Justin Thomas changes putter grips before the Masters

Approach play may be key at Augusta National, but the course’s slick, sloping putting surfaces also require a deft touch.

Justin Thomas, who has a propensity to tinker with his putters, has made a slight change to his flatstick on the eve of the year’s first majors.

This week, at the Masters, Thomas made an experimental grip change to his backup X5 Tour mallet head, and according to him, the new build is getting called up into his starting lineup of equipment for the event.

Thomas showed up to Augusta National Golf Club this week with the familiar X5 Tour mallet, but instead of using an oversized SuperStroke grip – which he’s used throughout the majority of his career – his putter was equipped with a significantly thinner Scotty Cameron pistol grip.

Thomas revealed in his Tuesday press conference that fellow PGA TOUR player Rory McIlroy, as well as his father/swing coach, Mike, helped influence the change.

“In terms of the putter grip…actually I played with Rory last week, and he had it,” Thomas said. “And I’ve seen it. It’s very similar to a grip I’ve used and won with quite a bit. And my dad had it as well. We played on Sunday, and I picked his up and I said ‘this does feel pretty good.’ I’ve traveled with an identical backup every single week, and I just threw it on there to see how it felt, to be perfectly honest, and feels pretty good, so why fight it?”

Thomas is currently ranked 147th in Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA TOUR, so the change could be a kickstarter for Thomas to turn things around on the demanding Augusta National greens.

The new putter build will get its first official test at the first major of the year as Thomas is set to play alongside Jon Rahm and Cameron Young at 10:42 a.m. on Thursday.

Thomas has made several putter changes over the past year.

In the last year alone, he’s rifled through four different custom Scotty Cameron putters in PGA TOUR competition. There was the X5 Tour dual-winged mallet with a short slant neck, a T5 dual-winged 1-of-1 mallet with a knuckle neck and custom sound-enhancing aluminum plate in the back, another T5 dual-winged 1-of-1 mallet with a knuckle neck and a different sound-dampening aluminum plate in the back, and then there was a Circle T 303 SSS blade putter that he owned since high school.

As GolfWRX.com highlighted at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, Thomas estimates that he has “probably 30 to 40” putters at home to choose from, but his in latest PGA TOUR outings in 2023, he’s opted for the Scotty Cameron X5 Tour mallet head with a short slant neck, equipped with a SuperStroke grip.