Wyndham Clark's Ping putter deal couldn't have been better timed

Wyndham Clark may owe at least one of his US Open titles to his Ping Scottsdale TEC putter, he said in his post-round interview on Sunday.

Clark has a Ping deal now, but first switched to the wand back in March without a contract. Ping announced a unique putter-only deal with Clark on the eve of the US Open last week, the first for the company in more than 50 years of sponsoring Tour players.

Now, the company has its first major win in more than a decade and a potential disruption to the gear industry.

For the first two-plus months that Clark carried an all-white, medium-sized putter in his bag, he did so without encouragement. It was a short walk to get there.

The two-time major winner's previous equipment contract with Titleist expired at the end of last year, making him one of the top gear agents to start 2026.

Clark joked at the Memorial earlier this month that he was “dating” different clubs earlier this year as he rode drivers and putters. With a flatstick, he settled on the LAB Golf DF3 at the end of last season, moving away from the controversial Odyssey Jailbird with which he won the 2023 US Open, but it wasn't long before he changed things up.

First, he started playing the grip upside down. He then bought a new Bettinardi putter at his home lesson store and played it at the Players. Two tournaments later, Clark headed over to the Ping Tour truck to do some work on his G440 Max 3-wood.

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“When we were talking in Houston about his equipment, we noticed that he was using a center-shafted set putter and that we had just introduced two start mallets in our Scottsdale TEC line,” Ping Player Development Manager Dylan Goodwin, who worked with Clark on the transition, told GOLF. “We explained our technology and philosophy to torque. He liked the look of both models and their mission. He asked us to build both to his specifications at the time.”

Unlike the LAB or Bettinardi Antidote models Clark used, Ping's Scottsdale TEC Onset models are not “zero-torque” putters. Instead of the shaft moving through the center of gravity of the head, Ping places the shaft directly in front of the CG to create stability by “pulling” most of the weight.

Clark tried both the Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset and Ketsch Onset models and found the Ally Blue, which has a slightly more balanced face design with five degrees of toe overhang compared to 15 on the Ketsch, fit his stroke better. In particular, he noted the improved starting line, correcting the miss on the left.

He installed a standard 35″ Ally Blue Onset model in Houston and used it for two events before returning to the Ping Truck at the RBC Heritage. There, Clark requested a new Ally Blue Onset CB to match the same specifications of the controversial Odyssey Jailbird 380 that he used to win the 2023 US Open.

Clark was part of the worst gear story of 2023 when he picked up his first two wins, including a major at the Los Angeles Country Club, against the controversial Jailbird with an all-around lead tape. Rickie Fowler was the first player to switch to that type of build, and Clark called for the “Rickie-build.” Both players, along with long-time captain Keegan Bradley, won that year.

At the time, the Jailbird was a potentially forgettable Odyssey head, but within one summer it became the company's flagship mallet and returned to production. Clark wanted that heavy feeling again.

“We first built a standard 370g head at 38″ with a SuperStroke 3.0 17″ grip,” said Goodwin. “However, he felt that this setup lacked the head feel and control he preferred. To address this, we created two new options: one with a standard head weight and 17g tip weight, and another with a 400g tungsten head on one plate. Since Wyndham added lead tape to the rocks no matter how they were originally built, he got a heavier 400g and 700g tipped head. 8 at most. (which ended at 400g with the lead cassette) was perfect.”

Clark excelled with added stability both from shaft and CG placement, as well as overall weight. It is shown in the figures.

“Since I switched to this Ping putter, it's been amazing,” Clark said at the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago. “Now I feel like all the hard work I've put into my swing is paying off because when I hit the green or hit it close, I'm actually making putts, where maybe at the beginning of the year I wasn't.

After finishing 4th in the field at Shinnecock in SG: Putting, Clark rose from 155th on the PGA Tour in statistics, where he was losing .725 strokes per round, to 43rd, receiving .239 strokes. He is also 5th in scoring average at 1.702.

“I played some bad golf the last two days, but my putter and my short game kept me there,” Clark told NBC's Mike Tirico on Sunday after hoisting the US Open trophy.

There's no telling if Clark's development will lead to the same fever surrounding Ally Blue Onset that surrounded Jailbird three years ago, but it's safe to assume that at least a few have come off the shelves in the past few hours.

Not since TaylorMade signed Scottie Scheffler in 2022 has the company released a better-timed sponsorship deal than Ping's.

Wyndham Clark's putter Specs:

Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Oset CB
Accommodation: 3˚
False: 70˚
Height: 38″
Head weight: 400g (17g tip weight + 13g lead tape)
Enter: PEBAX
Grip: SuperStroke Tour 3.0 17″