Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open winning driver setup is proof that there’s always room to tinker… properly

Wyndham Clark won the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills with a TaylorMade Qi4D in the bag featuring a Project X Titan Yellow golf shaft for his second win in a month’s time. He’s played four different driver combinations this year, including a different Qi4D + Titan Yellow build that won the CJ Cup.

Here’s what he ended up changing for his U.S. Open winning driver setup, including an accidental entry into the lead-tape army.

At the CJ Cup, Clark won with a TaylorMade Qi4D 10.5º driver and a Project X Titan Yellow 60 TX golf shaft at 45.00″ cut length. That shaft change came from a Titan Black he had played the previous week and was finalized the night before he teed off at the CJ Cup. I’d say that switch worked out considering his two victories in four weeks of time. But at the RBC Canadian Open, he ended up switching from that 10.5º head to a 9º head.

Let’s do some gear nerd math here together. Clark’s driver features 3g weights in the for and aft toe and 9g weights in the for and aft heel positions. This is 2g lighter than the stock weights of (2) 9g weights and (2) 4g weights, which loses a swingweight point. TaylorMade Tour Rep Adrian Rietveld then added 8g of hot melt to the head on the heel side of the driver a bit more rear-center in the head. That 8g adds about 4 swingweight points to the build for a net total of 3 added swingweight points. Assuming the driver is stock at about D2 in his 45.00″ cut length that means that with the Titan Black in the driver he was probably swinging his driver around a D5 swingweight, which would be considered pretty heavy by most standards.

By switching to the counter-balanced Titan Yellow, the driver naturally came down to his playing swingweight of D3 which is a much more “standard” swingweight for a driver. The beauty of switching to the Titan Yellow is that he didn’t really have to change feels from his Titan Black, but the performance benefits came alive immediately. In my own testing, this was the biggest benefit I found when comparing the two shafts. I was incredibly impressed by the yellow. Compared to the Black, he added just a touch of spin and launch when he was in the 10.5º head. He had stated that he may have sacrificed some distance doing so, but his confidence to hit fairways grew significantly. Keep in mind his “loss of distance” is probably equivalent to going from about 320 to about 310, or something along those lines.

I asked Project X’s Jackson Bragg about the feel similarity between Titan Black and Titan Yellow. Normally with a counter-balanced part you have to sacrifice some feel. The handle gets really stiff because of the added weight and material under the hands in order to create that higher balance-point. The answer is in their new Synex material; a brand new multi-axial carbon fiber matrix that they say reinforces the outer structure and increases hoop stiffness without having to add more and more material. Jackson (who help to design the Titan family of shafts) thankfully gave me a very cool gear dork answer.

“Synex technology debuted in the Titan Black as a way to maintain stiffness while delivering a smoother, more elastic feel in the handle than our previous HZRDUS lineups offered. Highlighted specifically with the EI Bump from the handle to midsection, new for Project X lineup in 2026. With the Yellow, our goal was to make the club as counterbalanced as possible without the boardy, overly firm handle that typically defines a counterbalanced profile, where added mass in the handle is what dictates the balance point. Synex let us shift the balance point nearly two full points from Titan Black to Titan Yellow without the handle ever feeling stiff or unresponsive. Across the Titan family, the increased EI bump produces a more elastic handle paired with a firm mid and tip section. In the Yellow specifically, the counterbalance gives fitters and builders the ability to use mass to dictate the release pattern into the ball with mass strategically placed in the clubs head resulting in more speed and control.”

Thanks to physics we also know that a heavier driver head swung at the same speed will produce more ball speed. So he’s got that going for him as well. It seems like this driver combination really hit home for Wyndham with him winning in his first week. So why did he switch for the U.S. Open?

At the Canadian Open he ended up switching the 10.5º head out for a 9º of the same model, built up the same way. He sets the shaft to the upright side of the sleeve with a bit lower loft, same as the 10.5º and it’s mostly a visual thing. Rietveld told me that Clark has to see the face sit a little bit open, it’s one of his non-negotiables. By going down to the 9º head they were able to drop him from 2800rpms of spin down to 2400rpms of spin, which resulted in a tad bit flatter flight that didn’t rise to it’s peak height so much and both carried and rolled out a bit more. The 9º head we saw in play at the US Open also had lead tape on it compared to the hot melt they used in the 10.5º head. Why? There aren’t any equipment trucks at the RBC Canadian Open! They didn’t have access to a hot melt gun, so they had to stay old school and get the tape out.

Project X Titan Black Wood Shaft

You can only evolve so many times. Then you have to reinvent.
Designed and engineered in our R&D Lab in San Diego, CA, Titan Black is built to meet the demands of today’s faster, more aggressive swingers. A more elastic handle section progressively firms through the mid and tip, delivering a smooth feel with added stability where it matters most. Synex Technology utilizes multi-axial carbon fibers to reinforce the shaft’s outer structure, increasing hoop stiffness from the handle through the mid-section for efficient energy transfer and enhanced control. By blending feel and stability, Titan Black gives players the confidence to swing faster without sacrificing dispersion or consistency.

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You may have also noticed that he’s got a ton of weight in the heel. That combined with sitting on the upright side of the sleeve creates what we would assume is a very draw-bias driver build, but Clark likes to hit a cut. In his case it’s actually nearly a straight ball. This is one of the cheat code type set-ups that Johnny and I talk a lot about on the podcast. Building something on paper that does one thing knowing that you want to take those benefits and do the opposite. Having a draw-bias set-up for a player that likes to work the ball from left to right creates a beautiful little pull-cut machine in the hands of a proper athlete. Knowing that his path will be a little bit from the outside and the face will want to open up a bit they take the weight and move it towards the heel to make sure that the driver head is effectively stabilized “square” through impact.

A lot of what I’ve gathered here leads me into a guess about what went down this year for Clark, and why he’s had so much recent success. Keep in mind that Clark has never been shy about his mental health struggles and his desire to find peace standing over the golf ball. To be clear, this is completely my take; I have not backed this up from any of the reps or anybody in Clark’s camp. Combined with the success he’s had playing the Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset that’s quite literally built and designed to quiet the mind, and his reliance on performance changes that inspire confidence, I think this driver search ended up being a really cool example of laying crumbs to a final destination.

Playing with spin off the tee can be very, very comfortable. It’s something I’ve done myself for many years. I like to have spin because I feel a bit more in control of the golf ball. Clark was not driving the ball well at the end of last year, or the beginning of this year, but he was taking the right steps to make changes with the people he trusts. He’s been working with the Project X team for a long time and trusts their guidance with the new product. In fact, the last time a Project X shaft won a major was his other U.S. Open win at LACC. Once he switched to the 10.5º Qi4D and the Titan Black, he started to get his confidence and his feels back.

So you take that successful combination and you tweak it a little bit. Change the shaft to add a touch of spin and focus on hitting more fairways. Win a tournament. Take that fresh batch of confidence and roll it into another small tweak. Switches to the 9º head with everything else remaining the same, and now he’s back at nearly perfect launch conditions and he’s going home tonight with a U.S. Open trophy that he’s going to “fill with grape.”

The moral of the story here for any gear heads reading is that it’s okay to tinker, even when you’re doing well. There is, however, a proper way to do things, and it never hurts to have supervision. I won’t even seriously consider a change in my bag anymore unless it’s supervised by one of the fitters that I trust, and that knows when to tell me that I am off-base on something. I have access to some amazing individuals, but anybody can do the same. I always recommend finding a fitter in your area that you really get along with, and sticking with them as you make changes. Having somebody in your corner who really knows your swing, what you like and don’t like, as well as what to maybe suggest to test is a great resource.