Two Putters Lead To Haeran Ryu's First Major Championship

Playing the leader isn't always easy, but coming down the stretch at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, Haeran Ryu made it look easy as she won by two shots over Ina Yoon.

But her week didn't start easily, because she opened the event with a 1-over 73, and had 34 putts on the round. This led to an unexpected decision to switch putters and move into something to help on the greens at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

After firing an 8-under 64, Ryu spoke of the change that helped with the turnaround.

I changed my putter because I was sometimes missing a short putt with my old putter," Ryu said. "Today I used the same putter as Kroger Championship a month ago, so I felt it's so great and I made a lot of birdies today.

The putters in question were a TaylorMade Spider ZT during the first round and a Scotty Cameron 11R OC for the rest of the event.

The Scotty Cameron was the lone non-TaylorMade Club in her bag.

Much like the Spider ZT she sat after the first round, the 11R is Onset Center, which references the shaft orientation in the head back from the face to minimize torque.

Above image via Scotty Cameron; Title Image via GolfWRX.com

As for the rest of Haeran Ryu's set, as mentioned, she plays with a full set of TaylorMade gear, including her golf ball, a TP5.

Haeran Ryu's Clubs

Driver: Qi4D LS 8.0 degree

Mini Driver: R7 mini driver 11.5 degree

Hybrid: Qi4D Rescue Hybrid 17.0 degree

Irons: P770 (4i), P7MC 5-PW

Wedges: MG5 Forged: 48,54,58

Ball: TP5

Gear Advice Nugget

The standout here, and something I think is very important for a lot of golfers to pay attention to is the way Ryu gaps her set.

At the top end of he bag she goes right from a driver to mini driver, to hybrid - an odd combo to say the least in the modern game, especially for LPGA Tour players who generally carry multiple fairway woods.

By using less clubs at the top of her set, it allows her to have more clubs focus on approach play, to reduce dispersion and create extremely consistent distance gaps, something I would encourage more golfers to try, especially if you tend to struggle on approach shots where you are left with large distance gaps.