SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 5, 2023

Scott Stallings

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. I think he was kind of kidding with you when he was talking about did you massage one in at 283.

SCOTT STALLINGS: I don't know where 283 comes from. I mean, it was 290, 299, with adjusted, and slightly in out of the left.

Q. Are you thinking that green is hittable? What do you think? Do you try to leave it somewhere in particular?

SCOTT STALLINGS: You're trying to make a committed swing at the middle of the green. And the bunker's not end of the world, but obviously when it goes that close, you got a fortunate break. I mean, it landed right on the front fringe and bounced up there close. So I hit a good shot, but I got a good bounce as well.

Q. You mentioned changing some stuff after kind of being disappointed with your results in the fall. What were you working on your swing or what did you find?

SCOTT STALLINGS: A little bit of it is, I mean, everyone made a big story about the set of irons that I used kind of towards the back end of the year, but at some point you're going to find the back end of those irons. And I mean, they were over five years old. I rode them into the ground, which was great. I made it all the way to the TOUR Championship.

But my iron play is sort of what I've done the best throughout my career and in the fall, I drove it great and just didn't iron and wedge it very well and sort of kind of fought that.

Yeah, so it was time to kind of go through and find a newer set, and so I found a new set of the older style of head and I used them at QBE and it was like, okay, all right, we're working back into what I, how I kind of like to see the ball go in the air and that was kind of it.

Q. What did you find? What kind of set?

SCOTT STALLINGS: It was an older, the first set of T100 Titleist. So that's what I went back to at Travelers when I kind of had a good little stretch run through there.

And then like Sea Island we were trying to do some spin numbers and it was just like this set is toast (laughing). So I had another set built up and then started working through it after Sea Island and then played QBE with Trey and it was kind of like that was the first time it sort of reminded me of that mid-summer stretch where the irons started coming out there like I remembered.

Q. Why would you wait so long to change? Obviously they're putting new clubs in your hand as often as you want to. Why did you wait so long, do you think?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Well, I believe you're a little bit late to the party. I went into the season where I used a newer set and in the middle of the season at Travelers I went to an older set that I had used and played some of the best golf of my career. The set was about five years old. And I was literally going to play it until they did what they did.

Q. So the question is: When you made the switch, what kind of generated that interest to do that?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Well, I mean, when you hit it over a bunch of greens and short of a bunch of greens and you feel like it kind of comes out of the middle of the face and, I mean, at some point, man, a groove's going to get dull and stuff like that.

So I just think that, I mean, I knew it was coming. It was just, it happened faster than I thought it was going to.

Q. When you were playing with the newer equipment before you switched back to the older equipment, what made you switch back to the older equipment?

SCOTT STALLINGS: I was the best I had ever been in my career from a hundred to 150, the best I had ever been in my career from 200 to 250, and the worst I had ever been in my career from 150 to 200. So it's like can you hit a wedge and a 4-iron, but you can't hit a 7-iron? So something's different.

So just kind of went back and kind of looked at some numbers and saw some things, and the CG in the newer set was a little bit different in kind of the middle part of the irons, in that like 7-, 8-, 9-iron, which is probably where I've done the best part of my career with. I didn't change anything else. I just went back to the older set where the CG was a little bit more in the spot where I was used to it and that's kind of what I did.

Q. How long ago did you retire those T100s originally?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Right before the start of the year. I thought that they were in, kind of taking some time and kind of worked 'em in and it just wasn't where it needed to be. I felt like I played pretty good at the U.S. Open and, like, I did all the stuff at a major you would want to do. Like, I chipped and putted pretty good and I drove it good. Like, that's what you think you need to do to play good at a major.

And I just like, out of the middle of the bag, it just wasn't where it needed to be to play and compete and I kind of felt like I was beating my head against a wall, and then Hunter, the guy that I use for stats, he's like, Man, I don't know what's going on here, but he said you can't hit a wedge and a 4-iron and not hit a 7-iron. He said, golf just doesn't work like that.

So I had a buddy overnight a set of clubs that I had used for a long time and I went on a nice little run and made it all the way to Atlanta.

Q. When did you put the T100s, take 'em out of play the first time?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Right before the start of last season. So I used 'em for a four years.

Q. Are you trying to find something new?

SCOTT STALLINGS: No, I have a new set.

Q. But a new, like updated, like current set.

SCOTT STALLINGS: I have a brand new set of the old T100s.

Q. Where did you find those?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Deep in my garage. (Laughing.)

Q. So you had an extra set. But is there something that's just coming out that you're going to try to see if there's something else that you like or are you just going to go with this?

SCOTT STALLINGS: No, maybe I'm just old and stubborn now. It's just like, man, I kind of fought that uphill battle as far as trying to chase it a little bit. Like I know what works and what it needs to do and those kind of things, I guess. I don't know, it will be interesting to see what kind of happens. We're meeting with the Titleist guys in a few weeks out here at Torrey. Just trying to see like what was such a big difference of like why it changed dramatically from -- essentially they were built the exact same and what was different about 'em.

Q. You had 'em in the attic or something?

SCOTT STALLINGS: No, no.

Q. Deep in the garage?

SCOTT STALLINGS: I got a decent amount. This is my 13th season. You collect a lot of stuff out here.

Q. When you would roll into the trailer sometimes with Titleist with those old clubs, would they try to convince you to take a look at something else?

SCOTT STALLINGS: No. They're pretty good. I mean as far as just making sure, like, you know, obviously it was available if you want it. But once I started playing nice it was like, Man, let's just keep doing what you're doing here.