Tommy Fleetwood enters the Valero Texas Open as World No. 4 and the highest-ranked player in the field, so it’s no surprise that he’s capturing many of the headlines. He did catch a few off guard on-site Tuesday in Texas and across social media with his new hat sponsor. The change in headwear comes after embracing apparel free-agency by wearing merchandise from some of the top golfing establishments in the world.

But if you looked a little closer, there were other differences for Fleetwood at TPC San Antonio, especially on the putting green. Firstly, he’s no longer using the custom Sharpie alignment on his TaylorMade putter.

“I actually haven’t putted very well this year,” Fleetwood said on the reasoning for changing his sightlines. “It’s been one of the sort of more disappointing ways that I’ve started the year.”

Fleetwood currently ranks 122nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, a sharp decline from last year after switching to the Spider, which prompted his first victory on the PGA Tour and becoming FedExCup champion.

Zooming in on Fleetwood’s usual Spider putter, the custom Sharpie job done by TaylorMade Putter Rep James Holley last year at the RBC Heritage, when Fleetwood first switched into the model, has been replaced with two parallel milled lines and a dot.

“I haven’t played how I wanted to and sometimes it’s nothing more into it than you just need something different to look at, like a slightly different visual or something, just to change up your mindset a little bit,” Fleetwood said prior to the start of the Valero Texas Open.

The cosmetic update to his trusty gamer wasn’t the only news coming from Fleetwood in San Antonio. He was also spotted testing out a prototype putter from TaylorMade.

“That new Spider, beautiful putter,” Fleetwood said about the TaylorMade Spider F, similar to the putter one we captured in the hands of Pierceson Coody at the Valspar Championship.

Fleetwood is an underrated gearhead. Much of the top end of his bag is commonly discussed, thanks to his enthusiasm and willingness to use high-lofted fairway woods, and being one of the first to bring back the mini driver trend on Tour. But, Fleetwood also admitted he likes to get a look at as many different flatsticks as he can.

“So I used to try the hundreds of different putters, but I used like the same putter for about eight years,” Fleetwood said. “I tried less putters over the last year, but I’m still enjoying just tinkering because you never know what you’re going to find, even if it just makes you feel better about your putter.

The Spider F isn’t the first time we’ve seen a prototype putter in the hands of the Englishman. Before switching to his FedExCup-winning Spider, he helped the team at TaylorMade develop a prototype TaylorMade flow-neck putter using Truss hosel technology, aptly named the Soto TF.

“I just like hitting different putters,” Fleetwood added in San Antonio. “Who knows, it might be something that I put in at some point. It’s a nice other option. Yeah, it’s always good to test stuff.”