When I started out in golf, I was a devotee of the blade putter. The clean, uncomplicated lines made for easy target acquisition and made aiming instinctive. But there was a downside. Miss the putter’s miniscule sweet spot and the ball had little chance of making it to the hole.
As a tech geek, I knew the answer lay in a more forgiving putter (a mallet), but my blade-biased sensibilities made the cure nigh on impossible to swallow.
A lot of it had to do with the optics. Mallets seemed cluttered with a lot of conflicting lines. The double-bend shaft used in most didn’t help either. Beyond the optics, face balanced mallets didn’t flow through the hit in the same manner as a blade putter did.
I eventually got used to the look and balance of mallet putters, and my putting is all the better for it. Beyond the forgiveness on off-center hits, the alignment aids on mallets are far more effective than anything that you could fit on the tiny real estate available on the back of a blade putter. Sadly, the optics and balance are more than most blade players are willing to swallow to their detriment.
The advent of the mallet with a short slant hosel changed all that. Balance one of these babies on your finger and you’ll notice the toe of the putter hanging down just slightly. This encourages a slight opening of the clubface on the takeaway. Not a bad thing, as the club naturally makes its way to the inside during this part of the stroke.
Odyssey didn’t just change paint schemes with their red and black putters; they took to time to refine the sight picture at address. The lines of the red and black putters are more refined and much more attractive.
That coupled with the incredible O-Works insert makes for a mallet putter that is more likely to woo blade players away from their unforgiving implements. The putter moves naturally through an arced stroke without giving up the ease of use and feel to which blade players are accustomed.
They say you can’t buy a golf game. Perhaps not, but a putter like the Odyssey O-Works 7s certainly can’t hurt.
Check out the new Odyssey O-Works #7 and the rest of the new Odyssey putter line at the new Transview concept store at the Podium in the Ortigas Center.