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Adam Scott Leads Nelson

Adam Scott birdied two of the last three holes to finish three shots ahead of the field at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. His 67 left Kevin Sutherland (67), Bart Bryant (67), Charley Hoffman (68) and Ryan Moore (68) looking up hoping Mr. Scott doesn’t run away and hide on Sunday. “I came here to get in contention and win a golf tournament,” said Scott, who stayed home only a week after the Masters. “I feel like I’ve been playing well this year and haven’t quite done it. So I’m kind of pushing myself a little bit to do that.”

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Adam Scott birdied two of the last three holes to finish three shots ahead of the field at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

His 67 left Kevin Sutherland (67), Bart Bryant (67), Charley Hoffman (68) and Ryan Moore (68) looking up hoping Mr. Scott doesn’t run away and hide on Sunday.  “I came here to get in contention and win a golf tournament,” said Scott, who stayed home only a week after the Masters. “I feel like I’ve been playing well this year and haven’t quite done it. So I’m kind of pushing myself a little bit to do that.”  Perhaps the tenth ranked golfer in the world has decided having a roomful of potential applies to a lot of guys selling cars or insurance rather than himself, so he’d better play more like a world class player rather than somebody’s ringer scramble partner.

Or maybe he’ll just play like 2006, close with a 71 and meekly finish third.  “I’ve got something to prove,” Scott said, recalling 2006. “I’d like to play how I have the last couple of days, just in a nice rhythm.”  Doesn’t really sound like a guy willing to settle for a third place finish to me.  

Mr. Sutherland played really well for most of the day, until he bogeyed the last two holes.  “I hit the ball terrific. The first 14 holes, I really didn’t miss a shot,” Sutherland said. “It would be a little different if I bogeyed the first two holes and birdied the last two holes obviously. … Right now, you kind of stew a little bit on it. But (Sunday), I can’t remember it.”  For someone whose only Tour victory came six years ago how easy is it going to be to forget the ending to Saturday when Sunday begins?  My sense is this would be something one would need practice at in order to be successful.  Perhaps he should "misremember" it instead.

Even more interesting is Sergio Garcia shooting 65, his lowest round of the year, with only 27 putts.  Let me say that again, Only 27 putts. Sergio Garcia.  The same Sergio Garcia who spit in the cup, switches putters more often than socks, and makes the nickname Stonehands something that should apply to Mr. Whipple.  Yes that Sergio Garcia may be in the process of learning how to putt.  If that happens, watch out because Mr. Garcia still hits the ball as well as anyone.  Witness that today’s 65 included only 2 hit fairways and realize what happens when he drives the ball decently.  Stay tuned.

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Equipment

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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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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Equipment

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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