Even tour players have equipment quirks they simply won’t abandon

By E. Michael Johnson
Golf World
September 30, 2005

Back when I played high school golf, I would sift through tees in search of “the right one.” I had a theory: Each color produced a certain ball flight. Black tees meant extra distance. Blue were verboten as they produced the dreaded “blue darter.” And don’t even get me started on the yellow-tee banana ball.

I was — and am — in good company. Most golfers possess some sort of idiosyncrasy (although perhaps not as odd as the tee theory). And that goes for the pros, too.

Take Adam Scott. The Australian simply won’t use a ball with the number 2 on it. “A few years ago at Bay Hill, I had scuffed a ball up on the fifth hole and when I went to the sixth tee I had to get a new ball,” Scott told Golf Digest. “I saw it was a 2, but said, ‘Oh well, I don’t care.’ Sure enough, I hit a quick hook into the water. That was the last time I hit a 2 in a tournament.”

Ernie Els also is not wild about deuces. Although the three-time major winner uses No. 2 balls exclusively during practice rounds, he won’t play a No. 2 in tournament action. In addition, any ball used to make a birdie or an eagle is immediately banished. “I believe there’s only one birdie or eagle in any ball,” Els said.

Other stars also have their quirks. Tiger Woods has used a Scotty Cameron by Titleist putter for years but still employs a Ping grip (Woods used a Ping Anser during his amateur career). And Vijay Singh not only uses Apollo Hump iron shafts (a model no longer in production), but insists they all be 2-iron shafts cut down in order to maintain the same feel in all his irons.

Jeff Sluman and John Daly also have shaft oddities. Sluman’s sand wedge has a 5-iron shaft in order to achieve a swingweight similar to his other clubs, while the powerful Daly uses very weak Penley graphite shafts in his wedges because he likes the soft feel.

Then there’s Davis Love III. Although it’s a good bet when Titleist ships Love a new set of irons the specs will be spot on, Love still checks the lofts and lies himself just to be sure. Given the above, the tee theory doesn’t seem so strange anymore, now does it?