Wyndham Clark secured his second major championship at the 2026 U.S. Open, citing a recent putter change as the decisive factor in his victory. His performance on the greens, powered by a new Ping model, compensated for inconsistencies in his long game.
After the win, Clark was direct about what carried him through the weekend. “I played some ugly golf the last two days, but my putter and short game kept me in it,” he said. “To make all the putts that I did with my Ping putter that I love so much has been amazing.” The switch to a 38-inch counterbalanced Ping Scottsdale TEC putter in April dramatically improved his statistics. He went from losing .725 strokes per round on the greens, ranking 155th on Tour, to gaining .120 strokes and a rank of T62. During the U.S. Open, he finished T4 in Strokes Gained: Putting, picking up more than six shots on the field.
While the putter grabbed the headlines, a recent driver adjustment also contributed to his performance. As a gear free agent for most of his bag, Clark had been experimenting before settling on a TaylorMade Qi4D. To optimize his ball flight, his team recently moved him into a lower-lofted head to manage spin rates. “It’s actually a high loft 9° head and we were just looking to get his spin rates down to like 2500-2400,” said TaylorMade Tour representative Adrian Rietveld. The adjustment was a minor but important one. Rietveld added, “Same settings, same weight setup and everything, we just needed to find a loft setup. We had a fraction less loft.”
This combination of equipment changes delivered Clark his second win of the season and a second major title, cementing his status as one of the world’s top players. He remains the only major winner this season to use the popular Qi4D driver without an official contract with TaylorMade, highlighting a successful, independent approach to his equipment setup.
