Wyndham Clark is the Latest Player to Put a L.A.B. Putter in the Bag

Wyndham Clark’s most notable moment of the season was kicking in a locker at the U.S. Open—he’s now banned from Oakmont. That’s, uh, less than ideal.

But since the start of July, he’s been playing some pretty great golf.

Since missing the cut at the Rocket Classic, Clark has finished T-11 at the Scottish Open, T-4 at The Open, and T-12 at the 3M Open. If he was trying to peak for the FedExCup Playoffs, consider it mission accomplished.

Still, he wasn’t too happy with his putting going into the Rocket, so he tested some flat sticks in Detroit and decided to go with a L.A.B. putter. Now, if you’re a YouTube golf fan, you’ve seen countless creators make the very same move. The Bryan Bros., Grant Horvat, the list goes on. But there are plenty of guys out on TOUR who use one, too. Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, J.J Spaun. They’ve started to take over the game—I even gave one a shot, but it wasn’t for me.

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After posting a 3-under 67 during the opening round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday, Clark said he’s messed around with L.A.B. putters for “four or five years.”

“I played two tournaments with it, maybe about four years ago. But it was always the big one, and I didn't personally like the big one. So when they came out with the small one, I still always liked it. J.J. Spaun and I practice a lot at Whisper Rock, and sometimes I would grab his and hit with it.

“I had putted just very average this year, and in Detroit I went to the putting green on Monday and just tried a million different putters, and the L.A.B. was the best one, and we've really started to make some nice putts.”

The move has obviously paid dividends; just look at his recent finishes. And that trend continued on Day 1 in Memphis, as he gained over 3.3 strokes on the morning wave. We’ll see where he stands after play is over, but that’s a damn good day either way.

He’s five back of leader Akshay Bhatia, but it feels like he’ll be part of the conversation once Sunday afternoon rolls around. He came into the week 49th in the point standings, meaning he’s right on the bubble for next week’s BMW Championship. But as of 1:15 p.m. ET Thursday, he’s projected to move up to 37th, comfortably inside the cut-off mark.