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JJ Spaun credited a change of putter for his opening round of 64 at the BMW Championship – saying he’s put an “old faithful” flat stick back in the bag.
Spaun tied for the lead at the second FedExCup Playoff event after sinking seven birdies and just one bogey in his first round at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis.
The 2025 US Open champion says he’s gone back to the L.A.B. putter he used to drain that monster winning putt at Oakmont last year after giving it a “timeout” for not behaving as it should.
Spaun switched putter brands recently, but after a T34 at the FedEx St Jude Championship on Sunday he went back to the flat stick that brought him his Major championship glory.
“I putted really nice. Put the old faithful back in, my old L.A.B. putter,” Spaun confirmed after his first round at the BMW Championship.
“So it was on timeout for about two months and, you know, kind of like kids when they’re not behaving, you put them in timeout for a little bit and then they start listening better and cooperating.
“So I think it learned its lesson being in timeout.”
Spaun explained that he “needed a little bit of change” after Memphis following his couple of months with a new putter, saying that work he put in on his stroke leaned more into a return to the L.A.B.
“I think the things that I worked on on my stroke really helps with the technology of the L.A.B. So I think my stroke’s in a better place. I think that’s kind of what happened to me last year, so proved today that I was rolling it nice.”
Spaun stars on greens at BMW Championship
Spaun ranked third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting with 3.303 after making 132 feet of putts at Bellerive with the very same putter that provided the catalyst for his stunning US Open success.
“It’s the same one. Same one that I used at Oakmont last year,” he confirmed. “All of last year and most of the year this year.
“I’ve been through two,” Spaun added about his putters since Oakmont. “I went to like an OZ, the OZHS OZ1 [OZ.1i HS] or something, and that’s the L.A.B. heel-shafted one.
“And then after that then I went to a completely different brand and had a putter with toe swing. So if you want to feel some toe swing, L.A.B. doesn’t really make those, so I had to go to a completely different brand.
“I had a really good honeymoon phase with the toe-swing putter and gained a lot of strokes at Travelers and wherever, Scotland and stuff, so I putted well there. But it was nice to feel some comfort and confidence in my old putter today.”
Spaun says he started “feeling very uncomfortable over three-footers” with his other putter, and was happy to dial back in his old faithful again.
“I just went back to kind of like my old practice structure and hitting more close range putts. I kind of got wrapped up into other things, aspects of my putting. So I put in a lot more work on short range distances last few days.”