Justin Thomas is turning to a trusty outdated Scotty Cameron blade putter at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Getty Images, Dylan Dethier
KAPALUA, Hawaii — Justin Thomas is throwing it back at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Like, means back.
Thomas is starting the 2023 calendar 12 months with an outdated Scotty Cameron putter he first put into play in center college however hasn’t utilized in competitors since faculty.
His new (outdated) weapon on the greens is a Scotty Cameron Newport Circle T with “JT” stamped on the back. And after consulting with our precise gear guru Jonathan Wall I can let you know the “SSS” and “303” stamped on the back are literally descriptive; the 303 refers to the kind of stainless-steel whereas SSS stands for “Surgical Stainless Steel.”
Thomas had been placing with a Scotty Cameron Phantom T5 Prototype, a dual-winged mallet head. Thomas switched into the Phantom T5 simply earlier than profitable final 12 months’s PGA Championship, though the form of the pinnacle was comparable to the Scotty Cameron X5 mallet he had used to win 13 instances on Tour.
But on Wednesday at Kapalua he was rolling putts within the pro-am with the old-school blade and confirmed he’s planning to put it in play for the event, too, marking a return to simplicity and familiarity. Thomas’ first Tour victory — on the 2015 CIMB Classic — got here with a blade putter. Now he’ll strive to add one other.
“I travel with this putter a bunch. I’ve brought it to tournaments with no intention of really using it, but it’s good for practice,” Thomas defined. He’s hoping it’s good for competitors, too.
Thomas has labored laborious to enhance his placing with John Graham, a short-game guru who has been a trusted advisor since Thomas missed the lower on the 2020 Travelers.
Sentry Tournament of Champions betting information: 3 picks we love in Kapalua
Josh Sens
“Since I’ve been working with John, my mechanics are like, night-and-day different,” Thomas stated on Wednesday. “I’ve just had the tendency of really flaring it open on the takeaway and then dragging [the putter head] behind on the way through. I could do it repetitively, but when it was bad it was bad.”
Thomas is a streaky putter who has seen cold and warm stretches earlier than; he really gained strokes placing final 12 months and ranked eighty fifth on Tour, his greatest quantity for the reason that 2017-18 season. He credit his work with Graham on that enchancment.
“It’s wild how different it is,” he stated of his stroke. But he completed 2022 on a chilly streak; InformationGolf measured him dropping strokes on the greens in 5 of his last seven begins (not together with the Hero World Challenge, which has no information), a stretch that included only one prime 10 on the Tour Championship.
Thomas enters as one of many betting favorites, going off at +1100 behind simply Jon Rahm (+650), Scottie Scheffler (+900) and Patrick Cantlay (+1000). He has a terrific file at Kapalua, with two wins and 5 top-fives in seven begins.
Thomas, who reached World No. 1 in 2018 and once more in 2020, begins the 12 months at No. 8.
New 12 months, new putter. Well, outdated putter.
“I like putting with it,” he stated with a shrug. “So why fight it?”
