Oversized mallets - or, in the vernacular, big-headed putters - are popping up and dropping putts all over.
The 2-Ball may have started the trend, but other clubmakers quickly followed when Odyssey's effort started showing up in the bags of pros and duffers alike.
Art Chou, founder of Chou Golf Design Labs, says alignment and backweighting are the key characteristics of oversized mallets.
"Alignment is pretty straightforward: The deeper the head is from face to back, the longer the sightline or other sighting method (i.e., two 'balls') you can utilize as an alignment aid," said Chou, who has also served as president of Pixl Golf and director of club research and development at Titleist. "A longer alignment aid is naturally easier to aim and stroke 'down the line'."
The alignment aids are obvious to golfers, but the backweighting is just as important if not as well understood by most who use oversized mallets.
"Backweighting, or moving more of the total headweight further away from the clubface, helps make the club more stable by increasing its moment of inertia (resistance to twisting)," Chou explained. "This makes the club more stable on off-center hits (more forgiving) while also usually making it more stable during the swing. Less twisting both during the swing and at impact."
So why isn't everyone using an oversized mallet? Putting is all about feel, and many golfers simply prefer the feel of a traditional blade or heel-toe weighted putter. And if your putter ain't broke, there's no reason to fix it.
But an oversized mallet might be a good choice for golfers who have a lot of trouble aligning their putts, or who have a particularly high rate of off-center hits.
Chou says there is a certain type of golfer who will do best to stay away from oversized mallets, though.
"A larger head with backweighting would be more difficult to swing open and closed," Chou said. "This means that these types of putters would be better suited for golfers who prefer to keep the putter head square to the target line during the swing."
Odyssey, a division of Callaway, is still selling bagfuls of White Hot 2-Balls, but there are many more oversized mallets on pro shop shelves these days. There's an even a new style of 2-Ball.
Here's a lot at some of the top oversized mallets:
Odyssey DFX 2-Ball
The DFX 2-Ball differs from the original White Hot 2-Ball in its face insert and clubhead color.
The DFX clubhead is black; the original 2-Ball has a silver finish.
Odyssey introduced the DFX series of putters for those who found the White Hot insert too soft. The DFX insert produces a firmer feel at impact.
Scotty Cameron by Titleist Futura
The Futura is quite possibly the oddest looking putter on the market today. Its birth in Scotty Cameron's studio gives it the cachet it likely required for golfers to get past its looks.
The rod connecting the face and the backweight "horseshoe" features three smaller-than-golf-ball holes which serve as the alignment aid. The horsehoe at the rear contains 75-percent of the clubhead's weight.
Two weight plugs in the back of the face add further to the Futura's weighting properties, which help create great stability and get the ball rolling immediately off the clubface.
