Tiger Woods switches to TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno putter

Tiger Woods returned to the Anser-style putter head shape he’s used for almost his entire career at the Dell Technologies Championship — only this time around it wasn’t the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS that played a part in 13 major championship titles. Instead of going back to something familiar, Woods opted to use a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno with his first name on the bumper — the same head shape Dustin Johnson currently has in the bag — during the first round on Friday. Woods briefly used a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Ardmore 3 mallet for five starts, beginning with the Quicken Loans National, but struggled on the greens during the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs at THE NORTHERN TRUST, ranking 79th in Strokes Gained: Putting. He lost an average of 1.21 strokes per round with the putter at Ridgewood Country Club and recorded 1.865 putts per green in regulation. Woods’ decision to go back to a head shape he’s had so much success with during his career isn’t all that noteworthy. Tiger Woods is using a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno putter. (Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR) What’s interesting about the switch is the fact that Woods’ current 13-club TaylorMade deal doesn’t require him to use one of the company’s putters — meaning he has the freedom to go back to the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS at any point.  The two questions that needed to be answered when Woods switched to a mallet back in late June was how he would react to using a different head shape in competition, and how he would handle TaylorMade’s red 6061 aluminum and polymer-grooved Pure Roll face insert.  While Woods didn’t take to the mallet shape, he likely found the insert and roll it provided to his liking — Woods used a similar polymetal groove design during his time with Nike — which is why he continued with another head shape in the TP Black Copper line instead of re-inserting his trusty Newport 2 GSS.  PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE: Buy equipment here

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