Olympic golfer Tom Kim explains new putter choice in Paris

South Korea’s Tom Kim has switched to a brand-new Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 putter for the the men’s Olympic golf competition in France.

Throughout his PGA TOUR career, Kim has mostly used a blade-style putter, although he has experimented with other approaches, including this week.

Before the opening round at Le Golf National, the 22-year-old made an impromptu switch to a mallet putter. It paid off as he shot a 5-under 66, a number only surpassed by Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (63), and Xander Schauffele of the United States (65).

“It kind of just gave me a different feel over the ball and I definitely put a lot of work into it after the Open Championship and it definitely performed well,” Kim said after his first round at the Paris Games. “It definitely wasn’t in mind to be honest. It actually just kind of happened. They shipped it over after The British (Open). I didn’t really plan to switch. It was just outperforming the one I was using and made sense.”

Kim began testing the new prototype Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2, which made waves when Justin Thomas used it for the first time at the Genesis Scottish Open.

“This particular mallet, which is our Phantom 9, we call it a 9.2 because it’s got the plumber’s neck on it, is just really influenced from other players,” Brad Cloke, Scotty Cameron player representative told PGATOUR.COM. “So this is a very similar setup to what we built for Justin Thomas, the one that kind of got a lot of buzz a couple of weeks ago … Tom kind of noticed it and hit some putts with Justin’s and we had talked about doing something like that more so for an offseason test.”

Kim made his TOUR Championship debut last season, and this putter change could be the spark to help him rise into the top 30 in the world.

The plumber’s neck inset, which is mostly seen on putters made in the classic blade form, is the key component of the Phantom 9.2 prototype that assisted Kim in making the switch from the blade to the mallet head.

“The plumber’s neck is the big thing and I think for Tom (Kim) that’s a good thing because it kind of gives him the best of both worlds,” Cloke added. “The plumber’s neck mallet gives him the familiarity that he sees in the blade but gives him kind of that forgiveness and that framing aspect of the mallet itself.”

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