1 reason Justin Thomas is contending at Zozo? His putter
Justin Thomas switched back 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 a big reason why is
The two-time major winner’s 2024 was much better than his dismal 2023 campaign where he failed to make the coveted FedEx Cup top 50.
But it still wasn’t up to the Justin Thomas standard we’ve become used to as a perennial contender on the PGA Tour. Thomas wasn’t offered a spot on the Presidents Cup team like he was for the 2023 Ryder Cup team based on his past record.
A big reason why Thomas still hasn’t won since the 2022 PGA Championship is that his putting this season was actually worse than it was a year ago. Thomas’ ball striking numbers were back to what we’re used to, ranking 11th this year in strokes gained: approach, up from 39th in 2023, but he lost nearly half a stroke on the greens per round, almost .35 strokes worse than last year and down to 167th on Tour.
As one can imagine, he’s been trying a myriad of different putters this season trying to cure his struggles on the greens. He started the year using his familiar Scotty Cameron X5 mallet, a putter he used to win the 2017 PGA Championship and 2021 Players Championship. The putter features a dual-wing design and wielded flow neck to give the mallet more blade-like properties.
But that putter was switched out by the Masters with a similar but newer T5 mallet. That putter lasted till the memorial when Thomas completely changed looks and went with a Scotty Cameron G.S.S. blade putter that was originally made for and given to him by Vanderbilt standout Gordon Sargent.
3 reasons to believe Justin Thomas can get his first win in 2.5 years
The blade was only in the bag for about a month before he inserted a Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour prototype mallet, a completely new and bigger shape to him. That putter stayed in the bag until this week when “old reliable,” the X5 mallet he started the year with, was back in play this week in Japan.
“Yeah, it was good. I made some nice putts,” Thomas said after his opening-round 66, where he gained .238 strokes putting. “Even some putts that I missed I felt like they were good putts. I burned a couple edges. When greens have this much break, you really have to be precise with your speed and matching everything up. I feel like I did a really good job of that.”
Thomas’ feel is one thing, but the stats back him up. Through three rounds this week, Thomas is 29th in the 77-man field, gaining just over a stroke on the greens for the week. The 1.099 mark is already nearly double his best four-round total this season of .663.
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