With season on line, Justin Thomas ditches counterbalanced putter after one week
Justin Thomas’ latest putter experiment lasted just two rounds.
Thomas, who has switched putters on a few occasions in recent years, moved to a Scotty Cameron prototype Phantom X9 putter with a 38-inch counterbalanced shaft for last week’s 3M Open. However, after missing the cut in Minnesota and needing a strong finish at this week’s Wyndham Championship to crack the 70-man FedExCup Playoffs, Thomas has gone back to one of his trusty flatsticks, a Scotty Cameron X5 Tour Circle T with a 34.5-inch shaft.
“I just went back to my old faithful,” Thomas said Thursday after shooting even-par 70 at Sedgefield Country Club. “I putted with it on Saturday last week after I missed the cut for probably like an hour, maybe a little more, on the putting green, it felt great. I think if it was a little different situation or a little different part of the season, I’d probably keep messing with it, but with a week like this, I want to have the putter in my hands that I’ve made the most clutch and successful and good putts with and that’s what that one is.”
Thomas arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, needing a minimum finish of solo 18th at the Wyndham to extend his season (he requires a solo third or better without any help to qualify for next week’s playoff opener in Memphis). His down year has been a combination of a ball-striking dip (No. 25 in strokes gained: tee-to-green) and struggles on the greens (No. 158 in strokes gained: putting).
Full-field scores from Wyndham Championship
While Thomas was in the negative with his putting after Thursday’s morning wave, which was played in west conditions, he was slightly better than his season average. He did, however, hole just one putt outside of 7 feet – a 20-footer for birdie at the par-4 first hole, his 10th of the day.
“It was a little frustrating,” Thomas added. “Having a little hard time getting things going, and I feel like I had a couple chances there on my front nine but especially my back nine there to, you know, shoot 2 or 3 under.”