Tony Finau has had a resurgent year on the greens in 2026. He switched into a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue putter earlier in the spring and, since then, has climbed to 18th on the PGA Tour in putting average, and is gaining strokes on the greens for the first time since 2022. 

So it may surprise some to see him potentially switching putters at Quail Hollow Club ahead of the 2026 Truist Championship, and he’s doing it in a very unconventional way. Finau, a six-time winner on Tour, was spotted using a broomhandle putter, a less-than-traditional length putter. 

“Putter’s felt good and bad, kind of inconsistent,” Finau said Monday at the Truist. “So I’m like, it’s (a long putter) something that I’ve thought about. It’s something never really fully gave a chance. So off week, I didn’t play last week, so I was like, maybe this is the time to give full chance.”

The way Finau was spotted gripping the club may be a more surprising aspect to the switch, with his hold on the club even less-than-traditional. Instead of the standard top-arm elbow pointed towards the hole and anchored into the chest, Finau has elected to externally rotate his forearm, having his thumb pointing down the grip of the club, towards the ball. 

“So it never felt good, though,” Finau said about the usual way of gripping a long putter. “… But I was holding it different than most guys are doing the actual broomstick … It’s never felt comfortable like this. That’s why I’ve actually never gave it a shot.”

After 45 minutes of trying the traditional technique, Finau was struggling to see the benefits of what many believe is created from using the longer-style putter. 

“Most people use it because it helps almost anchor it up here, but it’s like helps ’em get rid of any type of yip or anything,” Finau said. “I feel like I’m going to get the yips going like this.

“… I was just forcing myself to do this, and then I just noticed getting, even on a mat, it was so hard to make a good stroke and I was like, all right, yeah. I was just like, there’s no way this, it doesn’t feel natural at all. 

That’s when Finau found the technique that was on display Monday ahead of the Truist. Despite the quirkiness of how it looks, Finau feels like it is the more “repeatable and natural” way for him to hold the putter. 

The putter itself is a 48-inch Ping PLD Onset Oslo long putter, which is one of three putters that  Tony Serrano, Ping’s principal design engineer, sent to Finau to try. Its head-to-shaft placement is similar to that of the Ally Blue style that Finau was originally playing, and still in the bag Monday, just hidden by a headcover. But Finau feels confident the long putter will be in play Thursday.

Check out the rest of Finau’s setup here.