Why 2023 was the 'Year of the Putter'

Jun 13, 2023

10 Min Read

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New drivers – and the space-age technology that they contain – usually receive the most attention on the equipment beat. Driving distance is more important than ever, and companies are going to great lengths to differentiate their latest offerings and to squeeze out a few more precious yards.

But it was the club that sits on the other end of the spectrum – the one used for the shortest shots – that made the most news in 2023. This was the "Year of the Putter" on the PGA TOUR, as multiple players made headlines and won big events after making changes on the greens.

The counter-balanced Odyssey Versa Jailbird became one of the season's hottest stories after it was used by Wyndham Clark, Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley to win some of the season’s most notable titles. Starting in January (and lasting through the TOUR Championship), putter changes remained in the news thanks to big-time changes from big-name players like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jason Day, Lucas Glover, Akshay Bhatia, Fowler, Clark and even Sam Burns, who rarely makes a change.

Below, we recap some of the most notable putter switches of 2023:

Rickie Fowler

Putting had been a strength of Fowler’s game early in his career, but he dropped all the way to 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last year as he toiled through a long winless drought. He was changing putters on a regular basis in search of an answer, or at least a putter that he could trust.

This year, he found what he was searching for, and he also set the wheels in motion for big changes in the putter category at large on the PGA TOUR.

Rickie Fowler's Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter, equipped with a longer 17-inch SuperStroke grip and some 20 grams of lead tape. (GolfWRX)

Fowler kicked off the Year of the Putter at The American Express by changing into an Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter that was equipped with a longer SuperStroke 17-inch grip to achieve a counterbalanced design.

Fowler found his way to the club after testing the putter of his caddie, Ricky Romano, the Sunday before The American Express. Fowler took a liking to it and enlisted Joe Toulon, Callaway’s PGA TOUR manager and former putter rep, to build him something similar.

Thanks to the elongated grip, slabs of lead tape on the sole and the oversized mallet putterhead that’s designed for more forgiveness, Fowler found that his Versa Jailbird putter build was able to quiet down his right hand and provide more confidence on the greens.

“I’ve been, over the last few years, not putting how I’m used to, or how I want to by any means,” he said. “Some of it, confidence wise, not having the same feel I’ve always had. The right hand, not making confident strokes. And, I wasn’t necessarily searching. I’ve been grinding and working on my normal stuff.

“I was very shocked, because I never really looked into anything that was longer, counterbalanced, or anything like that. … It’s very interesting, but it’s kind of freeing me up in a way. I’m not changing stroke-wise or setup, not gripping anything differently than my normal length putter. I just feel like it’s, I don’t know, kind of helping me do some things, and I don’t have to think about it.”

Fowler ultimately validated his putter switch by ending his four-year winless drought on the PGA TOUR with a victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He’s currently ranked 45th in SG: Putting, showing a drastic improvement from the previous season.

Wyndham Clark

Clark wasn’t the only PGA TOUR player who was influenced to switch into an Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter after Fowler's success, but Clark was surely the biggest beneficiary.

During a casual round with Fowler, whom he knew from his days at Oklahoma State, Clark took a liking to Fowler’s new putter and putting stroke, and wanted to give it a try for himself.

Wyndham Clark's Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter with identical specs to Rickie Fowler's. (GolfWRX)

"We were playing at Medalist where he belongs in Florida, and I hadn't been putting good, and this was right before Bay Hill, and I played with Rickie, and he just made every single putt," Clark said. "Afterwards we were practicing a little bit getting ready for it, and I hit a couple and I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, this is really nice.’ So I texted the Odyssey guy, and I said, ‘Hey, can you make me Rickie's putter?’ And he's like, ‘Well what specs?’ I said, ‘The exact same.’ So literally had the exact same putter.”

Clark earned his first two PGA TOUR wins after making the switch, at the Wells Fargo Championship and the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He also finished third in this year’s FedExCup.

Lucas Glover

Glover has been known throughout his career as one of the TOUR’s pre-eminent ballstrikers, but a decade-long battle with the yips had hindered him.

In 2023, however, Glover switched into a new broomstick-style L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max putter that quelled his on-green frustrations. The switch led to one of the season’s best stories, with the 43-year-old winning the Wyndham Championship just to get in the FedExCup Playoffs and then following with a win in the first Playoffs event, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

A look at Lucas Glover's new putter. (GolfWRX)

“I needed a whole new idea,” Glover said of his mid-year putter switch. “A whole new brain function. The other one obviously wasn’t working. I’ve been struggling with short putts for so long. Just thought I needed to teach myself to do something else, and it’s been working. … Once you learn how to stand there and address it, it pretty much works itself. It’s been a nice change.”

Jason Day

Day first made equipment headlines in January after switching into a blacked-out custom Scotty Cameron F-5.5 Tour mallet putter, but it didn’t turn out to be the club that ended his five-year victory drought.

Jason Day experimented with a blacked-out custom Scotty Cameron F-5.5 Tour mallet putter back in January. (GolfWRX)

A week prior to winning the AT&T Byron Nelson, however, Day switched back into his legendary TaylorMade Ghost Spider Itsy Bitsy putter that he used to win with five times, including the PGA Championship, in 2015.

