‘It feels like I've gone back to an old friend’

Tom Kim’s putter change at The Masters Tournament last week may appear drastic at first glance, but it was actually a return to a putter style he used in the past.

Since joining the PGA TOUR full-time, Kim, the 20-year-old who’s already pocketed two PGA TOUR victories, has mostly used Scotty Cameron blade-style putters with plumber’s neck hosels. He’s used several custom builds, but each one has a nearly identical construction, aside from the finishes, stampings and paintfills.

Here’s a look at three different putters that Kim has used in the past couple years:

At the Masters, however, Kim shocked golf equipment fans by switching into a Scotty Cameron Tour-Only T5.5 mallet head, although it was custom built with the same plumber’s neck style he had on the blade putters.

(Kim’s previous mallet putter was built with a short slant neck, but Kim grew accustom to the plumber’s neck style he had on his blade designs, so the Scotty Cameron team built the new T5.5 mallet with a plumber’s neck.)

The new mallet allowed Kim to gain confidence with a bigger putter profile, while keeping the familiarity and release pattern that he had with his previous blade putters.

According to Scotty Cameron rep Brad Cloke, Kim used a very similar Scotty Cameron mallet putter while in Korea, and in earlier events on the PGA TOUR. To match the look of his previous mallet putter, Cloke and the Scotty Cameron team equipped the new putter with three alignment lines in the same locations that Kim had previously. The three lines help to frame the ball at address, and help Kim align better to his target.

Kim quickly approved the new putter build after testing. According to Cloke, he talked to Kim about building a new mallet at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He gave the putter to Kim just weeks later at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and it quickly went into play for the first time at The Masters Tournament, where Kim finished T16.

“I used a mallet head a few years back before I switched to a blade – I was always a blade putter, then went to a mallet for a year, and went back to the blade,” Kim told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the RBC Heritage. “I just wasn’t feeling comfortable all the sudden. I wanted to go back to something bigger and more comfortable. Obviously they’ve helped a bunch with the neck, because I didn’t want to go too far off what I was using with the blade, because I was putting well. It’s the exact same look and shape [that I used before]. I practiced with it, putted great, and made the switch. It’s looking good. It’s what I’ve used before with the lines. It feels like I’ve gone back to an old friend.”

Equipment aside, how did Kim feel about his debut Masters performance?

“I felt I played pretty decent,” he said. “I just left a lot of shots out there, which is what really frustrates me. It’s one of my favorite events that I’ve always wanted to play in, and always wanted to win. I felt I played good enough to have a chance on Sunday, just little things like experience and not knowing the shots and the putts, stuff like that. Hopefully I can write that down in the book and remember it for next year.”

For now, Kim takes his new T5.5 mallet putter, with a custom plumber’s neck, to the greens at Harbour Town Golf Links for the RBC Heritage. He’ll look to add PGA TOUR win No. 3 to his resume; he’s 11th in the FedExCup.