The story behind Justin Thomas' season-altering putter change

CHARLOTTE — In the aftermath of his first win in three years at the RBC Heritage, Justin Thomas was asked to explain a sudden resurgence on the greens. Coming off a season where he ranked 174th in strokes gained/putting, literally anything would have been considered an improvement. However, this improvement felt different. It felt sustainable.

Thomas credited conversations with fellow pro Xander Schauffele for helping him get in a better headspace. But he wasn't the only one helping Thomas behind the scenes. Someone else deserves credit for getting the putter back on track: Paul Vizanko.

Vizanko, Scotty Cameron's director of player fitting and development, has worked with Thomas since he waltzed into Cameron's studio as a fresh-faced 10-year-old. It could be debated that no one knows the ins and outs of Thomas' putter better than Vizanko. He doesn't claim to be a magician but rather a valuable set of eyes when a player needs feedback on the putter in their hands.

"You want to help these guys out," Vizanko told Golf Digest. "And I felt like I had pretty valuable information on what [Justin] needed to do, as far as being more consistent. And there are a lot of aspects in that."

As Thomas was rotating through putters last season, Vizanko was observing from afar and plotting his next move, watching hours of JT footage on his television. When an idea came to him, he would reach out to the Cameron team and offer up some thoughts. Business hours didn't exist.

"There were times when we were getting texts from him late on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night," said Drew Page, Scotty Cameron's tour rep. "He was just letting us know he was thinking about [Justin's] putter. Paul gives it everything, and I think that's why guys respect him so much. He's always looking for something that could help."

For Vizanko, the solution turned out to be a Cameron Phantom 5 prototype with several subtle changes to the neck and sole that allowed Thomas to easily ground the putter and get his hands in an optimal position during the stroke.

While the changes might appear trivial, they've allowed Thomas to turn the putter into a weapon—he now ranks 20th in SG/putting—and re-enter the conversation as a legitimate contender to win the PGA Championship.

Several weeks before Thomas stepped foot on the grounds at Quail Hollow, Vizanko sat down with Golf Digest to detail the work that went on behind the scenes to help create Thomas' successful putter. (The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

I was told you watch a lot of golf on television. What's the benefit of seeing it on a screen on Sunday versus in person during a practice round?

Paul Vizanko: Nowadays, guys can send me a video with their phone, and I can compare that video to what I see when I'm out [on tour]. During a practice round, I can walk 9 holes with these guys and film them myself. Then I can go home and watch on television to see if there are any changes.

I do that to get a good idea if their putting strokes differ during competition as opposed to casually recording video at home, in the putter studio or practice rounds. I can get detailed to try to create feels and putters that help that player be more consistent.

From your time watching Justin on television last year, what was the one thing you noticed when he was struggling with the putter?

Vizanko: His routine. If the routine is swift, that's a big part of making putts. If you watch throughout the years, if their routine's consistent and short, there's only one thought. It's making the putt. If they're standing over the putt and they're moving their setup around, they're moving their body lines, they're moving their hands up and down, I think it creates more time to start double-thinking and second-guessing themselves on the read, on the speed. You can tell they're not comfortable, so I have to get a putter that sits perfectly, puts the hands in the right position and is part of the routine.

Now, he's hitting good putts and the routine is swift. Now it's a matter of getting the right speed or read. But I know the stuff he can control, which is the setup and putting stroke. That's not a problem. I'm not worried about him pulling or pushing putts. At this point, it starts to become more about green reading.

Walk me through what the last year or so has been like working with Justin. He changed putters several times, but nothing clicked. What's your role when you're dealing with a pro who's struggling with the putter?

Vizanko: These guys become friends. And so you want to help a friend, right? I try not to step in, because I feel like if they're working with a putter coach, they don't need a third opinion unless they bring me in. And so sometimes I just build putters for these guys. If I don't see a good build, I will say something. He went back to a Newport 2 and that didn't surprise me because he's got a nice putting setup.

Some people think that maybe it looks a little too robotic or mechanical, but to me, his lines are pretty good, and it's easy to maintain his putting stroke.

But was that his choice? Or did the putting coach want him to do that? Because I have to understand when they start changing around necks on a putter, it's going to change the shaft axis, which changes the hand height, which changes the stroke and the path and the feel dramatically. So I'm always cautious about when players make those changes.

So that small stint with the Newport 2 got me to wonder and ask a question: Is JT trying to get his hands higher?

What made you immediately question his hand position?

