Winner's bag: Brian Harman's switch to unreleased putter sparks return to winner's circle

Brian Harman took control on the back nine at TPC San Antonio to win the Valero Texas Open and collect his first victory on the PGA TOUR since The 2023 Open Championship. The Lone Star State saw similar cold and windy conditions that Harman overcame in Liverpool England to collect the claret jug, with the Georgia Bulldog showing the same tenacity to claim a three-shot victory over Ryan Gerard at the Valero.

Harman’s game is built on a strong short game, which he displayed around TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course throughout the week with the help of two crucial changes to his two shortest clubs in the bag.

Harman switched to the unreleased TaylorMade Spider 5K-ZT putter, which was first seen on TOUR being tested by Jason Day at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard just last month. The “ZT” stands for “zero torque,” which has been a popular trend on the PGA TOUR in recent years. The putter is designed to reduce face rotation throughout the putting stroke.

The putter swap helped Harman gain over five strokes on the greens and finished first in the field for Putts per Green in Regulation. Remarkably, Harman was also flawless inside 7 feet on the greens, holing 60-of-60 putts.

" I looked at my stats from last year and I probably had the best iron game of my career, approach to the green, and probably my worst year from 10 to 20 feet putting," said Harman after winning. "So still really good inside 10 feet, but that section there is where I was getting all my looks and I wasn't making any of them. I had toyed with the idea of switching putters for a while. Picked that one up on Tuesday this week, it felt really good and it rolls nice, just kind of freed me up a little bit."

The second swap saw Harman change from Titleist’s SM9 60-degree wedge to the newer SM10 model. The upgrade spurred him to get up-and-down 18 out of 28 times and gain strokes on the field with his short game.

Check out Harman’s full bag setup below.

Driver: Titleist TSi2 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 5 S

3-wood: Titleist TS2 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution II S

5-wood: Titleist TS2 (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 775 Evolution II S

Irons: Titleist U-500 (4, 5), Titleist T100 (6), Titleist 620 CB (7-PW)
Shafts: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 90 (4, 5), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S300 (6-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (50-08F, 54-10S), WedgeWorks (60-04L)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: TaylorMade Spider 5K-ZT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Titleist Pro V1