(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

By E. Michael Johnson
Dustin Johnson comes to this week’s Players Championship as the World No.1. He also knows that to stay there, he’s going to have to play better than recent form. After starting the season with a win and a pair of runner-up finishes, Johnson has done no better than T-7 in his last five events. Despite being a highly respectable T-38 in strokes gained/putting, Johnson was seen on Wednesday trying out TaylorMade’s prototype Spider Mini putter.

Johnson, who does not loathe to change putters, has had a great deal of success with a black version of the Spider Tour model. The Spider Mini looks like a sawed-off version of that club, although the one Johnson was wielding was red in colour.

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The company has been teasing the prototype on social media with various posts on Twitter and Instagram and the club has received plenty of interest from its tour staff, including now it’s No. 1 player. Whether Johnson uses the putter this week remains to be seen. Stay tuned.