Check out Justin Thomas' never-seen-before Scotty Cameron ...

Written by Alistair Cameron

It’s no secret that Justin Thomas has been searching for the right putter. He’s delved into an array of Scotty Camerons this year, some finely tuned to his stroke and path while others were trialed and tested by fellow golfers. Thomas even met world No. 1 amateur Gordon Sargent at a gas station before the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday to test out Sargent’s gamer. But after opening with a first-round 8-under 62 at the Genesis Scottish Open, fueled by a new flatstick, Thomas might have found the one.

Thomas was in search for answers as he made the trip across the pond. He’s ranked 157th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting. So for the opening round at The Renaissance Club, the 31-year-old debuted a never-seen-before Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype inspired by his good friend Jordan Spieth.

"Yeah, it came about, as funny as it is, I saw Jordan (Spieth) and Paul Vizanko at Scotty Cameron had made one for Jordan, just to have for him to mess with and something for him to see how he liked it," Thomas said. "I happened to be staying with Jordan a couple times over that stretch when he got it and I picked it up and I thought it looked amazing. I thought it felt great.

“Talking to Paul about it there were a lot of characteristics in the way the putter was built that helped a pretty good amount of my bad tendencies, I would say in my stroke or they just are able to help that and so I asked him to make me up one and send me one. Yeah, it feels great you know, performed well its first day and hopefully, it performs well the rest of its days."

Justin Thomas debuts prototype putter inspired by Jordan Spieth at Genesis

Thomas ranked third in SG: Putting on Thursday. The 2017 FedExCup champion made over 113 feet worth of putts, none more important than an 11-foot double-breaking par save at the 17th hole, meriting an underhand fist pump from Thomas after it found the bottom of the cup.

“I played really solid today and that par putt on 17 was huge,” Thomas said post-round. “I love going bogey-free.”

The new Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype features a similar shaped head to the Phantom 9.5 with slightly more rounded edges. Thomas has favored Scotty Cameron’s dual-winged X5 Tour and T5 Proto head models for most of his career, with the new prototype in Scotland following a similar suit. The putter displays a single top alignment line and a matte steel finish.

"I try to really spend the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday just getting acclimated like all of us to the grass and how the ball rolls,” Thomas said about the adjustments he made on the greens. “Just try to make as many as you can.” Thomas opened his round with a birdie at the first hole before tallying four birdies in a row on Nos. 5-8 to make the turn at 5-under. Birdies at Nos. 10, 12 and 13 saw Thomas move to 8 under for the day – flirting with what would be a second career 59 – but parred his way back to the clubhouse for the first-round lead.

His opening 8-under marks the first time since the 2021 FedEx St. Jude Championship that Thomas has held the first-round lead. That week he went on to finish T4 at Liberty National. Thomas has tallied five top-10 finishes this season but has been unable to turn one of them into a win.

A look at Justin Thomas' Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype putter. (Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR)

The Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype isn’t the only club on debut Thursday for Thomas. The fast start on the links also saw Thomas switch into Titleist’s new line of GT drivers, which were first seen on TOUR at the Memorial. Thomas was seen swinging the Titleist GT2 driver with a Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

"When you drive it well, like I did for the most part today, you have a lot of short clubs," Thomas said, "and I see nothing but the pin."