PutterZone – Best Putter Reviews
After a brief layoff last year, Yes! Golf is storming back in 2012 under new Adams Golf ownership, making an immediate statement on tour and, soon, on the shelves of a golf retailer near you.
Earlier this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, we caught up with Yes! tour representative Brad Adams, a putter industry veteran who seems to know everybody on the practice green.
Arranged around his Yes! staff bag was a colorful suite of putters, including the new Yes! 12 Series putters and the Callie MB manganese bronze putter (pictured at top), as well as some tour-only offerings.
Every putter featured Yes! Golf’s proprietary C-Grooves. These grooves are positioned at a 20-degree upward slant to lift the ball out of its resting position and impart topspin for enhanced accuracy and consistency.
The new twist with the 12 Series, however, is the inclusion of a TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) insert that is now placed behind the C-Groove face. This insert is designed to reduce vibration for enhanced feel. The Sandy 12 in white really stood out with it’s striking alignment features, as pictured below.
Meanwhile, the Callie MB is a stunner. It’s a modern throwback to the PING Anser manganese bronze putters of yore, right down to the sound slot cut into the sole behind the face. The head is precision milled from a one-piece bronze forging for a supple yet solid feel. Throw in the C-Groove face, and you’ve
got a putter that’s going to drop jaws and open wallets.
Another stick that stood out was the Yes! Jenny TOUR putter, a milled softtail-style blade with elegant lines and clean look at setup. According to Brad, “The philosophy behind these TOUR putters is that they are made for our staff and other players who specifically ask for certain putters. Along the way, we get input from the best players in the world. If these models prove to be successful on tour then you may see them in stores down the line.”
Meanwhile, look for the Yes! 12 putters ($199) and Callie MB ($349) at retail starting March 15.
Yes! tour rep Brad Adams on the practice green at Pebble Beach:
Am I the only person offended by companies that make "tour-only offerings"?
I wouldn't be offended by it. The tours are the ultimate focus group. They allow companies to test clubs and get feedback from the best players in the world. The prototypes are often the retail putters of tomorrow, in progress.
Also, very few putters on tour are "stock" retail putters. At Pebble Beach, I saw a Nike Core Method. But it wasn't one you or I can get, because it was the Core Method insert incorporated into an original Method head shape. I saw one of the new TaylorMade Manta putters…But it the head was smaller than the retail model. That's just a few of many examples.
I think the lesson the rest of us can take from this is that we should all pay closer attention to the fit of our putters. That's what the pros do, and we should too, even though our toybox isn't quite as large as theirs!
Anybody that owns a Scotty Cameron bought at retail that thinks "theirs" is the same putter the pros play is an imbecile. SC tour putters are in a completely different class than the ones you can buy in stores. The fact that people will fork over $300+ on the retail Camerons is laughable. I've tried the 2012 Callie MB and the Sandy mallet and they are truly world class. The sandy for $150 is a bargain.