Justin Thomas’ new putter takes a page from Cam Young

Out on the PGA Tour, when one player starts to have success with something, it doesn’t take long for others to take notice and try it for themselves.

Specifically, putters catch fire more often than other clubs.

In recent years, the Jailbird craze of 2023 is an obvious example, with Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley all winniung with Jailbird Cruisers in the span of two months. This year, hordes of pros have flocked to TaylorMade’s Spider putters after the boatloads of wins by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

Now, Cam Young’s Phantom 9.5R has the potential to be the next hot putter.

This week, Justin Thomas made a switch to an essential copy of the putter after Young won the Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship over the past month and a half.

It’s Thomas’ second switch in a month after he benched his Phantom 5.5 gamer midway through the RBC Heritage last month and played well on the weekend using a backup Newport 2 GSS blade.

He continued using that putter last week, but at Quail Hollow, he wanted to find something that would stick long term. He had worked himself nearly back to 0 strokes gained: putting after a disastrous start to his season at Bay Hill, before a rough opening two rounds at Harbour Town. He lost strokes with the blade last week in Miami.

“Some of it is just calibration. … some of it is just, he, you know, the potential of making good putts but not seeing anything go in type of thing,” Scotty Cameron Tour Rep Brad Cloke told GOLF. “It just seemed like he kind of wanted to start a little bit from scratch this week.”

So he asked for a couple of new putters, including some 9.2Rs, a shape he used previously, and a copy of Cam Young’s 9.5R.

“I literally texted Cameron’s guys and said, ‘Just give me Cam’s putter,’” Thomas said Friday, who played with Young the first two days.

Not an uncommon request.

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“Obviously, with the success that Cam is having … these guys are as they see success and they want to see what it’s all about potentially,” Cloke said.

In addition to having a low-bend shaft that mimics the look and toe hang of a jet neck, Thomas’s 5.5 also has smooth face milling that makes it a bit louder-sounding and firmer.

His new putter matches Young’s so it has mid-milled face, but he’s actually preferred the milling on the new 9.5R.

“It was more so of like, ‘Hey, this is different, but I’m kind of liking it,’” Cloke said. “The comment that I heard from him was about feel, but it was more so like, ‘I’m actually surprised I like the way this feels.’”

While the putter is Thomas’ spec length and has his grip, it has the same graphite shaft Young uses and a full-length sight line. Thomas found that made it super easy to line up.

“It’s just so hard to putt well if you don’t have confidence, and so hard to have confidence unless you’re seeing it go in more often,” Thomas said. “So I really, really worked hard Monday through Wednesday on my speed and start line and everything to where I just felt like I was in a better place and more freed up when I was putting.”

Through two rounds, it’s been highly successful as Thomas sits at seven under going into the weekend and is gaining nearly three strokes on the field, good for top 10 in the stat.

Sahith Theegala’s newest putter wasn’t random, finally

While the biggest story in Ping putters was Tony Finau’s bizarre technique with a prototype Oslo Onset long putter early in the week, he ended up going back to the Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset he switched to in February.

In fact, Ping’s Ally Blue headshape had a solid week, earning two high-profile conversions, one so surprising Ping Tour Rep Kenton Oates didn’t even take it seriously.

Sahith Theegala, who, as we profiled in Bag Spy this week, loves to practice with random putters every week on the PGA Tour before returning to his longtime Anser gamer, was losing a putting contest on the practice green using an Ally Blue H when Oates hollered over for him to try his gamer.

“He goes, ‘This is what I used Sunday of Cadillac,’” Oates said. “And I go, ‘What? 
He goes, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to use it on Thursday.’”

Theegala followed through on Thursday in the first round of the Truist Championship and kept it in the bag for Friday as well.

Turns out, this wasn’t another random practice putter for Theegala; this is something he worked on with Ping Principal Design Engineer Tony Serrano. He’s actually had the putter for over a year.

Theegala started working on a mallet putter with Serrano, feeling like he could gain forgiveness over his Anser blade.

“The key thing for him is, he has a certain stroke, a certain rotation in his stroke that requires something with some toe down,” Serrano said. “He’s always played an Anser 2 that hang at that 40 or 42 degrees that work perfectly for his stroke.”

PING Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset Custom Putter

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The Ally Blue H has the same plumber’s neck hosel Theegala is used to and similar CG and toe hang properties, making it a more natural transition.

