Higher lofted woods on tour have made a comeback over the past few years and Tommy Fleetwood is one of a number of players to carry one.
The Englishman, one of the game's best ball strikers, is employing a 9-wood to help him win his maiden Major title at The Masters this week, with his TaylorMade Qi10 fairway coming in at 24 degrees of loft.
Fleetwood, who also has a veteran Augusta caddie on the bag this week due to his regular looper Ian Finnis recovering from a chest infection, says he has the 9-wood in play to fit the gap between his 5-wood and 4-iron.
The 3-iron replacement will allow him to hit higher shots that are able to stop quicker on the slick, sloping Augusta National greens.
"You get a lot of courses where there's thick rough, firm greens and firm fairways and there's always a balance between having something that you can drive down the fairway but also something that you can hit into greens or out of the rough," he said via his equipment sponsor TaylorMade, who he signed a multi-year extension with at the start of 2024.
"I went higher up in loft in woods to find something that could do that. I don't like hitting hybrids and 7-wood numbers are too close to what my 5-wood produces so we found the 9-wood to fill that gap between my 5-wood at 250-yards and my 4-iron at 225-yards."
The World No.13 also had the 9-wood in play in January's Dubai Desert Classic, where he finished T14th after winning the Dubai Invitational the previous week.
He also has the Qi10 driver, BRNR Mini driver, a Qi10 5-wood, P7TW irons among his set up as well as a TP5x pix Season Opener - which features peaches to celebrate Georgia, the 'Peach State'.
Dustin Johnson, the 2020 Masters champion, also has TaylorMade Stealth 7-and-9-woods in the bag this week, too.
He has played eight times so far this year, making seven of eight cuts and recording two other top-10s along with his victory. He's making his eighth Masters start this week, with his best finish of T14 coming in 2022.
"Glad I played last week. I think I struggled with a couple of things in Florida in the during the Florida swing," he said.
"Had two weeks off, practiced well, and I think playing last week was a good idea for me, really. I grew a lot of confidence from that. I played pretty well in practice, doesn't always follow, but it's just time to go out and play now."
