NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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In his seven completed PGA Tour seasons, Justin Thomas has ranked outside the top 90 in strokes gained putting five times. He had a strong stretch from the fall of 2016 through the summer of 2018 when he jumped into the good-but-not-great section of putters on tour, but his putting has been a relative liability throughout his career.
Despite those struggles, we haven’t seen much putter juggling from J.T. over the years. He started his pro career with a classic Scotty Cameron Newport 2 blade-style putter, winning his first tour event with the club, but the Scotty Cameron X5 dual-winged mallet he debuted in the summer of 2016 would be with him for his next 13 tour victories.
That trusty putter was not in the bag in his recent PGA Championship triumph. The story behind that goes back to last year’s Open Championship when Thomas used a Scotty Cameron T5, a very similar putter that had an extended plumber’s-neck hosel rather than a short slant neck he had been using. A plumber’s neck is essentially an offset, so the putter head is slightly “behind” the shaft and helps the face close more at impact. The custom hosel was crafted using a special knuckle construction, which is a piece of shaft that connects the bottom of the hosel to the top portion and allows for the neck to be elongated without adding unnecessary weight. It took roughly a full day to weld the neck, cut the shaft and sandblast the knuckle.
Thomas used the new putter only for that one major championship week last year, but he gave the Scotty Cameron team feedback. Namely, he thought the sound coming off the putter was too hollow.
He went back to his old wand throughout last year and the start of this year until this month at the AT&T Byron Nelson when he felt compelled to give the new and improved putter – now called the Scotty Cameron X5 Tour prototype – a chance in action. An aluminum plate was added in the putter’s cavity back to change the sound, and several other minor details were tweaked, including the face having smoother milling marks than before. The putter also features slightly less toe hang.
Thomas finished 20th in strokes gained putting at the Byron Nelson, which convinced him to continue with the adjusted putter going into the PGA Championship. That decision worked out swimmingly, as Thomas was second in strokes gained putting among players who made the cut. That was statistically his best skill of the week, and there is little chance he would have won the tournament with one of his typical putting weeks.
“I would definitely say, mechanically and as a whole, my putting won me this golf tournament this week in many ways,” Thomas said after his victory, the 15th of his career. “You had to have a complete game. So there were all facets working at different times. But yeah, I made some very, very key putts today. That’s a big reason why I’m here.”
If Thomas could ever consistently find himself within the top 50 putters on the PGA Tour, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. He has gone five consecutive seasons finishing within the top three of strokes gained tee-to-green – you could easily argue he is the most consistent ball striker on tour – so it really comes down to the success he can have on the greens. If this new putter provides an answer, Thomas could potentially be in for a year like his five-win campaign of 2017.
Sean Fairholm