Why did Denny McCarthy change putters? Everything you need to know about the PGA Tour's best putter decision

Denny McCarthy is one of the best putters in the world and has been using his trusted Scotty Cameron GoLo N5 for a while now. So, it came as a shock when the US golfer changed his putter in the ongoing Sony Open.

McCarthy had placed 55th at the Sentry last week. He had admittedly struggled on the slow Bermuda greens of the Kapalua Plantation Course. The 31-year-old spoke about how the conditions prompted him to make an equipment change for the first full-field event on the PGA Tour calendar.

"I really struggled last week on the greens. I find those greens really tricky to read last week. For some reason I like my gamer putter on fast Bermuda greens, but I struggle with them on slow Bermuda greens. These are a little slower again this week," he said via Golf Digest.

However, several things led Denny McCarthy to his decision as he explained:

"I've just kind of been struggling looking down at my putter. It just hasn't felt right lately. I don't know what's been going on, but it just hasn't looked great to my eye the last couple months. I've been fighting it."

He added:

"So after last week, I kind of had determined that I wanted to change this week, just something different to look at, and I really liked how this one felt. I went through a couple different putters trying them on the green, and landed on this one and it feels pretty good."

He has switched to a different Scotty Cameron model for the 2025 Sony Open.

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Who will Denny McCarthy tee off with in Round 3 of the 2025 Sony Open?

Denny McCarthy (Source: Imagn)

It seems to be a putter's game at the 2025 Sony Open as Denny McCarthy leads the standings alongside Patrick Fishburn. The duo is paired with T3 Kensei Hirata for Round 3.

They will tee off at 3 pm ET on Saturday, January 11. Here are the full tee times and pairings for Round 3 of the 2025 Sony Open:

Tee 1

• 1:00 p.m.: Thomas Detry, Ben Griffin, Nick Dunlap
• 1:10 p.m.: Frankie Capan III, Andrew Putnam, Mark Hubbard
• 1:20 p.m.: Matt Kuchar, Adam Svensson, Tom Hoge
• 1:30 p.m.: Sam Ryder, Maverick McNealy, Matt McCarty
• 1:40 p.m.: Jesper Svensson, Harry Hall, Ryan Gerard
• 1:50 p.m.: Gary Woodland, Sahith Theegala, Nick Taylor
• 2:00 p.m.: Mac Meissner, Ben Martin, Ben Kohles
• 2:10 p.m.: Adam Schenk, Nico Echavarria, C.T. Pan
• 2:20 p.m.: Rico Hoey, Tom Kim, Brian Harman
• 2:30 p.m.: J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Brice Garnett
• 2:40 p.m.: Sepp Straka, Lee Hodges, Alex Smalley
• 2:50 p.m.: Eric Cole, Paul Peterson, Zach Johnson
• 3:00 p.m.: Patrick Fishburn, Denny McCarthy, Kensei Hirata

Tee 10

• 1:00 p.m.: Keegan Bradley, Taylor Pendrith, Nate Lashley
• 1:10 p.m.: David Lipsky, Lucas Glover, Hideki Matsuyama
• 1:20 p.m.: Kurt Kitayama, Kevin Roy, Adam Hadwin
• 1:30 p.m.: Doug Ghim, Kevin Streelman, Robert MacIntyre
• 1:40 p.m.: Webb Simpson, Stephan Jaeger, Bud Cauley
• 1:50 p.m.: Vincent Norrman, Charley Hoffman, Jackson Suber
• 2:00 p.m.: Justin Lower, Vince Whaley, Greyson Sigg
• 2:10 p.m.: Aaron Baddeley, Chan Kim, Ben Silverman
• 2:20 p.m.: Taylor Montgomery, Cristobal Del Solar, Keith Mitchell
• 2:30 p.m.: Henrik Norlander, James Hahn, Sam Stevens
• 2:40 p.m.: Brandt Snedeker, Luke List, Erik van Rooyen
• 2:50 p.m.: Ryo Hisatsune, Thomas Rosenmueller
• 3:00 p.m.: Taylor Dickson, Jeremy Paul