Stenson forced to switch drivers at East Lake

ATLANTA – Henrik Stenson will put a new driver into play this week.

Then again, he didn’t have much of a choice. He smashed the old one into two pieces at Conway Farms on Monday.

“We’ve got the new TaylorMade SLDR in the bag this week. It's not always something bad that doesn't have something good with it,” said the man at No. 2 on the FedEx Cup ranking. “I had a look at that driver at the Scottish Open, but didn't have time to test it, and then I had a quick session at Firestone, but I felt like I was in the middle of things. For whatever reason, I kind of had to get into testing a new driver.

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“It feels pretty good, and it creates less spin for me. It sounds like a commercial now, doesn't it? It's definitely a stronger ball flight into the wind, and I'm definitely a player with quite a lot of spin on my golf ball. So I think it could be a good switch.”

As for the implication that he had a switch in mind when he decapitated his previous driver, Stenson didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, absolutely. That was the main focus,” he said. “Let's finish the old one off right here and now in front of everybody on 18. Perfect.”