Hideki Matsuyama has won eight times on the PGA TOUR, including last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan. He’s defending that five-shot win in his home country this week, so we thought it was an appropriate time to take a closer look inside the bag of the most prolific PGA TOUR player to ever come out of Japan. Back in April, when he was defending the Masters title that made him the first men’s major winner in Japan’s history, we wrote an in-depth piece on Matsuyama’s propensity to test and tinker with his equipment. While he doesn’t make many changes to his 14-club setup from week-to-week, he constantly tests different head and shaft combinations to ensure he’s dialed in with exactly what he wants. At the recent Fortinet Championship, however, Matsuyama did upgrade into a new Srixon ZX5 MKII LS prototype driver, which remains unreleased to the public. It seems that the switch went well, because Matsuyama continued using the new driver at the Presidents Cup, and he had it in the bag during the first round of the ZOZO, as well. Below, GolfWRX takes a look at Matsuyama’s setup for this week’s ZOZO. Driver: Srixon ZX5 MKII LS prototype (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-DI 8TX While we don’t know much yet about Matsuyama’s new ZX5 MKII LS driver, since Srixon has not released any technical information, we can speculate that the LS stands for “low spin.” Matsuyama uses a small strip of lead tape to add weight to the back-heel portion of the sole. Also, despite upgrading to a new model driver, he continues to use his familiar Graphite Design Tour AD-DI 8TX orange shaft. 3-wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Titanium (15 degrees) Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI-9 TX 5-wood: Cobra King RadSpeed Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI-10 TX Irons: Srixon Z-Forged (4-9 iron) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Matsuyama ranked No. 1 on the PGA TOUR last season in proximity from 125-150 yards, and fifth from 150-175 yards. He uses Srixon Z-Forged irons that are designed with a notch in the toe and heel section of the sole. “Hideki is one of the leaders in developing the toe and heel notches,” Srixon told GolfWRX.com. “He strongly believes the toe and heel notch creates a more consistent, smooth turf interaction. Hideki has always had these notches in his irons, and he was a huge part of bringing the notches back in the ZX line.” He also has a particularly discerning eye when it comes to how his irons look at address. “With regards to offset, Hideki prefers some offset over zero offset in his irons,” Srixon told GolfWRX. “He has the most specific eye, and he loves to tinker and test all products. The key areas for Hideki when it comes to irons are the general hosel shape and taper consistency, the blend between the face flat and hosel, and most importantly the smooth transitions from the hosel into the leading edge – there needs to be offset as he wants the transition to be smooth and almost straight.” Wedges: Cleveland RTX Forged Prototype (46, 52, 56 and 60 degrees) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Matsuyama is also quite particular in regards to the grind on the sole of his higher-lofted wedges. “Hideki doesn’t change his 52-degree sole often, but he is constantly tinkering with his 56 and 60,” Srixon told GolfWRX. “All three soles have a subtle C-grind shape. The 56- and 60-degree have an aggressive heel relief. Hideki also utilizes a similar subtle leading-edge grind to the one that is in his irons. Hideki will vary the width and bounce angles of the three (soles) depending on the conditions and shots that he is looking to hit. These three tiers as well as the sole radius (the sole curvature from heel to toe) allow us to manipulate the sole design to achieve the turf interaction and versatility that he may be asking for without changing the address shape. In the 56 and 60, Hideki plays a very straight leading edge with little-to-no offset. He plays his 60 and 56 weaker to help remove the offset and maintain a very straight, smooth transition from the hosel to leading-edge.” Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV
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