Justin Thomas switched to his Scotty Cameron X5 mallet this week.
Jonathan Wall
Justin Thomas is in contention for his first win in nearly two and a half years this week at the Zozo Championship and there’s a big reason why
The two-time winner in 2024 was much better than his poor 2023 campaign where he failed to make the coveted FedEx Cup 50.
But it still wasn’t up to the level of Justin Thomas we’ve become accustomed to as a perennial contender on the PGA Tour. Thomas was not given a spot on the President’s Cup team as he was on the 2023 Ryder Cup team based on his previous record.
The main reason why Thomas hasn’t won since the 2022 PGA Championship is that his putting this season has actually been. even worse than last year. Thomas’ putting numbers are back to normal, he ranks 11th this year in strokes gained: approach, up from 39th in 2023, but he lost nearly half a stroke per round, about .35 strokes worse than last year down to 167 on Tour.
As one can imagine, he has been trying out a number of different putters this season in an attempt to cure his problems on the green. He began the year using his familiar Scotty Cameron X5 mallet, the putter he used to win the 2017 PGA Championship and the 2021 Players Championship. The putter has a two-wing design and a flowing neck that is used to give the mallet a blade-like feel.
But that putter was obliterated by the Masters with the same but new T5 mallet. That putter lived up to the hype when Thomas completely changed the look and went with the Scotty Cameron GSS blade putter that was originally designed for him and given to him by Vanderbilt legend Gordon Sargent.
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The blade was in the bag for only about a month before he installed the Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour prototype mallet, a new and larger shape for him. That putter sat in the bag until this week when the “faithful creation,” the X5 mallet he started the year with, is back this week in Japan.
“Yes, it was good. “I made some good putts,” Thomas said after his opening round of 66, in which he hit .238. “Even some of the putts I missed felt like good putts. I burned a few edges. When the greens have this much break, you have to straighten up with your speed and line everything up. I feel like I did a really good job with that.”
Thomas’ intuition is one thing, but the statistics back him up. Through three rounds this week, Thomas is 29th in the 77-man field, having gained a stroke for the week. The 1.099 mark is already nearly double his best four-round average this season of .663.
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