When Tiger Woods switched from his trusty Scotty Cameron blade putter that he had 13 major championships on its resume to a TaylorMade Black Copper Ardmore 3 model at the Quicken Loans National in July, fans and reporters alike scratched their heads.
Woods had said previously that one of the first things he did when Nike exited the equipment business in 2016 was pick up his old Scotty Cameron, so any putter switch would come as a surprise.
However, Woods validated the switch by nearly winning two majors with the TaylorMade mallet, but it was only a matter of time before he went searching for familiarity. At the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship, Woods unveiled a familiar style, if not a familiar look.
Tiger Woods' third putter this season is a TaylorMade Black Copper Juno model, which was fashioned in a collaborative effort to resemble the old Newport 2 GSS putter. Woods, who suggested this transition was in the works all along, said the new TaylorMade blade has some modern touches.
“We had been working on this putter since the Quicken Loans National, so the past couple months,” Woods said. “We’ve been trying to get a putter that looked exactly like my old Cameron, but it had the grooves in it so it would roll the ball a little bit better. We finally got one and I liked it, felt good with it. We had to adjust the loft on it just a touch the other day. I found that my feels came back, that release is something I’m very familiar with. It felt good today.”
Woods was impressed with his new wand as he struggled with his ball striking but kept himself in the tournament with a 1-over 72. The data suggests it was a good start, too, with Woods gaining 1.57 strokes putting in Round 1, putting him tied for 15th in the stat.
“I putted beautifully today. I hit a lot of good putts,” Woods said. “I just need to give myself more looks at them. I didn’t hit the ball close enough today.”
