Mickelson explains why he’s using two drivers at the Memorial

One of the drivers is a 10.5-degree Callaway Epic Flash head equipped with a shorter length shaft – “about an inch-and-a-quarterâ€� shorter, according to Mickelson — so he can hit “cute little cuts into the fairway,â€� as he explained in his social media post. The other driver is a 9-degree Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero head equipped with a longer length shaft in order to “hit bombs.â€� With the longer of the two drivers, as Mickelson explained to the media following his Thursday round, he has a more upward angle of attack and it results in a ball speed increase of 4 mph. The longer setup also allows Mickelson to keep up with the “young guysâ€� in ways that his body cannot. “My swing is different than a lot of the young guys, where they’re very connected and have fast twitch muscles that explode through the ball,â€� Mickelson said. “My body moves a little more lethargic. I use length of arc for great speed. I need longer shafts and timing to be able to create the same kind of speed.â€� The longer driver, however, does have drawbacks. Mickelson says that the longer-shafted driver launches about 16 or 17 degrees, which is “such a high launch you can’t control that 14 times a round.â€� The shorter driver, on the other hand, launches “closer to 11.5, 12â€� degrees, which is “much easier to control,â€� as Mickelson said. Although Mickelson said in his Thursday post-round interview with the Golf Channel that six holes at Muirfield Village Golf Club “open upâ€� around 325 yards, which he says he can achieve using the longer of the two drivers, he wants to “get a little work doneâ€� hitting cut shots with the shorter driver to prepare for upcoming events such as the U.S. Open and Open Championship. “I wanted to try to do well here [at the Memorial], but wanted to get practice in with the [shorter driver],â€� Mickelson said. “I felt like I hit the long driver, [I] probably hit it five or six times. More than a three wood, which I took out.â€� Mickelson, who is playing with two drivers and no fairway wood, shot a first-round 70 (2-under) at the Memorial Tournament, hitting 50 percent of his fairways and averaging 310.5 yards off the tee. In 2006, Phil Mickelson famously used two drivers – one to hit a draw and one to hit a fade – at the BellSouth Classic, where he won by 13 shots, and a week later at the Masters, where he won his second green jacket. Related: Steve Stricker using irons from 2006 at the Memorial Tournament While the strategy worked, Mickelson hasn’t returned to the dual-driver setup in a “long time,â€� as he said in a social media video post on Thursday. That is, not until this week at the Memorial Tournament. Mickelson posted a video on Twitter and Instagram on Thursday, before his 1:16 p.m. ET tee-time, explaining – in his own way — that he’ll be using two different drivers during competition this week at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

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