Inside the Titleist TSR4 driver and Ben An's shot of the year contender

10/30/2024 11:00 AM

Everybody loves a driver off the deck, generally because the majority of us are unable to pull it off.

At the Genesis Championship Ben An played one of the shots of the year with his longest club to help reel in Tom Kim before winning in a play-off in their homeland of Korea.

It was just An’s second victory on the DP World Tour, his first coming at Wentworth in 2015, and it moved him to 27th in the world.

The 33-year-old’s bag is interesting for a variety of reasons; fairly uniquely he only has one wood in the bag given that he carries a 1-iron.

An’s driver, the Titleist TSR4, has been in the bag since it was released in September 2022 and, on the evidence of this, it will be staying put.

The Korean had 290 yards to the pin at the 15th hole, a flag that was cut at the back of an elevated green that was protected by water. An pulled the trigger and, amazingly, knocked it to 13 feet.

"I think I was two shots back. I hit a great driver off the deck on the front nine on the par 5, so I'm like, 'you know what, this is the one to do it,'" said An.

"The lay-up is not that easy hitting close to the flag, and the driver was exactly how I planned it… I think that was the shot I needed in that moment… It's a little aggressive, but I knew I could pull it off."

The probability of a PGA Tour player hitting a shot from 290 yards to inside 15 feet is approximately 0.4% or 1 in 250, according to Jamie Kennedy on X.

WHAT A SHOT!! @ByeongHunAn with driver off the deck for one of the shots of the year. #GenesisChampionshippic.twitter.com/0MVlJZhIEE

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 27, 2024

The TSR4, according to Titleist, is their low-spin driver with added adjustability. It actually features a face that is built inward so that the entire hitting area is designed to capture consistent speed and distance.

For An there is still enough spin on the TSR4 to be able to take on such a shot.

“I really like it. If I don’t feel like a good strike or it’s a little spinny, a little to the right, it does exactly what it should do when I hit it,” he said.

“Typically, I’ll have low two thousands in a spin, like 21, 22. When I catch it in the toe, it’s about 19, but like I said, I have enough height on my ball flight, so it launches about 11, 12 degrees.

“It gets about 125, 130 feet of apex, so that’s plenty high and that’s plenty of spin for that height.”

Obviously the other ingredient in this shot is An’s Pro V1x ball.

“We did a lot of testing with the Pro V1s and Xs. I’ve been trying both balls and the X kind of feels like it spins a little bit more but I can have more control around the green.

“And it goes a little bit higher around the green too, so I can hit a little bit of higher, softer shots.

“The ProV1x is a higher ball flight ball but, for me, I can hit it low or high both ways.

“If I feel like that it’s going a little low, then it goes low. If I catch it good and try to hit a high, it goes high.

“So I think that’s the golf ball I’m looking for, is like, whenever I hit a shot, either it could be a miss or a good hit, it does exactly what I feel like, you know, coming out the face, which it does.”

READ MORE: By the numbers: what goes into the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf ball

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