The Travelers practice green turned into putter testing week. Jordan Spieth spent Tuesday and most of Wednesday working with a L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i and a Scotty Cameron Phantom 5 prototype after saying earlier this month he’d been fit for L.A.B. putters over the offseason. He even used the L.A.B. during Wednesday’s Pro-Am, but by the end of the day his longtime T.P. Mills blade was back in the bag for Round 1. Justin Rose went the other direction. After testing multiple models on Wednesday, he switched into an Axis1 SP Series-Axiom and gained more than 2.3 strokes putting in his opening-round 65. Rickie Fowler also benched his Scotty Cameron GoLo 7 S1 prototype for a new all-aluminum Phantom prototype, while J.J. Spaun moved away from L.A.B. entirely for a custom bronze-finished Phantom 9.5R after weeks of testing different options.

And it seems like Justin Rose is reuniting with Axis1 in gaming the company's new SP Series Axiom putter with Stroke Profile adjustability. Rose went through a long testing process yesterday at TPC River Highlands and seemed to narrow it down to the Axis1, a TaylorMade Spider Tour F single-bend and a new Scotty Cameron Phantom 5, but with the softer SCS insert than his current gamer. Caddie Mark Fulcher kept returning putters to the bag one by one until the Axis1 was the last one. He had been using a Phantom 5 since late 2024. Right now he's -4 through 12 and picking up more than 1.5 shots on the field putting.