US Open winner Wyndham Clark reaps the rewards after copying Rickie Fowler

When Wyndham Clark two-putted on the 18th inexperienced of the Los Angles Country Club to win the US Open on Sunday, Rickie Fowler may very well be forgiven for claiming a little bit little bit of credit score for his compatriot’s shock first main win. Fowler – who alongside Xander Schauffele shot the bottom rating ever in US Open historical past with a 62 within the first spherical – had additionally been in rivalry for his personal first main at first of the day, however a troublesome last spherical noticed the Californian end 5 again at 5 underneath par.

However, a change in putter at first of the yr by Fowler was the catalyst for Clarke to comply with go well with and because the two Americans strutted out to play their last spherical in LA collectively on Sunday, they each had the identical fashion putters of their luggage.

Ryder Cup star Fowler switched to an Odyssey Versa Jailbird mallet putter in January. Despite enjoying nearly all of his profession with a blade-style putter, he was satisfied to make the change after attempting out his caddie’s personal putter.

After road-testing Ricky Romano’s flat stick, he took a direct shine to it and requested Callaway’s PGA Tour supervisor Joe Toulon to create one thing comparable. The consequence was a putter with a 17-inch grip and 20-25 grams of lead tape on the only real.

Talking concerning the new putter earlier within the yr, as per the PGA Tour, Fowler mentioned: “I was very shocked, because I never really looked into anything that was longer, counterbalanced or anything like that. 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.”

The success of Fowler’s new putter wasn’t misplaced on Clark, who performed a apply spherical together with his fellow countryman in Florida. He would duly order his personal model of the putter after seeing Fowler make “every single putt”.

Clarke mentioned: “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.

“Afterwards we had been practising a little bit bit preparing for it and I hit a pair and I used to be like, oh, gosh, that is very nice. So I texted the Odyssey man, and I mentioned, hey, are you able to make me Rickie’s putter? And he is like, nicely what specs? I mentioned, the very 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.”

Both Fowler and Clark had the top-ranked placing statistics heading into the ultimate spherical and after the latter’s shock success, it will be no shock if one or two different gamers began to take a critical take a look at Fowler’s putter for themselves.