Out on the PGA Tour, when one player starts to have success with something, it doesn’t take long for others to take notice and try it for themselves.

Specifically, putters catch fire more often than other clubs.

In recent years, the Jailbird craze of 2023 is an obvious example, with Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley all winniung with Jailbird Cruisers in the span of two months. This year, hordes of pros have flocked to TaylorMade’s Spider putters after the boatloads of wins by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

Now, Cam Young’s Phantom 9.5R has the potential to be the next hot putter.

This week, Justin Thomas made a switch to an essential copy of the putter after Young won the Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship over the past month and a half.

It’s Thomas’ second switch in a month after he benched his Phantom 5.5 gamer midway through the RBC Heritage last month and played well on the weekend using a backup Newport 2 GSS blade.

He continued using that putter last week, but at Quail Hollow, he wanted to find something that would stick long term. He had worked himself nearly back to 0 strokes gained: putting after a disastrous start to his season at Bay Hill, before a rough opening two rounds at Harbour Town. He lost strokes with the blade last week in Miami.

“Some of it is just calibration. … some of it is just, he, you know, the potential of making good putts but not seeing anything go in type of thing,” Scotty Cameron Tour Rep Brad Cloke told GOLF. “It just seemed like he kind of wanted to start a little bit from scratch this week.”

So he asked for a couple of new putters, including some 9.2Rs, a shape he used previously, and a copy of Cam Young’s 9.5R.

“I literally texted Cameron’s guys and said, ‘Just give me Cam’s putter,’” Thomas said Friday, who played with Young the first two days.

Not an uncommon request.

Scotty Cameron 2026 Phantom 9.2R Custom Putter

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“Obviously, with the success that Cam is having … these guys are as they see success and they want to see what it’s all about potentially,” Cloke said.

In addition to having a low-bend shaft that mimics the look and toe hang of a jet neck, Thomas’s 5.5 also has smooth face milling that makes it a bit louder-sounding and firmer.

His new putter matches Young’s so it has mid-milled face, but he’s actually preferred the milling on the new 9.5R.

“It was more so of like, ‘Hey, this is different, but I’m kind of liking it,’” Cloke said. “The comment that I heard from him was about feel, but it was more so like, ‘I’m actually surprised I like the way this feels.’”

While the putter is Thomas’ spec length and has his grip, it has the same graphite shaft Young uses and a full-length sight line. Thomas found that made it super easy to line up.

“It’s just so hard to putt well if you don’t have confidence, and so hard to have confidence unless you’re seeing it go in more often,” Thomas said. “So I really, really worked hard Monday through Wednesday on my speed and start line and everything to where I just felt like I was in a better place and more freed up when I was putting.”

Through two rounds, it’s been highly successful as Thomas sits at seven under going into the weekend and is gaining nearly three strokes on the field, good for top 10 in the stat.

Sahith Theegala’s newest putter wasn’t random, finally

While the biggest story in Ping putters was Tony Finau’s bizarre technique with a prototype Oslo Onset long putter early in the week, he ended up going back to the Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset he switched to in February.

In fact, Ping’s Ally Blue headshape had a solid week, earning two high-profile conversions, one so surprising Ping Tour Rep Kenton Oates didn’t even take it seriously.

Sahith Theegala, who, as we profiled in Bag Spy this week, loves to practice with random putters every week on the PGA Tour before returning to his longtime Anser gamer, was losing a putting contest on the practice green using an Ally Blue H when Oates hollered over for him to try his gamer.

“He goes, ‘This is what I used Sunday of Cadillac,’” Oates said. “And I go, ‘What? 
He goes, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to use it on Thursday.’”

Theegala followed through on Thursday in the first round of the Truist Championship and kept it in the bag for Friday as well.

Turns out, this wasn’t another random practice putter for Theegala; this is something he worked on with Ping Principal Design Engineer Tony Serrano. He’s actually had the putter for over a year.

Theegala started working on a mallet putter with Serrano, feeling like he could gain forgiveness over his Anser blade.

