How is the CenterStrike putter different—and similar—from the MxV1 putter?

What we learned from our beta model was that everything we wanted to accomplish—proof of concept, fluid supply chain, general acceptance—we did. What we understood from our field testing, in-house R&D and design refinement was that we could make a fantastic putter perform even better. By reshaping the already patented round face to an additionally patented continuous arc, there would be no resistance or skidding when used on the fringe or slightly off the green, where some golfers still choose to use their putter. It would also allow the point-to-point sweet spot to align more effectively and efficiently regardless of how the ball lies.

We also took the alignment straight through to the back as a visual aid. Although, no matter where on the face you strike the ball you’ll get a true roll (no backspin), aiming/targeting to the center of the face is just better practice and results in better performance.

The matte black shaft and inner cavity of the head is designed to eliminate distraction. The hosel has been moved slightly forward to lessen the gap between the putter’s top edge and the shaft creating a slight bend to a forward press. The stock Argyle Comfort grip has been enlarged for a more secure handle, and greater confidence when activating the stroke.

Can you explain the advantage of your rolled face vs. the traditional flat-faced (and typically lofted) putter?

The patented round face of the CSG:1 simply addresses the ball with more accuracy that any flat-faced putter. You’ve heard me draw inspiration from Newton’s Cradle, a ball hitting a ball – it’s science! A ball hitting a ball at the same diameter is always going to strike the outermost edge of the ball, “the sweet spot,” for a true roll, no backspin and more accuracy. It’s what every golfer is trying to achieve. I’ve ignored the amped-up, weighted mallets that are on the market. While, from a visual design perspective, they are gorgeous to look at, the golfer is still waggling vertically and horizontally, still pulling left or right, and still miss-hitting the ball!

With the CenterG (CSG:1), our CenterStrike Technology reduces the likelihood of a misaligned hit by simply surfacing the club and sweeping the club face to a confident, targeted strike. The proof is in the results, both anecdotal, as we’ve seen, and scientific, as we’ve proven.

What barriers of adoption have you encountered in trying to bring a rolled-face putter to the mainstream?

The barriers of adoption have only made themselves present when we reach into a demographic that is unyielding and not open to change, or science, for that matter. We say: once upon a time, most people believed the world was flat, and there are some people that still believe that. We also say: You get to the green, we’ll take it from there…and this we know to be true.

The only other barrier, really, is that we are self-funded so we can’t compete, and don’t wish to, with the big boys. Because we don’t have deep pockets, we’re precluded from signing pro golfers. That scenario would lead to an overnight sensation, we just have to wait to see how it will play out. Our mission is, as one noteworthy sportswriter called our putter on beta release, “as simple as it is revolutionary.”

Our goal is to deliver a product that performs as advertised, gain the relevant market share of golfers that “get it” and create a community of low scoring, brand-loving amateur and pro golfers around the world.

Thanks, Brian. And stay tuned at CenterStrikeGolf.com.

P.S. This news just came down the pike: CenterStrike Golf LLC has enlisted Doug Mauch, PGA professional to serve as its President of domestic and international affairs. Mauch brings over 25 years of experience as a PGA professional and national golf sales executive. His club pro career included positions as an assistant pro at Westchester CC and The Maidstone Club and Augusta National Golf Club. Doug was selected as the first head professional in 1997 at Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, CA, which was the West Coast home to Arnold Palmer. In 2002, Mr. Palmer said of Mauch, “Doug is the first one to work with me this much, other than my father.” About CenterStrike Golf, Doug said, “I’ve been watching the progress CenterStrike has made in building their patented putter for several years and have played the prototype for some time. There is no better solution for forgiveness and accuracy than the CenterG putter featuring CenterStrike Technology. I’m excited to start telling the world about it.”

Odyssey makes a rather bold claim with the the “Micrhohinge” face insert found on these putters: “This new technology will change the way people look at roll off the putter face forever.” Go bold or go home, right? In their words, “The stainless steel Microhinge plate is co-molded into our Thermoplastic Elastomer Feel Layer, providing great feel and getting the ball into a better roll at impact…It provides incredible gains in topspin and roll at impact regardless of your stroke.”

