Tour News

Webb Simpson uses short putter, shoots 62

Published

11 years ago

Jan 16, 2015

Webb Simpson played his first-ever round on the PGA Tour with a short putter, not his usual belly putter, and opened with a 62 on Thursday at the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club.

With a 34-inch Odyssey White Hot Pro V-Line putter, Simpson made nine birdies and one bogey, firing a 28 on the front nine (his back nine) to shoot his career low round on the PGA Tour.

“It was one of my best putting rounds ever, to be honest,” Simpson said.

His performance seems to indicate that he’s comfortable with the short putter, which he hadn’t used since college in 2004, but Simpson said that was far from the case. He experimented with a conventional putter at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan this November, but debuting it on the PGA Tour was a big deal for Simpson.

[quote_box_center]”It was a big day for me,” Simpson said. “I was extremely nervous, first round on the PGA Tour with a short putter, but I just had a couple (Bible) verses in my yardage book today that I kept reading, and I stayed calm.”[/quote_box_center]

Simpson’s decision to switch to a short putter in preparation of the PGA Tour’s ban on anchored putters, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2016.

Simpson is tied with Paul Casey, who also shot a first round 8-under par 62, on the top of the Sony Open in Hawaii leader board.

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Andrew Tursky

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

7 Comments

Mike

Jan 20, 2015 at 9:09 am

Looked like a Scotty on TV and in this picture. Being a Titleist Brand ambassador I can’t imagine they like that.

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Mike

Jan 17, 2015 at 10:30 am

He probably would have posted 59 with a broomstick. Good thing the R&A put a stop to that travesty.

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Major D

Jan 16, 2015 at 5:06 pm

The next thing you know the USGA and R&A will ban having Bible verses in yardage books (since they are politically incorrect and give an unfair advantage to “believers”). I am still amazed at the hypocrisy of these two elitist organizations and the unwarranted controversy they generated over an absolute non-issue.

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frendy

Jan 16, 2015 at 11:51 am

Probably reading Exodus 21:20-21.

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b-wall

Jan 16, 2015 at 11:48 am

Should have used it at the Ryder Cup!

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Cheesehead42

Jan 16, 2015 at 11:20 am

Interesting he went with Odyssey Putter and SC grip.

Reminds me of Tiger with Ping grips.

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D man

Jan 16, 2015 at 11:18 am

Good thing they banned the long putter LOL

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