NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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England’s Tommy Fleetwood capped his year off nicely, pushing his Official World Golf Ranking into single digits for the first time in his long career as a couple of solid performances in the Middle East this month lifted him to No. 9.
His closing kick started with a course-record-tying 10-under 62 in the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links which featured a new TaylorMade putter that Fleetwood himself helped build – a TaylorMade TP Soto Truss TF Prototype with technology fitted for Fleetwood.
“Putted amazing,” Fleetwood said of a round in which he registered more than three strokes gained on the field and ultimately led to a T6 finish. “Beautiful pace control and hit a lot of good putts and started holing them. I worked even all the way through to the last hole. I just hit perfect putts. When you shoot a 62, obviously everything is going to have gone very, very well.”
During a four-week break before the Race to Dubai conclusion, Fleetwood worked with the folks at TaylorMade to help an area of his game that he felt had not been up to his usual standards in 2024 despite kicking it off with a January victory in Dubai. He added a T3 in the Masters, silver medal in the Olympics and 17 total top-20 finishes in 27 starts.
“Definitely sort of the second half of this year, like through the summer, I haven’t putted as well or converted as many putts as we’d have liked,” Fleetwood said.
While some putting tips from European veterans Ken Brown and David Howell in Abu Dhabi helped Fleetwood hone the movement of his head during putting drills, it was the new putter that stood out.
“It is a new TaylorMade putter that I’ve been working with at home,” Fleetwood said on the eve of teeing off in Abu Dhabi. “The guys at TaylorMade, they have done an amazing job … designing something like a little bit different.
“It’s felt really, really good. It was the perfect time for me to be practicing with something. It’s sort of difficult these days. I love testing like my equipment and testing things that are new and different, but it’s so difficult with the way the schedule is. The tournaments are packed in so close to each other, and there’s never not a big event or not an important event, it seems.
“To have that time at home to work on something that I’ve put a lot of effort into and something I’m really interested in.”
The putter-design process started in May at TaylorMade’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California, and incorporated characteristics of Fleetwood’s previous Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 while adding TaylorMade technology such as the triangular Truss hosel for more stability through impact.
Fleetwood’s prototype has a Pure Roll insert – much like the Spider Tour X L-Neck putter that Scottie Scheffler used to help transform his putting game in 2024 – with grooves angled at 45 degrees to help with forward roll.
Scott Michaux