Putter that won Hunter the Matchplay
It is not uncommon for tour professionals to tinker with equipment.
It is, however, quite rare for a player to switch to a radically-different putter on one of the year’s most important weeks.
New Match Play champion Hunter Mahan has used a traditional blade putter throughout his career but noticed he’d been pushing a lot of putts. Closer examination with a Ping tour rep and a laser showed he was aiming left and compensating with his stroke.
After trialling several models, he settled on a prototype – the Ping Nome – a face-balanced, milled concept putter.
With the Nome, Mahan was consistently aiming squarely.
As his putting improved, his confidence sky-rocketed, and he was deadly on the greens all week, making 35 birdies in 96 holes and seeing off the likes of Steve Stricker and Rory McIlroy. He’s now the World No 9 and is nearly £900,000 richer.
“I felt great with my game coming in,” Mahan said. “I made a putter switch to the Ping Nome putter and felt great on the greens immediately.”
The Nome putter was due to be released in April, but it is likely that the increased exposure will lead Ping to bring it to market earlier than planned.
