I Was Completely Lost Off The Tee… Until I Put The US Open Champion’s Driver In The Bag

We have all been there. Standing on the tee box of a crucial hole, tournament pressure on your shoulders, and you look down at the driver in your hand. You should love it. Ideally, you’ve been fitted for it, but deep down, there is that nagging voice of doubt.

That was me this August. Despite being inherently a good driver of the ball, I had completely lost my way with the big stick and was desperate to make amends before the season was over.

My struggles started early in the year, when I found it hard to commit to a new driver for 2025. I spent weeks tinkering with the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond and the Ping G440 LST, trying to find a setup that gave me confidence, but found no real success among the best drivers on the market.

Eventually, I settled on the TaylorMade Qi35 in March. On paper, it worked. In fact, for a stretch of the season, the scorecard suggested I was playing some of the best golf of my life. I shot successive tournament rounds of 69, 67, 67, and 68 (-9), and for that moment in the season, I was striking the driver pretty well.

But golf is a game of how you feel, not just what you score. Even during that hot streak, I never felt overly comfortable when under pressure with this driver in hand and started to find myself constantly switching shafts, moving from the Diamana WB 60X into the Mitsubishi Tensei Pro 1K White 60X, chasing that feeling that’s hard to describe, but you know once you’ve found it.

I always felt that, at least a couple of times a round, a drive would get away from me. It hindered my ability to play free-flowing golf. I was playing defensively, waiting for the big miss, especially under tournament pressure.

The bubble finally burst in August. My luck ran out, and the discomfort over the ball manifested in my scores. I posted my highest and worst tournament scores in nearly three years: 74, 75, 73, 74.

A lot of this was down to poor performance off the tee. With important fixtures playing for Hampshire on the horizon and the final stretch of tournaments approaching before the season shuts down for what seems like a never-ending winter, I knew I was clutching at straws, but something had to change.

I started looking at the top players in the world - guys whose game off the tee I genuinely admired and who had a great season. I found myself diving into the stats of 2025 US Open Champion J.J. Spaun.

I am fully aware that I may have just had a bad week off the tee in August and that my swing may not have been firing on all cylinders, however, the anxiety that crept in every time I had to hit an important tee shot was enough to force me into a change. I also know that building a setup based on a Tour pro's specs rather than a full, personalized custom fitting is risky, but sometimes, you just need a reset and to try something different, so that’s what I did.

Spaun has proven he is one of the most solid ball strikers over the past year, and he swings the club at 116mph - the same as my average clubhead speed. I noted how well he drove it during the US Open and thought, if that setup works for his speed, it’s worth a shot for me, especially given the fact that he hit 63 percent of the fairways at Oakmont, gaining +0.58 strokes on the field off the tee, averaging 301 yards.

I decided to mimic Spaun’s major setup and pair the Titleist GT3 head with the new Fujikura Ventus Black Velocore+ 6X. I had previously played the original Ventus Velocore Black - the iconic shaft used by Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, so I was familiar with the profile. However, I had never tested the new Velocore+ model and was curious to see the differences and what performance was on offer.

On paper, the differences are incredibly minor, with the Velocore+ weighing about 1.5g more than the original. The torque is slightly lower at 3.0° compared to 3.1° on the original model, and both shafts boast ultra-stiff handles and tips with a stiff mid-section, designed for stability, albeit the difference in feel was immediately noticeable. After just my first testing session on the course, the Velocore+ just felt a little smoother.

While this makeup was very much an experiment at a time of need, I didn't just throw it in the bag blindly for tournament play. I took it indoors on a Foresight Sports GC3 launch monitor to verify what I was feeling through some data. Even though this shaft was tipped just under 2 inches, producing a very stout setup, it was launching in what seemed like the perfect window straight away.

The numbers fell exactly where I like to see them with my clubhead speed - hovering right around 116mph (matching J.J. Spaun). My ball speed remained consistently between 165 and 168 mph, which was actually a few miles per hour quicker than my Qi35 setup, and my spin sat perfectly around the 2350rpm mark.

On average, I saw a peak height of 115ft, but what impressed me the most about this setup was its workability. When I wanted to hit one a smidge higher to extend my carry, I could easily get the peak height up to 125ft without the spin rate ballooning.

Switching to the Titleist GT3 with the Velocore+ 6X was a gamble, especially so late in the season. But the results speak for themselves. The fear of the big miss subsided, replaced by the feeling that I can swing freely again - something that proved to be huge under pressure towards the end of the summer.

I finished my season as the Hampshire player with the highest winning percentage for 2025 and ended my stroke play season, breaking my previous official course record at my home golf course (North Hants Golf Club) with a 62 (-8). I drove the ball excellently, averaging 305 yards and gaining 0.12 Strokes Gained compared to the Top 50 PGA Tour players' average during the round.

While I would still recommend getting custom-fitted when making equipment changes, if you have some equipment knowledge, experimenting with things isn’t always the worst thing in the world - you may strike gold and find what you’ve been looking for.