Fowler’s Odyssey Versa Jailbird set in movement one of the hottest gear tendencies in the trade.
Jonathan Wall/GOLF
With all due respect to golf’s governing our bodies and their try to shake up the sport with an earth-shattering ball rollback proposal for all — the biggest equipment story of the yr was finalized months in the past. Up till this yr, lengthy putters gave the impression to be destined for obscurity after the USGA and R&A proposed adjustments to Rule 14-1 of the Rules of Golf, in the spring of 2013, that successfully killed the lengthy putter.
Shortly thereafter, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau and Will Zalatoris put the arm-lock methodology on the map and watched because it obtained pushback from fellow professionals who claimed it must be banned. From that time ahead, the methodology ultimately misplaced steam and slowly light into the background.
While we’d by no means see a return to the glory days of lengthy putters, Rickie Fowler set in movement a putter development that took the golf world by storm this yr — and doesn’t look like slowing down.
To perceive how we obtained right here, it’s finest to begin at the starting when Fowler put an previous Odyssey Versa Jailbird mallet in play at the American Express Championship.
A bit of inside baseball on Fowler’s putter: The construct nearly by no means occurred. Back in January when Joe Toulon, Callaway’s PGA Tour supervisor and a former Odyssey rep, was sifting by way of putter drawers throughout a truck cleanup, he occurred upon a single Versa Jailbird head. It’s vital to recollect Jailbird was discontinued after its launch in 2013, so the putter had no enterprise being in the drawer.
Jonathan Wall/GOLF
“The trip through the truck was more to see what we needed and didn’t need to start the year [at the American Express],” Toulon instructed GOLF.com. “I remember finding the Jailbird head and thinking to myself, man, this hasn’t been that popular of a head, especially lately. But with Versa coming back, I just decided to leave it on the truck.”
One week later in La Quinta, California, Toulon obtained a textual content from Fowler with a request to have a Versa Jailbird constructed to match caddie Ricky Romano’s wand — all the way down to the 17-inch TremendousStroke grip and slab of lead tape on the sole that helped it obtain a particular counterbalance really feel.
Fowler rapidly discovered his stroke on the greens and the requests began coming from different professionals for the “Rickie Fowler putter.” One of these construct requests got here from Wyndham Clark, who rolled putts with Fowler’s Jailbird simply months earlier than besting his pal with nearly the very same putter construct at the U.S. Open.
If Fowler’s success set issues in movement for a Jailbird resurgence, Clark’s maiden main win broke the dam.
With extra requests than heads accessible, Odyssey needed to get selective at first. Then got here the retail demand from leisure gamers clamoring to get their palms on a particular construct that might ultimately be known as the “Jailbird 380 White Hot” — an similar reproduction of Fowler’s 380-gram putter, sans the slab of lead tape. As anticipated, the limited-edition putter bought out in a matter of minutes and even crashed Odyssey’s web site.
L.A.B. Golf MEZZ.1
$449
Zero Torque. Zero Compromise. MEZZ.1 Stock makes it easy for any golfer to benefit from Lie Angle Balance. It looks pretty much like a normal putter. But it actually helps you make putts. MEZZ.1 Stock is our mid-mallet putter that’s fully CNC machined from a billet of 6061 aircraft aluminum (body) and 303 stainless steel (midsection). It includes 10 weights (eight on the bottom, two on the sides) that allow us to individually build each putter to a golfer’s exact specifications.
Finish: Anodized 6061 Aircraft Aluminum (Black) and Brushed 303 Stainless Steel.
Length: 33, 34, or 35 inches.
Lie Angles: 67, 69, or 71 degrees.
Loft: 2.5 degrees static loft (1-degree of effective loft with Press II 1.5º).
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When a putter begins to generate unimaginable curiosity on Tour and in the retail market, different producers discover a strategy to trip the wave of success. In this case, that turned out to be L.A.B. Golf, which noticed Lucas Glover put the firm’s Mezz.1 Max broomstick in the highlight late in the season.
Unable to get something going with the wand, Glover determined to offer the broomstick methodology a shot earlier than the Memorial Tournament after seeing fellow professional Adam Scott have success with the construct.
“I just ordered one and asked for Adam Scott specs from the putter rep,” Glover stated. “I said we’re about the same height, I don’t want to know anything else and I’ll teach myself how to do this.”
The “Adam Scott specs” is code for a 45-inch broomstick construct — higher often known as the lengthy putter Scott used to win the 2013 Masters. Unlike a standard putter the place the palms are positioned one instantly above the different on the grip, Glover’s broomstick construct required him to get snug with a unique stance and cut up grip — that means two separate grips on the shaft — that positioned his palms nicely aside from one another. Glover admitted there was an acclimation interval, but it surely didn’t take him lengthy to see a noticeable enchancment in his stroke.
Glover would go on to win back-to-back PGA Tour occasions — Wyndham and the FedEx St. Jude Championship — to set in movement a run on broomstick putters that’s more likely to proceed into subsequent yr. (L.A.B. additionally noticed Camilo Villegas win utilizing a L.A.B. wand that includes, you guessed it, Fowler’s identical 17-inch TremendousStroke Tour 3.0 grip.)
The anchored broomstick is perhaps lifeless in the water, however with Fowler, Clark, Glover and Villegas main the cost, longer counterbalance and brookstick builds are making a main comeback. Only this time round, it doesn’t really feel like a fleeting development.
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