Up until the Arnold Palmer Championship, Scottie Scheffler’s putting was in shambles. The world number one missed a near-foot putt, was utterly frustrated at his lip-outs, and even nearly broke his club at one moment. However, this is a story from the past. Now, Scheffler has been a back-to-back winner on the PGA Tour and regained his green jacket.
It all came down to a putter change. The 27-year-old switched from a blade putter to an all-new TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter. The difference between the two has given Scheffler four wins so far. However, in the rebel league, a similar change hasn’t been as fruitful. The Smash GC captain, Brooks Koepka, changed to a mallet putter before LIV Golf Miami in hopes of getting better on the greens, but things have gone left since then.
BK has seens a drastic performances for the worse after a putter change
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Right before Brooks Koepka played LIV Golf Miami, he was seen practicing with the Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 mallet. Previously, he played with the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 SLT T10 blade putter. That putter had been sort of a lucky charm for Koepka, as he won his maiden victory on the PGA Tour at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open, as well as his five majors.
However, when he played with a mallet at LIV Golf Miami, Koepka shot three rounds of 69-77-77, a comparatively unamusing performance from Koepka. Even when he came to Augusta National, things didn’t change; notably, it was far worse. He scored 73-73-76-75 and was T45. Despite the poor performance, at the LIV Golf Singapore press conference, Koepka revealed that he’d be sticking with the mallet putter.
Showing a reluctance to going to his blade putter, Koepka said, “I haven’t even putted with that other putter, the one I’ve putted with for — the button back that I’ve putted with for probably 12, 14 years, I haven’t putted with it since then.” With the mallet putter, Koepka explained that he cannot find the hole easily, and his team has been “trying to find some answers” to his puzzled putting woes.
Undoubtedly, going from being one of the best players to constantly being out of contention at LIV Golf events has been a wild ride. Through it all, Koepka has been trying to evaluate his skills. However the search for the exact flaw in his putting continues.
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What has been hampering Brooks Koepka on the greens?
It is easier said than done, but Brooks Koepka is adamant about recovering from this putting fall. Notably, Koepka is 7th on the LIV Golf in greens regulations with 77.73 GIR%. Whereas, when it comes to putting average, he is 38th. So reaching the greens isn’t an issue, but getting the ball inside the hole has been a struggle for the 34-year-old.
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Explaining what goes wrong on the greens, Koepka said, “Ball doesn’t go in the hole; that’s usually one of them. I don’t know how else to simply put it.” Furthermore, the 5-time major winner expressed that he had been making some good putts, but they usually end up in a lip-out. The eventual failure to putt has started wearing him down.
But at the end of the day, Koepka added, “All you can do is hit a good putt and see where it goes from there. Hopefully they start falling soon.” Will things change at LIV Golf Singapore? Brooks Koepka certainly hopes so!