How Rickie Fowler’s putter helped Wyndham Clark become a major winner

Back in January, five-time PGA TOUR winner Rickie Fowler showed up to The American Express with a new Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter, an older model from 2014. As the story goes, Fowler had asked Odyssey for a replica of the putter belonging to his new caddie Ricky Romano.

Fowler, who once had ranked among the TOUR’s top putters, had been testing and changing putters frequently for the previous few years and ranked just 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. He was searching, but not finding.

The new Odyssey Versa Jailbird, however, was equipped with a longer 17-inch SuperStroke grip, and the putter head was built up with some 20 grams of lead tape.

For Fowler, the new putter changed everything.

“I was very shocked, because I never really looked into anything that was longer, counterbalanced, or anything like that,” Fowler told GolfWRX.com at The American Express. “It’s very interesting, but it’s kind of freeing me up in a way. I’m not changing stroke-wise, or setup, not gripping anything differently than my normal length putter. I just feel like it’s, I don’t know, kind of helping me do some things, and I don’t have to think about it.”

Since then, the putter has stayed in the bag, and Fowler has eight top-20 finishes on the PGA TOUR. He’s also climbed back inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking and arrives at this week’s PGA Championship ranked 28th in the FedExCup. He is 39th in Strokes Gained: Putting, as well.

Apparently, fellow PGA TOUR player Wyndham Clark took notice of Fowler’s putter during a round at Medalist Golf Club in Florida prior to Clark’s recent win at the Wells Fargo Championship, the first victory for the 29-year-old former college star at Oklahoma State and Oregon.

"We were playing at Medalist where he belongs in Florida, and I hadn't been putting good, and this was right before Bay Hill, and I played with Rickie, and he just made every single putt," Clark said. "Afterwards we were practicing a little bit getting ready for it and I hit a couple and I was like, oh, gosh, this is really nice. So I texted the Odyssey guy, and I said, hey, can you make me Rickie's putter? And he's like, well what specs? I said, the exact same. So literally had the exact same putter. And I joked with Rickie today, he changed the grip. He changed the grip and cut it an inch, so i was like, all right, I got to change the grip and cut it an inch."

Shortly after that, according to Callaway’s Tour Manager and putter specialist Joe Toulon, Clark asked Odyssey if they would build him a replica of Fowler’s putter.

“Everyone who plays with Fowler seems to want to try one,” Toulon told GolfWRX.com. “Wyndham asked us to make one up just like Rickie’s.”

Once Clark was in possession of the new replica of Fowler’s Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter (with a longer grip and heavier head), Clark measured his performance with the putter on a Quintic putting analysis system, and Odyssey made small tweaks to the loft and lie angle for Clark’s particular stroke. Aside from the minor specification changes, though, Clark’s new putter is “basically the same thing” as Fowler’s, according to Toulon.

Clark approved.

“The head is pretty heavy and you don’t feel like you can miss it offline,” Clark said. “As far as short putts, it’s so dialed that you feel like you’re going to make it every time.”

The change clearly worked, since Clark ranked third in Strokes Gained: Putting during his win at Quail Hollow Club. That victory moved Clark to a career-high 31st in the world ranking and sixth in the FedExCup.