Patrick Reed explains why he adds lead tape to his golf clubs before every event

“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 to 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.”

Matt Fitzpatrick’s 2024 lead tape issue

Experimenting with tape and weights can be useful for golfers, but it’s important to recognise when they’re not having the desired effect.

In 2024, Matt Fitzpatrick ran into exactly that problem after an issue with his driver went unnoticed.

After a re-grip, extra tape and weight were added to his driver. The club ended up heavier by a few grams, which threw off his performance. Fitzpatrick went through a difficult stretch of play without realising the change was the root cause.

Once he discovered what had happened, he was able to see the lighter side of it.

“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.

He later spoke about how getting back to normal setup made an immediate difference in his game.

“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.”