Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the weekly gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.
Perfect timing
Ludvig Aberg was already in the discussion for a spot on the European Ryder Cup team before he teed off on Sunday in the Swiss Alps. The Swede turned pro in June and quickly forced captain Luke Donald’s hand with four top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour, followed by a T4 two weeks ago on the DP World Tour at the Czech Masters.
Even with a truncated resume, Aberg’s peers started to take notice. But most still figured it would take a trophy to solidify his spot.
“I feel like he kind of needed to win or come very close to winning this week to warrant a pick,” said two-time DP World Tour winner Eddie Pepperell, “and if he doesn’t do that and still gets a pick, I worry a little bit what that means for the guys like, whoever is going to become at the expense of that.”
No one has to wonder after what transpired on Sunday afternoon.
Ludvig Aberg made a recent switch to @odysseygolf's White Hot Versa One. Had several putters built for future testing at 3M Open, including current gamer.
— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) September 1, 2023
Similar specs to his old Works Versa #1, down to the same White Hot Microhinge insert for feel and sound preferences. pic.twitter.com/UYxYI0gXSU
Aberg birdied four of his final five holes to defeat Matt Fitzpatrick at the Omega European Masters to ensure his place in Rome. While it’s easy to look at the uber-efficient swing and assume his ball-striking keyed the victory — no doubt it played a massive role — it was actually a club that confounded the 23-year-old until recently.
Following his first missed cut of the year Scottish Open, mainly because of a poor putting performance, Aberg connected with Odyssey Tour rep Cody Hale at the 3M Open to see if something could be done to get his Odyssey Works Versa One — an Anser-style blade he’d been using since 2015 — back on track.
Aberg didn’t make any adjustments to the gamer that week, but he left Minnesota with several Odyssey putters to test at home, including a White Hot Versa One that surfaced at the Czech Masters.
A fourth-place finish earned the putter another week in the bag, which turned into his first DP World Tour win one week later in Switzerland.
While the putter is “new,” Hale confirmed the White Hot Versa has a relatively similar head shape to his former gamer and features the same Versa technology. Aberg even chose to stick with the same insert.
“Based on some feedback from his gamer, we were able to utilize one of our different inserts, White Hot Microhinge, to target his preference for sound and feel,” Hale told GOLF.com.
To say the putter transition was seamless is an understatement.
For some pros, a cold putter might mean shaking things up completely and going to something markedly different. For others, it’s sticking with the same design in a different color scheme for a fresh look.
For Aberg, all it took was the latter to get the putter back on the rails — just in time for the Ryder Cup.
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