Brooks Koepka Makes Golf Ball Change As TaylorMade Spider Putter Hots Up At Cognizant Classic

After carding a three-over-par 74 on Thursday at the Cognizant Classic, Brooks Koepka was in danger of missing a second straight cut upon his PGA Tour return.

On Friday, though, the five-time Major winner battled back with a strong five-under 66, meaning he made the weekend and carded his best round on the circuit since leaving the LIV Golf League in January.

Although it was the five-under round that caught the attention, it was also an equipment swap that was making the rounds online, with Koepka switching his golf ball at PGA National.

Previously, the American had been using the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, a model that had been in-play since around the start of 2022. At the Cognizant Classic, though, he was using the 2025 version of the Titleist Pro V1x.

The move is a slightly surprising one, given that Koepka is a Srixon staffer and uses the brand's clubs (irons and wedges) and golf ball. It's not the first time that he has changed out the Z-Star Diamond for the Pro V1x, though.

Ahead of the US Open in 2022, Koepka changed his ZX7 driver to the TaylorMade M5, while the Z-Star Diamond was replaced with the Pro V1x, which was the model in-play for the first four Major wins of his career from 2017-19.

Srixon's Z-Star Diamond was in the bag for his PGA Championship win in 2023, where it remained until this week, although it's unclear whether the move to the Titleist Pro V1x is a permanent one.

In our testing, both models produced extremely quick numbers in the long game department, while both were also low-spinning. In terms of feel, the Z-Star Diamond has a soft yet responsive feel, while the Pro V1x is slightly firmer.

Certainly, the change to Pro V1x helped Koepka on Friday, as he produced a five-under 66. Another change that helped him, though, came in the flatstick department, where the 35-year-old opted for a very popular model of putter.

At the WM Phoenix Open, he was spotted in a TaylorMade Spider Tour X instead of his usual Scotty Cameron blade, with Koepka using it for the week at TPC Scottsdale.

Missing the cut, it was unclear as to whether the Spider would remain in the bag for Koepka, who lost 3.3 strokes on the green that week.

Going into PGA National, the Spider remained and, although he ranked 111th in Strokes Gained: Putting on Thursday, he ranked second on Friday, gaining nearly four shots on the field.

"I hit it a lot worse today. Didn't drive it nearly as good. Iron play wasn't as good, but the putter was better," stated Koepka, who is two-under for the tournament and nine back of leader, Austin Smotherman.

"(I) Made a few adjustments after the round yesterday. We were just kind of running over there. We spent probably about 15 minutes talking about it and then probably 30 minutes' worth of work.

"It was just my hand position at setup. I was just cheating it. Changed the stroke a little bit. I'm not getting as handsy and I was cheating it by getting my hands back, and it just was creating an inconsistent feel, or where I thought it was taking off it wasn't."