Tiger switches putters

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Could a new flat stick help put Tiger Woods, once the greatest exponent of putting, back on the path to glory?

Could a new flat stick help put Tiger Woods, once the greatest exponent of the very special art of putting, back on the path to glory?

Clearly he is hoping it will – and with this in mind, the beleaguered World Number One confirmed on Tuesday that he had made the switch and will tee off with a new Nike putter at the 150th Open at St Andrews on Thursday.

Woods has been playing with the same Titelist putter for the last 12 years during which time he has nailed some amazing putts, but in recent months he has been struggling on the greens and it was noticeable that he was using a new putter during a practice round this week when he indicated that he was ready to switch to a swoosh putter for the first time..

The putter in question is a Nike Method and while Woods has also brought with him his regular Titleist Scotty Cameron putter, he reportedly told Associated Press during the week that, “I think I’m going to stick with this one.”

Now that it has turned out that he will, it will be the first time in his career that all 14 clubs in his bag are Nike products.

His trusty Scotty Cameron, made by Titleist, his previous golf equipment provider, was first used at the 1999 Byron Nelson Classic, and since that time he has won 72 times around the world, 13 of those in majors with it.

After his miserable putting performance at Aronimink two weeks ago where he tied for 46th, Woods seems to have accepted the old adage, however, that apart from death, the only thing you can be really sure of is that nothing ever stays the same, and has finally decided that it is time to make a putter change.

PA Sport reports that the scale was finally tipped the Nike putter’s way by the satisfactory way he has been able to perform on the links greens of the Old Course which, he says, he finds slower than what he is used to in US majors

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