Viktor Hovland teases new driver shaft and head combo – GolfWRX

While Viktor Hovland’s search for the ideal driver setup continues, the Norwegian gave out plenty of interesting morsels in his pre-tournament presser ahead of this week’s WM Phoenix Open.

On Wednesday, the 28-year-old went in deep on his driver journey dating back to last year, and how this week he may be opting for a new shaft and driver head combination.

Speaking to media, Hovland was asked about changing from his Ping G425 LST to the brand’s G440 LST driver last season, to which he responded:

“Yeah, I played — well, generally I tried out the new 440 last year because it is faster. The spin consistency off the face is a joke. If I hit it off the heel or the toe with a 425 the spin discrepancy is very large. Like if I hit it off the toe I can spin it under 2000. If I hit it off the heel I can maybe get up to 3000. Versus the 440, it’s very tight. It goes from maybe 2000 to 2600, so a huge gap.

And it’s also faster.

However, the problem is it launches a little bit higher for me. And for some reason just with the setup that I’ve tested with, it tends to go a bit more to the right. Right now with my golf swing when I get stuck, my miss is already a high right misses. If I hit this driver it’s just getting exenuated.”

The same reporter noted that Hovland had two drivers in the bag on the range this week, allowing the 7-time winner on the PGA Tour to explain:

“Now yesterday, because I was still hitting it so poorly on the course and I texted Kenton if he could just bring a driver that’s quarter of an inch shorter and so he brought a different shaft as well. It’s in that new (Ping) 440K version.

Just trying to find something I can put in play, and that seemed to be a lot better. That was just last night, so the experimentation continues.”

Hovland added:

“Yes. I would say comparing it to the LST it spins a hair more. Other than that, it’s very different because I tried the K from a couple years ago when the 430 came out, and I just couldn’t get the spin down at all. Like every single shot spun over 3000 for me.

The new version, it’s really nice. It seemed to almost to spin less than the max version, which is interesting. It’s very good driver.”