Evnroll Carlsbad, V-Series putters: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Evnroll’s new V-Series and Carlsbad putter lines offer two takes on familiar and successful shapes and technologies with one line emphasizing options and the other affordability. Of course, both the V-Series and Carlsbad feature Evnroll’s core technology of face grooves that enhance initial roll for consistent rollout and straighter putts. Like in its previous iteration, the V-Series blade and mallets easily customize neck and hosel options through a typical adjustable wrench. Meanwhile, the affordable Carlsbad lineup features the company’s two most popular blade and mallet head shapes with a milled aluminum face insert.
PRICE: $430, V-Series (V2, V5.1, V5.2, V12). $250, Carlsbad (B1, M1). Available Feb. 1.
3 COOL THINGS
1. Even up. While the V-Series and Carlsbad lines approach putter construction differently, they remain true to the Evnroll face story that’s been the brand’s hallmark well before the company was founded by chief designer and CEO Guerin Rife. Rife’s designs have long centered on the design of the face grooves, which impact the ball to create not only a quicker forward roll with less initial skid, but consistent speed off the face both for on- and off-center hits. The grooves vary in width and spacing for consistent energy transfer across the face. The grooves’ design also creates a progressive depth that is aims to redirect heel and toe mis-hits back toward the centerline.
Both the V-Series and Carlsbad models also include heel and toe sole weights milled from tungsten and steel. They vary in weight to better match up with different lengths or with player preferences. Rife tries to keep the swingweights at D7 regardless of shaft length, believing the slightly heavier heft works better on today’s faster greens.
2. The return of V-Series. When the V-Series putters originally were introduced, a myriad of hosel and neck options could be joined to a myriad of head options through a common adjustable wrench. This led to easy customization in the fitting process, pairing as many as four different hosels with six different heads. In its latest iteration, the four most popular heads will be offered in two neck/hosel options. The two hosel options include short slant or short plumber hosel configurations, which then can match up with one of four heads.
Those four head options, all redesigned from the original, include the V2 blade (fully milled from 303 stainless steel), and the V5.1, V5.2 and V12 mallets. The V5.1 and V5.2 mallets utilize a 303 stainless-steel face piece attached to a 6061 aircraft grade aluminum body. The V12, a higher moment of inertia design, is fully milled from 6061 aluminum with stainless-steel perimeter weights for more rear stability to improve mis-hit consistency.
3. A nod to the home of golf equipment and affordability. The Carlsbad name grew from the home of Evnroll, right in the heart of the California tech center that has become the home to major equipment companies Callaway, TaylorMade, Cobra and shaft maker Fujikura Composites. Evnroll’s Carlsbad putters include a traditional heel-toe weighted cavity-back blade, the B1, which is built on a similar platform to Evnroll’s ER2 model; and the M1, a winged mallet design with a connecting back bar, reminiscent of the V5.1 shape.
The Carlsbad models feature a weight-saving milled aluminum face insert backed by a soft polymer. “That aluminum front piece and then a polymer piece behind it gives you 70 to 80 grams of discretionary weight,” Rife said of the cast design which uses precision pressure molding and surface milling. “When you take all that steel out of the face, you can move it back and make the head more stable.”
