New Equipment
Evnroll V-Series putters use interchangeable hosels, new grips to breed consistency
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Evnroll’s milled putters have gathered attention and acclaim for their grooved-face technology that breeds consistency in distance and direction. The new V-Series aims to build on that consistency theme by making it easy to fit any of its five more popular head styles (plus a sixth, high-stability mallet) into any of four hosel-types. The interchangeable hosel options switch in and out with the same kind of adjustable wrench used for drivers, giving golfers the best-fitting look at address with the head they most prefer. In addition, a new Midlock grip option makes for a more natural transition to an armlock putting stroke, while the back-weighted “Gravity Grip” option aims to improve face angle awareness.
Price: $390-$400 for ER1V, ER2V blades; $410-$420 for ER5V, ER7V, ER8V and ER11V (new) mallets.
THE DEEP DIVE: Over his quarter century developing putters, Evnroll founder and CEO Guerin Rife has become something of a Willie Wonka-like innovator with grooved faces, alignment details and the use of multiple materials. But he believes his latest line expansion and grip innovations for his Evnroll putters push new boundaries for improving consistency in setup, stroke and roll.
Evnroll’s putters have been noteworthy for their face designs and their milled construction since their introduction in 2016. The grooves’ width and spacing get narrower as they move out from the center, which means more direct energy is transferred at impact on toe and heel hits to produce consistent distances regardless of impact location. Meanwhile, the grooves also form a slight inward angle to further guide those off-center strikes back towards the centerline.
But that’s the consistency of what happens to the ball once the putter gets there. Rife’s latest innovations for Evnroll are about the consistency in your stroke, too.
The first is the new V-Series of six putters that features an adjustable hosel to make it easier for a player to match his or her preferred look at address with some of Evnroll’s popular blades or mallets, as well as a new oversized mallet designed with a high moment of inertia (stability on off-center hits). The hosels (and shaft) attach and detach from the head using the same type of wrench used on adjustable drivers with a screw accessed from the sole. Those hosel options include a short slant neck for the most arcing strokes and a long slant neck for less arcing strokes, a short plumber’s neck (mid-arc) and a long plumber’s neck (slight arc).
The V-Series is offered in five of Evnroll’s most popular head styles. Those include the ER1V (a classic heel-toe weighted blade), the ER2V (a wide-body heel-toe weighted blade), the ER5V (a dual-winged mallet), the ER7V (a standard half-shell, perimeter-weighted mallet) and the ER8V (a rounded corners half-mallet).
Also part of the lineup is a new multimaterial, high-stability offering, the ER11V. The black anodized 6061 aluminum body features a ball-sized cavity in the sole, and 303 stainless-steel segments (adjustable to match changing green speeds or preferred swing weights) line the extreme rearward heel and toe areas for extra stability.
That flexibility to match hosel to head for optimizing alignment and stroke style is one step toward improved consistency. Evnroll’s other enhancements in that area involve more grip options. In addition to the standard grip, each model in the Evnroll lineup works with a back-weighted “Gravity Grip.” Made of a lightweight EVA foam, the underside of the grip (within the grip between the shaft and the outside edge) features an internal 70-gram steel rod that runs the length of the grip. It’s designed to promote a square face angle on the early takeaway and forward stroke at impact.
The Evnroll lineup also has added a third grip as a user-friendly approach to the increasingly popular armlock style of putting, called the Midlock Grip. Rife’s assessment of many armlock style putters is that the standard putter grip—even wider-diameter options—encourages a severely delofted motion by forcing an exaggerated forward press, That setup requires armlock putters to have upwards of seven degrees of loft. Rather than forcing such a drastic loft change in a putter, Rife designed the grip by taking the most extreme version of the pistol style grip and turning it sideways. Paired with the long slant style hosel, the Midlock naturally sets the putter in a typical forward press position and allows the putter to remain with a more traditional 4-degree loft angle.
The Evnroll V-Series putter lineup will be available in March. ($390 for the ER1 and ER2 blades in the standard Tour Tac grip, $400 with the Gravity Grip; $410 for the ER5, ER7, ER8 and ER11 mallets in standard, $420 for the mallets with the Gravity Grip). The Midlock Grip, which is available in 39-, 40- and 41-inch lengths, is offered on the ER2, ER5, ER8 and ER11 models ($420).