I picked up the old-fashioned, old standby, previously overlooked Odyssey Rossie II, and proceeded to run every ball into the hole. Thinking that this had to be a burst of putting genius on my part, I set the Rossie II aside, and tested a few more of the more exotic offerings - they were still fair to middlin... The Rossie II, though, continued to show me her stuff. I had to have one... Knowing that this was a hoary old model that's been tramping around greens for more than a few seasons, I decided to check eBay and Golf Club Exchange, and sure enough, there were many available at rock-bottom prices. Numerous shaft lengths, and even some models with heavier bronze heads were up for sale. I ended up with the steel version pictured here, recently re-dressed in a new, sticky-like mid-sized Winn pistol grip. It's a mallet, so it's face-balanced, which is probably best for most of us (like it or not.) Even "The One" only opens and closes his Scotty Cameron 1 degree through the stroke, so a face-balanced putter is more likely to help keep all of us duffers putting a little more squarely down the line. Mine has the black plastic insert - newer versions come with a variety of inserts, and choosing your favorite is really a matter of feel. I suggest, though, making sure that you choose one with alignment markings the same as mine - I find them to be the most intuitive, and they help keep my eye right over the target line - just keep the single alignment mark between the two lines on the back of the head, and you know you're all square. The new slightly larger mid-sized grip seems to take my wrists out of the stroke even more.
My regular playing partner uses a newer Ping blade, and seems to be able to drain it from every where, hence is golfin moniker, "The Blade!" (Yes, it is spoken with the exclamation point when used. Such as, when he rolls one in from just of the green, 25 feet, through a double break and a half-dozen untended pitch marks into the can, his partners are obliged to call out "The Blade!" in salute and recognition.)
Such feats appear even more amazing when one considers the, shall we say, unorthodox putting stroke that he employs. It's a distinct out-to-in jab at the ball (it's the kind of stroke I'd use if I wanted to slice putts) which leaves his opponents even more incredulous when the damn ball roles straight to the hole. I have never and will never tell him what's wrong with his putting stroke - I might ruin his putting game and send him back to bowling with his spouse, "The Decider." I have to guess that the toe-balanced Ping must enable him to square up the face about a millisecond before impact, and just enough to counter the angular, glancing blow such that a straight roll of the ball somehow results. It's a wonder to witness in person.
My other putter is, alas, a blade, and I believe it to be the second best putter ever made. It's a sleek, sharp looking Odyssey EFX 9900, the head somewhat resembles the old Ping B66, touted by Golf Club Review.com to be the straightest putter in it's day. The 9900 served me well, but in repeated scientific basement carpet putting tests, the Rossie II meets or beats the 9900 every time. Still, I find it a good exercise to take the 9900 out for some air at times - I seem to have a good round with it, and my putting improves further still when I return to old Rossie. There's much truth in the notion that change for the sake of change can spark your game. I understand that more than a few tour pros change putters regularly for similar reasons. Ol' Rossie is weighted just right - heavy enough to stay stable on short putts, but not so heavy to remove feel from the longer ones. While the face is a plain-jane flat plastic insert, face it guys, all those grooves and inserts and doo-dads that are supposed to impart top-spin or other effects don't really give most of us what we need... Guys that I play with really need to keep the club on plane, face square to the target line at impact. A millisecond of putter back-spin isn't what keeps my handicap in the high-teens...
Still, if you gotta have the newest so-called technology, there are more than a few mallet heads that look just like ol' Rossie, and they come in a variety of face configurations - perhaps you could find the best of both worlds. Me? I got my fat and sticky grip on my old stick, and I'll be out there showing The Blade what ol' Rossie and I can do this season...
GF
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