver: Titleist TS3 [email protected] (D1 Setting) w/ Fujikura Ventus Blue Proto 6X 45 Inches

3-wood: Titleist 915F 15 (A1 Setting) w/ Graphite Design AD DI 7X 43 Inches

Hybrid: Titleist 818 H2 21 (B1 Setting) w/ Graphite Design Tour AD DI-95X Hybrid 40 Inches

Irons: (4) Titleist U500

(5-9) Titleist T100  w/ True Temper Project X 6.5

*All Irons Titleist STD Lofts, Length, SW, Lie Angles are .5 flat

Iron Specs: Loft, Length, Lie

4-23/38.5/60.5

5-27/38/61.5

6-30/37.5/62

7-34/37/62.5

8-38/36.5/63

9-42/36/63.5

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM7 (46/10F@46/08, 52/08F, 56/10S), Vokey Proto (60/06T) w/ True Temper Project X 6.5 (46) 6.0 (52,56,60) “JS” Stamping

*Aaron Dill grinds off 2 degrees bounce out of Jordans PW

*All wedges Titleist/Vokey Std Length, Lie

Wedge Specs: Length, Lie, SW

46-35.75/64/D3

52-35.5/64/D3

56-35.25/64/D5

60-35/64/D5

Putter: Scotty Cameron Circle T 009 (350g, 4 loft, 71 lie, 35′ length) w/ SuperStroke Traxion Flatso 1.0 grip

Grips: SuperStroke S-Tech

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x