Do manufacturers require their top players to use the latest and greatest equipment, regardless of what that player prefers? That's indeed the case, Vijay Singh said at last week's BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour.
"It happens with everybody," Singh said. "I think every guy out there is in the same situation. No matter who you look at, they have their manufacturer's top driver. They will have to try it out unless they cannot use it and they go back to what they are used to, and I've done that in the past. That's not what the manufacturers want. Unless it's not in the contract, then you have to use what they want you to use."
For a player like Singh, where driving is a strong part of his overall game, a change in equipment can be a struggle.
"There's so many new drivers coming out, manufacturers want you to use their latest driver," Singh said. "So that's been always a battle. You get comfortable with one driver and then they come up with a new model and that's what they are promoting, that's what you've got to use."
Last year, Cleveland asked its staffers, including Singh, to put the HiBore driver into their bags. For whatever reasons, many disliked the club. For example, Jerry Kelly noted that the original HiBore caused him to hit the ball too high with a lot of spin or too low with little spin - both leading to decreased control.
In response, Cleveland engineers retooled the driver and created the HiBore XL. Singh began testing it at the end of last season, put it into play for 2007, and promptly won the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship.
"Last year I was struggling with the HiBore but then they came up with a HiBore XL and it was much better than the old one so I'm using that one and I'm happy with it," he said. "Last year I had problems all year with the HiBore, and end of the year I went back to playing what I used to play and I played better with it."
Players went from grumbling to praising as they started the year extolling the virtures of the HiBore XL. Kelly explained how Cleveland could go from bad to good with their driver design.
"They built a club on the computer the first time and they built the club with me and Vijay telling them what it did in competition the next time," Kelly said.
Singh explained at the BMW that players want to get any advantage they can and will try new equipment, perhaps before they know for sure that it will work well for their games.
"We are very greedy, you want to get the best out of the club and the newer clubs that are coming out are better when they are tested," he said. "It's not necessarily true when you take it out on the golf course.
"And then you realize after two, three, maybe even a month that it doesn't go as good as your old one, you go back ask that's when the manufacturers kind of go against you."
On the plus side, Singh said that equipment manufacturers are incorporating new technology that may help, so that many of the players make successful swaps for the new sticks.
"You know, they are making better and better stuff now, so it's easier to change," he said.
