CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Three-time PGA TOUR winner Charles Howell III is set to use a putter model at the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship that he used “many gray hairs ago,” as he told PGATOUR.COM.

The now-39-year-old Howell III, who turned professional in 2000, was a standout amateur golfer from Augusta, Georgia – he competed in his first PGA TOUR event as 17-year-old – and he continued onto Oklahoma State University where won the 2000 NCAA Mens’ Division I Golf Championship. According to Howell III, he used a Ping B60 putter in his college days and prior, so it’s likely that he’s won a slew of tournaments with that model.

That’s what makes his likely putter switch at the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship so special.

Tony Serrano, Senior Design Engineer at Ping who works closely with PGA TOUR players, had received requests from TOUR players for a B60 model putter because “a lot of guys grew up playing that classic B60, or Anser-style putters,” Serrano said. That being the case, ahead of the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship, Serrano designed a 100% milled Ping PLD (stands for Putting Lab Design) B60 out of carbon steel, but he added a special patina accelerant “to give it that antique-ish look.”

Although Howell III has been playing a TaylorMade Spider Tour Red putter throughout 2019, he’s “always putter shopping,” as he told PGATOUR.COM. When Serrano showed him the PLD B60 putter early in the week on the putting green at the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship, it triggered Howell III’s nostalgia.

“I asked him if he ever used that style of putter, and he gave me a look like, ‘Yea, I did,’” Serrano told PGATOUR.COM. “It really brought a smile to his face. Some of the things we talked about, like the hosel location and full-shaft offset, I think he was very comfortable looking at that because he had some experience with it in the past… When he sat it down and looked at it, he had a big smile on his face. I think he said, ‘I’ve won a lot of tournaments with this when I was younger.’”

The original B60 was introduced late in 1978, and the early models weighed “closer to 300 grams,” according to Serrano, but the newly designed PLD B60 version weighs 350 grams.

“That’s just the normal head weight for putters nowadays,” Serrano said. “They’ve gotten heavier throughout the years, [but the PLD B60] has that shape and that hosel style that Karsten had on the early B60’s.”

During the Wednesday Pro-Am, PGATOUR.COM observed that Howell III was using the Ping PLD B60 putter, but he also had a custom Scotty Cameron Phantom X 12 putter with a welded slant neck in the bag. Howell III said he’s “always impressed” with Scotty Cameron’s welding.

While Howell III confirmed he’s likely going to use the Ping PLD B60 putter during the event, he’s “always putter shopping,” so it won’t be set in stone until the first hole at Quail Hollow.