So far in 2017, we’ve seen some of the best golfers in the world drastically shake up their equipment, more so than in any other year in recent memory. TaylorMade has added possibly two of the most popular golfers in the world in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. PXG has signed a number of players away from their existing golf equipment companies, including Lydia Ko and Pat Perez. And Callaway’s new driver technology has tempted plenty of Tour Professionals to experiment with it.

These equipment changes at the highest level of professional golf have led many of my students to ask me, “Why would one of the best golfers in the world change their clubs? Isn’t this a risk?” So I’m here to give you my opinion on why PGA Tour players would switch from one golf equipment sponsor to another.

Money

Let’s face it, regardless of anyone’s financial status on Tour, money talks! I promise you that if X company offered Phil Mickelson enough money he’d leave Callaway. The same is true of Sergio Garcia with TaylorMade. That’s not a knock on their loyalty; there’s simply no substitute for long-term financial security in a game like golf where there are no guarantees.

Deep down, every PGA Tour player has the fear that he could be the next guy to lose his game, and there are several notable examples of this in every golf generation. Having a long-term, guaranteed contract guarantees that the golfer and his family will taken care of regardless of how he plays after he signs on the dotted line. Who wouldn’t take that security? 

To become “the” franchise player of a company 

Every top athlete has an ego to some degree. In the professional ranks, it has typically been “all about them” since the day they laced up their first pair of spikes. Every player wants to be the focal point of a company’s marketing strategy. Seriously, would you want to be the player in the very back of the pack when the promo photos for each golf equipment company are released at PGA Show? Of course not; we all want to be front and center. We want to be the man!

Existing in the shadow of one of their rivals on the PGA Tour can drive PGA Tour players crazy, so when a new company wants to focus on them as its franchise player, most jump at the chance.

Following the success of other players and their friends on Tour 

Some PGA Tour players are like sheep; they play follow the leader whether it comes to instructors and new golf equipment. Most of them have been beating everyone’s brains in since their junior days, so when they’re struggling or getting beat they first look to external factors.

We see it every week; player X is putting with the newest putter in play from a certain company and making everything as he wins. The next week, five other players have switched to that putter in hopes that their putting will also improve.

The other influence are the guys PGA Tour players tend to hang around with on Tour. Players at the same levels tend to pal around together, so when your buddy starts to get the upper hand on you after switching to a different club or set of irons, you follow suit. Look at how Tour players from the same area of the country see the same swing coaches. See what I mean?

To eliminate the shot patterns that plagues their game 

I was working with a certain PGA Tour player when I was teaching in Southern California who continued to miss the ball slightly left when he made his stock swing, and the miss was creeping in at least once per nine holes. It was not a swing flaw, but a club issue. He was under contract to play the woods from a certain company, but he no shaft or amount of hot melt could eliminate his leftward miss. Thus, he opted out of his contract. At the time he was not considered a “top player,” so it was not that big of a deal for the company to let him go. He was lucky.

He tested drivers until he found one that worked for him, signed a deal to play that company’s equipment and started driving the ball better than ever. He just moved into the top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings after his first win at the end of last season.

Sometimes, no matter what you do you cannot make club X do what you want. When that happens, you cannot continue to push a rope uphill… or you won’t be on Tour for much longer. You can either wait for next season’s model or switch companies ASAP. Sometimes, flight is better than fight when it comes to golf equipment.

To use different technology that improves their ball flight 

Closely related to the points above would be switching companies to hit a club that helps change ball flight for the better. Different center of gravity locations in metal woods can cause different launch conditions. Different golf balls balls can react and feel different to players. Wedges can interact with the ground differently. All these factors help give Tour players a reason to change.

Sometimes it’s nothing more than a club’s ability to help a player hit the ball higher, spin less, or spin more. On the PGA Tour, golf is a game of inches. A new wedge could make the difference between making and missing the cut; cashing a paycheck or going home empty-handed.

Freedom to play your favorite clubs

You might not know it, but certain companies require their staff players only to play X number of clubs, or a certain type of club so the company can promote its “strengths” to the masses. Most of the time, you sign with a company whose products you like, but you might not prefer its golf ball, putters, or wedges. So if you have the freedom to use the clubs you want to play, you keep your favorite clubs in the bag and life is good.

All too often, PGA Tour players start to switch to a new company’s clubs and find out that they’re not playing well with that company’s putters, balls, or wedges, etc., so they change their contract in order to do so. It happens all the time. Check out any player’s bag on Tour and you will see that most do not play 14 clubs from one single golf equipment company; now you know the reason.

So overall, is switching equipment a good or bad idea? To me, it all comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish as a player. It’s hard to say “yes” or “no” before the fact, and much easier to play Monday morning quarterback. Fortunately, the clubs today are much more consistent and easier to custom fit, which makes them much easier to switch out than they used to be. That’s to say, you can’t really go terribly wrong since all of the equipment today is good. So if you think it will help, do some experimenting with Trackman and on the course. Then analyze the results and your scores. It won’t take long to recognize whether something is worse, better or the same.

As always, enjoy the process. Happy testing!