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Valspar Championship Tour Report: End of an era as Snedeker switches putters

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The final stop on the Florida Swing sees plenty of big-name players teeing it up at the Valspar Championship. Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course, home of the renowned Snake Pit, hosts the Tour before it’s Texas two-step ahead of the first major of the season.

It was a busy week for gear changes, including what looks like the official retirement of one of the longest-serving putters in the industry. Take a look at everything that happened on-site in Tampa.

Snedeker succumbs to the Spider

After 21 years with an Odyssey Rossie White Hot XG, Brandt Snedeker finally made a putter change. Arguably, the longest stint of any golf club in the bag of a player on the PGA Tour and in play for Snedeker’s nine victories, it looks like he’s finally traded out the veteran putter for good after a couple of weeks using a new TaylorMade Spider Tour X.

Snedeker, whose attention may be focused on deciding who will be on his team as he captains the U.S. as they take on the Internationals at this year’s Presidents Cup, rather than how he plays this season, opened with a first-round, 6-under 65 at Innisbrook. The 45-year-old sat one back of Sungjae Im, who held the lead overnight on Thursday.

It’s safe to say that the Spider was an instant success for Sneds. He gained over five shots on the field on the greens during round 1 at the Copperhead. He first put the Spider in play at the Cognizant Classic to start the month, but at the Valspar, he tested TaylorMade’s True Path Alignment versus without, and preferred the added aim benefits he was getting. In previous testing, the biggest thing Snedeker noticed was the launch and how fast the ball got to true roll from the Spider and its Pure Roll insert compared to anything else he had tried.

It’ll be interesting to see how Snedeker handles the top of the leaderboard and whether he can finish the week positive on the greens for the first time since his top 10 at the Bank of Utah Championship last fall.

See Snedeker’s full WITB here.

Pierceson’s proto putter

When you take a glance at Piercecson Coody’s results to start the season, you probably would wonder why he was changing anything in his setup. He was a runner-up to Justin Rose at the Farmers Insurance Open and has already tallied five top-25 finishes in eight events during the calendar year.

But if you look a little closer at the stats, you’ll see that some elite ball striking has served as a great band-aid for some less-than-stellar short game play.

Coody, 26, who’s enjoying his best run out on the PGA Tour, currently sits outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting, losing strokes in both categories. So on-site this week at the Valspar, we saw him testing out a prototype TaylorMade Spider Tour F putter.

Similar to the prototypes made for Collin Morikawa last year at the Rocket Classic in Detroit, the putter is a two-winged mallet like the old Spider GT Splitback, this time, though, with more rounded edges. Coody’s features a L-neck hosel and a Raw Torched finish. Coody has the SuperStroke Tour 1.0P grip and a single line alignment on the top line of the putter. He gained strokes in an opening-round 67 at the Valspar.

More photos here.

Woodland follows Fowler’s lead

Gary Woodland’s driver setup got a lot of traction on X earlier in the week. The longest hitter on Tour uses a 7.8-degree Cobra OPTM Max-K head, cranked down a degree, slapped on a Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X. It’s a pretty stout setup for Woodland. But the lower-end of the bag is also just as fun to look at.

Woodland was spotted with a custom Cleveland RTZ wedge in his bag, with a disgusting amount of offset. The club in question was actually designed for Rickie Fowler, and when Woodland liked the look of it, he asked for one himself. It originated from an older Cleveland 485 design. The club really is a thing of beauty, and so are the comments in the forum.

Woodland also added a new Scotty Cameron Golo S2 into the bag, featuring a unique cherry bomb design. The original putter had the shaft bored into the head rather than welded on top as you see it currently. When Scotty Cameron produced them originally, the cherry bombs interfered with the placement of the bore, so they were shifted toe side.

Again, Woodland got the idea from his friend Fowler, as the pair were both using low-torque putters, but didn’t like the fact that they were losing face awareness. Fowler first started using his version of the center-shafted Golo at the start of the season because the straight shaft helped him with his alignment, and you guessed it, Woodland has slowly followed suit.

More photos here.

Novak’s Damascus

Andrew Novak joined Chris Kirk and Kevin Yu as the latest to delve into Damascus testing on Tour. He was spotted using a slant-neck Odyssey Seven putter featuring the Tour-exclusive Damascus insert.

“It’s similar head shape, so it’s not a huge change for me,” said Novak, who gamed an Odyssey Ai-One Milled Seven T S for the past year. “Just change up the visuals a little bit. … Hopefully, it will help my eyes a bit. It’s coming off the face great. Repped it for one day here, so we’ll see how it goes, but I am liking the early returns on it.

