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New Looks: Equipment
Mass Hysteria
Mallet designers differ on how to use weight
Photo By Nigel Cox
By Max Adler
Edited By Mike Stachura
Photo By Nigel Cox
June 2009
What makes a better putter: a hammer or a frying pan?
Of course, you'd never use either, but it's a simple way to conceptualize a complicated design issue in mallet putters: Should the mass be concentrated behind the ball or distributed to the perimeter?
Positioning the putterhead's weight toward the back and in the center can help stabilize your stroke, says Blair Philip, director of research and development for Yes! Golf. "It's like how a heavy trailer stabilizes the car towing it," he says.
Matt Molloy, president and CEO of Rife Putters, agrees. The new Rife IMO features 85 percent of the weight in the middle of the head.
Why then are other putter companies doing the opposite? John Hoeflich, senior vice president of Nickent Golf, acknowledges that positioning the center of gravity back and deep helps launch the ball with less spin to get it rolling quicker. "However, you still need to spread the weight to the side to increase the moment of inertia," he says. "This gives you more forgiveness and less distance loss on heel and toe mis-hits."
"From a technical viewpoint, perimeter weighting makes more sense, but in either case the center of gravity remains in the middle of the putter, and that's all the ball knows," says Clay Long, chief designer for Nicklaus Golf. "You might as well make the head more forgiving. Though one benefit to concentrating mass centrally is better feel, like what you might experience with muscle-back irons."
So do you engineer a golf club for the moment of collision, or for the influence its feel can have on the swing? That might be the most common dilemma in equipment design.
-- Max Adler
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Nickent Pipe Dream
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By Max Adler
Photos By Jim Herity June 2009 - To achieve an MOI of more than 5,000, mass is placed in the side wings via two tungsten weights. The face features the company's "alternate-groove technology." Available in three hosel configurations ($150, www.nickentgolf.com).
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RIFE IMO
- IMO is short for "Inline Momentum." Mass is concentrated in the central portion to discourage deceleration during the stroke. A skinny-face training aid that's a replica of the dense black part of the head is sold separately ($150, www.rifeputters.com.com).
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Slotline SL-783 Stealth
- The 340-gram head is milled from 6061 aluminum and has a black anodized finish to reduce glare. A hefty 62 grams of tungsten occupy the heel and toe, increasing the head's MOI to more than 6,000 ($200, www.slotlinegolf.com.com).
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Titleist Cameron Kombi
- Available in five shaft lengths of more than 35 inches, the putter's heel and toe weights are specifically matched to fit each one. The red "T" sightline aid is designed to make alignment easy ($300, www.titleist.com.com).
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Yes! Madison
- This 431 stainless-steel mallet is manufactured with the same techniques used to make metal woods, so the long back is hollow. This allows for a deep center of gravity and greater extension of the alignment feature ($190, www.yesgolf.com.com).
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