After missing the cut in last two PGA Tour appearances, Jordan Spieth has returned to using the putter that won him two Majors ahead of this week’s defence of his Dean & Deluca Invitational title at Fort Worth, Texas.
Spieth raised plenty of eyebrows among his colleagues and also observers a week ago in turning to a Scotty Cameron T5W Tour mallet putter for the AT & T Byron Nelson at Irving, also in Texas.
However, after missing the cut a week with scores of 68 and 75, and this on top of also sitting out the weekend rounds a week earlier at the Players Championship in Florida, Spieth has now returned to the using the putter that also took him to World No. 1.
His decision a week ago to switch the shortest club in his bag was just the third event Spieth has used a different putter, other than his usual Scotty Cameron oo9 since turning pro in 2o12.
Jordan Spieth has returned to using the putter that won him two Majors ahead of this week’s defence of his Dean & Deluca Invitational title at Fort Worth, Texas.
And Spieth, who dropped to World No. 7 following last week’s indifferent showing, explained the reasoning behind going back to the putter that earned him back-to-back Majors glory in 2o15.
“I was having a tough time aligning the ball up where I wanted it or getting comfortable with my setup with the 009, and that’s why I made a switch to a putter that kind of lined itself up,” he said.
“I just lost a little bit of the feel that I had with the putter I’ve been using for however many years. But what it did, was now I feel a lot more comfortable with my alignment and feel like I got my set up back to where I want it and I have that feel.
“My caddy and I played 36 holes on Sunday at Dallas National where I play and had a couple great putting rounds just as a day back to get going. That kind of made the decision that it was time, and I felt comfortable back on short- and mid-range putts with my alignment. It’s all been setup related.
“So, I just needed to look at something different. I didn’t know if it would be a week or a month, and ended up being a week and it feels good now”.
Spieth’s current World Ranking is his highest since he was 6th in early 2o15.
And I asked Spieth if he ever considered turning to the centre-shaft putter.
“No, I haven’t. I just tried the one putter that I used last week. It was a welded neck that allowed it to still not be face balanced. It still allowed for rotation, which is similar to my putter. A little bit less, but still allowed for some rotation. That’s the only one I tried”, he said.
“Centre-shafted putters I feel are very useful for alignment, for fixing alignment, but I found it in the putter that I used last week and went with that.”
And if Spieth has any complaints, and it really was just a tongue-in-cheek throwaway remark and that was to point out his name appears right on the bottom of nine rows of former winners on a “Champions Wall” located beside the first tee at this week’s Colonial Club host venue, and where legendary Texan Ben Hogan won the event five times from 1947 to 1959.
“Colonial, it’s an old-school club. It’s a very cool club to be in as a golf historian,” said Spieth.
“So, getting your name on that wall a couple times — my name is at the bottom of the row, and so you can’t really see it during the year when the plants grow up. I need to get one on the top so you can see it a little bit better.
“That’s the goal this year (smiling)”.
There is six Europeans competing this week and headed by Masters Champion, Sergio Garcia.