“I would say audibly, is maybe where I was seeing most of the difference,” Novak said about the early testing. “I felt there was maybe slightly more feedback versus what I was using before, the feel was not much different off the face so far. I’ll have to rep it a little bit more to have like a concrete answer on that. But the first thing I did notice was slightly different sound. I felt maybe slightly more feedback on this one.”

While the Damascus insert may help Novak’s feedback and what Callaway Tour Rep Harrison Shih told GolfWRX, the potential for better speed control on the greens, it also just looks great, thanks to the unique milling of the material.

“It’s definitely beautiful, it’s pretty thing,” Novak said. “It’s got a different little swirl to it looks cool. But again, you know, how does it perform? That’s what I’m really looking for.”

Check out the full report here.

Clark continues his quest for a gamer

Wyndham Clark grabbed headlines last week at The Players Championship thanks to a store-bought putter. The off-the-rack Bettinardi Antidote that he found at the Whisper Rock pro shop went in the bag at TPC Sawgrass, still sporting its price sticker. With the new putter, Clark gained strokes on the greens during two of his rounds at The Players, but ultimately ended up losing strokes to the field during the tournament.

Out at Innisbrook, Clark was spotted testing a few other putters ahead of the Valspar, including two new L.A.B. HS Link 2.1 putters. The other putter that Clark had with him caught the eyes of many in the GolfWRX forums: a center-shafted Scotty Cameron.

Although center-shafts aren’t that uncommon on Tour, zero-torque is all the rage; it’s more the fact that Clark’s Scotty Cameron featured a welded flow-neck onto a Timeless Newport 2 head, to add offset, and then was slathered with lead tape on the sole, which had been stamped with the Tour-only Circle T logo.

It’s definitely a different take for Clark, but he’s also tried flipping putter grips and plenty of head styles over the past year, so keep your eyes peeled for other options Clark has with him in the coming weeks.

More photos here.

Club of the week

I’m going with a double whammy this week, and both from Isaiah Salinda. At the Valspar, Salinda added both Callaway’s new Quantum Mini Driver and a custom Odyssey broomstick putter.

The Quantum Mini at 13.5 degrees features a Fujikura Ventus Blue Velocore and an Andrew Von Lossow specialty: lead tape on the toe. The new putter has an Odyssey Seven head at broomstick length, featuring a double-bend shaft.

For more, check out the latest episode of Inside the Ropes below.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: The surprising equipment change 41-year-old Gary Woodland is making – GolfWRX

  2. CB

    Mar 21, 2026 at 6:55 am

    Cheating with the broomstick you hate to see this

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Equipment

Neal Shipley, AKA, the “Big Fridge’s,” custom stamping

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Neal Shipley was the first to admit that he enjoyed his food while in college. But since his days at Ohio State, he’s slimmed down and earned a PGA Tour Card.

That hasn’t stopped him from having fun with his wedge stampings, though it’s led to some misunderstandings.

On the 54 (degree), we have ‘Big Fudge,'” Shipley told GolfWRX. “It was supposed to be ‘Big Fridge,’ so this happened a little while ago. ‘Big Fridge’ was a nickname between my college teammates and I, with ‘fridge’ meaning stomach, a big stomach.

“We told the Ping guys to put … ‘Big Fridge’ on it, and I think maybe some bad cell service or something, and they thought I said ‘fudge,’ so they put fudge on it.”

On Shipley’s 50-degree he also continues the food theme, this time with his go-to order at the “Golden Arches,” and his stamping “DONS 7.”

“The number 7 meal, the two cheeseburger meal, that was my McDonald’s order, back when I would have McDonald’s frequently,” Shipley shared.

Check out Shipley’s full what’s in the bag and the rest of his wedge stampings here on “Inside the Ropes” from Colonial.

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Equipment

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: L.A.B. Purple DF3 with Masters cover

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @raw10628 has a L.A.B. DF3 putter and Masters putter cover up for grabs.

From the listing: “Some great items here today, time to thin out and make room for next set of gear.  All prices include shipping. 
LAB DF3 Purple 33.5” 68° lie with TPT – $725. LAB Masters release DF3 cover – $150.

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules

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Whats in the Bag

Maria Torres WITB 2026 (June)

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Driver: Ping G440 LST (9 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 5-M4

3-wood: Ping G440 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4

5-wood: Ping G440 Max (19 degrees @18)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4

Hybrid: Ping G440 (23 degrees)
Shaft: Oban Isawa Red Hybrid Shaft 04 Flex 70 Gms

Irons: Srixon ZXi7 (5-P)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i80

Wedges: Cleveland RTZ (50-MID, 54-FULL, 58-MID)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i105

Putter: L.A.B. Golf OZ.1i
Shaft: ACCRA Putter Shaft

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

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