During a season in which she won six times already, you’d think World No. 1 Nelly Korda would have been hesitant to switch from anything that’s been working.
But golfers, as we know, are a fickle bunch. Korda is no exception: her seventh win of the year this past week at The Annika was her first with a new putter.
While Korda became just the third player in LPGA history to win five straight starts earlier this season, including a major at the Chevron Championship, she fell into a funk over the summer, missing three straight cuts, including both the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
She finished just outside the top 20 in her next two starts, but before the AIG Women’s Open, she asked reps at TaylorMade to send her a few different Spider models to test. Korda eventually asked the TaylorMade team to build her a new Spider Tour X with an L-neck and short sightline and ship it to St. Andrews just before the practice rounds.
That’s been Korda’s go-to wand ever since, as she finished tied for second at St. Andrews after benching her Scotty Cameron Squareback 2, the same model she used to win both her major titles. She then went 3-1-0 at the Solheim Cup and notched another top 5 at the Kroger Queen City Championship. But those were the only three events Korda used the new flatstick for as she missed nearly two months with a neck injury.
This week at Pelican, as she became the first American to win seven or more times in a season on the LPGA since 1990, the Spider Tour X was the only piece of gear she changed from her last win in New Jersey in May.
