Steve Stricker still remembers the exact moment when he realized his beloved driver was cracked. The Callaway Epic Speed, with which he’d gotten comfortable, wasn’t performing as he’d hoped during the 2024 Players Championship and he noticed a hairline fracture just before missing the cut.
“I was hitting a shot that I hadn’t been hitting for a while,” Stricker said Thursday in advance of the American Family Insurance Championship. “You know, that’s a few models ago, let’s put it that way. I’m kind of one of those guys that finds something and sticks with it.”
Stricker thought he had found a solid replacement for the KitchenAide Senior PGA, playing a Titleist driver which he paired with his older V2 shaft.
And while he played well, finishing eighth, Stricker still felt he could improve a bit.
“I’m a big boy, I should be able to try to hit some of this new stuff,” he said. “I tried some Titleists, I tried some of the new Callaway stuff, and it’s just not the same for me.”
More: Callaway Epic Speed, Epic Max, Epic Max LS drivers
In advance of this week’s PGA Tour Champions event in his native Wisconsin, Stricker set out to find the exact Epic Speed he’d had before, putting in a call to a family shop from Naples, Florida, with whom he’d previously done business. A friend from The Golf Guys scoured inventory and found just what Stricker needed.
“I said, ‘Hey, do you happen to have any used Epic Speed heads, 9-degree triple diamond, all this kind of stuff,’ told him what mine was. He’s like, ‘I’ll get back to you,'” Stricker explained. “Sure enough he had a brand new one still in the wrapper. I’m like ‘How fast can you get that to me?’ Monday morning at 6:30 the Amazon guy dropped it off at my doorstep. Monday morning I was out there hitting it.
“The start lines are much better. I had to do a little finagling with the weights on it and all that kind of stuff.”
Stricker is hoping for improved performance this week at University Ridge, and that’s saying something for the 17-time PGA Tour Champions winner. He’s played seven events on the senior circuit this year and finished inside the top 10 on all but one occasion.
But in case he has a mishap with this driver, he got a little great news this week while preparing for this event.
“I go in the trailer this week and they found me another one,” Stricker said. “All of a sudden, I’ve got two where I didn’t have one before that, so things are looking up.”