“The key thing for him is, he has a certain stroke, a certain rotation in his stroke that requires something with some toe down,” Serrano said. “He’s always played an Anser 2 that hang at that 40 or 42 degrees that work perfectly for his stroke.”

PING Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset Custom Putter

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The Ally Blue H has the same plumber’s neck hosel Theegala is used to and similar CG and toe hang properties, making it a more natural transition.

At the RSM Classic last November, Serrano and Theegala spent lots of time with a Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue H, but it was the PLD Milled version that ended up going in the bag. Theegala ended up putting a counterbalance grip on it as well, but Serrano didn’t know when or why he added that himself.

A new Ally Blue H is also in the bag of Kristoffer Reitan as the PGA Tour rookie finds himself three off the lead heading into the weekend.

Reitan’s PLD Milled Ally Blue H is virtually identical to the Scottsdale Tec version, complete with the aluminum head, steel sole plate and PEBAX insert. But it was made from scratch to have an uninterrupted sight line.

After visiting Ping’s PLD Putting Lab in February, the Ping team discovered that Reitan needed a putter with more toe hang than the face-balanced model he was using. He loved the Scottsdale TEC feel and visual with the white head, but just wanted a full sight line.

Serrano said it was simply easier to make him a new PLD head than repurpose an existing Scottsdale TEC.

Rory McIlroy returns to Qi4D 3-wood

In his first event back since winning his second green jacket, Rory McIlroy changed the one club he switched out for his his big Masters win.

After using a Qi4D fairway wood since November, McIlroy went back to his Qi10 3-wood for the Masters, and promptly won his fifth straight major for the club.

But that turns out to be a short-term reversion for McIlroy as he’s back in a Qi4D 3-wood at Quail Hollow, where he’s won four times.

McIlroy said on Wednesday the switch was made because his Qi4D had a bit of a left miss.

“I had been using the 4D 3-wood at the start of the season. I noticed that it just had a little bit of a left bias in it,” McIlroy said. “So I went back to an old Qi10 for a while. But that wasn’t, it really wasn’t spinning enough. It’s more like a mini driver than a 3-wood.”

McIlroy actually said that kind of club could be useful at the Memorial, seemingly teasing he’ll use it at Muirfield Village next month, but for this week at Quail Hollow and next week at the PGA Championship, he wanted something with a bit more spin.

He started working on a new 3-wood with the TaylorMade team.

TaylorMade Qi4D Custom Fairway Wood

PROVEN RECIPE

TaylorMade Fairways have dominated on Tour for over a decade because of their unique performance recipe, which enables maximum distance and versatility.
The Qi4D fairway is designed for golfers who want the most advanced technology while still prioritizing versatility and control with amazing distance.

ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE

Utilizing a single Trajectory Adjustment System weight (8g x1) provides the golfer a more mass efficient way to adjust flight, spin and swing weight.
4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight and is available in all lofts.

REFINED ATTRIBUTES, BIG CHANGES

Engineers conducted an objective analysis of all the performance attributes and discovered new methods to enhance performance and confidence.
Sit points, lie angles, address views, and center of gravity locations were all updated based on Tour feedback and the expertise of leading fitters worldwide, ensuring the optimal fairway across skill levels.

TOUR-PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES

New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes.
Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation for TaylorMade fairway performance.
Twist Face features corrective face curvature designed to provide straighter shots on mishits.
Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to maximize performance by increasing discretionary weight.

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“Post-Augusta we went back and looked at the data and he was actually getting center strikes that were drawing too much,” TaylorMade Tour rep Keith Sbarbaro said. “So the club was acting like he was toeing it. It was kind of gear-affecting left.
 
“So what we did is we moved the CG a little more toward the toe to try and square that up. The other thing he was getting some under-spinning shots that were knuckling a little bit.”

With the new 3-wood, Sbarbaro said McIlroy hit eight shots that all spun between 3,100 and 3,300 RPM and flew right on target. That’ll do!

Check this out

This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Justin Thomas’ 10-plus-year old Titleist 915Fd 5-wood.

