Odyssey is the No. 1 putter manufacturer on the world’s professional tours, as well as in the retail space with sales in the range of $90 million. That, my friends, is a heck of a lot of putters.
Their success is legend, but 2019 is going to be a really good year for Callaway. They’ve broken through this year with a piece of technology that is sure to shake up the world of putters. This is the year that Odyssey rethinks the putter’s shaft.
Putters’ shafts seem to have gotten little attention from engineers over the years. Developments have centered on making the ball roll better off the clubface and to varying degrees, allowing golfers to aim their putts better. By rethinking the putter’s shaft, Odyssey has happened on a technology that will help us putt better.
The genesis of the Stroke Lab shaft began as Odyssey engineers noticed that putter weights were getting unmanageable for many golfers. Faster greens require heavier putter heads for better control and with the rise in popularity of ultra-lightweight grips have meant that swing weights have progressed from D1 in the mid 80s to F2 in 2018. If you weren’t counting, that’s a 21-swing weight point increase, making the putter unmanageably head-heavy.
The Stroke Lab shaft is steel at the tip and graphite the rest of the way. This technology is hardly new. The Stability Shaft made a bit of a splash with its launch last year, and UST has offered their Frequency Filtered putter shaft for years. The Stroke Lab shaft design differs from the others.
The Stroke Lab shaft is a full 40 grams lighter, made possible by an innovative new multi-material shaft design that combines a graphite body with a steel tip to net out at just 75 g, with most of the mass concentrated in the tip. Odyssey engineers redistributed that saved weight by adding 10 g to the head in the form of two sole weights and adding 30 g to the grip-end via a 10 g lighter grip and 40 g end-weight.
Counterbalancing, by itself, isn’t a new technology either. Adding weights to balance the ever-heavier heads has been done for a very long time now. But by employing counterbalancing while reducing the shaft’s weight is unique to Odyssey. The lower shaft weight keeps the putter’s overall weight under control and makes the putter easier to swing.
It’s hard to put the sensation of using a Stroke Lab putter into words. Most golfers have a difficult time articulating what makes it special. Words like smooth, stable, balanced are used. Everyone can feel the difference and nothing bad has ever been said about it. They endow you with a delicacy on the greens not easily found with most modern putters. Odyssey is so bullish on the shaft that it will see duty on all Odyssey putters this year.
Of course, Odyssey didn’t stop with just the shaft. A redesigned version of the Microhinge insert found in the O-works line is used on all Stroke Lab and Exo putters. The Whitehot Microhinge gets the ball rolling almost immediately but feels noticeably firmer than the original, addressing complaints that the original Microhinge insert was on the soft side.
The heads are adorned in a refined version of Odyssey’s Versa technology. In case you’ve forgotten, Versa is Odyssey’s high contrast aiming technology. This latest version is the most subtle application we’ve seen but seems to be every bit as effective. The Stroke Lab Marxman we tested is the very definition of “easy to aim.” It inspires confidence when standing over the golf ball.
The one con about the Stroke Lab putters is the price. Odyssey is charging a premium for the Stroke Lab putters. Which brings us to the other change with Odyssey in 2019, they’re bumping up the quality of their putters making them all more premium. They’re a bit more money to acquire, but we’re getting a better product for the money.
One thing for sure—you won’t have any trouble finding a Stroke Lab putter that fits your eye. All told, there are ten different head styles; six mallets and four blades. Odyssey ups the ante by offering two neck styles for all the mallets and some of the blades. This makes 18 models from which to choose.
Stroke Lab has been a hit on the world’s professional golf tours. Odyssey led the putter count at all the majors and has won six of the last 14. The putter also has over 50 wins all over the world, so to say that the pros have embraced the new technology is a bit of an understatement. In the end Odyssey’s Stroke Lab putters take all refined versions of the company’s technologies and have combined them with the Stroke Lab shaft to produce the most technologically significant putter line of 2019.
Stroke Lab putters are available at Transview Solaire, Podium and at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club proshop.
2 comments
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