Tag: Putter

Odyssey offers limited-edition version of Jailbird putter that has been on a hot streak

Longer and heavier than standard, the Odyssey Jailbird 380 is on a hot streak.

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Odyssey’s Jailbird putters have been on a hot streak on the PGA Tour in recent weeks, and now Callaway’s putter company plans to release a limited-edition version of the striped flatstick for pre-order this week.

Wyndham Clark used this version of the Versa Jailbird to win the U.S. Open two weeks ago at Los Angeles Country Club, then Keegan Bradley won the Travelers Championship with the same style putter Sunday at TPC River Highlands.

Called the limited-edition Odyssey Jailbird 380, this version will be available for pre-order starting Wednesday at select retailers and at the company’s websites. The price will be $399.99. The Jailbird-style head has been available for a decade, and it has seen a spike in interest among Tour players this year.

Keegan Bradley used a heavier and longer version of a Jailbird putter to win the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on June 25. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

This version of the Jailbird features an extra-long, 17-inch SuperStroke grip atop a heavier steel shaft. The putter is also longer than standard at 39 inches, and players grip down farther on the shaft. It has become a popular style of putting for players looking for more stability with their stroke.

Odyssey said the putter also has the following features:

  • Jailbird mallet head shape
  • Versa high-contrast alignment (black/white)
  • 380-gram head weight
  • Microhinge Insert
  • Face-balanced toe hang

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2023 U.S. Open: Scottie Scheffler mulling putter change to end slump with short stick

“I think it’s strange that I’ve been struggling the past few weeks with my putter.”

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LOS ANGELES — Scottie Scheffler never takes decisions on switching his equipment lightly. But his recent form on the green has been so putrid that he’s considering doing just that the week of a major. Scheffler practiced with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Plus on Tuesday and said he may bench his gamer for the 123rd U.S. Open at LA Country Club.

“You guys can find out Thursday,” he said with a laugh.

Scheffler, the world No. 1 player, won the Players Championship in March and hasn’t finish outside the top 12 in 13 starts this year. He put on ballstriking clinics at the Charles Schwab Challenge and Memorial, his two most recent starts, only to finish one stroke out of playoffs in each due to a balky putter.

“I think it’s strange that I’ve been struggling the past few weeks with my putter,” Scheffler said. “Putting is such a weird thing. Sometimes when you’re on the green and you feel good you feel like you’re never going to miss and then sometimes when you feel terrible you feel like you’re never going to make.”

Despite his recent frustrations on the greens, Scheffler has been proud of the way he hasn’t let bad putts ruin a round but his patience is wearing thin. He made a short-term putter change to a mallet head at the CJ Cup in October and finished T-45, and returned to his his Scotty Cameron Newport. Count NBC’s lead analyst Paul Azinger among those who think Scheffler’s putting will be fine.

“It’s a psychological battle. His technique is very repeatable,” said Azinger during a conference call with media last week ahead of NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Open. “Look, putting is the ghost. If you’re a player and you talk about your putting, it’s going to haunt you. That’s what I believe. If you talk about your putting when you’re putting great, it’s going to haunt you. It’s going to ruin you. If you talk about it when you’re putting bad, it’s going to ruin you. My advice to everyone who ever plays golf: First things first, never talk about your putting. How come? It’s the ghost, bud; you don’t want to do it. That’s what I would say.

“Same with Scheffler. It’s just like, let it go, you had a bad week, you should have won by five, but it didn’t happen. But sometimes those greens and the way your eye is, it’s just you’re just off, and you want to make it mechanical, but it’s just a little psychological battle or it’s just something just minuscule.”

“And you know it all quickly turns around if he gets out there and makes a 12-footer on 1 and a 15-footer on 2, all that is forgotten, all that is gone out of his head, I’m making putts this week,” added NBC roving reporter John Wood on the same call. “Zinger, I think you’re exactly right. It’s a ghost.”

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Scheffler’s tee to green game has been otherworldly, bordering on peak Tiger Woods. He is on pace for the second-best strokes gained: tee-to-green season (2.78) since tracking began in 2004, behind only Woods (2.98) in 2006. One school of thought says Scheffler can’t putt much worse, while another suggests if he just putts decently, the rest of the field will be shouting, Katie, bar the doors.

That’s why Scheffler was practicing his putting with a wedge as a training aid and considering the putter switch. Of using the wedge he said it was a drill he did occasionally “as a feel thing just to feel the release.” Of swapping putters he said, “sometimes you just got to bring another putter around there to make the original one scared.”

If Scheffler combines his boffo ball-striking and his deadly short game with an improved putting performance, the results could be scary.

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Did Rory McIlroy have 19 putts in a practice round at Augusta National last week? ‘Yeah, look, I had two good days’

“We played 54 holes in two days, and it was good. I was really happy with where my game was.”

Nineteen putts in one round? At Augusta National?

The Masters is two weeks away, and plenty of players have made their way to Augusta, Georgia, in recent weeks to get some practice in.

World No. 3 Rory McIlroy is one of those players. He went last week between missing the cut at the Players Championship and ahead of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. And one of his rounds seems to have been pretty special.

After beating Scott Stallings 3 and 1 in his first match Wednesday at Austin Country Club, McIlroy was asked about a rumor he had 19 putts during one of his practice rounds, and he didn’t exactly shoot that statement down.

“Yeah, look, I had two good days,” McIlroy said. “We played 54 holes in two days, and it was good. I was really happy with where my game was.”

