Limited to just 4,000 putters, the all-black mallet uses a multi-material construction for better performance on the greens.
Gear: Scotty Cameron Phantom X 9.5 Triple Black putter Price: $750 Specs: Milled 303 stainless steel body with 6061 aluminum piece and adjustable stainless steel sole weights. Available: October 8 at select Titleist retailers
Scores of elite golfers, including Jordan Spieth, Nelly Korda, Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Davis, Rickie Fowler and Danielle Kang, use heel-toe weighted blade putters made by Scotty Cameron, Titleist’s master craftsman for putters. (Nice job title if you can get it.) Cameron also makes compact mallets like the Phantom X 5.5 that are based on his heel-toe weighted Newport blades, and you will find them in the bags of players like 2021 FedEx champion Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas.
On Tuesday, Cameron announced the release of a limited run of 4,000 all-black putters that take the concept of the Phantom X 5.5 a step further. The new Phantom X 9.5 Triple Black putter uses multi-material construction to help golfers achieve a better roll and improved performance on the greens.
Titleist’s putter guru is releasing 2,020 limited-edition putters inspired by Justin Thomas’ prototype.
Justin Thomas was not thrilled with the way he was putting at the end of 2016. He was striping the ball off the tee and from the fairway, but his putter was holding him back from contending and winning more.
He wanted a change, and after rummaging around on the Titleist PGA Tour van, he spotted a Scotty Cameron Futura X5.5. Having always played a Newport-style blade, it was visually a departure for Thomas, but he liked it. Eventually, Cameron welded a small slant neck onto a Futura X5.5 putter, Thomas put it into play and a few months later he won the 2017 PGA Championship with it.
If you have thousands of dollars to spend on a putter, for years you have been able to buy a Scotty Cameron prototype putter at the Scotty Cameron Studio in Encinitas, California, or on eBay. This is different: Starting on Sept. 22, for $850 you can get one of 2,020 limited-edition Scotty Cameron Inspired by Justin Thomas Phantom X5.5 putters at select Titleist authorized golf shops.
The Scotty Cameron Justin Thomas Phantom X5.5 putter. (Titleist)
Like Thomas’ actual putter, the Scotty Cameron Inspired by Justin Thomas Phantom X5.5 has a milled 303 stainless steel face and wings that extend back from the heel and toe areas. A portion of the sole has been milled out and replaced by a 6061 aircraft aluminum soleplate. That shifts more of the club’s overall weight to the perimeter for increased stability.
The club comes standard at 34.5 inches with 10-gram weights screwed into the heel and toe areas of the sole, just like Thomas’ putter. The hand-welded neck is also there.
Instead of a Circle T logo, the Scotty Cameron Inspired by Justin Thomas Phantom X5.5 putters have a Circle JT. (Titleist)
While Scotty Cameron putters designed for the PGA Tour typically are stamped with a Circle T logo, these putters are adorned with a unique Circle JT logo on the milled face and the sole.
“This was an extremely cool project for me to work on with Scotty,” Thomas said in a media release. “In the beginning, I was only thinking it would give me something different to look at for a couple weeks. Yet here I am, four-something years later and still using it. So, I guess it’s worked out pretty well.”
Anthony Griggs won a Golfweek Amateur Tour D Flight event at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona with just a putter.
Traveling with a full set of clubs isn’t much of a hassle for Anthony Griggs.
One of the newer members of the Golfweek Amateur Tour, Griggs posted a round of 84 to capture the D Flight during a recent event played at Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona.
But that’s just half the story.
After the round, a member of Griggs’ group insisted he’d just seen the most incredible thing he’d ever witnessed on a golf course.
Griggs, who will turn 61 on May 19, played the entire round with just a putter. Tees, fairways, bunkers and, of course, greens — Griggs only used one trusty club.
An Army veteran originally from Gary, Indiana, Griggs moved to Arizona in 2001 and now makes his home in Mesa. He has played throughout Arizona, including at the Waste Management Pre-Qualifier and the 2018 Kadima Ventures Pro-Am.
And Griggs, who drives the ball more than 200 yards off the tee, does it all with just the one club.
After becoming a pretty good traditional player, Griggs got bored with the game and an acquaintance suggested that if he wanted to challenge himself again, he should play with just a putter. While practicing on the range, he decided to give it a try and found that with some trial and error he could hit the ball pretty well.
He’s been using only a putter on the course ever since.
Anthony Griggs won the D Flight of a Phoenix-area event using just a putter. (Submitted photo)
Originally, Griggs used a Scotty Cameron putter, but it broke while he was preparing for the tournament.
No problem — he went to a nearby Goodwill and bought an old Wilson Staff putter for $2.99. That’s the lone club he used to win the Phoenix-area event as he beat Angelo Faux by six strokes to claim the crown.
Along with his do-it-all partner, friend, sometimes caddie and manager Larry Vinson, Griggs has been working to improve on this incredible idea for roughly four years.
His reward for winning the D Flight at Wild Horse Pass? Griggs will be promoted to B Flight for the next event.
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.
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.
