How do you become one of the most prolific putters in golf history? If you’re Brad Faxon, you find a putter—in his case, a Scotty Cameron FaxDay—and stick with it through thick and thin.
Faxon can count on one hand the number of times he’s changed flatsticks over the course of his 36-year professional career, and when he did entertain something different, it took only a round or two before he reunited with his trusty putter.
Of course, there’s a reason why Faxon has been averse to change. As one of the deadliest putters in golf—his 1.704 putts per green in regulation average during the 2000 season is the best ever recorded on Tour—Faxon never had a good reason to tinker. That includes his specs and his gamer, which have remained frozen in time. “It’s not as pretty as one of Scotty Cameron’s putters off the rack,” Faxon says of his well-worn wand. “But it’s certainly worked pretty well.”
What’s the story behind your Scotty Cameron FaxDay putter?
Faxon: I had a Bullseye putter stolen out of my golf bag my first year on Tour. I lived in Orlando, this was 1984, and it had my name written in script and a little small flange. It really bummed me out. I used a couple of varieties of the Bullseye after that, and then switched to a Ping MyDay in the late ’80s. It was the putter that Curtis Strange had been using. For some reason it just felt good right away. I liked the thinner topline.
I used that putter for probably six or seven years. And then when Scotty Cameron came to Titleist, we went to work on designing a putter after the MyDay, called the FaxDay, that I started using in 1997.
Have you used it for every round since then?
I’d be lying if I told you I used it every competitive round I played, but I have to say that it would be for 99 percent, because I remember using another putter or two for a round. I don’t think I ever switched and used another putter for an entire tournament.
Is it true someone stole one of your FaxDays?
That’s right. It was in early 2000 and Scotty had made a couple of different versions of my putter. He stamped my putters “B1” and “B2” for backup 1 and backup 2. And he stamps the one I use, the gamer, with a G. I don’t know how it got stolen—if it got stolen out of my house or a corporate event—because I always took a backup in the event it went missing. I was working with an instructor at the time, Ron Gring, and had been telling him how bummed out I was about having my putter stolen. He went on eBay and found the putter listed for $9,990.
I was so upset and I said, “What do we do about this?” He reached out to the guy without letting him know he was connected to me. Well, the guy realized it was somebody trying to figure out how to get it back, and he pulled it off there. I’ve never seen it since.
How can you tell your putter apart from a standard Laguna?
Mine has a little thinner topline than the Laguna does, and in order to make it sound a little bit louder, we dug out some cavity behind the face. You can’t really see it. My putter isn’t quite as wide from front to back either. I also had a stiffer shaft in that putter, so it didn’t have so much flex because a lot of new putters now have heavier weight and softer shafts that give it a little bit of kick, which I didn’t like.
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Ever get the putter refinished?
Yes, but it’s more just putting a little oil on it. I’ll also have the line—it’s actually more of a dash—painted on top of the putter. I like the paint to be more of a creamier white than a bright white to have a little bit of a dirty look, like it’s used.
Your shop at home has a few puters on the rack. You a collector?
It’s funny, I have a couple of Scotty’s first putters from before he came to Titleist. One was from his time with Mizuno, and then one year he went on his own and he was called Scott Cameron. Those were some pretty rare putters. I have a good variety, but I never was one of those guys who wanted to just grab a putter out of Scotty’s Tour bag and never use it.
What’s the secret to sticking with the same putter for more than 20 years?
I think it was the comfort of knowing that I was taking an attitude that the more I used it, the more I would be able to know what it feels like to hit a good putt and what it feels like to hit a bad putt. Frankly, any putter that I would use, you could make or miss with. I just said, I’m never going to blame my equipment. If I miss it, I need to have a better routine or stroke.
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