News
Looking for a change: What Tiger Woods said about his new TaylorMade putter
The golf equipment world was in a tizzy today when Tiger Woods showed up to the practice green at TPC Potomac with a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Ardmore 3. He put the club in the bag during his Tuesday practice round with Harold Varner III, Billy Hurley, and Rod Pampling, leading many to speculate he could, perhaps, make the switch from his vaunted Excalibur.
Woods told reporters he began practicing with the putter recently.
“I’ve been down in the Bahamas the last week, so I’m really gonna give it a good test today and tomorrow because it’s not Bermuda (greens)… I just want to see how it rolls out here. Put it through its paces.”
Could this really happen? Could he shelve his legendary Scotty Cameron Newport 2?
“I’m trying something out. The way I’ve been putting, I wanted to look for a change. That’s all it is. It rolls good. You never know.”
The way he’s been putting, of course, is not very well. The 14-time major champion is No. 89 in strokes gained: putting this season, and he had a particularly poor performance at the U.S. Open in his most recent action, needing 58 putts across 36 holes.
The Ardmore 3 has 12 degrees of toe hang, so it’s anything but the face balanced putter it might appear to be at first glance.
“It has a little more swing than my (Cameron) putter does. It feels good. I wanted something with more swing than mine…I feel like the toe is moving and swinging. It has a fraction more swing than mine does.”
Woods, who won 13 of his 14 majors with the Cameron, has used a mallet a few times in competition, most notably gaming a Nike mallet at the 2011 Masters.
Woods said he doesn’t feel pressure to put the club in the bag merely because he’s a TaylorMade staffer.
“It’s at my discretion,” Woods said. “If I find something that helps me play better, so be it. If it doesn’t, then it’s not going in the bag.”
Whether he plays the Ardmore 3 in his opening round will be a game-time decision, it sounds like. Woods is paired with Marc Leishman and Bill Haas for the first two rounds. They tee off at 1:20 p.m. ET on Thursday.
- LIKE103
- LEGIT7
- WOW2
- LOL5
- IDHT3
- FLOP5
- OB1
- SHANK17
Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
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.
- LIKE3
- LEGIT0
- WOW0
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
Equipment
Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter
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.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- LIKE25
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL1
- IDHT1
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK0
Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
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.
- LIKE44
- LEGIT11
- WOW3
- LOL4
- IDHT2
- FLOP2
- OB0
- SHANK7
-
19th Hole3 weeks ago
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole3 weeks ago
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
LET pro gives detailed financial breakdown of first week on tour…and the net result may shock you
-
19th Hole4 days ago
Report: LIV star turns down PGA Championship invite due to ‘personal commitments’
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Gary Player claims this is what ‘completely ruined’ Tiger Woods’ career
-
Equipment3 days ago
Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship
-
Whats in the Bag2 weeks ago
Team McIlowry (Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry) winning WITBs: 2024 Zurich Classic
-
Whats in the Bag4 days ago
Keegan Bradley WITB 2024 (May)
TONEY P
Jul 30, 2018 at 3:42 pm
Even Jack changed putters.
gif
Jun 28, 2018 at 12:22 am
Tiger: — “It puttsputtsputts the ball really really gooder… 😛
ogo
Jun 27, 2018 at 4:24 pm
Putting skill is solely contained within the design and style of the putter… because they are made of exotic metals machined to very high tolerances and designed scientifically. It’s the putter, stupid … 😛
Ben Jones
Jun 27, 2018 at 10:44 am
Looks a little beat up. After using a blade style putter, these are like cheating. I switched from a Scotty to one and immediately started holing putts again.
Lee
Jun 26, 2018 at 11:13 pm
That putter has 40* of toe hang since it has the flow neck not the plumber neck.
Phil
Jun 26, 2018 at 9:12 pm
That putter looks so much better than the red one.
Jeff
Jun 26, 2018 at 8:26 pm
“More swing”
Does the Ardmore 3 really have more toe hang than the Newport 2?
The Dude
Jun 27, 2018 at 8:05 pm
sometimes I wonder if Tiger even knows what he is saying….
Bobby
Aug 16, 2018 at 4:39 pm
Yeah it has more toe hang and swing than his Newport 2 because it’s a slant neck ( I play a #9 it’s similar) vs Newport 2 is plumbers neck and just 1/4 toe hang. He can feel the toe more on this as its heavier, hence the “more swing” he is feeling.
John
Jun 26, 2018 at 7:53 pm
His putting has been atrocious, so changing it up a bit may be a good idea. Bench the scotty if necessary and bring it back out once its been in timeout…….Big Tiger fan and if he can get his putting to catch up to his ball striking, I think he will win again (not a major). If he switches to this taylormade putter, wonder how long before he starts playing the taylormade tp ball? The Tour B XS is a good ball, so maybe not, but who knows.
gif
Jun 26, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Ima gonna get one a those TM Ardmores to feeel wat Tiger feeeeels… oooºººh
Lee
Jun 26, 2018 at 7:29 pm
Welcome to Team Headcase TDub. You are this week’s honorary President.