Putters are trendy golf clubs. More than any other club, putter designs tend to follow distinct industry trends. Think about how hot the TaylorMade Spider Tour was back in the heyday of Dustin Johnson and Jason Day playing their black and red versions respectively.
Not only did TaylorMade sell a whole bunch of Spider Tour putters but soon every other company was selling their own version of the Spider.
Of course, this is not a new putter phenomenon. For reference, please Google Anser, Newport, BB1, Juno, Handsome One, Brandon and One.
A few years back, the Odyssey Cruiser Jailbird was the putter of the moment thanks to Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark. The demand for these putters was so high that Odyssey dusted off their 2013 blueprints and started building them again.
As quick as a birdie can turn into a double, that putter’s popularity plummeted.
The latest putter craze is the putter style that replaced Fowler’s Odyssey: a Lie Angle Balanced L.A.B. Golf DF3.
What are these new torque-focused putters all about? Are they in fact new and should you be in the market for one?
Let’s dive into these questions, and a couple of others, and see if you should be heading to the shop for a new flatstick.
Question 1: Are reduced-torque putters a new thing?
The short answer is no. Companies have experimented with reduced-torque putter designs for quite a while. My first encounter with a reduced-torque design was an old PING Kushin model where the toe pointed straight up when you balanced it on your finger.
Companies have used different descriptors for this kind of putter. Axis1 described their 2013 reduced-torque Joey putter as “perfectly balanced”. Positive Putters, one of the earliest torque-free putter designs, described their putters as Target Line Balanced.
Odyssey Golf offered the reduced-torque Toe Up putter line in 2016. The limited-torque Odyssey Backstryke line that launched in 2009 made a return appearance in 2020 with the Odyssey Stroke Lab Black Toe Up Big Seven.
The torque-balanced Edel EAS 2.0 was one of the highest-ranking blade putters in our 2020 Most Wanted Blade Putter testing.
Bottom line: Putter designs that reduce or eliminate torque have been around for decades with multiple companies presenting their takes on the concept.
Question 2: Why is this style of putter suddenly so popular?
You can thank L.A.B. Golf for the wild increase in the popularity of the zero-torque putter. Bill Presse IV gets the credit for perfecting the zero-torque design with his Lie Angle Balanced Directed Force putter.
A putter that is Lie Angle Balanced (that’s what L.A.B. stands for) does not rotate at all during the putting stroke. The main advantage of this characteristic is that it will return square to the ball without manipulation.
The Revealer
The creation of The Revealer was key to Presse figuring out how to completely eliminate rotation in the putter stroke. Essentially, one invention (The Revealer) led to another (Directed Force putter).
The original Directed Force putter quickly gained a loyal following but it didn’t really catch fire in the marketplace due to its unusual appearance.
L.A.B. Golf Takes Off
I believe two factors have boosted L.A.B.’s popularity in recent years. First, L.A.B. Golf developed putters that were more visually appealing. The Mezz.1 and Link.1 putters are still unusual looking but not as unusual (or large) as the original Directed Force.
The Directed Force 3 putter was a mainstream-friendly design, hitting the sweet spot of being more visually attractive while still maintaining the Lie Angle Balanced technology.
In addition to making more aesthetically palatable putters, L.A.B. Golf’s putters started to show up in the bags of professional golfers. More importantly, pros were winning tournaments with L.A.B. putters. Even Phil Mickelson, who is known for playing small 8802-style putters, put a L.A.B. DF3 in the bag last year.
The combination of improved putter looks and increased Tour presence have rocketed L.A.B. sales past everyone except Odyssey and Scotty Cameron in recent months.
Question 3: Are Zero Torque, CG Balanced, Toe Up, and Lie Angle Balanced putters the same?
This is where things get a little murky. While all of the reduced-torque designs do in fact reduce torque, not all of them eliminate it. A novel hosel design and/or weight placement will reduce a putter’s torque but extra engineering is required to truly make a putter torque-free.
