Exclusive! Unboxing The Cleveland Smart Square Blade & Stubby Putters

It’s hip to be square once again as Cleveland Golf is set to release the latest models in its Smart Square putter series, specifically the Smart Square blade and the Smart Square Stubby trainer.

In this exclusive unboxing gallery, you get the visual scoop on these two new sticks. The Smart Square blade is a natural evolution of the original Smart Square mallet, while the Stubby is the cutest darned thing ever to hit the green.

The Cleveland Smart Square Stubby training putter ($79) is billed as “a simple yet elegant practice putting tool,” designed to help golfers concentrate on hitting the sweet spot of the putter. According to Cleveland, the Stubby “positively influences the putting stroke and the mental approach to striking the ball accurately and consistently…It builds a stroke for beginners and reinforces a good one for experienced players.”

The key to the Stubby is that while it is dimensionally tiny, it weighs the same as a standard putter, allowing you to easily transition to a Smart Square blade or mallet after practice. The concept is to provide a small target area that is visually synergistic with the other Smart Square putters, giving you a training system that flows naturally from the practice green to the playing green. In our cursory use of the Stubby so far, we’ve found it to provide excellent feedback. If the putter face is not exactly square on contact, the Stubby will vibrate and squawk at you until you get it right.

The Stubby is the descendant of the Stubby trainer originally offered by Cleveland’s Never Compromise brand. The big difference is that the new Stubby is a building block that fits right into Cleveland’s distinctive Smart Square alignment system.

Which brings us to the Smart Square blade putter ($139). Like the original mallet, the blade features two alignment squares along the target line, in the vein of the famed Odyssey 2-ball, but with the obvious geometrical twist.  Cleveland Golf says the the Smart Square alignment system “has proven to be the most advanced—and simplest—we’ve ever created.”

If you think about it, putting is a game of right angles. The target line is your directional angle, and in order to send the ball down the target line, your putter face should be perpendicular to the line on contact. The Smart Square system ingeniously presents right-angle visual cues to cover both of bases, making it a “smart” choice for golfers searching for alignment help.

Stay tuned for our Cleveland Smart Square blade putter review, along with our Stubby putter review.