The Dark Ace Has Landed

After creating serious buzz on the European tours, one of the most exciting putters to come along in recent years has now crossed the Atlantic. You heard it here first.

Indeed, as of today, the Dark Ace putter by Norway-based Profound Putters is now available to U.S. and Canadian residents through a new online web store. The cost is $359 plus tax at the current exchange rate (overseas shipping is included).

Bernt Stellander, founder of the Profound Putters and inventor of the Dark Ace, contacted PutterZone.com yesterday to share the good news.

“We started off our tour operations this summer and had a wonderful experience,” Stellander says, speaking specifically of the European tours. “We had amazing response and feedback from the best players in the world regarding the Dark Ace putter. It was a great feeling to hear what these players had to say about the concept, feel and balance of our putters.”

He continues: “Lotta Wahlin (pictured here with the Dark Ace; she has 3rd and 4th place finishes so far with the putter ) and over 20 players have used the putter in Ladies European Tour. On the men’s side, we have fitted approximately 55 European Tour and PGA Tour players, the most prominent of which are Retief Goosen (whose bag is pictured here with a Dark Ace inside), Miguel Angel Jiménez, Niclas Fasth, Yong-Eun Yang, Peter Lawrie and Birger Haftorson, some of whom have played with it on the European Tour.”

Futuristic in look and concept, the Dark Ace putter will no doubt make a splash in North America as well.

In addition to a unique alignment technology, the Dark Ace also boasts an unusually high “moment of inertia (MOI),” which reduces twisting on miss hits, resulting in more consistent accuracy.

The Dark Ace includes an alignment system in which a vivid orange hue is revealed when you are misaligned, and hidden when your alignment is correct.

As for the high MOI, Stellander says: “It is a record for single piece steel head. I moved the weight away from the center, towards the toe, heel and the back. My designs have an open center area, so it’s possible to move more weight towards the perimeter. That is how I did it. The average golfer will see that the ball still goes straight, when face is square, even if the ball is hit way off the center.”

The Dark Ace also has an insert behind the putter face: “I do believe that with the softer balls being played more and more by average players, that a soft insert in the face will sometimes dampen the feedback too much. It is a fact that the major feedback we are able to detect is sound. So on the Dark Ace, I put an insert up behind the face to reduce vibration and sweeten the feel while retaining the pure audio feedback of steel.”

Clearly, Stellander backs up his claim that “I wanted every element on the putter to solve a problem or have benefits.”

If you’re looking for a hot new putter than can raise your game in 2008, you might want to ask Santa Claus to cruise through Norway before he comes down your chimney.