Tony Finau took a slightly different approach to his bag setup for the Masters, choosing to play with two dedicated drivers in his bag.
This has a lot to do with Finau’s game and how that interacts with the layout at Augusta.
He put a second driver into his bag to give himself additional shaping options at the first Major of the year.
Finau tends towards hitting a fade off the tee, sacrificing a little bit of the distance he could get in order to be more accurate.
However, at Augusta it can be of great benefit to a player to be able to consistently hit a draw off the tee at certain spots on the course.
After extensive testing in his last PGA Tour outing, Finau eventually decided that he would primarily use the Ping G430 LST 9-degree driver with a new Mitsubishi Diamana GT 70TX shaft off the tee.
Finau also carried a second Ping G430 LST driver in his bag to assist him on the right-to-left holes at Augusta National.
The second driver replaces his 3-wood in his bag. The additional G430 LST driver measures roughly the same length as the 3-wood that it replaces and has 10.5 degrees of loft, according to Ping Tour rep Kenton Oates.
“In the ramp-up towards the Masters, Tony and his team discussed options to optimize his performance off the tee,” Oates told GolfWRX.com. “In discussing the tee shots around Augusta and second shots, Tony realized he would never hit 3-wood off the ground, minus maybe 8 if it was soft and into the wind.
“With that in mind, we felt it would be worth exploring a driver built to more 3-wood specs – shorter, more loft, etc. We build the driver in Houston, and Tony carried it to Augusta to test. Right away it was giving him the performance he was looking for, allowing him to hit a straighter shot off the tee, or even draw it easier than his gamer driver, along with the added forgiveness benefits of using a driver instead of a 3-wood. Tony potentially could use the little driver on Nos. 2, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 18, pending course and wind conditions.”
Finau admits that he isn’t consistently hitting draws with the new club, rather his shots trend towards being straighter.
“The (second) driver really goes straight, so there’s just no fade on it,” Finau said. “The draw holes out here, you don’t really have to turn it over, you just can’t hit a fade. But yeah, I’m going with two drivers.”
