Gear: Ping 2021 putters
Price: $270-$380 each
Specs: Stainless steel, aluminum and tungsten heads with dual-durometer polymer insert
In recent years Ping has become known for making some of the most stable and forgiving drivers in golf, but the company was founded on putters. Karsten Solheim’s designs, dating back to 1959, have always tried to help players obtain more consistency on the greens and enhance their sense of touch. Now, with the release of the 2021 family of putters, Ping continues those efforts with multi-material constructions and a new face insert.
There are nine 2021 putters, ranging from three versions of the iconic Anser to mid-sized mallets to larger mallets. All of them have a few things in common.
Each putter has a new Pebax elastomer insert that has two levels of firmness. Pebax is a polymer that Ping has used in select putters before, such as the Sigma 2 family. It is light, feels soft at impact and does an excellent job of returning energy to the ball. In the 2021 putters, Ping used two Pebax layers, with the outermost layer being soft for better performance on short putts and the back layer being firmer for a more solid feel on long putts. This soft insert complements the Heppler putters that Ping released last season, which have a smooth stainless steel face designed to feel firm and crisp.
The materials used to make each putter vary based on the head’s size, but all of them were made to deliver more stability and forgiveness.
The Anser, Anser 2 and Anser 4 are smaller blades made from stainless steel with tungsten weights in the heel and toe to increase the moment of inertia without making the heads larger. They are the most forgiving Anser putters Ping has ever made.
The Kushin 4, GS 72 and Tyne 4 are midsize mallets with a steel weight in the heel and tungsten in the toe to move the center of gravity into the ideal spot. The Fetch and Oslo H mallets have stainless steel bodies with aluminum soleplates. The use of aluminum shifts more of the overall weight to the perimeter, making the mallets more stable without becoming overly large.
The new CA 70, which is slightly larger, has an aluminum body and a heavier, stainless steel soleplate to drop the center of gravity, while the Harwood, which has an aluminum body and 93-gram tungsten weights in each corner of the head, has the highest moment of inertia of any putter in the lineup.
Each 2021 putter has a dark PVD finish, white alignment features and comes standard with a black-chrome shaft. They also come standard with 3 degrees of loft except the armlock version of the Harwood, which has 6 degrees, and the lofts can be adjusted by a custom fitter.