Matt Fitzpatrick’s Driver Switch Fuels 64 at Travelers

Matt Fitzpatrick may have found the fix at the Travelers Championship, and it came right out of the equipment truck.

After fighting his driver at the U.S. Open, Fitzpatrick rolled into TPC River Highlands with a new weapon in the bag ... a Ping G430 LST.

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One round in, the move already looks like more than a panic switch. Fitzpatrick opened with a 6-under 64 on Thursday, missed just one fairway and put himself right in the early mix behind Eric Cole.

That’s a pretty loud response from a player who didn’t exactly love what he saw off the tee at Shinnecock Hills.

Fitzpatrick finished 22nd at the U.S. Open, which isn’t a disaster for most players.

But for a three-time PGA TOUR winner this season and the No. 3-ranked player in the world, the driver was a problem that couldn’t be ignored.

n Sunday’s final round at Shinnecock, he ranked 70th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, basically at the bottom among players who made the weekend.

So, Fitzpatrick made a change. Fast.

He said he’d been “getting comfortable” with the new club early in the week and felt like something finally clicked after several days of practice. T

he results backed it up. Fitzpatrick was eighth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee after his Thursday round, a major turnaround from the mess he’d just left behind in New York.

The issue wasn’t as simple as grabbing any driver and swinging away. Fitzpatrick said his previous driver cracked before the Truist Championship, and finding the right replacement has been a grind.

“The detail is really important,” Fitzpatrick said, explaining that every elite player reacts differently to different setups.

That’s the part casual golf fans sometimes miss. At this level, equipment isn’t plug-and-play.

Fitzpatrick even said he tested one driver that looked perfectly neutral — and still watched shots leak wildly right because of how it matched his swing.

Through the 2026 PGA TOUR season, Fitzpatrick has been steady off the tee, ranking 46th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 12th in Driving Accuracy. But steady wasn’t good enough after Shinnecock.

At Travelers, the driver finally looked like an advantage again. Fitzpatrick reached scoring holes in position, attacked when he needed to and still left a few chances on the course, including multiple birdie looks inside 20 feet late in the round.

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Now the question is obvious: did Fitzpatrick just solve the one problem holding him back?

If Thursday was any indication, the rest of the field may not love the answer.