Wyndham Clark was not the guy I wanted to win on Sunday. But when you putt like that, you earn it, and I respect that. What stood out watching the final round wasn’t his ball striking, which was solid but unremarkable by U.S. Open winner standards. It was the putter. And when he got to the microphone, he made a point of crediting PING by name.
There’s a story behind that.
PING signed Clark to an exclusive deal on the Scottsdale TEC putter days before the championship and the timing was no accident.
The PING deal
On June 17, the day before Clark teed it up at Shinnecock, PING announced he’d signed an agreement to exclusively play the Scottsdale TEC putter. He’d been gaming the Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset model since the Houston Open and PING CEO John K. Solheim made it clear the deal was a direct response to what they were seeing on the course.
“Wyndham comes into the U.S. Open this week as one of the hottest players in the world,” Solheim said. “He’s been using the Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset model since the Houston Open and has steadily climbed in the world rankings since then on the strength of a win and third-place finish in his last three tournaments.”
PING was paying attention to the data.
“We’re excited he’s having such tremendous success with the new model and benefiting from the Eye Q alignment technology and the onset design,” Solheim added. “His choice to use the new putter further validates the performance golfers can expect when adding a Scottsdale TEC putter to their bag.”
Clark’s own comments lean into the same theme.
“Since switching to the PING Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset putter in April, I’ve seen significant improvement in my putting and I credit the new putter for helping me get back in the winner’s circle,” Clark said. “The white finish first got my attention and when I started rolling putts with it, it set up easily and gave me immediate confidence.”
He also touched on something that’s worth paying attention to if you’re putter shopping: onset design isn’t something most golfers have tried.
“I’d never used a putter with onset before so it was a new look for me that really matches my eye,” Clark said. “The onset combined with the top-rail dot simplifies alignment and my consistency has improved. I’m sinking more long putts than ever.”
We saw that on Sunday afternoon.
Inside Clark’s new putter
The putter itself is a custom build off the Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset, launched by PING in April. Clark’s specs:
- 38 inches long
- 17″ Superstroke Zenergy 3.0 grip
- Approximately 400-gram head
- 20 degrees of lie angle
- 3 degrees of loft
Clark also piles on lead tape at the bottom of the head. We spotted him at Shinnecock adding more before his practice round on Wednesday.
Two design elements separate this putter from a standard mallet and both are worth understanding if you’re considering one for your own bag.
The first is Eye Q alignment technology which PING built around eye-tracking research known as Quiet Eye. The idea is to give the player a single, distinct focal point on the top rail rather than multiple lines competing for attention. Paired with a longer alignment line, the design is meant to quiet the eyes before the stroke and help the golfer hold a stable gaze through impact.
The second is the onset shaft position. Instead of the shaft entering near the front of the head, it sits closer to the center line, behind the top rail and ahead of the center of gravity. The result is a fuller view of the ball at address which is exactly what Clark referenced when he said the look took some adjustment.
Solheim framed the broader design philosophy this way: “We’ve also chosen to make this line exclusively mallets to better serve the growing market for these types of designs while continuing to offer stroke-type fitting through optimal CG placement.”
The record that set this up
Clark’s U.S. Open putting wasn’t a one-week surprise. A month earlier, he used the same Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset putter to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at 30-under-par and, in the process, he set the PGA Tour record for Strokes Gained: Putting in a single event, gaining more than 12.5 shots on the field for the week.
The final round of that win included a 60 during which Clark holed 158 feet of putts.
What the numbers showed at Shinnecock
Clark’s U.S. Open Strokes Gained breakdown lines up with everything above. His SG Total for the tournament was +3.64, the best mark in the field, but the category splits show exactly where that number came from: +1.53 SG Putt, against +0.78 SG Approach, +0.70 SG Around the Green and +0.63 SG Off the Tee.
His ball striking got the job done. It did not separate him from the field but the putter did.
PING signed Clark on the strength of his putting data and now he’s a two-time U.S. Open champion. Financial terms weren’t disclosed but I’m guessing this one worked out just fine for everyone involved.
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