Broncos’ Wide Receiver Courtland Sutton Nets More Yards

All it took was a club fitting with True Spec.

By Kim McHugh

If you’re a Pro Bowl receiver for the Denver Broncos, accumulating 300 bruising yards on a football field can be far easier than covering that same distance with one swing of a golf club.

But for Courtland Sutton—the fourth-year player who missed all but one game last season with a torn ACL—consistently squaring up his driver has proven more challenging than catching slants over the middle.

In golf, the right equipment can help. The 25-year-old Sutton can drive the ball a not-too-shabby 265 yards and averages a respectable 190 yards with his 6-iron. But if the drives slice right and the iron shots squib off the green, what’s the fix?

To find out, Sutton sought out the wisdom of Marc Roybal, a master club fitter from Scottsdale-headquartered True Spec Golf, at the Ridge at Castle Pines North.

Irons Man

Roybal spent 90 minutes with Sutton looking to make game-changing adjustments to the wide receiver’s rounds.

“It would be nice if I could money every second shot and put it on the green but realistically that’s not what’s happening right now,” Sutton said. “So, if I can get it close and give myself a nice 60-yard, 50-yard chip up, I’ll take that.”

After a brief warmup, Sutton listened intently as Roybal asked questions about his game. How many rounds did he play in a year? What was his scoring average? Had he ever taken golf lessons? What was the flight of his shots? Had he ever been fitted for clubs? Did his approach shots stick on the green or roll off? Was he taking big divots or hardly any?

Based on Sutton’s answers, Roybal selected iron heads from various manufacturers, first affixing a TaylorMade SIM2 Max to a standard length, regular flex, steel shaft. Sutton struck a half dozen balls.

For the next hour, Roybal traded out heads, attaching a Callaway Apex DCB, a PING G425, a Srixon ZX4, a Miura PI-401, a Titleist T300 and a Mizuno JPX921 respectively.

He also traded out shafts, including using a NP Modus 130, whose stiff midsection and softer tip is intended to produce straighter shots with a higher ball flight trajectory—attributes Roybal was hoping to add to Sutton’s toolbox.

After each ball striking rotation, Roybal brought his client over to a laptop synced to a TrackMan camera/radar tracking system, indicating specifics of how each club head performed.

“Your clubhead speed is 93 miles an hour and you’re averaging 119 miles per hour ball speed,” explained Roybal. “Your peak height is 74 feet but if we could get it into the 90s that would be significant.”

Sutton was schooled on copious data points—loft, dynamic lie angle, ball speed retention, smash factor, attack angle, launch and spin rate, clubface path and total on the rollout—absorbing the intel with enthusiasm.

Drive Time

With the irons exploration completed, the two moved to the driver with Roybal repeating a similar ball-striking rotation. First up was the TaylorMade SIM2 Max with a Fujikura Ventus Velocore graphite firm flex shaft. That was followed by the PING G425, the Callaway Epic Max and the Titleist TS12, with the master fitter occasionally swapping out shafts for the stiff and extra-stiff options.

When the session finished, Sutton was pumped about the numbers. On average, he added eight yards and seven feet of height to his 6-iron shots. He increased the peak height of his drives from 82 feet to 118 feet, typically tacking on 20 yards for an average carry of 276 yards, though several rocketed even further.

“I can take it every day and twice on Sunday,” he commented. “I learned more about golf today than in the two years I’ve been playing.”

The cost for a fitting of 14 clubs without putter is $350; with putter the cost is $450. https://truespecgolf.com/ 844-729-8809

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