How Jon Rahm gets fit for a new driver

Each of the major manufactures has a Tour fitter assigned to some of their biggest staff players and for Callaway, the job falls to Kellen Watson.

Watson is the Tour rep who works directly on the top of the bag for Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Min Woo Lee, among others.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, Watson explained to host Johnny Wunder, the process for getting players like Rahm to switch into a new driver before each season gets quite specific.

Watson said it starts with identifying which heads Rahm will test. This year’s Callaway Elyte line has five different retail models with several Tour-only models as well, but Watson only picks two heads before he goes and meets with Rahm to test out the new product.

“I’m not going to go with the other options,” Watson said. “I’m not even going to bring them with me. He’s going to be like, ‘What the hell is this? What do you think? I’m that bad at golf that I need to hit this thing?’

“It’s kind of worthless to bring like a bunch of different options, because if the first one doesn’t work and the first shot’s not good, then it’s getting thrown back at me.”

The two heads Watson brings are going to be identical in loft and he’s going to adjust the CGs to closely match Rahm’s Rouge ST Triple Diamond LS from 2022. That year, Rahm was 1st on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: off the tee, picking up more than a stroke. So he compares everything to that driver.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Callaway

The nice thing for Watson too, is that when he goes to Silverleaf to test with Rahm for the first time each year, it’s usually not the first time he’s showing someone the new product.

“I’m not using them as kind of like lab rats or anything, but I’m getting more familiar with what other people are saying, and then trying to relate it to what he would do,” Watson said. “So, I’m looking at what Player A is doing, and Player A may hit just a sweeping draw. Player B, I’m watching him, he might hit just a low bullet straight shot. Player C might be a two-yard cut, right? And then Player D might be like just a push, aim left, push it.

“So, I’m trying to figure out how these things are working. Yeah, like I’m trying to figure out how these things are working for them, and then kind of calculating in my head what needs to be done, what loft needs to be set. Does it need to be more loft than last year? Does it need to be less loft than last year?”

To determine if a setup is worth exploring, Watson said he and Rahm are looking more for patterns rather than numbers from a launch monitor.

“If the pattern is, you know, just a pull cut that looks like it is kind of still has energy after its apex and kind of flattens out and kind of goes, then we’ve done our job, you know,” he said. “We’ve gotten it correct.”

For more from Watson, including why Callaway’s new blades have quickly gained a cult following, listen to the full episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped here, or watch it below.

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