NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Johnny Miller used to derisively call the Masters the “annual spring putting contest,” and there’s no doubt that putting is a pretty important element at Augusta National.
In the Masters two weeks ago, the greens got very firm and speedy thanks to steady winds and consistent sunshine that dominated all four days after a brief weather delay before play started. It was no place for someone to be uncomfortable with his putter.
Collin Morikawa was uncomfortable with the putter he used in practice rounds and the Par 3 Contest after he started with it in the first round late Thursday. He concluded the suspended round on Friday morning, shooting 71, using the same TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallet with which he began. But when he turned around less than an hour later to play his second round, Morikawa had a familiar old blade putter in his bag.
“I came into this week not putting well or not feeling comfortable with the putter that I had in my hands,” Morikawa said. “Went full 180, switched to the mallet, switched to the Spider, and was feeling great, to be honest. I felt really, really good. Felt better than I’ve kind of felt all year.
“But sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to feel in the tournament. Through that Thursday and then Friday morning round, it was just for me to finish the round, like I just wanted to get the putter out of my hands because I couldn’t get comfortable with it.”
The Spider Tour X, equipped with a short plumber’s neck, that Morikawa started using was the same style used by Scottie Scheffler to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship and Masters. It’s very different, however, from the blade putters Morikawa had long been using, making the switch at Augusta pretty curious.
Morikawa used the TaylorMade TP Soto blade-style putter throughout 2023 and the start of 2024. He switched to a new Logan Olson prototype blade at Bay Hill, Sawgrass and the Valero Texas Open before putting the mallet in his bag when he arrived at Augusta.
For the last three rounds at Augusta National, Morikawa went back to his trusty old TaylorMade TP Soto.
“Thankfully I had a backup, something … a copy of what I’ve putted with in the past, pretty much the past year and a half,” he said of the quick change between rounds. “Felt like old times, and nice to have that in the bag again.”
After the switch, Morikawa shot 2-under 70 on a very challenging Friday and was one of only two players to break 70 in Saturday’s third round. He played his way into the final pairing with Scheffler and eventually finished a career-best tied for third at the Masters, having his hopes undone by double bogeys on 9 and 11 Sunday that had nothing to do with the putter.
“Look, none of my putts were dropping on the first … seven holes today,” he said. “If I had two or three of those putts drop – I thought I was hitting good putts, and I thought at one point they’d start dropping, and they didn’t. If I make a couple of those, it changes a lot of things. Who knows how the ending would have finished out, but that’s just what you have to do when you’re in a final round at a major championship starting the day one back.
“In the past I’ve made these putts, and today they just didn’t go in. Unfortunately, made two doubles, and you can’t play with two doubles especially against someone who’s not making mistakes.”
Scott Michaux