Jordan Spieth had three new pieces of equipment, almost two hundred practice balls, and one round of 65.

Spieth usually does not change his equipment in the middle of a season. But this week at Doral, he did exactly that. The transition represented a significant departure from his career-long equipment habits.

In the opening round of the Cadillac Championship, the results clearly showed how that decision played out, as he went out and shot a 7-under 65.

The reason was too much spin on the ball. Spieth noticed that around a dozen of his iron shots were landing short, with the ball spinning more than usual in the air. After testing his equipment following Augusta, he found that the spin had reduced by about 300 to 500 RPM, depending on the club he was using.

"I've been spinning it a lot. I had, I don't know, maybe a dozen shots I could tell you came off just odd for an iron, spinny, and ended up short," Spieth said in a clip posted by journalist Jack Hirsh on X.

He changed his golf ball from the Titleist Pro V1x to the Pro V1x Left Dash. This ball has less spin, so his good shots would not stop short of the hole. He also changed his driver from the TSR2 to the new Titleist GTS2, and used a matching GTS2 fairway wood as well.

In the round, he had no bogeys and shot a 5-under-par 31 on the front nine. He made birdies on holes 10, 11, 13, and 15 and chipped in for an eagle on the par-5 8th hole and finished with two bogeys on the back nine, on holes 12 and 16.

Jordan Spieth Ball Switch Mirrors the Move That Fueled Cameron Young's Breakthrough

Spieth admitted the change was far from routine. "A ball change would be extremely rare," he said.

"This is a little bit bigger jump. But I hit enough shots to feel confident that it was better for me than what I was playing."

Cameron Young shot an 8-under 64 and was the leader after the first round.

He said that switching to a different golf ball last year helped him play much better and improve his game. He mentioned this again on Thursday after his great round.

Spieth entered the week with four top-15 finishes in 10 starts, including a T12 at the Masters, and has missed just one cut all season. Thursday was his answer, at least for now.

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav