Tom Kim switches to Justin Thomas-inspired prototype Scotty Cameron putter at Olympics

The Olympics is one of the biggest stages in sports. Athletes train for four years to become the best in their discipline and when they get there everything is fine-tuned to the most microscopic detail. But not for South Korea’s Tom Kim, who switched to a brand-new Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 putter for the first round of the men’s Olympic golf competition.

Kim has played a blade-style putter for most of his PGA TOUR career but has tinkered with other styles, as he has this week. The 22-year-old made the unplanned change to a mallet putter before Thursday’s opening round at Le Golf National, and it paid off with a 5-under 66, a score bettered only by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (63) and the United States’ Xander Schauffele (65) on a day ripe for scoring due to soft conditions.

Kim ranked No. 19 in the field Thursday in Strokes Gained: Putting (1.042) – an improvement on his season-long ranking of No. 97. He carded five birdies in a blemish-free opening round, highlighted by four birdies in a six-hole stretch (Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 8) and a 25-foot par save after finding trouble off the tee at the par-3 16th.

After completing his opening round, Kim expressed confidence in the new addition to his bag.

“It kind of just gave me a different feel over the ball and I definitely put a lot of work into it after The Open Championship and it definitely performed well,” Kim said after his first round at the Paris Games. “It definitely wasn't in mind to be honest. It actually just kind of happened. They shipped it over after The British (Open). I didn't really plan to switch. It was just outperforming the one I was using and made sense.”

After a missed cut at The Open Championship at Royal Troon where he ranked 92nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, and with a week to test before teeing it up at the Olympics, Kim started testing the new Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 prototype that first made headlines during the Genesis Scottish Open when Justin Thomas first put the putter in play.

“This particular mallet, which is our Phantom 9, we call it a 9.2 because it's got the plumber's neck on it, is just really influenced from other players,” Brad Cloke, Scotty Cameron player representative told PGATOUR.COM. “So this is a very similar setup to what we built for Justin Thomas, the one that kind of got a lot of buzz a couple of weeks ago … Tom kind of noticed it and hit some putts with Justin's and we had talked about doing something like that more so for an offseason test.”

The main feature of the Phantom 9.2 prototype that helped Kim transition from the blade to the mallet head is the plumber’s neck inset mainly found on traditional blade-style putters.

“The plumber's neck is the big thing and I think for Tom (Kim) that's a good thing because it kind of gives him the best of both worlds,” Cloke added. “The plumber's neck mallet gives him the familiarity that he sees in the blade but gives him kind of that forgiveness and that framing aspect of the mallet itself.”

Kim made his TOUR Championship debut last season, and the new putter could be the spark to help him rise into the top 30. He currently ranks No. 40 on the season-long FedExCup standings with one event remaining (next week’s Wyndham Championship) before the three-event FedExCup Playoffs.

In the meantime, the young star will be fully focused on trying to win gold in Paris – with a new tool in his arsenal.