Charley Hull Makes Driver Change Ahead Of Ford Championship 63

Charley Hull shot her lowest ever LPGA Tour round on day one of the Ford Championship, where she carded a bogey-free, nine-under-par 63 to take the early lead.

The Englishwoman makes her first LPGA Tour start since the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore at the start of the month, and she is doing so with a new piece of equipment in the bag.

Hull, who is a TaylorMade staffer, was still in the brand's 2024 Qi10 LS model up until this week but has now switched into the new Qi35.

The World No.10 made the move to the Qi35 LS driver for the Ford Championship, still fitted with her UST Mamiya Attas 6Star 6 X shaft, after working with TaylorMade's Adrian Rietveld earlier in the week.

"I kind of tweaked my driver at the beginning of the week. I had Adrian from TaylorMade here and we was working on that, the new driver, and I really, really, really hit it well today," she said.

"I felt like that put me in a lot of good positions."

Hull's best ever LPGA round featured 11/14 fairways found with an average driving distance of 287 yards. It helped her hit all 18 greens in regulation, where she needed just 28 putts.

She is one of few TaylorMade players in the new model, alongside the likes of Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood.

Rory McIlroy used the Qi35 for the first three rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational before switching back for the final round. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler also still has the Qi10 in the bag.

"Some years you vibe with a new piece of equipment a little easier. Like that Qi10 that I'm using that they brought out last year, it was like love at first sight," McIlroy said of his driver at The Players Championship.

"I was like, 'this thing is amazing.' I think when you feel like that about a golf club, it's very hard to change into something else."