Fitting TOUR Pros

What is it that TOUR pros like about Bridgestone Golf? What makes them choose to play Bridgestone?

These guys, they have access to any equipment they want. Every company is out on TOUR week in and week out trying to increase their player count so the competition to get players in a Bridgestone ball is really tough. Luckily for us we have a product that is higher performing and more consistent than most. Our players know that every ball in the dozen box is going to perform identically, that’s because of the high level of manufacturing. From a consistency stand point, shot to shot the ball performs the way they need it to in order to compete at the highest level. Also for our guys the stability and aerodynamics in the wind are a big advantage when the weather gets up a bit.

Can you talk about the quality over quantity approach with the team of Bridgestone Golf pros?

We are very strategic in who we partner with and what golfers we choose to endorse. If you look at our team, these are guys that selected to play a Bridgestone ball on their own. The Tiger’s, the Bryson’s, The Lexi’s of the world, they selected Bridgestone after trying numerous brands and ultimately settled in on Bridgestone because we have a ball that fits their game best. That’s who we are as a brand, we are the leaders in ball fitting and that extends all the way up to the top levels of the sport. Our strategy is to have brand ambassadors that are a true extension of our brand message and I think we have a pretty solid group right now.

Can you tell us the process of working with the pros to ensure they are properly fit and playing the best equipment?

Our team is great because they all want to play the best fitting ball and truly understand the importance of getting in the best equipment. We try to get each of them on a launch monitor a few times a year. Any tweak to their swing or a change in clubs is going to change their launch conditions, these players are all very aware of that and are always wanting to make sure their compete bag is optimized to match with their Bridgestone ball. In addition to fitting, we also work closely with them on the R&D of our next generation of product. So while these guys are all playing the same TOUR B that you and I can buy at the store, they are also helping us design the next generation of TOUR B that they will put in play during the 2020 season.

What do the players look for when going through a fitting session?

You have got to remember these are all world class athletes and they are incredibly skilled at this game so what they are looking for is a little bit more granular than what most consumers look at. We test them all driver through wedge but each one has their own unique things they like to take a deeper look at. With Tiger for example we are getting so dialed in that we are analyzing ball velocity and peak trajectory of chip shots, he’s pushing us to look at every aspect of how the ball performs. Bryson is a big time numbers guy, he likes to look at different swings, at different on-course scenarios and see how the ball is reacted under adverse situations. With a player with Matt (Kuchar) we are usually working to get ball speed up while maintaining consistency in the wind, a great testament to this is his recent switch to the TOUR B X ball and picking up two wins on tour already this season.