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The title sounds like clickbait, but it’s completely accurate. Matt Fitzpatrick, US Open champion and last week’s winner in Harbor Town, requires a total of six permanent markers — that’s not a typo — to mark each. Telesit Pro V1x Ball in his bag.
Exaggerated? maybe. In Fitzpatrick’s case, the goal is to make his ball stand out for a good cause.
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As the 2023 RBC Heritage winner shared in a recent video on Titleist’s Instagram account, the multicolored marks began during his teenage years when he incurred a penalty for accidentally playing the wrong ball during an inning.
Then my father told me [for playing the wrong ball]Fitzpatrick said. “Obviously I didn’t want to do that again, so here we are with six different colors to mark my golf ball.”
Fitzpatrick, who is 28, has been using this tagging method since he was 14 years old. He freely admits that this process “takes some serious time,” which should come as no surprise.
Here’s a detailed look at how each of his balls is marked:
Dark green alignment line
Fitzpatrick begins by using a golf ball line tracer to mark the side of the non-side stamp, for alignment purposes, with a dark green marker. This is the opposite of what most players do – a side character tends to receive the prescribed treatment – but he’s a Fitzpatrick ball, so he can do whatever he wants. More on this quirk in just a minute.
Green, red, blue and dark red dots
From there, Fitzpatrick uses bright green, red, blue, and dark red markers to fill in four dimples around the Titleist logo and play number. He hasten to point out that he does not mark each ball individually in six different colours, but instead uses one color for each ball in the bag, then moves on to the next until the process is complete for all the balls.
Initials and handwriting
Now, we get to the most interesting of the process. Rather than using a tracker ball to mark through the side stamp, Fitzpatrick prefers to go free and cross out the Pro V1x with a black marker. From there, he adds one of his initials to either side of the side stamp. (My obsessive-compulsive disorder flares up when I look at “The Line”).
And there he is! Fitzpatrick is ready to compete with the most colorful ball on the PGA Tour. Marking up dozens of balls takes time, but if it keeps Fitzpatrick from wondering if he’s playing the right ball in the heat of competition, the process is worth it.
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