Tommy Fleetwood helps design prototype putter, leads at first stop of DP World Tour Playoffs  - PGA TOUR

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Equipment

Tommy Fleetwood lines up a putt on the 18th green during the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

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After a four-week break from competition, Tommy Fleetwood showed no signs of rust as he jumped out to the early lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship – the first event of the DP World Tour Playoffs and the penultimate stop in the Race to Dubai.

The world No. 10 fired a course-record 10-under par 62 at Yas Links in the first round to lead by one over Thorbjørn Olesen and Johannes Veerman, spearheaded by a switch in putters – one that Fleetwood spent time designing himself along with the team at TaylorMade. 

Carding eight birdies and an eagle in the opening round, Fleetwood gained over three strokes on the greens using the TaylorMade TP Soto Truss TF Prototype which boasts a combination of TaylorMade technology to fit Fleetwood’s eye. 

“The guys at TaylorMade, they have done an amazing job like we spoke about, designing something like a little bit different,” Fleetwood said Wednesday, prior to the first round in Abu Dhabi. “It's felt really, really good.”

A look at the face of Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade TP Soto Truss TF Prototype. (TaylorMade)

A look at the back of Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade TP Soto Truss TF Prototype. (TaylorMade)

A look at the sole of Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade TP Soto Truss TF Prototype. (TaylorMade)

Off the back of a strong summer seeing four top-five finishes worldwide, including a silver medal at the Paris Olympics and finishing T16 in the 2024 FedExCup, it’s hard to find a fault in Tommy Fleetwood’s game. One of the best tee-to-green on the PGA TOUR, the Englishman put himself in position week-in, week-out. But that didn’t carry onto the green, with Fleetwood ranking 87th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting, a drastic drop from the previous season where he sat 14th. 

“Definitely sort of the second half of this year, like through the summer I haven't putted as well or converted as many putts as we'd have liked,” Fleetwood said. “We've been working on that and I happened to bump into Ken [Brown] and Howler [David Howell] on the course and we were talking about a couple of things. Working on sort of how I move my head in my stroke in a couple of practice drills and what happens there.”

The prolonged break in tournament play felt like the ideal time to test and break out the new flatstick to help search for a return to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2024 Dubai Invitational earlier this year. 

“It was the perfect time for me to be practicing with something,” Fleetwood said. “It's sort of difficult these days. I love testing my equipment and testing things that are new and different, but it's so difficult with the way the schedule is. The tournaments are packed in so close to each other, and there's never not a big event or not an important event it seems.”

The design process started back in May when Fleetwood traveled to TaylorMade’s home in Carlsbad, California, to sit down with the putter team and discuss options for the rest of the year.

“To have that time at home to work on something that I've put a lot of effort into and something I'm really interested in; and like I said, TaylorMade have done an amazing job with it, and it's felt good,” Fleetwood explained.

The result was a putter that has the characteristics of his previous gamer –  an Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 – but utilizing the technological benefits of the Truss hosel for stability through impact. The triangular hosel, first seen when TaylorMade released the Truss line of putters in 2020, creates multiple contact points along with the top line of the putter to help reduce the amount of unsupported torque and twist during the stroke.

Fleetwood’s prototype also sees a Pure Roll insert which features grooves angled at 45 degrees to help with forward roll and better overall roll characteristics. The Pure Roll insert was one of the prominent aspects on Scottie Scheffler’s Spider Tour X L-Neck putter, which the world No. 1 rode to a first FedExCup earlier this summer, as well as topping Fleetwood for gold at the Olympics and six other PGA TOUR victories this season.

Could we see Fleetwood’s putting improving to the point that Scheffler’s has this season? A run in the Race to Dubai could be the perfect starting point. 

Alistair is a senior staff member at the PGA TOUR. Born and raised in England, he played golf professionally on the European Alps Tour before joining the PGA TOUR. Follow Alistair Cameron on Twitter.