New Scotty Cameron Phantom prototype putters have arrived in Hawaii, with PGA TOUR players at this week’s Sony Open getting their first look at four of Scotty’s new mallet designs for 2024.
Six additional models from the new Phantom family are ready to be unveiled by Scotty Cameron tour reps Drew Page and Brad Cloke in the coming weeks.
The first new Phantom model went into play last week at The Sentry, as Cameron Young made the move to a new Phantom 5 with a prototype knuckle neck after testing it at home in the week leading up to Kapalua.
“That Phantom shape, for one, helps my alignment,” Young said last week. “And then also just the forgiveness of a mallet is important. I feel like anything that you can do to make the off-center hits just a little better is always a good thing.”
Players across the worldwide professional tours continue to find success with Phantom mallets, including Max Homa, who has used a Phantom model for each of his last five PGA TOUR victories.
“I was just struggling with face control with my putter. So I tried a few mallets, ended up going with one of the Phantoms and it just felt like it swung a bit better,” said Homa, who won the 2021 Genesis Invitational a week after making the switch to a Phantom X 11.5 tour prototype. He’s won four more times since with his current gamer, a Phantom X 5.5 tour prototype.
“It didn’t feel like I needed to work so much with my hands to release the putter. And at that time that’s really what I needed and then I got hooked on them… I think you almost don’t have to do as much with your hands, so you can just focus on the big muscles. And I feel like, especially with putting, especially when you’re nervous, that’s a huge part of being consistent and having a lot of repetition. I felt like that was something that I was missing. And when I switched to that, I felt like it just became a lot more predictable just because I could take out a variable… Speed control became much easier with the Phantom style. I felt like because of the weight of the head or just the way it swung, I just felt like it was a lot easier to control my putts from 15 to 25 feet. That’s where I’ve typically struggled. That’s definitely the most obvious impact I saw… I really do think that the speed control has been the main benefactor (to my wins), holing a couple extra 10 to 20 footers. And that typically is mostly speed based, less start line than the closer putts.”
