Rickie Fowler, who once led the PGA Tour in strokes gained: putting (2016-17), currently ranks 184th in the same category. It’s no secret: Fowler hasn’t been putting up to his standards. In his first 12 events of the 2021-22 season, Fowler has finished inside the top 40 in just one event – a T3 at the 2021 CJ Cup – and missed the cut six times.

He’s not just sitting idly by and trying to get different results from the same approach, however. Fowler has been making frequent equipment changes to better suit his game and preferences.

In his latest changes ahead of the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship, Fowler went back to his familiar KBS Tour C-Taper 125 S+ shafts in his irons, and he’s put a brand new Cobra King Stingray 20 prototype putter in the bag.

On Wednesday before the Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Fowler to get his takes on the new changes. Here’s what he had to say…

On going back to KBS Tour C-Taper iron shafts

Back in January 2021, Fowler switched into Mitsubishi’s MMT graphite iron shafts to help reduce spin and gain stability. Now, in May 2022, Fowler is switching back into KBS Tour C-Taper shafts that he played for years prior to switching into the MMT shafts.

On Wednesday, he explained why.

“Obviously [the shafts are something] that I’ve had plenty of success with in the past,” Fowler told GolfWRX. “I went to the (Mitsubishi) MMTs because I saw it was helping get spin down. Now, (with my swing) being back in a better delivery spot, I was almost too low on the spin spectrum.

“The C-Tapers help get me back to where I want spin to be at. And yeah, I can manipulate loft and stuff like that to get spin where I want and all that, but like I said, something I’ve had success with, know it works, so yeah, I’m just in a good spot right now equipment wise. Not that we were in the wrong spot by any means. The MMTs did what I wanted originally. As things continued to get better, I was looking to add a little bit of spin.”

On his new Cobra King Stingray 20 proto putter

Fowler’s Cobra King Stingray putter also has a different face on it compared to the retail model. It has a solid construction, rather than the retail insert.

Fowler, a longtime Scotty Cameron user, has been experimenting with a number of different putter styles and brands in the last few months and years. In 2021, Fowler used a Cobra putter for the first time in his PGA Tour career, and most recently, he’s been using a TaylorMade Spider GT putter.

This week at the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship, though, he showed up with a custom Cobra 3D-printed Stingray 20 that’s a bit different than the retail model. Can you spot the difference?

Here’s what Fowler had to say about the new flatstick:

“I was messing with the Spider for a bit, which has rolled great. One, I liked the stability part. Two, it was easy to line up. Everything was matching up well. I feel like I was in a spot where I was just struggling to trust where I was lined up, and trusting that it was going to start there. So just making better strokes.

“Then with the Stingray, the one that’s in line has some wings on it. So we made one without those just to condense it a little bit and make it a little more…I don’t like having too much weight in the rear. A lot of mallets, you get weight in the back, where I feel like I’m kind of dragging a lot of times if it’s not a face balanced putter, the face will swing open and I feel like it kind of stays there. So that was the reasoning taking those off. There is a touch of toe hang on it, just to where there is a little bit of swing. The guys at Cobra were able to make that up, and I spent the last two weeks with it at home…

“A little touch up. They’re 3D printed, so that’s what’s nice with a lot of that, and the technology where we’re able to make little tweaks. Instead of having to make a completely new head, they can put that data in and print it up.”

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