Professional golfers are always in search of those fine margins to put them ahead of the competition and in the case of Patrick Reed, he goes for the lead tape method to get those marginal gains.
Reed is a major champion and one of the most entertaining golfers of the last two decades.
His Ryder Cup performances are the stuff of legend for Team USA and over the years, he’s provided countless moments to reflect on, whether it be on course brilliance or moments of controversy.
However, it’s not too often we hear from Reed the golfer and what makes him so good.
Reed is known for having one of the best short-games in the business but his overall game is also impressive.
Indeed, it seems it is no fluke either, with Reed revealing in the past just how meticulous he is when it comes to getting the weights right in his golf swing and clubs.
Why Patrick Reed uses lead tape on his golf clubs
Golfers are always looking at data and different methods to hone their game and one way to get things feeling correct is the use of lead tape.
Lead tape is allowed under the rules to be applied to clubs before rounds but it must not be adjusted or removed mid-round.
Indeed, speaking back in 2024, Patrick Reed explained in detail just why he uses lead tape to get things 100% right for him.
“Mainly I do it for swing weight. For me, my lies and lofts have always been the same, my club length pretty much the same and so I weight everything out before I put everything together so I can make sure the overall weight is right,” Reed explained.
“You can have the same swing weight but the overall weight might be different due to the material or the tolerances in it, it’s going to feel different to me. So for me I make sure I get the over overall weight AND the swing weight correct. Sometimes it’s just a little lead tape, sometimes it’s I have to start from fresh and go square one.
“But yeah, lead tape is a good friend. Luckily for me I don’t need to have it on driver or this 3-wood but there’s times that the head becomes too light and I prefer to use lead tape than put hot melt in it because I know exactly where the weight is.”
Why lead tape cost Matt Fitzpatrick in 2024
While it can be useful for golfers to experiment with the use of tape and weights in their golf clubs, it’s important to remove such things if it’s not working.
For Matt Fitzpatrick, this is something he fell foul of in 2024 as an oversight with his driver cost him dearly.
Fitzpatrick had his club re-gripped and remarkably, whoever did it managed to overdo the weight and tape and put the driver over the normal weight by a few grams. This led to a miserable run of form for the Englishman, who was baffled by his sudden lack of ability off the tee.
Eventually, Fitzpatrick found the reason and was able to laugh it off.
“I needed a re-grip of the driver. The grip was so worn, it was like a training grip. He [grip fitter] put a little bit too much tape on, so it just bulked up the length, so it was too long. I took it to Titleist, they regripped it for me and they’re like, ‘oh, you know there’s a weight in there’, and I almost had a heart attack,” he revealed at the time.
Opening up further on the change and if it helped him, ‘Fitzy’ explained the immediate impact.
“100 per cent,” Fitzpatrick explained. “As soon as I came out and hit the next day, it felt night and day. I could hit it as hard as I want and it wouldn’t go left. Previously, I felt like I hit it hard and it would just go straight left.”
“Drove it [Thursday] like I feel like I can drive it. To me it felt a bit more like my old self, drove the ball well, putted well, and that’s kind of always been the key to when I’ve played well really.”
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