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Has Adam Scott Turned the Corner?

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Last Sunday I turned on coverage of the Byron Nelson and for just a second, I think I saw a gleam of Tiger in Adam Scott’s eyes.

Trust me I’m keeping things in perspective. There’s no way anyone could mistake Adam Scott for Tiger Woods. If Scott can just halve the gap of 13 majors, 58 PGA Tour victories, and almost 70 million in career earnings that separates him and Tiger he will have a Hall of Fame career. But even the mightiest river has to start with a drop of water, and crazy as this might sound I think Adam Scott has shown signs of becoming the player many think he can be.

Adam Scott has earned a reputation as a guy who can’t finish tournaments but in all his victories he’s had a flair for the dramatic. He may not be have had the typical Tiger blowout victory, but he’s shown the ability to sink long putts under the greatest pressure.

Part of the issue is Scott’s sublime long game which outshines his short game. He makes 300 yard drives and 240 yard 4 irons look easy. But around and on the greens his relaxed tempo seems a beat off. I’ll concede that even when he’s on his game, Scott’s short game looks shaky at best. Even Scott recognizes this fault, "I can improve in my short game. No, I don’t have Tiger Woods’ short game or Phil Mickelson’s short game for that matter… I’ve seen such a huge improvement in my short game in the last couple years. I mean, I’d put it up against anyone else day-to-day."

But on the flip side of that coin when the tournament is on the line, Scott appears to have the extra gear other great players do. His final round 61 earlier this year to win the Qatar Masters is perhaps the first sign of his change. He was able to combine some great iron shots with an excellent day on the greens, enough that a round of 59 was a real possibility.

Last weekend Scott proved he could do the opposite as well. He began the final round with the lead, but by the sixteenth hole he was one shot down. Yet that second gear seemed to click on the 17 hole when Scott made par after facing a long, winding putt that had to cross the undulating 17th green. As I watched him line up his putt on 18 to force a playoff I just had a feeling he would make it and he didn’t disappoint. That’s the same feeling I’ve had watching Tiger win at Bay Hill – you stop questioning whether or not he can make it and start trusting in the fact that he will make it.

Scott has that ability. He proved it again on the 48-footer that won him tournament. For just a split second he did his best Tiger impression, from the second the ball left his putter there was no doubt the tournament was over.

Adam Scott has that spark the great ones have. Will he be able to do it week in and week out like Tiger Woods? No, but then again how many golfers can? Round by round, it appears he’s slowly harnessing the talent and potential so many have placed on his young shoulders. You can call him " the best player not to win a major," but that feeling I got Sunday before he sunk the final putt at the Nelson is telling me he won’t have that title for much longer.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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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 Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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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. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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