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Jason Dufner gives away his putter, putts with a 3 wood

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If you check out Jason Dufner’s WITB you’ll see a putter, but he didn’t end the 2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational with one in the bag.

According to reports, Dufner gave away his Scotty Cameron Futura X5r putter to a young fan on hole No. 10 on Sunday, meaning he had to play nearly the entire back nine without a putter. He finished T66 for the week, so it didn’t exactly cost him his fourth PGA Tour win. Tournament statistics show that he finished 69th in putting average for the week out of the 72 players that finished the event.

Shane Ryan from Grantland.com spoke with Dufner following the round to confirm:

“Jason,” Ryan said, “I heard a story that you gave your putter away to a kid yesterday. I wanted to make sure it was true.”

“Yup.” Dufner said.

“Was that on No. 12?” Ryan asked.

“Ten.” Dufner answered.

“What did you putt with?” Ryan asked.

“3 wood.” Dufner answered.

Not a ravishing conversational exchange, but we get the point. He was frustrated on the greens, was putting terrible and instead of snapping the putter he decided to make one of his fans very happy. Actually, not a bad move on Dufner’s part.

He shot a final-round 77 after starting with a 4-over par 39. Not too bad considering his “putter” for the last eight holes had about 15 degrees of loft.

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He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

25 Comments

25 Comments

  1. KCCO

    Aug 18, 2015 at 9:49 pm

    Classy dude….rather then literally voice frustration, just handing a putter over to a lucky kid, made someone’s day, didn’t make a poor example and WD/Quit.

  2. Enrique

    Aug 4, 2014 at 11:44 pm

    Love the guy. Just a plain dude telling it like it is.

  3. nikkyd

    Aug 4, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Thats classy. I alsways though he was arrogant and cocky until his interview with david feherty. It just turns out that hes really awkward and shy

  4. Greg

    Aug 4, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    Man thats awesome, Dufner can’t even imagine what he did for that kid. I’ve thought about snapping mine over my knee many times.

  5. Rich

    Aug 4, 2014 at 8:41 pm

    The only option for him to not see it again I’d say. Don’t think he could snap a club across his knee like Stenson did at the open – actually, doesn’t look like he could snap a club at all. Don’t think Duf is much of a gym junky. Must be doing something right with a wife as pretty as Amanda. Good luck to him.

    • MHendon

      Aug 5, 2014 at 1:02 am

      Doesn’t take much to snap a shaft.

      • Rich

        Aug 5, 2014 at 1:25 am

        Still don’t think he could. Actually he probably couldn’t be bothered even if he actually could.

    • Jack F

      Aug 6, 2014 at 5:41 pm

      If Woody Austin can break one with his head, I think Dufner would have no problem

  6. ams165

    Aug 4, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    I wonder what Mr. Cameron thinks about him giving away a Hand Made.

    Hopefully the kids father isn’t a Club Cameron Member.

    But very cool nonetheless…..

  7. EJ

    Aug 4, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    Time for Dufner to hit an Odyssey. Come over to the dark side.

  8. Mike

    Aug 4, 2014 at 5:23 pm

    What’s this cut thing you referred to during a WGC event?

  9. MHendon

    Aug 4, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    Due to the positive reaction this is getting we’ll start seeing other players do it, guaranteed.

  10. tom frogley

    Aug 4, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    What a top bloke! I’m sure all he wanted to do was snap that thing over his knee…. But giving it to a kid in the crowd .. thats classy. He may have had a rough day, but for that kid it probably made his summer!

  11. golfing

    Aug 4, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    Great to see they are not machines, they have feelings to, and some
    deal with it like a Sir, I´m a new Dufner fan to.

  12. Dakota

    Aug 4, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    That kid needs to put with that thing the rest of his life, the story alone is awesome probably the only time a professional golfer will give a putter away in the middle of a round.

    • C web

      Aug 4, 2014 at 3:02 pm

      If Tiger gave away his driver it would be an even bigger story:
      1. He would score better
      2. There’s a chance a happy Golfwrx ‘er finally gets his hands on one of those ellusive nike prototype drivers

      • Robeli

        Aug 4, 2014 at 4:01 pm

        Maybe it’s the Nike driver that’s crap.

        • MHendon

          Aug 4, 2014 at 4:30 pm

          Another Nike hater.

        • Eric

          Aug 4, 2014 at 4:48 pm

          Rory seems to be doing pretty well with his Nike driver.

        • bradford

          Aug 6, 2014 at 8:02 am

          …or maybe his driver stats were never really that good to begin with?

  13. Bacon

    Aug 4, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    Awesome!

  14. C web

    Aug 4, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    Did he belly it ? Or Kuchar’d it ? He is not that tall, guess he could have even broomsticked it

    • MHendon

      Aug 4, 2014 at 4:32 pm

      Broomsticked it, come on man he’d have to be like 4’11”. He’s not that short.

      • C web

        Aug 4, 2014 at 11:14 pm

        He could have broomsticked it table top style

  15. Nick

    Aug 4, 2014 at 2:03 pm

    Dufner is one cool dude.

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Whats in the Bag

Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)

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Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX

Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4

More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.

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Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird

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With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.

On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.

Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?

Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’

So that’s why I went back.

 

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A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?

It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.

Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.

It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.

Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.

Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.

So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?

Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play? 

Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.

There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.

It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.

Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.

And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?

Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’

If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’

My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’

I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”

And you’re going with it this week?

Hundred percent.

Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week. 

Thanks, man.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

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