Masters 2026: The one club Tommy Fleetwood says could be the difference at Augusta

Few golf courses in the world have inspired more creative equipment tinkering than Augusta National. Players have shown up to the first tee with everything from extra wedges and one-off prototypes to unconventional setups built specifically for one week in April. Phil Mickelson famously employed two drivers in 2004—one for a high, hard draw, one for a controlled fade—squeezing every possible advantage out of a bag designed for a single purpose.

The pursuit of a Masters edge has always had a way of pushing players toward decisions they'd never consider anywhere else. Tommy Fleetwood has his own answer. It just happens to be a club he's been carrying for a few years now.

"It's a perfect 9-wood golf course," Fleetwood said. "The biggest thing is the 9-wood for me. If I can put myself in position on the par-5s or the long par-3 fourth—for me, I can't really hit that high 4-iron, so 9-wood helps me a lot.

" That might sound like a modest equipment confession, but it's worth noting that Fleetwood is hardly alone in this thinking. Over the past several years, high-lofted fairway woods have quietly become one of the most common additions to tour bags. Players across all skill levels have been swapping out long irons and utility clubs in favor of 7-woods and 9-woods—clubs that were once considered the domain of recreational golfers—because the performance data simply makes too much sense to ignore.