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Reitan also has a new Ping G440 K driver with a Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro White shaft. … Titleist launched the GTS300 Mini Driver on the PGA Tour this week, with the name suggesting it’s larger than its predecessor. … Brooks Koepka began his post-Srixon era with a new Grove XXIII staff bag and set of Vokey SM11 wedges, along with a rare WedgeWorks 60B Lob Wedge. … Lucas Glover added new GTS2 15.0 and 21.0 fairway woods. … Five players added new TaylorMade Qi4D fairways: Nico Echavarria (Qi4D 3-wood), Jason Day (Qi4D 9-wood), Robert MacIntyre (Qi4D 7-wood), Denny McCarthy (Qi4D Tour 3-wood) and Matt Wallace (Qi4D 7-wood) … McCarthy also switched to a Spider Tour X L-neck.

After six Players Championships and a whole bunch of other Sunday afternoons at golf’s biggest events, I’ve developed an entirely unscientific theory about TPC Sawgrass’ famed Island Green 17th.

If you’re in the hunt late on Sunday and you fire for the flagstick side of the tucked Sunday pin placement, good things happen.

Cameron Young’s performance throughout the famed closing stretch at the Players Championship on Sunday deserves plaudits — he made pars on 16 while plugged in a bunker from 50 yards out and on 18 after hitting the longest drive in that hole’s history — but it was his tee shot in the 17th that I thought revealed the most about him. With Young’s tournament hopes hanging on a birdie on the hole, he stepped to the most terrifying tee shot at Sawgrass and delivered a seed straight at the flagstick. He was rewarded with a 10-footer for birdie that he drained, sending the crowd into a tizzy and tilting the balance of the tournament in his direction.

The thrust of my theory around the 17th has less to do with strategy than it does with gumption, and it can be distilled into the following sentence: You can’t bother playing TPC Sawgrass smartly. If you want to win on Sunday, you need: 1. birdies 2. risk tolerance and 3. guts. The kind of golfers who thrive in that kind of environment are the ones who view the course and the tournament not as something to be feared but as something to be challenged. After seizing the biggest win of his life on Sunday, Young summarized it nicely.

“The way everything is raised, you just know all eyes are right there on you,” Young said. “There’s nowhere to hide, and I feel like I stepped up really well and hit a bunch of good shots those last couple holes, so I’m very proud of that.”

After a week on the ground at Sawgrass, it seems only fitting to start today’s stock report with the character who stared fear in the face and won: Young.

Players Championship 2026 stock report

Cam Young: Stock UP

It always seemed likely that Cam Young would break through on a stage like the Players Championship. Young’s general competitive disposition received a major shot in the arm with a dominant performance at the Ryder Cup in September, and players tend to carry their form in the Cup in the years that follow. Scottie Scheffler turned an impressive Ryder Cup in 2021 into four years as the best golfer on the planet; Max Homa turned an impressive Ryder Cup in ’23 into a T2 at the Masters the following April; Justin Rose turned his performances in ’23 and ’25 into three extra years at the pinnacle of the sport in the twilight of his career; and now Cameron Young joins the club with a career-defining win at the Players arriving just months after a fan-endearing week at Bethpage.

Collin Morikawa: Stock DOWN

It’s hard to get knocked for WDing on your second hole of the golf tournament. But the nature of Morikawa’s WD and the fact he intimated it’d happened before stick out as red flags for me, even if the injury itself isn’t more serious than a pulled muscle. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.

Ludvig Aberg: Stock UP

This might sound counterintuitive considering the way Aberg bombed out of contention on Sunday after entering the day with a three-shot lead, but I actually thought Ludvig’s gameplan was commendable. He played aggressively. He attacked flags. He stayed on the offensive. In the end, his head wasn’t quite there, and his performance suffered. It happens. Nobody’s writing the final script on Aberg’s career after that performance on Sunday, and I’d even go as far as to argue that his plainspokenness about the issues he ran into could serve to help him overcome them in the near future.

For now, the stock stays up. But it’s probably better if this doesn’t become a theme.

