PXG's new 0211 putters use runway imagery to improve aim and alignment

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: PXG’s new 0211 putter series, which includes five models, is dedicated to the principle of making putting a little more user-friendly, especially to the game’s influx of new players. That effort starts most noticeably with an aiming feature called “Runway Reticle,” a series of stripes that form an arrow-like shape atop each putter like those on a landing strip.

PRICE: $190.

THE DEEP DIVE: On the surface, putting should be the simplest of golf’s challenges. Anyone who’s been schooled at mini-golf by an 8-year-old realizes that. Fact is, though, golfers struggle with the game’s shortest shots not because the stroke is so demanding but because they can’t find the target. Aiming the putter isn’t a natural skill. No matter what kind of stroke you use, you’re not looking where you’re aiming. And losing that target awareness is especially easy if you’ve been away from the game for a long time, or worse, never played it before.

Yet it’s certainly the case that golf’s resurgent popularity over the last few years has brought a lot of new and lapsed players to the game. And put them all in the position of wanting to leave it again because the seemingly easiest part somehow has become its hardest task.

PXG’s 0211 lineup of five new putters looks to attack the idea of target awareness with a design borrowed from what helps pilots focus as they land a plane. Called “Runway Reticle,” the series of stripes form an arrow shape to narrow a player’s focus at address.

“We put a lot of study and focus in trying to develop a technology that would help people aim the putter a little bit better,” said Brad Schweigert, PXG’s chief product officer, who noted that the design idea came from a PXG engineer who graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a private university focused on aviation and aerospace programs. “We think this really helps build a consistent setup.

“This split-arrow system has been designed in conjunction with the overall design of each model. It really helps to just naturally aim the putter down the target line, but we’ve also combined that with the toprail alignment mark. The way those work with each other provides any player with almost a guide for how to use the putter properly. It gets their eyes over the ball and reminds them of how to position their hands at address with the proper lie angle so the aiming mark is in the middle of that arrow and the putter is pointing right down the target line.”

The 0211 putters also help new and veteran golfers when their strokes aren’t perfect, too. Off-center hits benefit from a face that features progressively varying pyramid shapes from heel to toe. More tightly spaced in the center and more spread apart moving toward the heel and toe, the pattern is designed to create more repeatable results. That pattern originally was developed for the company’s Battle Ready putter lineup.

“It really helps to control consistency and all the factors that affect roll—ball velocity, launch angle, spin rate, skid distance,” Schweigert said. “The reason why is that golf balls have dimples and it’s not a consistent geometry. Our pyramid pattern creates a more consistent interaction between the dimpled pattern on the golf ball and our putter face.”

The five models include the V-42, a heel-shafted mid-mallet; the Hellcat, a heavier (365 grams) heel-toe weighted plumber’s neck blade; the Clydesdale, a longer length blade with notched cavity and slight heel and toe extensions; the Bayonet, a slimmer plumber’s neck blade; and the Lightning, a wider body mallet with a double-bend shaft that is the heaviest model in the lineup at 380 grams.

All five models are available online and at retail now ($190).