Meantime, the new red finish is based on tour feedback, with the red hue being popular among Odyssey staff pros who like a clean, simple and apparently colorful look at address. Says Odyssey, “We’ve had these prototypes out at events, and we’ve seen in testing that the pros absolutely love them.”

The O-Works Red and O-Works putters must be doing well enough to merit these line extensions in 2018, and there’s no questioning the staying power of their iconic models that keep showing up in new iterations year after year.

Here are three such sticks that you might want to consider in the search for your best putter this summer. And remember, things that look a bit bizarre today could very well become the mainstream of tomorrow:

1. The Ice Block Putter looks just like it sounds, with the shaft embedded in what appears to be a block of ice. Even the company admits that “the story behind the Ice Block putter is quite an odd one,” and that story begins with a Swiss surgeon with habit of inventing things from medical devices to golf clubs. The premise is that by creating a massive symmetrical head out of soft clear acrylic, you can enjoy the benefits of an equally massive sweet spot. The kicker is that on flat lies, the putter stands up on its own, allowing you set up to the ball, let go of the shaft, step away and look back through the clear head. You can literally walk around the thing, observe the alignment lines and adjust the putter angle accordingly for more precise alignment before taking your stroke. And when a Swiss surgeon talks about precision, you have to figure he may be on to something! This year, the Ice Block putter transitions from promising prototype to retail product. If you struggle with alignment and you don’t mind generating a lot of double takes from your peers on the green, it might be worth trying out.
2. The Bradley Putter literally came out of the woodwork this year, quite possibly setting the record for the fastest turnaround between initial concept to in-hand retail product: 61 days. It helps when you don’t have to navigate the world of stainless steel sourcing, CNC milling machines and mass production. Indeed, the Bradley putter is made entirely of Oregon burl wood by entrepreneur Bradely Converse, who crafts his one-of-a-kind putters at home in his garage. Flying under the banner of “highly engineered, beautifully simple,” the Bradley putter has a lot more going on under the hood than you might suspect at first glance. Indeed, they feature embedded metal weights behind the face to ensure a proper head weight and swingweight. Current models include the Bradley Big Box King elder putter, an 8802-style heel-shafted blade, and the Bradley Spalted Maple Boondock putter (pictured above), a center-shafted block blade with a gorgeous speckled wood grain. Rumor is that they cost a lot (starting at $500 and up; you can request a “quote” from the web site), but for a true handcrafted performance putter that doubles as a work of art and stands out from the crowd, it’s not an unreasonable ask.
3. The Sentio Sierra putter is not as radical looking as the previous two entries, but it does bring a new fitting concept to market with a unique look to match. With the Sierra blade putter, you can choose the feel of your putter off the face by selecting one of three color-coded models for a soft, medium or firm feel. The difference is created by a dampening polymer core that runs behind the face, made with different levels of firmness. The polymer core is ported through the topline of the putter in the form of a line that runs parallel to the face. Green polymer (shown below) signifies the softest feel, while blue represents the firmest (with red in between). The company offers a feel-fitting tool on its web site, and if for some reason you pine for something firmer or softer after purchasing, they give you a one-time free trade in for another model. The Sentio Sierra putter also claims a high MOI resulting from the low-density polymer core, as well as “dampening channels” from the polymer that help correct off-center hits. On top of all of that, they are just kind of cool looking, although they will set you back $299.

This is part of a Kindle Countdown Deal promotion that lasts for a week. In a few days, the price will go up to $3.99, then up once again until it returns to its usual price of $9.99.

If you are a recreational golfer who wants to raise his or her game, then Putter Perfection is the perfect place to start, because it provides easy-to-follow insights into finding a putter that fits your physique and your game. They days of just blindly grabbing a putter from the retail rack and hoping for the best are over. It has never been easier to find the right fit to maximize your putting potential.

Click here for our full description of Putter Perfection.

