News

Looking for a change: What Tiger Woods said about his new TaylorMade putter

Published

8 years ago

Jun 26, 2018

The golf equipment world was in a tizzy today when Tiger Woods showed up to the practice green at TPC Potomac with a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Ardmore 3. He put the club in the bag during his Tuesday practice round with Harold Varner III, Billy Hurley, and Rod Pampling, leading many to speculate he could, perhaps, make the switch from his vaunted Excalibur.

Woods told reporters he began practicing with the putter recently.

“I’ve been down in the Bahamas the last week, so I’m really gonna give it a good test today and tomorrow because it’s not Bermuda (greens)… I just want to see how it rolls out here. Put it through its paces.”

Could this really happen? Could he shelve his legendary Scotty Cameron Newport 2?

“I’m trying something out. The way I’ve been putting, I wanted to look for a change. That’s all it is. It rolls good. You never know.”

The way he’s been putting, of course, is not very well. The 14-time major champion is No. 89 in strokes gained: putting this season, and he had a particularly poor performance at the U.S. Open in his most recent action, needing 58 putts across 36 holes.

The Ardmore 3 has 12 degrees of toe hang, so it’s anything but the face balanced putter it might appear to be at first glance.

“It has a little more swing than my (Cameron) putter does. It feels good. I wanted something with more swing than mine…I feel like the toe is moving and swinging. It has a fraction more swing than mine does.”

Woods, who won 13 of his 14 majors with the Cameron, has used a mallet a few times in competition, most notably gaming a Nike mallet at the 2011 Masters.

Woods said he doesn’t feel pressure to put the club in the bag merely because he’s a TaylorMade staffer.

“It’s at my discretion,” Woods said. “If I find something that helps me play better, so be it. If it doesn’t, then it’s not going in the bag.”

Whether he plays the Ardmore 3 in his opening round will be a game-time decision, it sounds like. Woods is paired with Marc Leishman and Bill Haas for the first two rounds. They tee off at 1:20 p.m. ET on Thursday.

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Ben Alberstadt

Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

12 Comments

TONEY P

Jul 30, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Even Jack changed putters.

Reply Report comment
gif

Jun 28, 2018 at 12:22 am

Tiger: — “It puttsputtsputts the ball really really gooder… 😛

Reply Report comment
ogo

Jun 27, 2018 at 4:24 pm

Putting skill is solely contained within the design and style of the putter… because they are made of exotic metals machined to very high tolerances and designed scientifically. It’s the putter, stupid … 😛

Reply Report comment
Ben Jones

Jun 27, 2018 at 10:44 am

Looks a little beat up. After using a blade style putter, these are like cheating. I switched from a Scotty to one and immediately started holing putts again.

Reply Report comment
Lee

Jun 26, 2018 at 11:13 pm

That putter has 40* of toe hang since it has the flow neck not the plumber neck.

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Phil

Jun 26, 2018 at 9:12 pm

That putter looks so much better than the red one.

Reply Report comment
Jeff

Jun 26, 2018 at 8:26 pm

“More swing”
Does the Ardmore 3 really have more toe hang than the Newport 2?

Reply Report comment
- The Dude
  
  Jun 27, 2018 at 8:05 pm
  
  sometimes I wonder if Tiger even knows what he is saying….
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Bobby
    
    Aug 16, 2018 at 4:39 pm
    
    Yeah it has more toe hang and swing than his Newport 2 because it’s a slant neck ( I play a #9 it’s similar) vs Newport 2 is plumbers neck and just 1/4 toe hang. He can feel the toe more on this as its heavier, hence the “more swing” he is feeling.
    
    Reply Report comment
John

Jun 26, 2018 at 7:53 pm

His putting has been atrocious, so changing it up a bit may be a good idea. Bench the scotty if necessary and bring it back out once its been in timeout…….Big Tiger fan and if he can get his putting to catch up to his ball striking, I think he will win again (not a major). If he switches to this taylormade putter, wonder how long before he starts playing the taylormade tp ball? The Tour B XS is a good ball, so maybe not, but who knows.

Reply Report comment
gif

Jun 26, 2018 at 7:44 pm

Ima gonna get one a those TM Ardmores to feeel wat Tiger feeeeels… oooºººh

Reply Report comment
Lee

Jun 26, 2018 at 7:29 pm

Welcome to Team Headcase TDub. You are this week’s honorary President.

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News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

4 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

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Why do we use it?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.