The final round of the 123rd US Open is underway and the co-leaders after 54-holes are using the exact same putter.
Rickie Fowler, who has made an astonishing 21 birdies after three rounds, switched to an Odyssey Versa Jailbird mallet in January, and his playing partner in the final round Wyndham Clark has an exact replica.
Fowler historically one of the world's best putters, has used a blade-style putter for most of his career but moved to the larger mallet with a longer shaft in January after trying out his caddie's putter.
He hit some putts with his caddie Ricky Romano's flat stick and immediately took a liking to it, so he asked Callaway's PGA Tour manager Joe Toulon to make him something similar. What came back featured a 17-inch grip, which he has cut down by 1/8inch this week at the US Open, as well as 20-25 grams of lead tape on the sole.
"I was very shocked, because I never really looked into anything that was longer, counterbalanced, or anything like that," he said earlier this year. It’s very interesting, but it’s kind of freeing me up in a way. I’m not changing stroke-wise, or setup, not gripping anything differently than my normal length putter. I just feel like it’s, I don’t know, kind of helping me do some things, and I don’t have to think about it."
Fowler is putting extremely well with it this week after 54-holes at Los Angeles Country Club, topping the putting statistics, and his playing partner in the final group on both Saturday and Sunday is also putting very well using the exact same model - and it's a funny story.
Much like Fowler with his caddie Romano, Wyndham Clark played a round with Fowler at Medalist in Florida and asked for the exact same putter after seeing Rickie make "every single putt."
"We were playing at Medalist where he belongs in Florida, and I hadn't been putting good, and this was right before Bay Hill, and I played with Rickie, and he just made every single putt," Clark said.
"Afterwards we were practicing a little bit getting ready for it and I hit a couple and I was like, oh, gosh, this is really nice. So I texted the Odyssey guy, and I said, hey, can you make me Rickie's putter? And he's like, well what specs? I said, the exact same.
"So literally had the exact same putter. And I joked with Rickie today, he changed the grip. He changed the grip and cut it an inch, so i was like, all right, I got to change the grip and cut it an inch."
Clark ranks 2nd in the putting statistics this week, behind Fowler. What a story.
