Tiger Changes His …

Putter

By all accounts it appears that Tiger Woods will be making a putter change for the first time in 11 years as he prepares and plays in the upcoming 2010 Open Championship at St Andrews.  In his own words, Tiger tends to struggle with his speed on slower greens and Nike’s Method putter, through it’s face groove technology, gets the ball rolling quicker leaving Tiger with less of an adjustment.  This makes Tiger a Nike player throughout the bag for the first time since his move to the sponsor.  Whether Tiger stays with the putter after the Open Championship once he returns to faster greens will be an interesting story to watch.  Tiger’s trusted Scotty Cameron Newport 2 (the one that earned him 13 Major Championships) will get, as sports cliches go, a well deserved rest this week.

Congrats to Dave Franklin (designer of the Method putter) and his team at The Oven (Nike’s R&D facility) for finally getting Tiger to put their putter into the bag for competition.  Sort of like the ultimate feather in the cap for a club designer.

* image and club details as per Tiger Woods Official website

7/18/2010 – UPDATE: Tiger has returned to his old putter for the final round of the 2010 Open Championship.

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