As it turns out, there was still at least one victory left in it.

“I think, overall, that the Scotty Cameron putter was still looking good, and everything was great, and I really liked it,” Day told GolfWRX.com. “But for some reason, I picked up the TaylorMade . . . and oh, man, the weight of it. You know in the movies when a character picks up a blade, and they’re like, ‘Ooh, perfect balance.’ That’s exactly what it felt like. I’m like, ‘Holy crap, man.’ The way the balance felt, and the way the weight felt. The way it swung. It just felt like so much more balance than what I was used to, and what I felt. I’m like, ‘Man, this feels really good.’ I looked down at the putter, and it looked very square.”

Day has since switched back into a red version of the putter, but his longtime black model always remains on the back burner should he need to re-ignite his putting.

Rory McIlroy

Similar to Scheffler, McIlroy was also in the equipment news often in 2023 due to his frequent putter switches and experiments.

Searching for comfort on the greens, McIlroy switched out of his TaylorMade Spider Hydroblast mallet putter and into a custom Scotty Cameron blade putter at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and the Masters. Winning results never came with the new putter, however, and McIlroy played his next three majors with his familiar TaylorMade Spider.

Then, ahead of the FedExCup Playoffs, McIlroy switched into a Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 mallet putter, which he actually had shortened by a local shop during the event.

Despite the switch and alterations, McIlroy was yet to find his match with a new putter, and he switched back into his TaylorMade Spider for the TOUR Championship.

It seems McIlroy’s putter saga has yet to write a conclusion.

Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler’s ball striking in 2023 has been other-worldly, ranking first in both SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach-the-Green. His performance on the greens, however, frustrated the 2022 PGA TOUR Player of the Year. He still won twice in 2023, including THE PLAYERS, but he was among the players seen experimenting during the year. Both of his wins came with his familiar Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS blade putter.

While Scheffler has mostly opted to use custom Scotty Cameron blade-style putters throughout his career, he experimented with larger heads in 2023.

First, at the U.S. Open, Scheffler switched into a wide-bodied Scotty Cameron Timeless Tourtype model with two 25-gram weights in the sole to help increase stability. That putter experiment was short-lived, though.

Then, at the first Playoffs event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, Scheffler began testing a TaylorMade Spider Tour X “SS Proto” putters. Unlike other TaylorMade Spider designs, Scheffler’s prototype was built with a milled face, instead of a soft insert. This alteration allowed TaylorMade to put more weight toward the face of the putter, thus allowing for a more blade-like feel and release at impact.

Akshay Bhatia

Prior to the 2023 John Deere Classic, Bhatia was gaming an Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K No. 7 counterbalanced putter with an armlock grip. Prior to the John Deere Classic, Bhatia was also winless on the PGA TOUR.

Feeling like he needed a change, Bhatia called his father and asked him to ship Bhatia’s backup putter, which had a similar head design, except it had Odyssey’s black-white-black Versa colorway to help with visual alignment.

“I was using just the regular No. 7 5K, just the black and gray,” Bhatia said. “I just really like the Versa look. I think it looks good. It’s very different, very clean. So I had them make me this as a backup putter, if I was, for whatever reason, not aiming it right or anything like that, I had this to go to. I actually tried the Jailbird at the Rocket Mortgage, just with kind of the same counterbalance. I didn’t putt that good, so I had my dad ship – this was the only one at his house – I was like, 'Can you ship this to John Deere?' Obviously I putted a lot better, more consistent, but now I don’t even want to touch my other one. The backup is the new one. I like it; I think it’s unique. Having customized stuff is always pretty cool.”

Making that call was a good call, as the 21-year-old Bhatia went on to earn his first PGA TOUR win at the Barracuda Championship.

Akshay Bhatia drains clutch putt for birdie to tie the lead at Barracuda

Sam Burns

Sam Burns isn’t the type of golfer to change putters every week. Or every month. Or even every year. Burns and his Odyssey O-Works Black #7S putter have been together since the beginning.

When he made his professional PGA TOUR debut at the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship, he was using an Odyssey O-Works Black #7S putter, which is a mallet head with a dual-fanged design for added forgiveness. When Burns won his first professional event at the 2018 Savannah Golf Championship on the Web.com Tour, he was using an Odyssey O-Works Black #7S putter.

When Burns won the 2021 Valspar Championship -- and the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship, the 2022 Valspar Championship, the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge and the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play -- he was using an Odyssey O-Works Black #7S putter then, too.

Have a look back through Burns’ career “WITB” history on GolfWRX.com, and the realization will hit that Burns hasn’t switched putters since he turned pro. The bond runs deep.

Well, at the 2023 TOUR Championship, that run came to an end.

A look at Sam Burns' custom Odyssey No. 7 prototype putter he used at East Lake. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

At East Lake, Burns switched into a never-before-seen, custom Odyssey No. 7 prototype putter with a black face insert and two sole weights. While it looks nearly identical to his former No. 7, it’s clear that the sole head profile is slightly different than his longtime gamer.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until the FedExCup Fall to learn more from Burns about the mysterious Odyssey prototype that finally knocked his O-Works Black No. 7 out of the bag.