It's amazing what a few minor adjustments can do to your golf game... just ask five-time Major winner Brooks Koepka.
Playing at The Masters, the American finds himself three-under-par for the championship following a 72 on Thursday and a 69 on Friday, with one key reason for the improvement down to an accidental set-up change with his equipment.
Using a Titleist GT3, Koepka normally has the driver set-up in the A1 position, which is standard loft and standard lie; however, miraculously, it had moved itself to B1.
Instead of it being standard all-round, it now meant that the loft was standard, but the lie was .75° flat, promoting a more fade-bias flight, which isn't ideal for the more draw-bias course of Augusta National.
Speaking on Friday, Koepka clarified the incident, stating: "Just drove it better. Some of my setting on the driver switched from A1 to B1.
"No one noticed it. Switching back to A1, which is what we usually had it, and just driving it better."
Noticing it on the driving range after his round, Koepka's overnight switch resulted in two more fairways being hit on Friday, as his number jumped from 7/14 to 9/14.
Firing a three-under 69 on Friday, it means he is in-and-around the top 10 heading into the weekend of The Masters, where he searches for a sixth Major title and first Green Jacket.
It's unclear how the incident occurred, but given that players are always experimenting with equipment, and are regularly traveling, it could well be that the head was removed from the shaft and not put back together correctly.
Certainly, it's not the first time we've heard unintentional gear changes happen, with Matt Fitzpatrick enduring a slightly embarrassing moment in 2024.
Struggling off the tee, Fitzpatrick revealed that he had added a four-gram weight on his driver grip when doing some testing in February 2023, but it remained there without his knowledge instead of being removed.
After starting to miss left with the big stick, the Englishman then explained he had simply forgotten all about the added weight, with the solution only coming to light when his driver was being regripped in February 2024
"There was a weight in the grip, which we did some testing with in February last year, and never took it out. For whatever reason, I just forgot that it was ever in there,” Fitzpatrick said.
"As soon as it came out and I hit it the next day, it felt night and day. I could hit it as hard as I want, and it wouldn’t go left. Previously, I felt like I hit it hard, and it would just go straight left."