McIlroy switched out putters this week, using a Scotty Cameron Newport. And if he’s able to rekindle that old flame, there’s a chance he could slip on a green jacket in two weeks for the first time, completing the career grand slam.

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Scottie Scheffler’s putter switch leads to 62, highlights takeaways from the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba

Scheffler shot a bogey-free 9-under 62 on Sunday, the lowest final-round score of his PGA Tour career.

After a dreadful putting round on Friday, Scottie Scheffler switched back to old faithful and switched back to making birdies Sunday.

The world No. 2 made seven birdies and a hole-out eagle to shoot a bogey-free 9-under 62 at El Camaleon Golf Course at the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. It’s the lowest final-round score of his PGA Tour career and lifted him to a five-way tie for third.

Without Shotlink data this week in Riviera Maya, Mexico, it’s hard to say definitively how poorly Scheffler putted on Friday, but it was poor enough for him to shelve the Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto mallet putter he used two weeks ago at the CJ Cup in South Carolina and return to the model that he used to win the Masters.

“It never goes too far away,” Scheffler said of his Scotty Cameron Newport 2. “I went back to my old putter for the round yesterday. I think when I see so many putts go up to the cup and not go in, it was like, well, maybe I’ll just make a change and see what happens. This is the time of year when I’ll usually experiment with stuff. It’s probably something I’ll continue to fiddle around with.”

Scheffler’s day got off to a promising start with a hole-out at the par-4 third hole from 108 yards.

“There was nobody at the green and I hit a good shot and it looked like it landed close, but we couldn’t really see, couldn’t really hear anything, nobody was clapping or nothing. So when I got up there, I was like, ‘Oh, man, it must have spun off the green. Then I checked the cup and it was in,” Scheffler said.

How much was Scheffler thinking about the fact he needed either a win or to finish solo second to overtake Rory McIlroy and reclaim world No. 1?

“I was just trying to show up and have a good round of golf,” he said. “Rankings are great, it was definitely fun being No. 1 in the world, it’s definitely something I hope to get back to, but it’s not something that’s going to occupy a lot of my thoughts.”

Scheffler is scheduled to play next week in the Cadence Houston Open, a tournament he nearly won last year. Confidence is high after shooting his sixth round of 62 or lower since the beginning of 2019, most of any player on Tour in that span.

“A few things go my way, a few more putts go in, I could have been right in the tournament,” Scheffler said.

Here’s why Si Woo Kim, in contention at the Masters, putted with his 3-wood

Why did Si Woo Kim pull out the 3-wood to putt with on the back nine at Augusta National? Chalk it up to a moment of anger.

Much transpired at Augusta National’s 15th hole for Si Woo Kim on Friday afternoon. By that point, Kim, a 25-year-old from South Korea, was tied for fifth and in contention at the Masters.

But that’s also where Kim had to trade out his putter on the greens for his 3-wood. When Kim slammed the flatstick head-first into the ground in anger next to the 15th green, it broke. That meant he could no longer use the putter to finish his round, and out came the 3-wood.

Remarkably, Kim made par at the par-5 15th. He threw his golf ball in the water anyway.

At No. 16, he nearly made a left-to-right breaker for birdie with the metalwood. He walked away with par there instead.

Kim’s choice of replacement “putter” sparked the question: What club is most useful in the event that a player breaks his putter mid-round?

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Watch this: Using only a putter, man wins Arizona amateur event

Anthony Griggs won a Golfweek Amateur Tour D Flight event at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona with just a putter.

Traveling with a full set of clubs isn’t much of a hassle for Anthony Griggs.

One of the newer members of the Golfweek Amateur Tour, Griggs posted a round of 84 to capture the D Flight during a recent event played at Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona.

But that’s just half the story.

After the round, a member of Griggs’ group insisted he’d just seen the most incredible thing he’d ever witnessed on a golf course.

Griggs, who will turn 61 on May 19, played the entire round with just a putter. Tees, fairways, bunkers and, of course, greens — Griggs only used one trusty club.

An Army veteran originally from Gary, Indiana, Griggs moved to Arizona in 2001 and now makes his home in Mesa. He has played throughout Arizona, including at the Waste Management Pre-Qualifier and the 2018 Kadima Ventures Pro-Am.

And Griggs, who drives the ball more than 200 yards off the tee, does it all with just the one club.

After becoming a pretty good traditional player, Griggs got bored with the game and an acquaintance suggested that if he wanted to challenge himself again, he should play with just a putter. While practicing on the range, he decided to give it a try and found that with some trial and error he could hit the ball pretty well.

He’s been using only a putter on the course ever since.

Anthony Griggs won the D Flight of a Phoenix-area event using just a putter. (Submitted photo)

Originally, Griggs used a Scotty Cameron putter, but it broke while he was preparing for the tournament.

No problem — he went to a nearby Goodwill and bought an old Wilson Staff putter for $2.99. That’s the lone club he used to win the Phoenix-area event as he beat Angelo Faux by six strokes to claim the crown.

Along with his do-it-all partner, friend, sometimes caddie and manager Larry Vinson, Griggs has been working to improve on this incredible idea for roughly four years.

His reward for winning the D Flight at Wild Horse Pass? Griggs will be promoted to B Flight for the next event.

Gabe Garcia is the director of Phoenix and Tucson tours for the Golfweek Amateur Tour.

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