Justin Thomas explains inspiration behind switch to Scotty Cameron ‘Proto’ putter

Justin Thomas has revealed how he came to change his putter ahead of the Scottish Open.

Thomas has been hunting for the right putter for some time as he identified the need to improve on the greens.

Now he has turned to a Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype after being inspired by his good friend Jordan Spieth.

“Yeah, it came about, as funny as it is, I saw Jordan (Spieth) and Paul Vizanko at Scotty Cameron had made one for Jordan, just to have for him to mess with and something for him to see how he liked it,” Thomas said. “I happened to be staying with Jordan a couple times over that stretch when he got it and I picked it up and I thought it looked amazing. I thought it felt great.

“Talking to Paul about it there were a lot of characteristics in the way the putter was built that helped a pretty good amount with my bad tendencies, I would say in my stroke or they just able to help that and so I asked him to make me up one and send me one.”

In his first round with the new flatstick, Thomas ranked third in strokes gained at the Renaissance, returning 62 to lead the field.

Among the 113 feet worth of putts he made, Thomas would drain an 11-foot double-breaking par save at the 17th hole which clearly fired him up.

“I played really solid today and that par putt on 17 was huge,” Thomas said post-round. “I love going bogey-free.”

The new Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype has a similar head design as the Phantom 9.5 but with significantly more rounded edges. Thomas has mostly used Scotty Cameron’s dual-winged X5 Tour and T5 Proto head models throughout his career, and the new prototype in use for the first time in Scotland follows suit. The putter features a single top alignment line and a matte steel finish.

“I try to really spend the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday just getting acclimated like all of us to the grass and how the ball rolls,” Thomas said about the adjustments he made on the greens. “Just try to make as many as you can.”

The Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype wasn’t the only club debuted by the 2017 FedEx Cup winner.

Thomas switched to Titleist’s new line of GT driver off the tee and was seen swinging the Titleist GT2 driver with a Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

“When you drive it well, like I did for the most part today, you have a lot of short clubs,” Thomas said, “and I see nothing but the pin.”