U.S. Open 2025: Why Jason Day bent his putter—and why it wasn't a penalty

Golfers—specially tour pros—will do anything to improve. But Jason Day did something pretty unusual after a disappointing Day 1 at the U.S. Open. And, so far, so good.

The former World No. 1 putted poorly—130th in the field in strokes gained: putting—during an opening 76 that put him in danger of missing the cut at Oakmont. So Day decided to make a tweak to his equipment. That wouldn't be unusual by itself, but it was the 37-year-old Aussie who made the tweak himself.

"I bent my putter. Yeah, no, I just manually bent it myself," Day told reporters after his second round. "Stood on it. That's kind of how I used to do it back in the day. It just hadn't been looking very good to me personally, kind of looks a little bit hooded, the grip's on a little bit closed too, so that's not a positive for me. But I bent it enough to make it look more open, which is good."

OK then. Well, on Friday, his putting was also good. Very good, in fact, as he gained about two strokes on the greens with his altered TaylorMade Spider Tour putter during a second-round 67 that vaulted him into the top 20 on the leaderboard.

"Putted a lot better today," Day added. "It was a big day to come back and shoot 3-under to make the cut."

If you're wondering if this is legal, the answer is yes. As long as you don't deliberately do it during a round.

The Rules of Golf changed a few years ago to be less strict when it comes to damaged clubs, even ones damaged out of anger. You can now keep playing with such a club. You just can't repair or replace it unless the damage was done by an "outside influence or natural forces."

However, that doesn't apply to Day's case. He deliberately changed his club, but again, he did it in between rounds. And, again, for some reason he decided to do it on his own instead of seeking out someone from an equipment truck. More like Jason DIY, am I right? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway, the change certainly worked on Friday. And for more on Day, have a listen to our recent podcast with the 13-time PGA Tour winner: