Equipment designers have been busy tweaking existing lines for better performance and often introducing entirely new clubs.
For whatever your game needs, equipment designers have been busy tweaking existing lines for better performance and often introducing entirely new clubs.
Check out some of the putters that have been introduced for this season.
Odyssey Stroke Lab Triple Track
Price: $249.99
Odyssey’s new Stroke Lab Triple Track putters feature the same alignment lines found on some Callaway golf balls, creating an alignment system that blends from the putter’s crown directly into the ball. Each of the seven putters comes standard with a Stroke Lab shaft that has graphite in the upper and middle areas, then steel in the tip.
TaylorMade boosted the stability of classic looking putters by added a triangular hosel system that disappears when you look at the ball.
Gear: TaylorMade Truss putters Price: $299 each with KBS Stepless Stability shaft and Lamkin Sink Fit Skinny grip Specs: Aluminum-bodied putters with tungsten weights and grooved face insert. Available: Feb. 7
TaylorMade has enjoyed success in recent years with its Spider family of putters because the mallets provide golfers with enhanced stability in a compact shape. But even as the Spider putters have been refined through the release of the Spider Mini, the Spider X and now the Spider S, some golfers have resisted switching to one. They want the performance benefits but can’t get past the untraditional look.
Now, for players who demand a classic look at address but also want more mallet-style stability, TaylorMade has something completely new: the Truss putters.
The triangular Truss stability system supports more of the putter’s weight, making it more stable on off-center hits. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
If you think back to your high school physics class, you might recall that a truss is a load-bearing framework, usually constructed with triangular shapes, that creates a rigid structure. TaylorMade’s putter designers have borrowed that idea from bridge makers and added it to the neck section of its latest putter family.
TaylorMade said it creates more horizontal stability and stiffness by creating a larger area of supported mass in the heel area. That means when you hit a putt outside the sweetspot, either toward the heel or the toe, the club stays square and resists twisting open or closed. According to TaylorMade’s data, the Truss TB1 blade deflects 61.5 percent less than a standard heel-toe-weighted blade, and the center-shafted TB2 deflects 80.3 percent less.
At address, the Truss TB1’s stability system disappears, so the putters look like traditionally shaped clubs. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
But the real beauty of adding the Truss stability system, according to TaylorMade, is that when a golfer soles the putter behind the ball and looks down in the address position, the whole system disappears and all the player sees is a classically shaped club. The triangular support system disappears by visually blending into the topline. So, TaylorMade said, Truss putters can deliver Spider-like stability in a classic size and shape.
The grooved True Roll face insert is designed to reduce skidding and encourage the ball to roll sooner. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
To enhance the quality of the roll of the TB1, TB2, TM1 and TM2, TaylorMade gave the four Truss putters the same Surlyn insert found in the Spider putters. The grooves in the insert face down at a 45-degree angle and are designed to grip the ball at impact and encourage it to start rolling instead of skidding for better distance control and consistency.
The updated Spider putter has more forgiveness and stability thanks to strategically-placed tungsten weights.
Gear: TaylorMade Spider S putters Price: $349.99 each with KBS Stepless Stability shaft and Super Stroke Pistol GTR 1.0 grip Specs: Aluminum-bodied putters with tungsten weights and grooved face insert. Available: Feb. 14
The original TaylorMade Spider debuted in 2008, and a better name for it might have been Tarantula because it was massive. Its size and extreme perimeter weighting made it stable on off-center hits. Still, many players couldn’t get past its looks.
Refinements and tinkering continued for years, but when Jason Day started using a black, custom-made Spider Mini, lightning struck. The Australian won the PGA Championship with it and the following season became the first golfer to finish a PGA Tour season with a strokes gained putting average over 1. His 1.13 average meant Day gained more than a full-shot advantage over the field each round based on the quality of his putting.
Eventually, Day switched into a red Spider Tour, which was a retail version of the putter he’d been using. Then Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and plenty of other pros started tinkering with Spider putters. In 2019, TaylorMade released a more refined version, the Spider X, which McIlroy and Rahm quickly put in their bags.
The newest version is the Spider S, and TaylorMade said that while it may look more refined, the Spider S is the most stable Spider putter yet.
The blue aluminum body is enhanced by the addition of a tungsten bar in the back and more tungsten in the heel and toe areas. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The key to making the smaller head play like a big putter is the multi-material construction. The body is made from 6061 aluminum, which is very light. That allowed TaylorMade designers to shift much of the head’s overall weight into a tungsten bar in the back of the head. There are also 48 grams of tungsten split between two weights behind the leading edge in the heel and toe area.
Concentrating so much weight in those areas increases the moment of inertia and helps the Spider S resist twisting on off-center hits. It also helps the ball roll out nearly as far on putts hit toward the heel and toe, for enhanced distance control.
The Spider S has an updated True Roll insert and three alignment lines. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
To further enhance performance, TaylorMade updated the grooved True Roll face insert. The grooves still point downward at a 45-degree angle to help the insert grab the ball and encourage it to start rolling instead of skidding after impact, but the insert itself is slightly thicker. It gives the Spider S a softer feel and sound.
The Spider S putter is face-balanced, so it is ideally suited for golfers who have a straight-back, straight-through putting stroke, and it is available in both navy and chalk white. Both color options feature a three-stripe alignment system on the top to help golfers aim the face more easily.
Ping’s Heppler putters are designed using aluminum and steel for golfers who like a crisp, firm feel at impact.
Gear: Ping Heppler putters Price: $245-$270 each Specs: Mallets with cast-aluminum and stainless steel heads; blade-style putters in all steel. Adjustable-length shafts. Available: Jan. 20
While there has been a significant trend over the past few years to softer-feeling golf balls, many players prefer a firm, solid-feeling putter. To them, a crisp strike feels better and allows them to develop a better sense of touch. With the new Heppler family of putters, which contains nine head shapes, Ping is using a new manufacturing technique to deliver a firmer feel and more forgiveness at the same time.
Ping has designed grooved faces in all of its recent putters, such as the Sigma 2, Vault 2.0 and Sigma G families, and some putters also have backings and inserts to soften feel. The Heppler blades, mid-mallets and high-MOI mallet putters – named for Rick Heppler, an employee who joined the company in 1966 as it started and was with Ping for nearly 50 years – are different.
The putters have a smooth face that produces crisp contact and were designed using a multimaterial construction that is new for Ping.
Seven of the nine Heppler putters can be classified as either mid-size mallets or high-MOI mallets, and each has a chassis dye cast from ADC12 aluminum. Ping said the material is 10 percent softer than the 6061 aluminum used in other putters. The pressure-casting process allowed Ping to get more details into the heads during the casting process instead of machining and milling after the heads are created.
Ping Heppler Floki putter (Ping)
Other areas of the heads are made from cast stainless steel, a material that is much heavier than aluminum. In the mallets, the steel was given a copper tone that contrasts with the black-finished aluminum.
The combination of aluminum and steel allowed Ping to concentrate weight more precisely for increased perimeter weighting and forgiveness without making the heads significantly larger.
For example, the Heppler Tyne 3 putter is the higher-MOI version of the Tyne that Ping has produced, even though it is not bigger than previous models and does not have a ball-speed-normalizing face insert.
The black portion of the Tomcat 14 is made from aluminum while the copper-toned piece is steel. (Ping)
The Tomcat 14 putter has the highest moment of inertia in the Heppler lineup, with half its weight coming from aluminum and half coming from steel. The rails are a ball’s width apart and covered in white dots that were inspired by the lights that flank an aircraft runway.
Ping Heppler Anser 2 putter (Ping)
The remaining two of the nine putters in the Keppler family are blades and made using only steel. The Anser 2, which is ideally balanced for golfers who have a slightly arced putting stroke, is the latest edition of the classic putter that put Ping on the map, while the ZB3 is for players with a strong arc. The copper-colored topline helps the blades match the rest of the family and acts as an alignment aid.
Each Heppler putter comes standard with a black chrome shaft that is adjustable. Using a tool that inserts into the grip, the putters can be made as short as 32 inches or as long as 36 inches, making it easier for players and fitters to create a Heppler putter that is the ideal length for any player.
Using feedback from PGA Tour players, Scotty Cameron’s newest putters feature thinner toplines, lower profiles and milled faces.
Gear: Scotty Cameron Special Select putters Price: $399 each Specs: Milled 303 stainless steel heads with 6061 aluminum, stainless steel and tungsten. Available: Jan. 24
Scotty Cameron’s official title at Titleist is not head of design or category manager. It’s master putter maker. For years he has focused on trying to make putters with which the game’s elite golfers fall in love, and many have. Some of the game’s best players collect Cameron putters, often those being prototype and customized clubs that aren’t available at retail.
With his latest update to the Select family of putters, Cameron is making the putters sold at retail simpler, cleaner and more like clubs used by the pros.
Each of the seven head models starts as a solid block of 303 stainless steel before a computer-guided milling tool shaves off ribbons of material until the final shape is achieved. In the Newport, Newport 2 and Newport 2.5 blades, the sole was given a soft, tri-sole design, with the toe and heel rising slightly so the center portion can easily rest flat on the ground at address.
Special Select blades have thinner toplines and slightly shorter blade lengths, so Cameron achieved the ideal swing weight by adding tungsten weight screw in the sole. (Titleist)
The blades also feature thinner toplines and slightly lower face heights, with more material being milled off the back flange areas. That may not seem like a big deal, but Cameron did it to make the retail putters have the same look at address preferred by many pros.
As a result, the overall weight of the heads decreased. In order to maintain the same swing weight, Cameron decided to use tungsten in the heel and toe sole weights of the blade putters. Heavier weights are added to shorter putters, while longer putters get lighter weights.
The Special Select Flowback 5 mallet has steel removed from the bottom and an aluminum sole plate added to cover the opening. (Titleist)
The four mid-size mallets have extra material in the sole milled out. Removing steel from the center of the sole, then covering the hole with 6061 aircraft-grade aluminum, shifts more of the head’s weight to the heel and toe areas, which creates more stability without increasing the head size.
While the Fastback 1.5 and Squareback 2 are shapes Cameron has offered in the past, the Flowback 5 and Flowback 5.5 are new. They are semi-circular mallets based on the previously released GoLo putters
Scotty Cameron Special Select Del Mar putter (Titleist)
Cameron has brought back a compact mallet, the Del Mar, with the Special Select line. As with the blades, it has a solid sole.
Unlike the previous Select putters, none of the Special Select putters have an insert or vibration-dampening membrane. Again, this is a nod to the kind of insert-free putters that pros often ask Cameron to make.
Each Special Select putter has a glare-resistant, raw stainless steel finish with a single black alignment line.
Odyssey combines the Triple Track alignment system, Stroke Lab shaft and microhinge face in its newest putter family.
Gear: Odyssey Triple Track putters Price: $249.99 each Specs: Seven models with microhinge face inserts and shafts that combine graphite and steel. Available: Jan. 30
Last February, Phil Mickelson won for the fifth time at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am using a golf ball featuring two blue stripes that bracketed a thicker red line. The ball was a Callaway Chrome Soft X with Triple Track, a unique visual aid designed to help golfers align their putts more easily.
For 2020, Triple Track is also a part of Odyssey’s newest putter family.
Each of the seven Odyssey Triple Track putters has the same blue and red configuration on the top. The pattern shows misalignment easily, which can help golfers square the clubface to their intended line and start putts on target more accurately. Combined with the Triple Track alignment lines on the Chrome Soft X with Triple Track and the Callaway ERC Soft balls that were released last season, it creates an alignment system that blends from the putter’s crown directly into the ball.
The Odyssey Triple Track putters also have a pair of Odyssey’s newest technologies designed to improve consistency, the Stroke Lab shaft and the Microhinge Star insert.
The Stroke Lab shaft’s upper and mid sections are graphite, while the tip section is steel. Using graphite in the top and middle areas of the shaft made it stiff but also saved weight, so Odyssey designers made the heads heavier. They could also putt more weight at the top of the handle. Odyssey’s research showed this configuration helped golfers develop a more rhythmic, consistent putting stroke.
The metal hinges in the Microhinge Star insert encourage a forward roll off the face. (Odyssey Golf)
The Microhinge Star insert combines metal pieces with a firmer-feeling plastic piece. The sound is more like a click, which many players prefer. Odyssey said the Microhinge Star insert does a better job of matching sound with distances and energy applied to the ball.
Odyssey Triple Track Ten putter (Odyssey Golf)
The Triple Track putters will be available in several shapes, including the classic 2-Ball, the Marxman, the Doube-Wide Blade and high-MOI mallet Ten.
Odyssey gave the Stroke Lab Black putters a darker PVD finish and a new, firmer-feeling microhinge insert.
Gear: Odyssey Stroke Lab Black putters Price: $299.99 each Specs: Seven models with Microhinge face inserts and shafts that combine graphite and steel. Available: Jan. 30
Odyssey introduced the Stroke Lab putters in early 2019, and Francesco Molinari and Phil Mickelson promptly won PGA Tour events using them, then Xander Schauffele finished tied for second at the Masters with a Stroke Lab.
For 2020, Odyssey is extending the Stroke Lab putter family with the introduction of Stroke Lab Black putters inspired by feedback from elite golfers and tour players.
Each Stroke Lab Black putter comes standard with a Stroke Lab shaft made with graphite in the upper and middle sections and steel in the tip section. Odyssey said this design helps remove about 40 grams of weight from the middle of the putter, where it does not provide any performance benefits. Engineers split that saved weight between the head and the top portion of the handle, and Odyseey research showed the design resulted in golfers producing a more consistent stroke.
Unlike the original Stroke Lab putters that featured silver tones and darker accents, the Stroke Lab Black putters have a black PVD finish complimented by black paint.
Like the other Stroke Lab Black putters, the One has a new Microhinge Star face insert. (Odyssey Golf)
Another subtle change Odyssey made for the Stroke Lab Black putters was the addition of a new face insert. While many golfers liked the White Hot Microhinge insert, some thought it was too soft and muted. After testing several prototype inserts, Odyssey opted for a firmer hitting surface that has Microhinges but no grooves. It’s called the Microhinge Star insert, and it makes a slightly louder, higher-pitched sound, like a click, that many players found pleasing.
At the same time, the Microhinges still bend back at impact, then spring forward to reduce skidding and encourage the ball to start rolling more quickly.
Odyssey One Black R Line Arrow putter (Odyssey Golf)
The Stroke Lab Black family is comprised of five mallets, including the Bird of Prey, Ten and the Seven, which features fang-like extensions in the heel and toe area. The R Line Arrow is a rounded, high-MOI mallet, while the Rossie is a rounded mid-size mallet. Odyssey also offers a heel-toe-weighted blade, the One, and the Double Wide, which is an enlarged blade-style putter.
A new hosel and neck configuration could make this putter appealing to golfers who have an arched stroke and are looking for stability.
Scotty Cameron released the Phantom X line of putters in January at the PGA Merchandise Show, and today Titleist’s master craftsman for putters announced the release of the first line extension to that family, the Phantom X 12.5.
A full-size mallet with a single alignment line, the Phantom X 12.5 has a center section made from 6061 aircraft-grade aluminum with silver-toned 303 stainless steel sections in the heel and toe areas. The stainless steel is significantly heavier than the aluminum, so more of the head’s overall weight is in the perimeter, which stabilizes the club on off-center hits.
The Phantom X 12.5 has an aluminum center section and stainless steel pieces in the heel and toe. (Titleist)
The putter also has a pair of weights in the sole that can be adjusted either at the Titleist factory or by a custom fitter. Longer putters typically come with lighter weights, and shorter putters come with heavier weights to standardize the swing weight, but golfers can get the weights customized based on their preferences.
The differences between the Phantom X 12.5 and the standard Phantom X 12 is the hosel configuration and the toe hang. The new putter has a low-bend shaft configuration that creates more toe hang, so the putter is better suited for players with an arced putting stroke.
The Phantom X 12.5 reaches stores Dec. 12 and costs $429.
With the decade nearly in the books, take a look back on some of the most influential and important putter innovations of the past 10 years.
With the decade nearly in the books, Golfweek looks back on some of the most influential and important putters and innovations of the past 10 years.
Ping Anser
The original Anser putter was sketched by Karsten Solheim on the sleeve of a 78-rpm record and debuted at the 1966 Phoenix Open. Its much-replicated shape has not changed much over the years, but Ping has kept this icon current by adding subtle technology enhancements. In the 2010s, the most significant enhancement has been the addition of the True Roll face. The variable-depth grooves, like those in this Vault 2.0 Anser, are designed to normalize ball speed across a large portion of the hitting area for better distance control.
