NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Ever since Scottie Scheffler made a putter switch that turned the best golfer in the world to one of the best putters in the world, too, it seems like everyone else is trying to find a magic wand that will change everything. The count includes the likes of Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Sergio García and Joaquin Niemann.
Tom Kim, one of Scheffler’s buddies in Dallas, has been on a seemingly perpetual search in 2025 to find a putter that will snap his two-year absence from the PGA Tour winner’s circle.
Kim – who was a three-time PGA Tour winner by the age of 21 – has shuffled through a series of putters from multiple club makers that includes mallets, winged mallets and blades. None of them have worked particularly well as he ranks 138th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting.
To run down the roster: Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype mallet he started the year with; a Scotty Cameron Studio Style blade by the time he reached Pebble Beach; a Scotty Cameron Newport style blade for the Players; a Scotty Cameron Fastback 1.5 Tour Prototype through three majors until the Genesis Scottish Open; and a TaylorMade Spider Tour X1 (Scheffler’s model) for the Open at Royal Portrush.
At the 3M Open, Kim fiddled with a Scotty Cameron Xperimental 3.2 “TK 1 PTYPE” mallet that was made for him before gaming the Spider Tour X1. He finished T28 to move up to 89th in the FedEx Cup points standings heading into the regular-season finale.
Unable to climb into the top 70 and the playoffs after missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship – where he picked up his first tour win in 2022 – Kim will have a month off to test putters and find one that will carry him through the fall.
Titleist was the driver of choice for winners two weeks ago on the PGA Tour (Kurt Kitayama, GT3); LPGA (Lottie Woad, TSR3), PGA Tour Champions (Pádraig Harrington, TSR3); Korn Ferry Tour (Johnny Keefer, GT2), PGA Tour Americas (Brett White, GT2) and the U.S. Junior Amateur (Hamilton Coleman, GT2). Keefer locked up his PGA Tour card with his KFT victory while White shot 59 to rally in the Ottawa Open before needing two more birdies to win the playoff.
Woad debuted as a Titleist brand ambassador in the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open and joined Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951) as LPGA winners in their first professional starts. The Englishwoman games a full set of Titleist clubs (GT2 fairway, TSR2 hybrids, T150 irons and Vokey SM10 wedges) and ball (2025 Pro V1).
Scott Michaux