By John Schwarb, PGATOUR.COM
Last week’s winner on the PGA TOUR, 173rd in FedExCup points and No. 218 in the world before The Greenbrier Classic, was unusual enough.
But the flatstick Ted Potter Jr. wielded in winning at The Old White TPC was even more of an unknown.
During close-ups in the CBS broadcast on Sunday, you may have noticed the “Piretti” script on the back of Potter’s putter. The center-shafted head looked similar in shape to many other major manufacturers’ offerings, but the script set it apart.
Piretti is a putter company based in Spring, Texas, that has had a few putters show up in pros’ hands – Henrik Stenson used a Piretti at the Masters this year, Golfweek notes – but never in a winner’s hands until Potter.
Potter led the field in Strokes-Gained Putting at 2.016 with a Cortino CS prototype, one of the few lefthanded models the company has made.
The company’s website sells various stock putters for $290-$325, and only four retail outlets are listed in North America – two in Texas, one in California and one in Ontario, Canada. The company says its putters are 15-45 grams heavier than competitors’, to improve accuracy, and that all putters have 2.5 degrees of loft, one to two degrees less than others for golf’s seemingly always faster greens.
Potter’s Piretti isn’t as wild as the Orion Black Hawk putter that Matt Every used in nearly winning the Sony Open in Hawaii, but it’s a winner. Time will tell if more Pirettis find their way into TOUR bags.
‘D’ THEM UP: Four more TOUR players put the new Titleist 913 drivers into play at The Greenbrier, with Greg Chalmers, Harrison Frazar, and Hunter Haas using 913D2s and Matt Jones using the slightly smaller-headed 913D3.
Martin Flores was the top finisher at The Greenbrier with the new driver, finishing sixth with a 913D3.
Check out the Titleist blog for a look at how Rory McIlroy went about having his 913 dialed in at home in Northern Ireland.
SNEDS: Earlier this year Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open with TaylorMade SuperFast metalwoods – among the last non-white TaylorMade models on TOUR.
Six months later, TaylorMade has him seeing white. A long testing session on Wednesday at The Greenbrier included testing the RBZ, RBZ Tour and R11S heads, looking for one to help him turn the ball over easier. The winner? An R11S with the FCT hosel tuned between standard and lower, plus 11 grams of weight in the heel and 1 gram in the toe.
WINNER’S BAG: Ted Potter Jr. at The Greenbrier Classic:
Driver: Cleveland Classic Tour (Miyazaki Kusala Black 61X, 10.5 degrees)
Fairway wood: Cleveland Launcher Composite (15 degrees)
Hybrids: Cleveland Mashie (18, 20.5 degrees)
Irons: Cleveland CG1 Tour (4-PW)
Wedges: Cleveland 588 Forged (54, 60 degrees)
Putter: Piretti Cortino CS prototype
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Chicago Golf Guy 