Rory McIlroy looks to be making a change to his putter ahead of another attempt at winning the Green Jacket next month in his bid to end his Major drought and finally complete the career grand slam.
The Northern Irishman has been using a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter in practice for this week's WGC-Match Play, and it's very similar to the model he used to win his first two Majors.
McIlroy won both the 2011 US Open at Congressional and 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island using a Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport GSS Prototype. He also used it during the 2012 Ryder Cup, coined the 'Miracle at Medinah'.
The new 'replica' he is testing this week is very similar to that two-time Major winning flat stick, as pictured by Golf.com's Jonathan Wall.
He reportedly said he is trying to "rekindle an old flame", with Wall revealing that the putter has a thumbs-up stamped on it like the flat sticks used by Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas.
"Rory told me it allows him to be more athletic and gives him freedom. Also said it’s great for The Masters," Todd Lewis said of McIlroy's new putter on Twitter.
A putter change for @McIlroyRory at the @DellMatchPlay. He is using a @ScottyCameron Newport putter that is a replica of the same putter he used to win his first 2 majors. Rory told me it allows him to be more athletic and gives him freedom. Also said it’s great for @TheMasters. pic.twitter.com/DoEGeO4DtTMarch 21, 2023
McIlroy ranks 173rd in the PGA Tour's Strokes Gained: Putting statistics for the 2022/23 season, losing an average of 0.429 on the field. That's a stark contrast to the previous season, in which he won the FedEx Cup, where he ranked 16th with an average gain of 0.495 strokes per round on the greens.
He missed his first cut since August at the recent Players Championship after rounds of 76 and 73 at TPC Sawgrass.
McIlroy has also reportedly gone to a shorter driver shaft and drove it "beautifully" during a recent practice round at Augusta National. Jonathan Wall also confirmed that he had added in a 5 wood in the form of the TaylorMade Stealth 2 ahead of this week's event at Austin Country Club.
The Scotty Cameron putter is another Titleist club added to his bag after he put Vokey wedges in play at the start of the year in Dubai. He revealed he has new flexibility with his TaylorMade deal and put the new wedges in the bag after trying some of close friend Justin Thomas' clubs.
"Yeah, so this is my first year of my new deal with TaylorMade, and they gave me just a little bit of flexibility with some of the clubs that I can play," McIlroy explained at February's WM Phoenix Open.
"Yeah, so that was really it. I was messing around with Justin, I see Justin Thomas all the time at home and messing around with some of his wedges and some of the grinds he has. I got in touch and ordered a couple, and they've worked really nicely."
The Northern Irishman also recently switched into the new TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver, in part after regularly being outdriven by Tiger Woods at Riviera in the Genesis Invitational. He said the reason for the change was due to the face on his Stealth model potentially being illegal due to the amount of use.
“I went to that new driver in Riviera, and it's just not...Look, I wish I could use my driver from last year, but I can't just because of - you use a driver for so long, and it starts to get a little too - basically it just wouldn't pass the test,” McIlroy said after round one at the Players.
McIlroy was likely referring to driver face 'creeping' where over time, the vast number of shots hit during practice and play out of the center causes the face to get slightly more compressed and thinner over time, making it a little hotter in terms of ball speed. His old driver would likely have already been very close to the legal CT (Characteristic time) limit when he first started using it, so any creeping would cause it to become non confirming. The USGA has been conducting a lot more testing on tour in recent seasons to clamp down on this as manufacturers try and push performance to the limits.
The four-time Major winner will be hoping to go one better at The Masters this year after recording his best ever finish at Augusta last year. He holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole to post a final round 64 for a second-place finish behind Scottie Scheffler.
