Brian Harman explains why he still uses a retail putter from seven years ago

The Open champion Brian Harman is plenty comfortable playing older golf equipment. Actually, that’s the point. When Harman finds something that works and he’s comfortable with it, he sticks with it.

“It’s always hard because you want all the new stuff to be great, and it usually is, but I’m really hard-headed,” Harman told GolfWRX.com. “Once I get something that’s working, it’s hard to get it out of the bag.”

As a man of his word, Harman still uses a Titleist TSi2 driver (released in 2018), TS2 woods (2020), and Titleist 620 CB irons (2019).

His putter is even older.

Harman’s Open Championship-winning putter is a TaylorMade Spider OS CB, which was released to the public back in 2016.

The OS stands for “oversize” and looking at the head profile from address it’s easy to see why.

The large putter was designed for forgiveness and has a dual-winged shape in the back to drive weight away from the face. It also has a double-bend hosel structure, helping make it face-balanced overall, which is what Harman prefers. When compared with a putter that has more toe-hang, a face-balanced putter is typically better suited for golfers who have a straight-back and straight-through putting style, rather than having more of an arc-and-release technique.

Speaking with GolfWRX.com recently, Harman said he picked up his first Spider OS CB putter “off the rack” in a retail store, but he eventually had to replace it because the epoxy was no longer holding.

He replaced his original putter with a new version after a few years, and he’s had to replace the face insert on the new one a few times due to normal wear and tear. But aside from those adjustments, and very brief switches or experiments with other putters, the Spider OS CB has been in his bag since.

“I’ve only spent a couple weeks with it not in the bag for the last 6-7 years,” Harman told GolfWRX.com. “I switched for a minute, and I’ve had to go thru 2-3 different faces. It’s an off-the-rack, oversized – I’ve always liked the bigger, high MOI putters. Face balanced. They’re not for everybody. I think I can probably putt with whatever, but I’m beholden to this one, especially now.”

After winning The Open, where he gained 2.85 strokes on the greens (and made 58-of-59 putts within 10 feet), in addition to him already being “hard-headed” when it comes to switching golf clubs, it’s unlikely we’ll see Harman using a different putter than the TaylorMade Spider OS CB.

Following Harman’s logic, he already knows the putter works, so why switch?