The Loop
Winner's bag: Why Padraig Harrington's putter was an even more unlikely winner than he was
Padraig Harrington might have had two drivers in his bag (TaylorMade's AeroBurner and SLDR Mini, but it was the putter that proved to be the key club during his win at the Honda Classic.
In the last two years Harrington has struggled with his putting, ranking outside the top 100 in strokes gained/putting and residing at 107th in that stat entering the Honda. At PGA National's Champion Course, however, Harrington putted well enough (0.168 strokes gained, ranked 37th), including the clutch 16-footer for birdie to get into a playoff with Daniel Berger.
The putter Harrington used was a Wilson Infinite South Side center-shafted mallet that utilizes a 104-gram grip to produce a counterbalanced effect. And for history buffs there is this: The last time a Wilson putter won a PGA Tour event it was in 1995 when John Daly used a Wilson 8802 blade to win the British Open at St. Andrews.
Ball: Titlist Pro V1x
Driver: TaylorMade AeroBurner (Mitsubishi Kuro Kage Silver 60 TX, 9 degrees
Driver: TaylorMade SLDR Mini, 12 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade SLDR, 15 degrees
Hybrid: Wilson D100, 19 degrees
Irons (4): Wilson FG Tour V4; (5-PW): Wilson FG Tour V2
Wedges: Wilson FG Tour (52 degrees); Ping Eye2 Gorge (60 degrees)
Putter: Wilson Infinite South Side