[PHOTO: Jed Jacobsohn]
When Patton Kizzire won two tournaments in a two-month span in 2017-2018, almost no one would have thought it would take six years, eight months and one day for him to get another. That was the length of the victory drought that ended for Kizzire at the Procore Championship at Silverado Resort’s North course in Napa, California.
“I’ve had a little bit of time off,” Kizzire said. “I missed the playoffs, so I wanted to make a little bit of an adjustment with my golf game, mental game and physical game. It’s been really cool to get organised and try to be more playful out there and be unflappable – that’s kind of my word.”
Kizzire needed that new mindset after bogeys on holes nine and 11 cut a four-shot lead to a nerve-inducing two as he faced a tricky, uphill bunker shot on the par-5 12th. Kizzire, who ranked T-1 in scrambling for the week (including a chip-in eagle at the par-5 fifth on the final day) with his Titleist Vokey SM10 wedges, knocked the shot to three-and-a-half feet and made the putt for birdie to steady things and extend his lead to three shots over David Lipsky. That ignited a three-birdies-in-four-holes stretch that sealed the win.
Ironically, the putter Kizzire used – a Ping Vault Bergen mallet – was introduced even before his last win. The Vault, unveiled in 2016, is a reference to Ping’s collection of gold-plated and solid gold putters created for tournament winners and features a face with the company’s True Roll technology where the face has a milled pattern of intersecting arcs at various depths that help speed up off-centre impacts to provide a consistency of distance.
So consistent that Kizzire was first in strokes gained/putting, picking up nearly nine shots on the field, and second in putts per green in regulation.
All of which led to him being first on the leaderboard for the first time in a long time.
What Patton Kizzire had in the bag at the 2024 Procore Championship:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Titleist GT3 (Fujikura Motore X F1 6 X), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10, 15 degrees
Irons (3-4): Titleist T200; (5): Titleist T100; (6): Titleist 620 CB; (7-9): Titleist 620 MB
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 (48, 52, 56, 60 degrees)
Putter: Ping Vault Bergen