Brooks Koepka's putting woes continue despite a major gear change this week, which saw the five-time Major winner move to a TaylorMade Spider X model.
The former World No.1 has traditionally been a blade putter user, having won all five of his Majors with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2. He also briefly used a Scotty Cameron T-5.5 mallet in 2024 but had his usual Newport 2 in the bag for his PGA Tour return, although it only lasted one week.
To start the WM Phoenix Open, the American made the change to the Spider X, with an L-neck just like World No.1 Scottie Scheffler.
It comes after he lost over seven strokes on the field during last week's Farmers Insurance Open to rank dead-last of the 74 players who made the cut.
He gained strokes in every other department, so it was clear something was not up to standard on the greens.
He has been spending hours on his putting technique over the course of the last week.
"Just really never felt comfortable over the ball. You've got to have everything squared up to the target," he said prior to the WM Phoenix Open.
"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.
"And yeah, just tried to keep everything more consistent, the face, the path, everything."
One way he has tried to hole more putts is by changing the model, and it's a surprising one considering he has never previously used a TaylorMade flat stick in competition.
It did not work out in round one at TPC Scottsdale, though, where he shot a four-over-par 75 to sit T116th.
Koepka lost over 3.6 strokes on the greens to rank 122nd out of 123 players, making just 29 feet of putts during his round and nothing outside of five-feet.
He will be battling to make the cut on Friday, which will be crucial to his hopes of making the upcoming Signature Events. Due to the Returning Member Program, he is not allowed any sponsor's invites into the big $20m tournaments so must qualify for them by his own right.
That means winning a tournament, reaching the world's top 30 or finishing inside the top 5 of the Aon Swing 5 or the Aon Next 10 - which are both calculated on FedEx Cup points.
Koepka is a two-time WM Phoenix Open winner so he has played plenty of good golf at TPC Scottsdale in the past, and he'll be hoping to roll some putts in during round two to keep his hopes alive of getting a weekend tee time.