This brings us back to L.A.B. Golf’s Revealer. This tool has become the gold standard test for demonstrating a putter’s zero-torque characteristics. This is where L.A.B. Golf’s Lie Angle Balanced design separated their putters from the competition. L.A.B. creates truly torque-free putters by manipulating the balancing weights in the sole of their putters. Once balanced, L.A.B. putters do not twist at all when swung in The Revealer.
The Revealer is often used by L.A.B Golf’s competitors to show the lack of rotation of their putters as well.
Some companies, like PXG, developed their own Revealer-type instrument while others simply placed their putters in L.A.B.’s tool. “How does it perform in The Revealer?” has become a common question whenever a company unveils a new torque-free putter.
Some putters from other companies perform well in The Revealer like Odyssey’s Square 2 Square putters and Bettinardi’s Antidote SB1/SB2. Others show some tendencies to move when they are in The Revealer, indicating that there is in fact still some torque present.
What you will notice from the photos is that only L.A.B. putters use weights to achieve Lie Angle Balance. Most of the other companies are shafting the putter at or near the center of gravity or using a modified hosel to eliminate rotation.
It is interesting how The Revealer shows how other companies’ putters are not truly torque-free. Unfortunately for L.A.B. Golf, The Revealer has become the ideal tool for other companies to use when designing competing torque-free putters.
Question 4: Why are so many other companies making zero torque putters?
The torque-concerned putter market is pure putter pandemonium these days.
“It’s putter-monium, Jerry!”
Why has the competition ramped up in this newly competitive putter niche?
The cynic in me says this is happening because companies like to make money. The golf equipment business has long been about companies chasing dollars by “borrowing” the hottest new technologies.
Think about how almost all drivers have adjustable hosels these days. One company did it first and then it soon became the industry standard.
The optimist in me believes the torque-free boom is happening because companies want to make putters that help people make more putts. I’d like to think the companies spend equal time being concerned for the customers as well as the shareholders.
You can say I’m naive about this but having met many of the people who are designing these putters, I know they want people to make more putts. It matters to them.
Of course, they would also like to sell enough putters to stay employed.
Question 5: Should everyone be playing a zero torque putter?
This is one of the questions that comes up all of the time when talking about L.A.B. putters: Should everyone be playing this style of putter? Some people think this style of putter will soon send other styles of putters to the Persimmon Woods Retirement Home.
The idea is that a truly Lie Angle Balanced putter should return square to your ball at impact regardless of your stroke path.
Others see zero-torque putters as the ideal solution for some golfers. The putter folks at Odyssey determined that people who typically miss right had the most to gain by switching to a torque-free putter.
That miss to the right likely comes from playing a putter with too much rotation for the person’s stroke. During the backswing, the putter opens up too much and remains open at impact, sending the ball right of target. Getting rid of the torque should eliminate this miss.
The flipside of that is that someone who needs the rotation to match their swing may not benefit from a torque-balanced design.
This is why I was so surprised to see Mickelson switch to a DF3 since every other putter he has played in recent history is heel-shafted with significant toe hang and rotation.
Reduced torque putters are here to stay
Although the concepts for reduced-torque putters have been around for a while, it wasn’t until L.A.B. Golf perfected the balancing process that they were taken seriously. At this point, everyone is chasing L.A.B. Golf, trying to pilfer some of their growing market share.
In many ways, this situation mirrors how other putter companies try to snatch milled putter monies away from Scotty Cameron. Many companies have offered milled putters but Mr. Cameron still wears the crown.
Will it be the same for L.A.B. Golf in the zero-torque marketplace? It’s tough to predict but the fact that they are making more money selling putters than PING and TaylorMade is a very positive indicator of future success.
What we do know is that the competition between companies should ultimately benefit the consumer. Another competing company could come up with a better torque-free design or the competition could push L.A.B. to take their own designs to the next level.
The overwhelmingly positive response to the new L.A.B. OZ.1 model makes me think it may be the second option.
The post Five Burning Questions About Zero-Torque Putters appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
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