At the RSM Classic last November, Serrano and Theegala spent lots of time with a Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue H, but it was the PLD Milled version that ended up going in the bag. Theegala ended up putting a counterbalance grip on it as well, but Serrano didn’t know when or why he added that himself.

A new Ally Blue H is also in the bag of Kristoffer Reitan as the PGA Tour rookie finds himself three off the lead heading into the weekend.

Reitan’s PLD Milled Ally Blue H is virtually identical to the Scottsdale Tec version, complete with the aluminum head, steel sole plate and PEBAX insert. But it was made from scratch to have an uninterrupted sight line.

After visiting Ping’s PLD Putting Lab in February, the Ping team discovered that Reitan needed a putter with more toe hang than the face-balanced model he was using. He loved the Scottsdale TEC feel and visual with the white head, but just wanted a full sight line.

Serrano said it was simply easier to make him a new PLD head than repurpose an existing Scottsdale TEC.

Rory McIlroy returns to Qi4D 3-wood

In his first event back since winning his second green jacket, Rory McIlroy changed the one club he switched out for his his big Masters win.

After using a Qi4D fairway wood since November, McIlroy went back to his Qi10 3-wood for the Masters, and promptly won his fifth straight major for the club.

But that turns out to be a short-term reversion for McIlroy as he’s back in a Qi4D 3-wood at Quail Hollow, where he’s won four times.

McIlroy said on Wednesday the switch was made because his Qi4D had a bit of a left miss.

“I had been using the 4D 3-wood at the start of the season. I noticed that it just had a little bit of a left bias in it,” McIlroy said. “So I went back to an old Qi10 for a while. But that wasn’t, it really wasn’t spinning enough. It’s more like a mini driver than a 3-wood.”

McIlroy actually said that kind of club could be useful at the Memorial, seemingly teasing he’ll use it at Muirfield Village next month, but for this week at Quail Hollow and next week at the PGA Championship, he wanted something with a bit more spin.

He started working on a new 3-wood with the TaylorMade team.

TaylorMade Qi4D Custom Fairway Wood

PROVEN RECIPE

TaylorMade Fairways have dominated on Tour for over a decade because of their unique performance recipe, which enables maximum distance and versatility.
The Qi4D fairway is designed for golfers who want the most advanced technology while still prioritizing versatility and control with amazing distance.

ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE

Utilizing a single Trajectory Adjustment System weight (8g x1) provides the golfer a more mass efficient way to adjust flight, spin and swing weight.
4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight and is available in all lofts.

REFINED ATTRIBUTES, BIG CHANGES

Engineers conducted an objective analysis of all the performance attributes and discovered new methods to enhance performance and confidence.
Sit points, lie angles, address views, and center of gravity locations were all updated based on Tour feedback and the expertise of leading fitters worldwide, ensuring the optimal fairway across skill levels.

TOUR-PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES

New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket™ protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes.
Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation for TaylorMade fairway performance.
Twist Face™ features corrective face curvature designed to provide straighter shots on mishits.
Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to maximize performance by increasing discretionary weight.

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“Post-Augusta we went back and looked at the data and he was actually getting center strikes that were drawing too much,” TaylorMade Tour rep Keith Sbarbaro said. “So the club was acting like he was toeing it. It was kind of gear-affecting left.
 
“So what we did is we moved the CG a little more toward the toe to try and square that up. The other thing he was getting some under-spinning shots that were knuckling a little bit.”

With the new 3-wood, Sbarbaro said McIlroy hit eight shots that all spun between 3,100 and 3,300 RPM and flew right on target. That’ll do!

Check this out

This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Justin Thomas’ 10-plus-year old Titleist 915Fd 5-wood.

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Reitan also has a new Ping G440 K driver with a Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro White shaft. … Titleist launched the GTS300 Mini Driver on the PGA Tour this week, with the name suggesting it’s larger than its predecessor. … Brooks Koepka began his post-Srixon era with a new Grove XXIII staff bag and set of Vokey SM11 wedges, along with a rare WedgeWorks 60B Lob Wedge. … Lucas Glover added new GTS2 15.0 and 21.0 fairway woods. … Five players added new TaylorMade Qi4D fairways: Nico Echavarria (Qi4D 3-wood), Jason Day (Qi4D 9-wood), Robert MacIntyre (Qi4D 7-wood), Denny McCarthy (Qi4D Tour 3-wood) and Matt Wallace (Qi4D 7-wood) … McCarthy also switched to a Spider Tour X L-neck.