Scottie Scheffler: HOLD

Nothing I saw last week made me believe that the World No. 1’s recent blip is anything more than a blip. In fact, if I were betting on the most likely outcome of the next six weeks of my life, it would include spotting Scheffler ducking his way into Butler Cabin on Sunday evening in a few weeks as the newest Masters winner.

BUT … Scheffler looks as frustrated with his own golf game as we’ve seen him in quite a while. It’s almost as if his own standards rose with all of ours. I thought it was interesting hearing Justin Thomas’ assessment of Scheffler’s driver and iron woes at Sawgrass.

“No, you can just tell [something is off],” Thomas said. “It’s just timing and trying to match it up.”

Of course, timing is a pretty big deal for a swing as fluid and athletic as Scheffler’s — but Thomas didn’t seem too worried about him figuring it out.

“He’s still hitting shots that not many people on planet earth can hit in the same rounds,” Thomas said. “It’s just golf. He’s been hitting it pretty much where he wants within like a blanket size for what seems like two or three years. He’s still had a pretty damned good year. I know I’d trade with him.”

If Thomas isn’t worried about it, then neither am I.

Matt Fitzpatrick: Stock UP

I’d buy all the Matt Fitzpatrick stock I can get my hands on right now — not just because of the way he snuck into contention at the Players and came within an inch of his life of winning the tournament, but also because of his candor in speaking with the press about the … unsavory fan attitudes as the tournament neared its conclusion.

I don’t think the fans decided the tournament. And I certainly don’t think they rattled Fitz. But I respect the hell out of a golfer who’s willing to shoot straight after coming up short in the heat of battle. It reflects something about his competitive makeup — perhaps an acknowledgment that tournaments are won and lost on very small margins and occasionally the result of randomness — that will serve him well the next time he winds up in this spot.

Justin Thomas: Stock UP

Speaking of Thomas, the Players was a reminder of how much fun golf is when he’s in contention. Thomas is one of the more candid voices on Tour, and his game is an old-school blend of shotmaking and gumption. After surgery cost him the better part of six months, he’s going to need some time to get his groove back. But once he stops getting “spacey” on the course? Well, the Tour will be glad to have him.

Jordan Spieth: STAY AWAY

As your Certified Golfing Analyst (CGA), it’s my fiduciary duty to shoot straight — and here is me shooting straight: I’m not sure I can advise you to buy any stock in Jordan Spieth right now … because I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with him myself. On Friday afternoon, Spieth looked like a vision of old, talking about “weird golf” and playing miraculous recovery shots from inside trees and generally displaying the kind of topsy-turvy golf that makes his game thrilling and totally addicting. After it was done, Spieth even admitted to the press that he’s “really, really close” to the kind of golf he’s spent the last decade trying to rediscover. For a second, I believed it! But then I saw him battling to stay under par on Sunday after a Saturday 76 that punted him out of the tournament, and I wondered if those visions were a mirage.

If you have conviction about which way this is headed, you’re probably wrong. Buy or sell at your own risk!

Xander Schauffele: BUY

Thank god PGA Tour events are 72 holes, because if the last we’d seen of Schauffele was his disastrous third round at TPC Sawgrass, we might be legitimately concerned for the rest of his season. Thankfully, Schauffele had Sunday to set the record straight — and that’s just what he did, shooting three under with birdies on each of the last three holes to claim the clubhouse lead and eventually a solo third finish.

One of the things I admire about Schauffele is his mental toughness. He never seems to get too high or too low, even when the wheels are falling off or a major championship is within his grasp. He needed all of those competitive juices on Sunday at Sawgrass, and it was enough to set the arrow pointing up heading to Augusta.

Brooks Koepka: Stock UP

The winner of the quietest top-15 at Sawgrass by a very wide margin? Brooks Koepka, who shot 6 under for the week and finished T13. Perhaps most impressive about Koepka’s performance was his effort on the 17th, where he landed the ball on the green on all four tournament days for the first time in his career.

I get that a T13 without really making any noise isn’t anything to get overly excited about … but if he’s in the hunt on Sunday in Augusta in a few weeks, something tells me we’ll be viewing this outcome differently.