Ping Scottsdale TEC putters: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Ping Scottsdale TEC mallet putters (Ally Blue Onset, Ketsch Onset and Hayden) offer high-resolution white-black contrast, distinct alignment features and onset and face-balanced models that fit the shift to straighter putting strokes. All three also include the resilient and weight-saving Pebax elastomer face insert.
PRICE: $435. Ally Blue Onset (standard and counterbalanced, both for straight-type strokes), Head weight: 370 grams; Loft: 3 degrees. Ketsch Onset (for slight arc strokes), Head weight: 350 grams; Loft: 3 degrees. Hayden (for straight-type strokes), Head weight: 360 grams; Loft: 3 degrees (plus custom).
3 Cool Things
1. Aim game. To say Ping engineers study things long before an idea for a product even materializes is an understatement. The company actually has its own internal searchable database of every research project its team has conducted. Those research ideas sometimes will lead directly to a finished product and the Scottsdale TEC family of putters is Exhibit A (TEC stands for “tour elevated concepts”). Specifically, the Scottsdale TEC lineups approach to aiming is fueled by mountains of internal and external research on what’s known as the Quiet Eye. That research originated with sports psychologist Joan Vickers who studied the way the eyes settle over the putter prior to the stroke. Ping’s engineers sought a way to pinpoint the focus for a better starting point, and their research suggested the need for both an alignment or aiming line on the crown of the putter, as well as a single dot at the topline to sharpen target awareness.
While the three mallets take on different looks, each incorporates a longer aiming line back from the center of the face and extending from a dot on the topline just above face center, what Ping is calling Eye-Q Technology. “What we really wanted to focus on was looking at the contrast nature of it, and is there actually an element of black on white or white on black and other colors, that ultimately really give a bold definition to both,” said Ping’s Ryan Stokke, director of product design. “What we wanted to do was get confirmation that does it actually help with the idea of someone's gaze getting tethered to that location, and ultimately leading to the outcomes that we want to see in the alignment styles.
“It's pretty profound, just the ability of having that full face visual, and the ability to set up and align, a very easy way of tethering your gaze to the front of the putter.”
2. Shaft shifting. While the Scottsdale TEC lineup includes the face-balanced Hayden model, which is geared to a straighter stroke, the real departure are the face-forward looks from the Ally Blue Onset and Ketsch Onset models. Those two are slightly different takes on center-shafted putters with the shafts on both entering the head slightly back of the face but just forward of the center of gravity. The relationship of the shaft and center of gravity was something studied back in the day by legendary Ping founder Karsten Solheim. That precise position of the shaft being just in front of the CG made for a stroke that felt like it was pulling the putter through the hitting zone, not pushing it, Stokke said.
“Karsten liked to say, is it easier to push a wheelbarrow or pull a wheelbarrow, especially if you're going to go up over a ledge or a curb or something like that?” Stokke said. “When you're pulling the wheelbarrow it is more inn alignment with the direction of movement, and that positioning tends to cause it to actually want to be more stable and aligned with the direction of you’re moving the head in the stroke. We’re able to match that fundamental of our putters with the idea of launching these onset offerings.”
The onset look also has some wondering about Ping’s position on the popular zero-torque trend, but the company isn’t following the movement, Stokke said. Ping’s key finding is that players have a stroke type and a zero-torque putter can work against a player’s natural stroke or typical face closure rate during the putting stroke.
“These putters will completely satisfy someone's demand for a look in the zero-torque space, but we're doing it in a way that we actually believe is going to engineer a better outcome,” he said. “We still see that we’re fitting for a stroke and these putters have the appropriate torque built in. When they take that stroke type to a zero-torque putter, it leads to a particular shot shape bias because it is ill fit for their stroke. By matching it to a stroke type, one of the benefits that we're seeing is you can transfer from your short putts to your long putts better so you can actually hit proper line and speed and not potentially have face delivery variability that leads to the bigger miss.”
3. Material difference. Each of the Scottsdale TEC malllets combines multiple materials in the head that design to optimize a lower center of gravity and a proven elastomer face insert for better perimeter weighting and softer feel. Each features a lightweight 6061 aluminum body with a heavier 304 stainless steel sole plate to lower the center of gravity and provide additional perimeter weighting. The steel is nearly three times as dense as the lightweight aluminum.
Like many of Ping’s putters over the last decade, the Scottsdale TEC models will feature a lightweight Pebax elastomer face insert. It provides good energy return, consistent durability and saves mass that is further distributed in the heads, which in the case of the Ally Blue Onset and Ketsch Onset models are heavier than many other company’s standard mallets at 370 grams.