We now see what that looks like, as Odyssey is set to release five new Toulon-designed putters in 2017 bearing both the Toulon and Odyssey logos. All of these putters are gunning for market share in the high-end milled putter arena. Here’s the lowdown:

1. The Toulon Odyssey Austin putter ($399) is a heel-toe weighted blade with a crank-neck hosel that riffs on the classic Anser shape.
2. The Toulon Odyssey Long Island putter ($399) is also a heel-toe weighted blade, but with a flow-neck, heel-shafted hosel and squared-off toe.
3. The Toulon Odyssey Columbus putter ($399) is another heel-toe weighted blade, but with a longer hosel for less toe hang, and a wide notch-back flange for a beefier profile at setup.
4. The Toulon Odyssey Latrobe putter ($399) is a heel-shafted mid-mallet with deep toe hang.
5. The outlier of this otherwise buttoned-up group is the Toulon Odyssey Indianapolis putter, which is billed as “our first high MOI mallet.” It features a massive head with an X-factor shape, suitable for golfers who prefer the stable girth and visual confidence of a large mallet.

Look for all of these putters to hit the retail decks in March, launching a new era for Odyssey in the premium space.

The Evnroll ER3 “Wing Blade” putter features a flaring flange that positions mass away from the center, resulting in “effortless stability that enhances confidence.” The ER3 is joined by the ER7 and ER8 as the latest entries into the Evnroll family.  The Evenroll ER7 is a full mallet that is reminiscent of Rife’s earlier work with his eponymous RIFE Putters, while the ER8 “tour mallet” is a more compact putter. The company is now also offering its rear center-weighted ER6 iRoll full mallet with a black finish.

The new Evnroll putters also feature a new “LineAlign” technology, consisting of two small upainted dots on the topline. In Rife’s words: “This provides the golfer a subtle alignment reference for consistent lie angle positioning, while also helping with alignment on breaking putts,” added Rife. “Aligning the ball in front of the toe-side dot on right-to-left putts and in front of the heel-side dot on left-to-right putts will help keep the ball travelling on the high side of the target line as 90% of breaking putts are missed below the hole.”

If intentionally aiming away from the center sounds a bit crazy to you, consider that Evnroll’s calling card is precise face milling that is designed to impart “progressively more energy transfer on off-center hits to roll the ball a consistent distance with every stroke.”

Look for these new Evnroll putters to hit the market on March 1 to the tune of $329, and stay tuned for PutterZone’s Evnroll putter review.

But Cleveland Golf has owned this February in its own unique way…

First, came news of a golfer in Florida being snatched from the fairway by a gator and dragged into a water hazard, before fending the beast off with…Yes, a Cleveland Classic blade putter.

Now comes news that Jaco van Zyl, the 92nd ranked golfer in the world, is using the tiny Cleveland Smart Square Stubby training aid as his actual putter in tournament play.

In our original take on the Cleveland Stubby, we wrote, “We’ve found it to provide excellent feedback. If the putter face is not exactly square on contact, the Stubby will vibrate and squawk at you until you get it right.”

Of course, we were talking about it in a training context, not a “head out to the green and use it as your putter with millions on the line” context. However, the fact that Jaco van Zyl can succeed in a professional tournament with such a diminutive putter head is just another indication of how good these guys are…

Anyhow, now you know why Cleveland Golf owns February 2017.

Jon Rahm’s putter is the latest iteration of TaylorMade’s popular Spider line, featuring an all-red aluminum body whose “striking look” is claimed to provide “even more confidence on the green.” In other words, Ghost white and arachnid black are out, and red is in.

The TaylorMade Spider Limited Red putter also features a redesigned seamless crown as well as vibration dampening foam between the body and frame for enhanced feel and audio feedback. While it’s hard to buy into yet another Spider color scheme beyond mere aesthetic appeal, there’s no denying that the TaylorMade Spider putter has earned plenty of professional cred, as evidenced by yet another victory on the PGA Tour.

If you want one of Rahm’s (and Jason Day’s) putters for yourself, it will set you back $299.

This ESPN piece is one such read, chronicling Tiger Woods’ epic 15-year affinity for a single trusty putter that played a role in some of the most electrifying moments in golf history. That putter is a custom Scotty Cameron Newport 2 blade putter, to which Woods appears to be returning after a run with the Nike Method putter (pictured here).

When Woods switched to the Nike Method, it was big news precisely because he had accomplished so much with his trusty Cameron. Now that Nike is out of the hard goods business in golf, the Cameron is back in business.

ESPN’s Jason Sobel does a masterful job of capturing the origins of this putter, dating back to early prototypes in the mid 1990s. He also captures Woods’ obsessive attention to detail that verges on supernatural.

Indeed, he tells a story of how Cameron was rushing to produce a putter for Woods in time for a tournament start. Once he was done, he weighed the putter. In Sobel’s words: “Cameron found it was too heavy by two swing-weight points — the equivalent of two dollar bills — and knew Woods would be able to tell the difference.”

So Cameron milled out the face and cavity dots that would become a signature of Woods’ putter in order to lighten the weight by the equivalent of two dollar bills.

Go read it, you won’t be disappointed. It’s the best chronicle to date of Tiger Woods’ putter.

After earning a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Louisiana, Clay had an epiphany: “Engineering was easy, but golf, that was much more challenging.” Rising to the challenge, he patented a putter in the 1970s that was used by several tour pros. “But,” he says, “with a young family, and no marketing skills, I had to let that go.” But not for long: in the ’80s, he patented a putting aid that was endorsed by Raymond Floyd, but ultimately couldn’t sell enough units to sustain the business. Next, he created created the BellyPutt, a device that converted any putter into a belly putter–a thriving business that was undone by the recent ban on anchored putters.

But like most serial entrepreneurs, he went back to the drawing board and created the Shaftlign concept, which creates a visual union between the putter shaft and the putter head’s topline to create a perpendicular alignment cue designed to foster proper and consistent alignment. This union is created by a white lower shaft with a correspondingly white topline of the same width.

Clay is married to his high school sweetheart, Patti.  They have “6 kids and 13 ½” grandkids.” It’s a great story, so without further ado, here’s our exclusive interview:

The putter world is full of alignment aids and technologies. What makes the Shaftlign putter different from the rest?

The name infers the difference. The visual of the white shaft extending through the complementary white bar on the putter head in a straight line guarantees that the face is aligned with the shaft. Placing the shaft and putter head together as one alignment visual is what makes it unique.

You call the Shaftlign putter “revolutionary.” Can you elaborate on that?

To begin with, the alignment visual (shaft plus bar) is three times the length of the face alone. This long visual is far superior to a 5-inch putter face. This extended shaft visual encourages the golfer to align the entire putter instead of just the face. Additionally, the white shaft helps place the stance, body and shoulders in a consistent stroking position. And finally, as many teaching pros suggest, the visual of the white shaft moving through the putting zone provides great stroke feedback. Ultimately, “knowing” that you are aligned properly makes putting more like pointing a gun, rather than aiming.

So “revolutionary” encompasses not only these factors but ties in to how the brain assimilates these things. After a little practice, it all comes together and alignment is no longer an issue, the magic of pace kicks in. A bold claim, I know, but only time will tell in the end.

How does the Shaftlign putter help the average golfer make more putts?

Very few golfers can accurately use a horizontal line. Even pros have to work very hard at this. But perpendicular is just like using a carpenter’s square, where the golfer is not striving for perfection. The brain will almost sub-consciously align you much better than you could ever be with a horizontal line. Once the golfer lets go of his alignment anxiety, he can better stroke the ball, resulting in fewer three-putts, and more sinks.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention.” When the belly putter ban was announced, you had to pivot. Can you tell that story?

I was selling 70 BellyPutts a day online. Life was great. And then came the ban on anchored putting. I was done overnight.

Over the next few years I developed a creation called the Buzzle Ball. It was kind of like a round Rubik’s Cube. I was even selling them in Wal-Mart. I was on top of the world again. But then my distributor got crossways legally with Wal-Mart on another product. It came off the shelves.

Meanwhile, I was still having trouble with aligning my putts, even with a belly putter. I experimented with a white stripe on my putter shaft and that helped alignment quite a bit. But then one day, I glued a piece of an old shaft on top of a putter head, in line with the shaft. I knew in an instant it was something special. I couldn’t sleep that night. I filed for a provisional patent the next day. That was the innovation, but after using it for a few weeks, I began to realize how it allowed the sub-conscious brain to really get involved.

What is next for Shaftlign?

Well, first I have to sell a few to survive. I have several models designed, some very radical, but need to see some success with the initial model. The CJ1 is basically my Shaftlign idea with a well accepted Anser style head. Give me a chance and the golf world will see some stuff.