Akshay Bhatia is considering some interesting equipment changes as he plays in his first Tour Championship this week at East Lake Golf Club. These include adding a mini driver to his bag and using a new golf ball.
According to an article written by Andrew Tursky for GolfWRX and PGATour.com, Bhatia, who will start the opening round at 2 under, eight shots behind Scottie Scheffler, plans to add a Callaway Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini Driver to his bag.
“I curve it a lot. I try to achieve as lot of curve with the driver, so any time I have restricted start lines, I can draw a driver,” Bhatia said. “But if I have this mini driver, I can turn it a lot easier, then it’s a nice option.”
Bhatia said that he can hit his 19-degree Callaway Apex UW about 260 yards off the tee, but his 3-wood can be erratic.
“(A) 3-wood for me can either be really good, or I can hit it off the heel one day, or I can get a hot pull. It’s just very inconsistent for me,” he said. “So, the mini driver gives me more options. It’s faster, but it spins a little more, so the consistency of the ball flight is tighter, and that’s what I need.”
The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini driver (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Callaway Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini Driver Bhatia may put into play has 13.5 degrees of loft, similar to a strong-lofted 3-wood. However, while most 3-woods for elite golfers have a volume in the neighborhood of 180-200 cubic centimeters, Bhatia’s mini driver has 340 cubic centimeters. That makes it about 70 percent larger than many 3-woods but 26 percent smaller than a typical 460-cubic-centimeter driver.
Tour Championship: Thursday tee times | Staggered start
The Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini also comes standard at 43.75 inches in length, which is about 1.5 to 2 inches shorter than most modern drivers. For many elite golfers, the combination of a shorter shaft and smaller head can make it easier to hit a draw instead of a fade, which appears to be the appeal of the mini driver for Bhatia.
While it is not uncommon for pros to make course-specific changes to the clubs in their bag, one piece of gear Bhatia plans to change is rarely tinkered with: the ball.
The 2024 Callaway Chrome Tour. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
“I’m going to the softer golf ball,” said Bhatia, who typically plays a Callaway Chrome Tour X but plans to use a Chrome Tour at East Lake. “The greens are really firm this week. Softer for me, like, you want to win major championships, you need to hit it higher and softer. The golf ball I play is a lower-spinning ball, which is good, say, 16 weeks out of the year, but then you’ve got four majors, and then, obviously, some Signature Events play pretty firm. I’ve wanted to make this switch for a long time. I feel like there’s no better reason to do it than this week. I mean, it’s kind of a free-for-all, trying to get used to the golf ball and prep for the majors and some of the bigger events.”
Callaway released the Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X in January. Both are four-piece balls that feature a large rubber core and a duel-mantle system encased in a soft urethane cover.