You Can Learn a Lot From Justin Thomas And His 5-Wood

There are a lot of older clubs in players' bags on the PGA Tour, but few can rival Justin Thomas’ 5-wood, an 18-degree Titleist 915FD that is coming up on almost a decade of use. Yes, Aaron Rai is using a TaylorMade M6 driver from 2019 (Justin Rose is still using those fairway woods, too), plus a slew of golfers use older putters, but there is something about that 5-wood JT just can't quit.

When asked about the club at the Truist Championship this week, which is being hosted at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Justin explained the major reason why the club has had such staying power.

"I think there's definitely a reason it's been in there. It doesn't necessarily have as much to do with not being able to hit the newer stuff well or like how it performs. It's more of just how it performs distance-wise is what I need.

I've hit a couple of the latest 5-woods, like the last couple editions or launches, and they just go a little bit further than I would like in a 5-wood. It's just kind of a perfect club for me, I feel like. It's unique in the sense that I feel like I can hit it 230 yards if I need to, but I can hit it 265 in the air if I need to.

So it's similar to a 3-wood. If you get a good one, it's tough to replace. I have a handful of heads left, and I definitely won't be giving anybody any of them to try any time soon."

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Related: Justin Thomas, You Have Our Attention at the Truist Championship

About the Titleist 915FD 18° 5-Wood

JT's 5-wood is a special club because it was originally only released to players on the PGA TOUR. There was a 915 FD 3-wood that got a full retail release, but the 5-wood itself never found its way into stores.

Instead, it became part of an experimental "MOTO" program from Titleist that allowed regular golfers to access and order these small batch clubs that were originally designed for tour use. MOTO stood for "Made Only To Order" meaning that the only way to get them was to order through a Titleist fitting account, but with limited press and most golfers not really understanding what was available, it was never a widely popular club (which was kinda the point to begin with). Other clubs in the program included the 915 D4 driver, and T-MB irons, which if we follow the Titleist bloodline, have evolved into the GT4 driver and T200 irons.

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What You Can Learn

The key takeaway here is that JT keeps it because it fits a particular spot in his bag based on distance gapping, and this is something a lot of golfers tend to ignore when looking at new clubs. I mean it's one thing to go and get for for a new set of irons or a driver if you’re looking for forgiveness and stopping power, but clubs at the top of the bag between these two categories play a crucial role because. We're talking about paying close attention to your game and needs and keeping clubs in the bag to fill a gap and not about filling the bag only thinking about how you can go as far as possible.

To Thomas' point, he has hit newer model fairway woods that are more forgiving and fly farther, but if he were to change to one of those clubs, he would then have to reconfigure the entire top end of his bag to fit that new gapping. This would likely mean more changes at the top end of his iron set as well, which then begs the question—why change if everything is working?

Now sure, you might not hit it as well as JT (few people on the planet do), but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from the way he has built his set. One thing I used to ask any golfer I was fitting would be “Do you have a club in your bag that you use a lot when you play?” This is most often a fairway wood or hybrid that is used for a variety of shots around a player's home course.

From a fitting perspective, we could change this golf club and potentially have it perform "better" because it's flying farther, but at the end of the day, the golfer isn't requiring distance from that club; they're requiring a specific distance. Instead, it's much more ideal for the golfer to build the rest of their set around that club to help fit the gapping that they are confident in, regardless of the age of the club (within reason, of course).

So the next time you're looking at your set of clubs and thinking "I need to replace X club because of its age", think about JT and his decade-year-old 5-wood, because it's not always about pure distance—it's about distance control and confidence to hit the right shot when it's needed most.