Brian Campbell’s win in Mexico should inspire most of us. Not just because he’s a new name, or it’s his first win, or even the fact that he got a kick outta the trees that we all pray happens to us one day.

Brian Campbell, by all elite men’s golf metrics, is a short hitter. Actually, he’s almost the shortest hitter on Tour.

Lets quickly take a look at the numbers to put this in context. Here are Campbell’s PGA Tour stats (ranked out of 186):

Club Head Speed: 108.7 (179th)
Driving Distance: 277.8 (186th)
Ball Speed: 162.05 (182nd)
Total Carry: 260.1 (184th)
Total Driving Efficiency: (123rd)
Launch: 9.15 (144th)
Spin: 2620 RPM (30th)

But …

Driving Accuracy: 70.67 (9th)
Rough Tendency: 19.44 (6th)
Distance from Center of the Fairway: 19’9″ (61st)
Good Drive Percentage: 90.67 (2nd)

On Tour, to win, you have to do a few things at an Avenger level. If you’re short, you gotta make up for it by being accurate. If your iron play is missing, you gotta chip it and lag putt at a Tony Stark level. Bad putter? Better iron it like Hawkeye. Make sense?

The point is (and this is where we draw our inspiration) the guy is short … yes … but my God is he efficient. Whatever he lacks, he commits 100 percent to investing in other variables that he can control. There isn’t a world where Brian wakes up and becomes a 180+ ball speed player — that’s not who he is or has ever been. IT DOESN’T MATTER. He plays golf focusing on RAISING HIS FLOOR, staying efficient and prioritizing control over all else. You wanna see the Megatron version of this? Look up Bernhard Langer and Rocco Mediate. You’re welcome.

Brian’s bag set-up speaks this language. It’s a bag curated for spin management, gapping, and options with zero reference to hitting it farther.

See his WITB below:

Driver: Ping G440 LST (9˚@9.8˚, Flat +, CG shifter in neutral), Mitsubishi Diamana GT 60 TX (45.25″)

3-Wood: Ping G430 LST (15˚@13.5˚, Flat -(1)), Fujikura Ventus Blue 7-TX (43″, D0+, Tipped 1″)

7-Wood: Ping G430 Max (21˚@19.5˚), Fujikura Ventus Blue 8-X (41″ EOG, D1, Tipped 1.5″)

Irons: Ping Blueprint S 4-PW (2˚ flat), KBS Tour 120 S (-.5″), D2

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 (52.12F, 56.10S, WedgeWorks 60.04L), KBS Tour 130 X (52), Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (56, 60)

Putter: Ping PLD Proto Anser 2 (34″, 3˚ loft, 70˚ lie)

PING G440 LST Custom Driver

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To take this a step further, I’ll say Brian’s bag (he’s a Ping Staffer) is as Ping as it gets. In the metal-wood war, the company identities kinda look like this (at least for the big five):

Ball-speed heavy: Callaway, TaylorMade

Efficiency and stability: Ping

A little of both: Titleist

Ping as a platform is well known for making drivers that go REALLY straight. Even on Tour, we all know that. If you want a driver that’s gonna go out in front of you a ton, Ping is your first stop. This is where the equipment game gets interesting.

I’ll admit in my early testing, Ping drivers were not the fastest — not slow by any stretch (we are talking 1-2 mph difference vs. my fastest), but Ping drivers, from an efficiency standpoint, are INCREDIBLE. So that begs the question: How to we transact the tradeoff of 6-9 yards of carry for maybe one more fairway, one less “big miss,” etc. And to be fair, in my testing I did get BIG BALLS out of the Ping, so my reference to ball speed is over the course of 20-30 shots (the average). You can’t just look at the unicorn balls as your data base. They are unicorn balls for a reason. It’s not real life.

That’s Brian Campbell’s strategy to winning on Tour. A high floor beats the occasional high ceiling most of the time.

I had a chance to chat with Kenton Oates, the man on Tour responsible for putting this bag together, and this is what he had to say:

JW: As one of the shorter hitters on Tour, what is the strategy in regards to dialing in his driver? Is distance chasing ever a thing or is it essentially insuring that accuracy is never sacrificed? What strategy is in there for the 3-wood/7-wood portion? I noticed he’s in a strong 3-wood and 7-wood. What’s going on there?

KO: Brian’s focus in fitting his G440 LST was to make sure he could hit his shot shape in his window.  He is very self-aware about what makes his game its best and understands that although gaining ball speed like we did with the change to 440 is good, it doesn’t mean anything to him if he can’t play from the fairway. 3-wood is a club that Brian needs to get some distance out of so he opts for a stronger 3-wood and uses our LST head to maximize ball speed and launch conditions.  7-wood, like it is for a lot of our players, is just the perfect club for that gap in between their 4-iron and 3-wood. It is such a versatile club for our staff players.

JW: From a data/launch conditions standpoint, what stands out when you work with BC? Anything in the numbers that your average golfer can look to? 

KO: Right away BC loved the improved look and sound of the G440 LST and noticed an increase in ball speed, which was great, but it initially came with an increase in spin and was slightly too easy to turn over. During testing we went to a stronger shaft. Even though Brian isn’t the longest hitter the stronger shaft helped optimize his launch conditions. 

Gear

JW: His irons set up is interesting, he goes lighter and softer in irons versus heavy and stiff with wedges, why is that? 

KO: Brian has played that KBS part for a long time. He is more of an, “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” type of player. Not going to go out of his way to make changes if he doesn’t feel they are necessary.    

JW: Anything unique you do with his set up that stands out? Internal/external weighting etc. 

KO: On his driver, we use the Flat+ setting to ensure his face angle looks “square” to his eye. One of his initial issues with the 440 was that it looked more open at address, and even though BC likes to hit it very straight with a little fade he does not like to see an open face at address. We were able to go from a 10.5* head to a 9* head in Flat+ to get the reduced loft we needed but with a “square” looking resting face angle.

***

The biggest takeaway for all of us here is this: There is no nobility in hitting it a mile and still shooting a million. One of the biggest lessons I learned working with Tour players has been controlling and protecting the successful variables that got you there. At all costs. If you are fortunate enough to evolve, get longer somehow, great. But by no means can you sacrifice the superpowers you own that got you on Tour in the first place.

Xander Schauffele is a perfect example of this. He got REALLY FAST over the last 18 months. You wanna know the most fascinating thing? His launch data didn’t change AT ALL. Every number stayed the same. The only number that changed was his ball speed. We didn’t touch his sticks, at all. THAT’S RARE. If you can do that, God bless you. If you’re like me and just wanna shoot a gaggle of good scores, watch how Brian Campbell handles his business. Guys like that do us all a favor. He’s a modern Tour player that we can actually relate to.

And he just won.

It’s a big deal folks. Pay attention.

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