MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Rory McIlroy arrived at the first PGA Tour Playoff event at TPC Southwind carrying a new racquet he had picked up from the collection in his garage – a Prototype Scotty Cameron Phantom X T5.5 hammer – and a simple look.

“I (TaylorMade) brought the spider with me this week. If that racquet doesn’t do what I want it to do for the first couple of days, I might come back,” he said Wednesday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Through two runs, Scotty Cameron wasn’t exactly converting McIlroy’s play on the greens. He was losing putts to the field on earned runs: he was bogged down in the middle of the pack on the greens before noticing a discrepancy.

Full field scores starring FedEx St. Jude

“It’s funny, I didn’t really notice it in practice, and then once I got into competitive play I always put my right hand on the bat first to get in and out. I felt like my right hand was on top, it felt a little bit of a lift,” McIlroy said. “I compared him to a spider last night, it was half an inch (longer than his normal bat). It wasn’t such a big difference.”

After the equipment trucks had already left town, McIlroy’s camper Harry Diamond took the putter to the Edwin Watts golf shop area and chipped it an inch.

“But then[the equipment rep]called Scotty Cameron, and he was kind of like, ‘Maybe she moved a swing weight or two, so I added a little bit of weight to it this morning to try and balance that out. 68, leaving him five shots off the pace and tied for sixth.