Tiger Woods puts new mallet in play, struggles continue on greens

Using a mallet putter for the first time in his PGA Tour career, Tiger Woods carded an opening-round 70 to lie seven strokes off the pace on day one at the Quicken Loans National. 

Woods was spotted testing the TaylorMade Ardmore 3 mallet putter earlier in the week and indeed put it in play for the first round en route to taking 29 putts for a level-par round that featured two birdies and a double bogey.

Looking at Woods' stats with the putter on day one and the switch unfortunately still didn't make for pleasant reading, ranking 92nd in strokes-gained putting and 100th in putts per green in regulation. Woods' longest putt holed was just nine feet. 

But it's all part of the process for Woods, who is rumoured to have tested up to 15 new TaylorMade putters in recent weeks.

“Most of the guys out here are using mallets now. It's very interesting,” said Woods, who has benched his beloved Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter that he won 13 of his 14 majors in favour of the TaylorMade Ardmore 3 mallet.

“They're using more technology in their putters. I went to more technology when I was with Nike.”

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW: TIGER'S NEW PUTTER

Despite the lack of holed putts, something that has become all too familiar for the 14-time major champion of late, Woods is liking the progress he sees in his stroke with his new friend.

“I had good putts that just didn’t go in, which is fine,” said Woods, who finished his day tied for 48th. “I hit the line I wanted, and I hadn’t done that in a while.”

Andrew Landry and JJ Spaun lead after 18 holes on 7-under par with Billy Horschel one back in a tie for third.