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LA Golf Bel-Air, Malibu putters

LA Golf’s Bel-Air and Malibu putter heads are made using carbon fiber instead of steel.

Gear: LA Golf Bel-Air, Malibu putters
Price: $499 (Bel-Air, Malibu), $599 (Bel-Air X, Malibu X)
Specs: Carbon fiber heads with grooved stainless steel face inserts, tungsten weights and graphite shafts

Who it’s For: Golfers who love technology and want extreme perimeter weighting and forgiveness in a traditional-sized putter.

The Skinny: LA Golf’s Bel-Air and Malibu putter heads are made using carbon fiber instead of steel, which allowed designers to add large tungsten weights in the heel and toe for stability while a variable-loft face helps to improve the consistency of your roll.

The Deep Dive: LA Golf is an equipment company that has made a name for itself by not only making high-performance graphite shafts for woods and irons but also specializing in graphite shafts for putters. The company has also signed several well-known players as brand ambassadors, including Bryson DeChampeau, Dustin Johnson and Michelle Wie West.

Last year, LA Golf released its first club, a $1,500 blade putter that was made from carbon fiber instead of steel and that came with one of the company’s graphite shafts. At that price, the brand knew it would not sell many putters, but like a concept car, it showed what LA Golf could do. Now, with the release of its GEN 2 putters — the Bel-Air and Malibu — LA Golf is bringing the technologies it debuted last year to a broader audience.

LA Golf Malibu putter. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

It is likely that every putter you have ever used is either made from stainless steel or a combination of stainless steel, aluminum and tungsten, but LA Golf makes its putter heads using carbon fiber. In the case of the standard Bel-Air blade and Malibu mallet, the carbon fiber is compression molded, a process that involves heating the carbon fiber and pressing it into the desired shape. For the Bel-Air X and the Malibu X putters, the carbon fiber is forged into a block before getting milled into the final shape by a computer-guided bit.

In both cases, the carbon fiber is five times less dense than the stainless steel often used in putters, resulting in a huge amount of discretionary weight that can be utilized to improve performance.

Much of that weight is concentrated in a 106-gram tungsten weight in the toe and an 88-gram tungsten weight in the heel of the GEN2 putters. Those weights create extreme perimeter weighting, which enlarges the sweet spot and helps to keep the Bel-Air and the Malibu stable on off-center hits.

To further help the putter resist twisting on off-center hits, each Bel-Air and Malibu putter comes fitted with an LA Golf P-Series SoHo graphite shaft. It is very stiff and designed to decrease excessive vibrations, and when combined with the perimeter weighting in the head, it should help putters roll in your intended target line more often.

LA Golf Bel-Air putter — LA Golf uses a grooved, descending-loft face insert in the Bel-Air and Malibu. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Finally, both the Bel-Air and the Malibu have a grooved stainless steel face insert that has Descending Loft technology. This is a feature that came from a brand called SIK, which LA Golf purchased. There is 4 degrees of loft on the top quarter of the insert, but it decreases to 3 degrees, then 2 degrees and finally 1 degree of loft in the bottom quarter.

If you make contact with the ball and your hands are pressed slightly ahead of the putter’s head, that would ordinarily de-loft the face and result in the ball going down, into the ground, and then popping up like a chip. The extra loft at the top of the insert reduces that effect. Similarly, if your strike your putt on a rising path and in the lower portion of the face, the reduced loft helps can help keep the ball from hopping. The result is more consistency in the roll, putt after putt.

While the GEN 2 Bel-Air has the same shape as the original LA Golf Blade putter, it is smaller. However, the club is still slightly longer from heel to toe than most blade-style putters, and larger from face to face. The fang-style Malibu mallet is also slightly larger than other mallets of its type. Both have a unique finish and look that comes from the compression and forging of the carbon fiber, so no two putters are exactly alike.

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LA Golf Blade Putter: Can a $1,500 flat stick help your performance on the greens?

