Justin Rose Jumps 50 Spots Up The Leaderboard At The Memorial Tournament After Pre-Event Putter Swap

Justin Rose enjoyed a superb second round at The Memorial Tournament on Friday, producing a six-under 66 to vault 50 spots up the leaderboard.

Impressively, the second round was 12 shots better than his six-over-par 78 on Thursday, as his level-par score has him currently sat in a share of 12th place.

Prior to the event start, Rose was seen trialing new clubs at Muirfield Village, with one of those clubs being the new TaylorMade Spider 5K-ZT Putter, a club that the Englishman is already putting to good use.

At the halfway stage of the tournament, Rose currently leads the field in terms of Strokes Gained: Putting, with the Major winner picking up 4.348 strokes on the field.

As of writing, we are unclear of the specs of the new flatstick in the bag, but what we do know is that it's among the new range of putters that feature a zero torque design.

The first time we saw the Spider 5K-ZT Putter in action was at the Valero Texas Open, where Brian Harman put it in the bag to claim the title. That week, the American finished 12th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Although it remains to be seen whether Rose will keep his Spider 5K-ZT Putter in the bag, the 44-year-old appears to be playing very well with it, which will be a welcome sight for Rose, who currently sits 120th in terms of Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA Tour in 2025.

"The PGA Championship was super disappointing with the short game, had no momentum. Every time I missed a green, I wasn't able to up-and-down, I wasn't taking advantage of the par-5s, those sorts of things. Today it was just the opposite," stated Rose after his second round on Friday.

"I kind of hung in there with some good chips, some good short game at the right time, made some good putts to keep momentum going, and that's exactly what you need."