Dustin Johnson is carrying two 3-woods in his bag during Thursday's first round of the 2021 Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.
The world No. 1 isn't kicking off the FedEx Cup playoffs with some kind of novel approach to playing golf. He hasn't taken a page from the Ariya Jutanugarn playbook and eschewed the driver. There's a good reason why he's playing with two 3-woods.
Warming up for Thursday's first round, Johnson noticed a crack in his TaylorMade SIM2 gamer driver, according to Golf Channel's Todd Lewis. With the TaylorMade tour truck off the premises (as is standard PGA Tour procedure for all manufacturers on the Wednesday before the start of a tournament), Johnson wasn't able to get a driver quickly made that would allow him to hit it and use it in the first round.
Johnson has a backup driver the he carries on the road with him, but it wasn't being stored at the club, so he was unable to grab it in time for his 12:44 p.m. start.
Unable to have a driver in the bag, Johnson chose to replace his driver with another 3-wood. Johnson is carrying a SIM2 Max 3-wood and a SIM2 3-wood. The SIM2 3-wood has an adjustable hosel, affording Johnson the chance to make the 3-wood loft stronger and closer to a driver loft.
