Players 2026: Jacob Bridgeman shares the unusual practice putting routine that has him in contention again
Jacob Bridgeman charged into contention at TPC Sawgrass with a Friday 68, giving him an impressive start in his Players Championship debut. But if you’ve been watching the PGA Tour this season, seeing the 26-year-old’s name on the leaderboard is nothing new. Neither is how he got there.
Bridgeman gained more than three strokes on the greens on Friday to lead the field, and he’s second in the tournament in strokes gained/putting through 36 holes. He also ranks second on tour in that stat for the season, one in which he claimed his first PGA Tour title at Riviera.
Advertisement
RELATED: This small tweak will help you flush more putts (Yes, putts)
So how does Bridgeman groove the putting stroke that currently has him third in the FedEx Cup points list? The answer may surprise you. In fact, it surprised a group of Clemson golfers earlier this week. Bridgeman was playing a practice round in front of some young men from his alma mater when one golfer asked about the blade putter in his bag.
“I practice like 20 minutes a day with a blade probably,” Bridgeman says in the video. “I do my stroke stuff, short putts, and then when I put the spaceship in, it feels like I can’t miss.”
The “spaceship” is Bridgeman’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X that he used to win the Genesis Invitational. As he explains in the video, he finds putting with the face-balanced mallet easier than a blade—something that’s been a trend on the PGA Tour of late—so he challenges himself with the blade that has more toe hang in practice.
Advertisement
“The more toe hang you have, the harder it is to keep the putter straight,” Bridgeman says. And when he goes back to the mallet, “it’s so smooth.” You can watch his full explanation for this from :20 to 1:02 in the following video:
Interesting. As Bridgeman also says, he heard about doing this from Carson Young. And that Tiger Woods used to do something similar using an old-school Bullseye putter in practice. It’s similar to using the gate drill (something Tiger also uses) or putting to a smaller hole in order to sharpen your accuracy.
In any event, it certainly seems to work for Bridgeman. And you may even notice him practicing with that blade putter this weekend at TPC Sawgrass. He and his caddie just have to make sure to take it out of the bag before he tees off.
RELATED: PGA Tour winner makes wild quintuple bogey at TPC Sawgrass
