Tommy Fleetwood is the newest golfer to take the plunge and is starting to use an alignment aid, who sits down with Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson to roll a rock whose graphics are designed to improve a putt’s visibility and starting line.
Fleetwood brought TaylorMade’s TP5x Pix golf ball into play at THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT two weeks ago and kept it in play. The backstory behind his move – which gave him a T7 finish at ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP last week – is interesting.
Like many golfers, the Englishman had drawn a black sharpie line along his golf ball to help align his putts. However, during a putting session with his trainer recently, he found that he was often misaligned.
He had difficulty aligning the line with his intended goal. Enter the TaylorMade Pix golf ball and its ClearPath alignment tool. For your own clarity, an illustration of the technology in action is shown below.
Of course, Fleetwood didn’t just want to make a ball switch for wholesaling. This is often a massive change that only takes place after tons of testing.
Tommy Fleetwood, statements
“At this level of play, especially with Tommy who is so detailed with his equipment, players will only switch when they know they can improve their performance on the pitch,” said Adrian Rietveld, Senior TOUR representative for TaylorMade .
“There is no change for the sake of change. However, Tommy will immediately bring equipment into play if he feels he is giving up on performance without it. ”Fleetwood originally used the Pix as an exercise aid and further improved the ClearPath with a black Sharpie line.
Then he tested the TP5x Pix against his TP5x for the last nine of a training round at the Summit before the CJ CUP and measured each of his punches on a TrackMan. “He had to be sure that the Pix golf ball would give him exactly the same performance as his TP5x player.
Of course, we knew they were identical golf balls – the only difference was the markings on the cover. But at this level they leave no stone unturned, ”said Rietveld. From a performance standpoint, Fleetwood found the Pix worked identically to the non-Pix TP5x and the alignment guide was appreciated. At THE CJ CUP he reached 38th place ahead of his top 10 at ZOZO.