Reed, Rory set up epic Masters showdown

Jason Day displayed a flashback of greatness on the greens last week at The American Express. He finished second in Strokes Gained: Putting en route to a T18 finish, his fifth top-25 in his last six starts. It was a successful debut for Day's custom Scotty Cameron F-5.5 Tour Black putter, which earned a place in his bag after a long road of experimentation. Day has experienced a downturn on the greens in the last few years when compared to his peak putting years of the mid-2010s, when he reached No. 1 in the world and won both the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS. Day finished sixth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting in 2015 and first the following year. Fast forward to 2021 and Day finished 95th in the category. He was 87th last season. Day has been experimenting with putters from various brands, searching for the right look, feel and performance. He used either a TaylorMade Spider Tour mallet or an Odyssey Toulon Daytona for the majority of last year, but he switched into a Scotty Cameron putter for the first time at the Shriners Children's Open in October. Day said he worked closely with Scotty Cameron tour rep Drew Page to find a mallet shape that better suited his preferences. Day told GolfWRX.com at the Shriners that although his usual TaylorMade Spider Tour and Odyssey Toulon Daytona putters both sat square to the target, he perceived that the putters actually aimed to the left, thus causing an alignment issue. The new Scotty Cameron mallet he switched to, though, had a more rounded shape, and Day was able to realign his vision back on target. Day used that custom Scotty Cameron mallet up until The American Express, where he then switched to a nearly identical Scotty Cameron F-5.5 prototype, with the only key difference being a new Tour Black finish. "Typically a square look on a putter makes it look more left," Day told GolfWRX. "Then, a rounded putter like the (Scotty Cameron) mallet looks more right. I don't know if that's something, but to me that's what it looks like." Day also found that his new Scotty Cameron had additional toe hang, which helped him establish a more free-flowing stroke and release through impact. "It promotes a more open feel on the way back, and closed on the way through," Day explained. "Right now, the weight feels pretty good. The face ... I would say the TaylorMade putter is softer. The Daytona is right between the TaylorMade and the Scotty, and I would say the Scotty is just slightly firmer, but it's still a solid feeling putter. I would say that I had 1.5-1.75 degrees (of loft) on both the TaylorMade and the Daytona, and my hands had got a little bit too far back. I think (the Scotty Cameron) has, I want to say just over 2 degrees, so I can actually sit the club a bit more forward, or neutral. I would say it's a little bit more forward, which is nice. Overall, the club swings nice, it feels good, it seems like the initial roll or bounce off the putter, it's rolling pretty quickly. "If you look at a slow-mo camera, you want a little bit of a skid, and then roll pretty quickly straight off the face, but it just depends what your flavor is. For me, personally, the Spider and the Daytona just were looking too far left to me. I don't know if it was just not enough degrees of loft, but either way it was looking left. I despise hitting it left, and missing it left. I'd much rather miss all my putts right because it's just easier for me to correct. This one is coming off straight." According to Page, Day liked the look of some other Tour Black putter models that he saw from Scotty Cameron, so he requested a new Tour Black version of the rounded-mallet putter that he previously switched to at the Shriners Open. Finally, after months and years of testing and experimenting, it all came back together on the greens at The American Express. And, when GolfWRX caught up with Day this week at Torrey Pines, he still had the new Scotty Cameron F-5.5 Tour Black putter in his bag. Will the new midnight colorway continue to help Day see the light? We'll find out this week at the Farmers Insurance Open, as he tries to win his third Farmers Insurance Open and his first win in five years.