NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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A year ago, Tommy Fleetwood won his first PGA Tour event and simultaneously claimed the FedEx Cup using a TaylorMade Spider Tour Black putter with alignment lines drawn across the front of the crown with a Sharpie.
This year he was back at East Lake with a different Spider Tour V putter with 11 full-length laser-etched alignment lines spanning the crown.
Fleetwood’s Tour V has a slightly longer blade length and a more forward center of gravity than the other Spider models, making it suitable for arcing strokes like the one Fleetwood had for years using a blade putter.
Tommy Fleetwood put his new TaylorMade Spider Tour V putter in play at East Lake.
Andrew J. Clark, ISI Photos via Getty Images
“The CG for him specifically this week is more of like a feel thing,” TaylorMade tour rep James Holley said on the practice putting green at East Lake. “If the CG is a little bit closer to the face, it hits a little bit more of like a thump and a little bit different feel off the putter.”
Holley said that Fleetwood prefers the crowded collection of alignment lines to give him a track to set up with as opposed to a point: “Anytime you give him one singular long line, for instance, or one small line, he kind of struggles a little bit.”
Scottie Scheffler has officially settled into life with his new TaylorMade Qi4D driver after finally making the switch at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, which he won by eight strokes thanks largely to the best putting performance of his career.
But the new driver played a big role, too, as he finished the tournament 11th in strokes gained off the tee and hit 11 of 14 fairways in his course-record 61 in the second round.
What took him so long to make the switch despite immediately seeing gains with the club when he first tried it out last fall in the Bahamas? Well, because not every box was ticked before Scheffler was willing to put the new club in play. TaylorMade had to perfect the build on every detail from the four adjustable weights to making it suit Scheffler’s discerning eye at address.
“From the beginning, Scottie told us that Qi4D has been faster and it holds the spin better than his previous driver,” said Adrian Rietveld, TaylorMade’s director of global tour operations. “Since then, we have worked relentlessly based off his feedback to give him a driver that perfects every performance variable that is unique to him. To his core, Scottie is a shotmaker and the look and speed of the driver he won with [in Memphis] enabled him to be exactly that off the tee.”
Cameron Young gamed a new experimental Scotty Cameron 10.5 putter head similar to the 9.5R he’s won with three times. He first tried the 10.5 with its aluminum insert during the Travelers. He also switched to a 16.5-degree Titleist GTS3 3-wood with more spin to handle East Lake.
Chris Gotterup added Bridgestone’s Japan-only B Forged 100 CB irons for a little added forgiveness at East Lake.
Scott Michaux
