Tiger Woods Switches Putters For 2010 British Open At St. Andrews

Tiger Woods is breaking up with his old putter -- at least for the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews. According to Golf.com, Woods is trading in his reliable Scotty Cameron Newport putter for the week, which he has used since 1999, for a Nike Method 001 putter, to adapt to the slower greens at soggy St. Andrews.

Woods told reporters that he had “always struggled on slower greens, but that with the Method 001 putter, he “had not had to make too much of an adjustment because the ball is coming off the face a little quicker.” While Woods’ Method 001 putter was reportedly built to match the exact specifications of his Scotty Cameron one, Nike officials said that the new one has slightly less loft.

Woods will hope to follow the recent results of Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover, who both won majors in the last year using the Method 001, as Woods returns to the site of his (or anyone else’s) best-scoring major title win ever. Woods set the record for best score relative to par at a major when he shot a scintillating 19-under at St. Andrews in 2000, the tournament win that gave him the career Grand Slam.