Jordan Spieth addresses potential putter change, seeks spark at familiar TPC Deere Run

Jordan Spieth knows the importance of stability on and around the greens at TPC Deere Run as well as anyone.

The par-71 course that hosts the John Deere Classic favors those with a strong short game. As the 2013 and 2015 winner of the event, Spieth maximized putting opportunities to climb the leaderboard, finishing inside the top 10 of putts per green in regulation in both of his victories.

“Although the course can yield some birdies, when you are trying to win a golf tournament, it can be very difficult,” Spieth said. “Comebacks can happen on a course like this, because if you get tentative at all, it's a good enough golf course that if you are out of position, you can make bogeys, but when you are really dialed in out here, it gives you opportunities to shoot 4- or 5-under.”

That’s why when the world’s 53rd-ranked player was spotted using a L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i putter on the practice green ahead of last week's Travelers Championship, it caught the golf world’s attention. The mallet-style putter is a stark contrast to his T.P. Mills Trad II blade putter, with which he secured all three of his major championship victories.

Spieth testing the L.A.B represented a notable change.

“I feel like I've been hitting my lines a lot, and especially the last month, I just haven't seen them go in,” Spieth said Tuesday. "[I was] looking at what could be most stable essentially, like something that I could sit down that lines up better than anything.”

Despite testing a new putter, he says he will stick with what worked in the final round at the Travelers.

"My plan this week is just to stay with where I'm at," said Spieth. "I made some putts on Sunday, and I plan on taking that momentum into this week."

While other events have inflicted "scar tissue" upon the 13-time TOUR winner, Spieth has favored his returns to the friendly confines of the Quad Cities throughout his career. In 2013, he became the youngest winner on TOUR since 1931. Spieth has never finished worse than T26 in his five starts at the John Deere.

Fast forward over a decade since his second win, and Spieth is still chasing the thrill of moments like his playoff win over Tom Gillis in 2015.

The Texan has had a solid 2026 campaign thus far, with eight top-25 finishes, but he is still searching for his first win since the 2022 RBC Heritage.

Spieth says he is confident he can return to the winner's circle, regardless of the putter in his bag.

“The last month, I felt like I played kind of the same level of golf and didn't get a whole lot out of it,” Spieth said. “I had some opportunities in some big events to obviously maintain kind of the trajectory I was on, [but] I'm not letting it get to me. I feel like my game is in a really good state. I'm more consistent and an all-around better player than I've been in a long time. If I stay the course, the results will come.”