There was something different about Jordan Spieth’s game during the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic. One constant of his short professional career was missing.
Spieth had benched, at least for the time being, his rusty Scotty Cameron 009 Prototype putter that has been in the bag for all nine of his PGA Tour victories. Replaced by a Scotty Cameron T5W Tour mallet, fitted with his preferred SuperStroke Flatso grip.
While equipment changes are nothing new on the PGA Tour or indeed for any golfer in the world looking for an edge over the competition, this change is significant due to Spieth’s reputation as one of the best in the world using the same flatstick that he has used since his days as a junior.
“I've got a putter I've worn out for a number of years and it helps me line up a bit better, this one right now, and that's kind of been my struggle is lining the putter up where I want to,” Spieth said after his opening round 68 on Thursday.
While this isn’t the first time Spieth has made a putter change and as the Texan himself noted, “It's not really that big of a deal and every guy switches putters every single week. It's nothing new. Just a new look for me for the time being,” Spieth’s putter of choice displays a common occurrence that takes place on tours around the world every week…players imitating the success of others.
The model of putter Spieth put in play is a mallet style putter featuring a slant, or flow neck, which gives the mallet head more toe hang, allowing an easier transition for blade putter users who open and close the putter head. Spieth’s new putter is remarkably similar to the Scotty Cameron used by good friend Justin Thomas, who went on a tear earlier in 2017, after a putter switch late last year.
Spieth and Thomas both favour slant neck mallets from Scotty Cameron, while Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm and many others currently use a TaylorMade Spider putter with a very similar neck and Day is where the recent trend begun, with his lights out putting of 2016 causing other players to request that TaylorMade make them a similar putter.
World No.1 Johnson explained it best when he said of his putter change last year, “it's a smaller Spider, the same one Jason Day uses. I played with him the last two weeks and saw him make enough putts and I was like, well, I got to try one at least.”
This putter trend isn’t the first and most certainly won’t be the last time where players have made equipment choices based on the success of others.
In the days before the anchoring ban, belly and long putters were everywhere on Tour, thanks in part to Keegan Bradley’s breakthrough major success anchoring his Odyssey putter, causing an epidemic of copy cats, included amongst them Phil Mickelson. Mickelson had Odyssey make him an exact replica of Bradley’s Sabertooth Belly putter after been impressed by Bradley’s putting.
Our own Adam Scott wielded an oversized Lamkin Flat Cat putter grip on his Scotty Cameron at The Players last week, just weeks after friend and fellow claw grip user Justin Rose nearly claimed The Masters with the very same grip.
Tournament professionals it seems will look to try any piece of equipment which may give them an advantage within the rules to be certain they aren’t left behind. All it takes is a little success from another player to pique the interest of his colleagues, resulting in a call to the equipment company with a request of “can you make me what he has?”
So don’t be self-conscious when you walk into the pro shop and ask to try the same driver your friend just bought and now can’t miss a fairway with, because it seems it even happens to the best of us.
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