Sports
Brooks Koepka makes rare putter switch. Here’s how that happened
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Brooks Koepka just wanted to get the ball in the hole, and that’s led to one of the most notable gear switches in the five-time major champion’s career.
After more than a decade playing a Scotty Cameron Teryllium blade, Koepka made a last-minute switch to a new TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-neck this week at the WM Phoenix Open.
Koepka, playing his second event this week since coming back to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf, was searching on the greens at Torrey Pines a week ago. He was last in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting among those who made the cut. He lost more than seven strokes on the greens in the three rounds with Shot Link Data.
To help, Koepka actually made a weekend visit to the Scotty Cameron Gallery in nearby Encinitas for a practice session with Scotty Cameron’s director of Player Fitting and Development, Paul Vizanko.
Koepka and Vizanko were at it again on Monday at TPC Scottsdale, working for hours on Koepka’s putting.
“Trying to get the ball in the hole,” Koepka said candidly on Wednesday of the Monday session. “Yeah, like, just really never felt comfortable over the ball. You’ve got to have everything squared up to the target. Just working on things like that. Real simple stuff, setup. Shoulders were open. My feet are always a little bit open, but just trying to minimize the lines crossing so much.
“I’ve been putting pretty poorly for the good side of two years. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got to figure it out.”
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What wasn’t apparent on Monday or even during Wednesday’s pro-am was that a change was imminent. Koepka had four putters with him on Monday: his gamer Scotty Cameron T22 Teryllium Newport 2, an identical backup and two TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallets. One Spider had a short slant hosel while the other had an L-neck like his Camerons.
Koepka has used the T22 for the better part of the past five years, since 2020, shortly after the model was released in late 2019 as an homage to Scotty Cameron’s first Teryllium putters. It replaced a T10 Newport 2 dating to Koepka’s college days at Florida State that featured a button-back design, as opposed to the silicone dots to hold the insert in place.
He’s toyed around with blades before, most notably gaming a Scotty Cameron Phantom X T5.5 at the 2024 Masters, but the Newport 2 blade always seems to return to the bag.
Even on Wednesday, Koepka used the Cameron during his pro-am, and the gamer was the only putter in his bag afterward when he was back on the putting green.
But later that afternoon, Koepka told Golfweek‘s Eamon Lynch he was switching this week to the Spider Tour X. Not only does the Spider Tour X mark a departure to a more forgiving mallet from his blade, but it’s also the first putter Koepka has used in his career without a milled face.
Koepka went with the L-neck Spider Tour X, the same model Scottie Scheffler switched to in 2024 and has since won 14 PGA Tour titles and 16 events worldwide, including the American Express two weeks ago. The Spider was also the winningest putter family on the PGA Tour last season, racking up 13 victories during the FedEx Cup season by seven players.
Through 12 holes on Thursday, Koepka didn’t exactly seem like he’s found the same magic as Scheffler as he was four over for the day and losing two strokes on the greens, 119th in the 123-player field.
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