The LA Golf Blade is made from carbon composite, has extreme perimeter weighting and comes standard with a graphite shaft.

Gear: LA Golf Blade putter
Price: $1,500 with graphite shaft and Winn Jumbo Lite DRI TAC grip
Specs: Milled carbon composite head with milled 303 stainless steel face insert and adjustable tungsten sole weights. 33″ to 36″

Who it’s For: Deep-pocketed golfers who want extreme forgiveness and stability on the greens with a more consistent roll.

The Skinny: Designing the head using carbon composite allowed LA Golf to make a massive heel-toe weighted blade putter with extreme perimeter weighting for increased stability and forgiveness.

The Deep Dive: For the past few years, LA Golf (LAGP) has been making a name for itself by making high-performance graphite shafts for Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and a growing number of tour players. Many of them not only use those shafts in their woods but also in their putters because the ultra-stiff graphite shafts can help reduce twisting on off-center hits.

LAGP recently purchased SIK (Study In Kinematics) and now has released its first tip-to-grip club offering, a blade-style putter that blends LAGP’s expertise with carbon materials with one of SIK’s key technologies.

Graphite putter shafts are trending on tour. Can they help you improve your putting?

Breaking down the new trend that’s hitting pro golf and testing if it can help amateurs, too.

Dustin Johnson was stalking a 14-foot putt at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship like a leopard might circle around an unsuspecting antelope. As he address the ball, an NBC Sports analyst made golfers who follow equipment closely cringe.

“You know, Dustin’s coach, Claude Harmon III, told me he used three different putters in four rounds last week at the Valspar Championship and settled on old faithful this week (a TaylorMade Spider Tour Black), but he put a graphite shaft in it for a little different feel,” said Gary Koch.

The comment about three different putters in four rounds didn’t grab my attention, but the tidbit about adding a graphite shaft sure did.

With all due respect to Koch, Johnson has been using a graphite shaft in his putter, all of his putters, since the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. That week, he signed an endorsement deal with L.A. Golf (LAGP), the same company that makes the shafts in Bryson DeChambeau’s woods, irons, wedge and yes, his putter too.

Dustin Johnson had composite shafts installed in his putters at the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

While steel putter shafts still reign supreme at the professional level and among recreational golfers too, there is a small but growing number of players who are tinkering with composite shafts that are made primarily using graphite. Kevin Na has been using a graphite putter shaft since 2019 and had one in his Odyssey Toulon Design putter when he won the 2021 Sony Open in Hawaii. Anna Nordqvist had one in her putter when she won the 2021 Women’s British Open and competed in last season’s Solheim Cup. Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Sandra Gal, Jeongeun Lee6, Marc Leishman, Shane Lowry, Francesco Molinari and Michelle Wie West have also each used a graphite putter shaft recently.

According to brands that make graphite putter shafts, the advantage they can have over their steel counterparts is versatility.

A typical steel putter weighs about 125 grams and to create one that is more flexible, manufacturers typically need to make the walls thinner, which also makes the shaft lighter. Conversely, to make a steel shaft stiffer, they need to make the walls of the shaft thicker, which adds more weight.

Graphite is much lighter and shaft companies can layer sheets of material at different angles and use different blends to increase or decrease stiffness while keeping the weight the same. They can also make specific areas of the shaft stiffer or more flexible, to give the shaft different playing qualities without changing the weight or diameter.

Anna Nordqvist at the 2022 Women’s British Open. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP)

This leads to the other edge graphite can have over steel when it comes to putter shafts. By making the tip section very stiff without adding weight, graphite putter shafts can help the face resist twisting when you strike a putt toward the heel or toe. That will effectively increase any putter’s moment of inertia (MOI), so if you hit a putt outside the ideal hitting area, many graphite shafts can help the face stay pointed at your target line more effectively. The result, theoretically, is the ball rolls where you aimed more often and it doesn’t lose as much speed on mis-hits, so your distance control is better too.