Vizanko: With the jet neck on the Phantom 5, his hands are lower. Let's say the lie angle is 70 [degrees], the same on the Newport 2. There's a pretty big difference between where their hands are going to sit and their eye position could change, which you don't want to do. He wasn't getting what he wanted out of the Newport 2, so we saw the Phantom come back in.

It was during that time I introduced a Phantom 9.2 to him, which is a Phantom with a plumber neck, and I purposely went after the shaft axis that would be very similar to his Newport 2. So it would to where his hands would grab the putter. It would be almost identical to the Newport 2. He had a nice little run with that putter and started to gain some momentum.

How did you conclude Phantom 9.2 wasn't the best fit for his stroke, even after that run of success during the summer?

Vizanko: I think it was in Phoenix that I started to notice he was working too much on trying to get his hands higher. When players do that, if [the hands] don't feel good at address, they'll change during the putting stroke. It's going to change the path. It's going to change the face angle.

I went home and I was thinking a lot about it, and I was like, man, what can I do to help him out? And so I started measuring the shaft axis between the plumber neck and jet neck. I realized I needed to build a putter that got right in between them.

I thought that would put his hands in a position where the putter just kind of swings itself. It feels like it maintains the shaft plane, gives a nice consistent path, and gives the player control of the face angle. So that's what I worked on trying to accomplish.

Were there any roadblocks during the putter creation process?

Vizanko: I had to do some tweaks to the spud where the low bend goes in, because I wanted to use that as an alignment aid. So I wanted to make sure that the bend in the shaft gave him a nice look at the face, which would help him. It's like a perpendicular line to the face. That took time but was worthwhile.

What did Justin think when you told him you were working on something special?

Vizanko: He had sent me some video of his putting stroke, and I said, Hey, I got the perfect putter for you. He was pretty excited. It got there at the right time. It was the end of the season, and the results so far have been pretty good.

What stood out to you the first time he tested the putter?

Vizanko: What I noticed immediately was his hand height. He wasn't trying to find a hand height at address, meaning he wasn't trying to go high or low with his hands. The putter just fit his setup perfectly. When I start moving necks around and shaft axis, sometimes we're only talking about an eighth of an inch, but it can be pretty dramatic when it gets into a player's hands.

You might think, why not just bend the lie angle up two degrees? Well, I don't like to do that, because in his case, I knew the lie angle that he needed to create a shaft plane. And that goes back to measurements of, let's say, just something as simple as putting a laser on the shaft and watching their shaft plane through that. It's little things like that that won't create adjustments during the stroke.

How quickly after the putter was built did you realize your idea of opting for a single-bend shaft had merit?

Vizanko: It was when I measured the shaft axis. I knew it was going to fit in perfectly, because I've got years of video with him on my phone that I can look at. And every time I would look at these videos side by side, I'd take the measurements. And I'm like, it's this easy. It's right in front of me. So that's when I knew, and I was pretty excited about it.

I sent it to him, and the best thing was, he was so open-minded he didn't say, Tell me more about it. What did you do? He's like, you know what, I trust you, PV. His mind was open. That's when I knew this putter's going to be around for a while.

I'd like to think that I have a good reputation with the players in the sense that they know that I'm trying to build putters that are going to make them better. There have been plenty of putters that I've sent his way that didn't work out, but he knows that I'm trying to do things for his benefit. The relationship helps. But the timing of it was also there. When guys are struggling, you might not have a lot of chances, and if they don't like it at first glance, it might not get a chance.

The more you understand a player, the better you know them. The more you know which [putter] they're going to gravitate towards.

What was it like watching Justin bury that putt on the first playoff hole at the RBC Heritage?

Vizanko: I feel like it's as close as being there. You develop a relationship with these guys. You know how much they want it. You know the hard work and sacrifices they've made. I thought it was exceptional.

It's one of those things where it can be a little overwhelming, in the sense that you're so into it. If you're there watching a tournament with my family or friends, it's kind of weird, because they're looking at me like what's going on here. At the same time, you feel close to being there because you know how much it means to them, and it means a lot to Scotty and me, and everyone who works here. We take pride in our work, we love our product and we love putting.

Have you received any requests for Justin's putter build since the win?

Vizanko: It's pretty funny you should ask that. I'd say quite a few have been requested. I was building one earlier. I immediately sent one to one of our players on the LPGA because I knew that it would help her. She didn't ask. But I've got a list of players who all want the little .5 — that mini low bend, we call it. It's very popular right now.