Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, J.J. Spaun all make putter changes at Travelers Championship
The big names are still tinkering their setups ahead of the final major of the season.
It's a big week for chopping and changing on the greens at TPC River Highlands.
With The Open racing towards us and the fallout of the U.S. Open still settling, it's clear that many of the big names on tour are on the hunt for something to revitalise their game.
Take, for instance, the trio of Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler and J.J. Spaun, who were all relative non-factors at the U.S. Open last week – the latter missing the cut in his title defence.
The solution for all three, it seems, is a change of approach on the greens, with Golf.com gear insider Jack Hirsh reporting that the trio have respectively switched into new putters for the first round of this weekend's Travelers Championship.
Spaun, in the midst of a rough weekend at Shinnecock Hills last week, made an eyebrow-raising mid-tournament switch out of the L.A.B. Golf OZ.1 he used to win his maiden major last year, and into a new model from the company, the VZN.1i. He was unable to get his game going on the greens, however, and has switched instead into a new Scotty Cameron this week
The model in particular is a high-MOI Phantom 9.5R mallet, fitted with a custom flow neck.
Spaun isn't the only big name to switch from a L.A.B. into a Scotty in recent memory. Rickie Fowler did the same around the start of this season, embracing a centre-shafted GoLo Prototype. This week, however, he put an even more experimental putter from Cameron in the bag, in the form of an all-aluminium Xperimental Phantom Prototype.
Rose, in contrast, actually made a move away from his Scotty Cameron, switching into a new, SP Series Axiom mid-mallet from boutique zero torque brand Axis1. Rose has worked with Axis1 before, and actually had a signature model with the brand that he used from 2019 until 2024.
Rose in particular was a beneficiary of his switch, putting absolutely lights out en-route to an opening round 65 that has him sat in a tie for eighth.
Spaun lies just one shot behind at 4-under, and both were in the top 15 in strokes gained: putting on the day. Fowler, meanwhile, is T46 at 1-under.
Brad Nash is Reviews Editor at GolfMagic, having joined the team in June 2025 to look after all things reviews, soft goods testing and equipment alongside Equipment Editor Georgina. Primarily a writer, you may see him pop up in videos or on the GolfMagic socials from time to time.
