The 5 greatest putters in history… From Calamity Jane to Two Ball

If the driver is a club that tells you the pleasure of long hits, the putter is a club that takes care of the real thing. The frequency of using the putter during 18 holes is approximately 25 to 40 times. It is always the putter that finishes a hole or a round. The putter is just as important. There is a saying that among the 14 clubs of his father, the only one that Charlie, the son of Tiger Woods, the ‘King of Golf’ cannot touch, is the putter.

Like other clubs, putters have undergone various design changes and countless models have been released. Among them, we introduce five putters that recorded unprecedented hits while leading historically important changes.

‘ Calamity Jane ‘ helped Bobby Jones in the grand slam

Calamity Jane is a putter used by Bobby Jones, who is revered as an adult in golf. Jones, who maintained his status as an amateur all his life, won all four major tournaments in 1930 and became the only person in golf history to achieve the Grand Slam.

Starting with winning the US Open in 1923 and ending with the US Amateur Championship in 1930, Jones won 13 majors before retiring at the age of 28. The putter with all these wins is her Calamity Jane. She has a slight offset and has a hickory shaft mounted in the form of a blade head. The Calamity Jane was made by Robert Condy in Scotland. Initially, William Winton, a golf club dealer in London, was the owner of the putter, but later it was acquired by a Scottish golfer named Jim Maiden. In 1920, when Jones, a close friend of mine, complained about putting, Maiden recommended that he try this putter.

After trying Calamity Jane once, Jones fell in love with it. It is Maiden who gave this putter the name Calamity Jane. Calamity Jane is the nickname of Martha Jane Cannary, a frontier woman active in the United States in the late 1800s. After his retirement, Jones worked as a consultant for Spalding, a golf club manufacturer. Spalding produced numerous putters bearing the Calamity Jane name from 1932 to 1973. Despite the huge number of Calamity Janes sold and many winning moments, no one other than Bobby Jones has ever won a major with this putter. The Calamity Jane Trophy is given to the winner of the Tour Championship, the final round of the PGA Tour season. Eastlake Golf Club, where the Tour Championship is held, was Bobby Jones’ home course.

‘Bull’s Eye’ applied to the center shaft of the pendulum concept

It is often said that the putting stroke should be pendulum like a pendulum. John Reuter, an American teaching pro in the 1940s, also thought of this concept. After struggling to develop a new putter, Reuter created his first model, The Sweet Strokers, and later put out a modified Bulls Eye.

At the time, most putters had the shaft inserted into the heel, but the bullseye was a center shaft with the shaft installed almost in the center of the head. Thanks to this design, which was unconventional at the time, the Bullseye had an excellent moment of inertia against an off-hit ball. Also, the face made of soft brass had excellent feel and feedback at impact.

After putting the Bullseye putter on the market in earnest in 1949, when Lou Wirthham won the Phoenix Open with this putter in 1951, the Bullseye began to draw attention as well. In 1958, Reuters began mass-producing the Bullseye in collaboration with Acushnet. In the early 1960s, it was so popular that one in four tour players used the bullseye, and it was loved for a long time. Bob Charles, the first left-handed major winner, Tom Kite, who won 19 times on the PGA Tour, and Corey Pavin, who won 15 times in his career, were representative players who used this putter.

‘Ping Answer’ with more than 500 wins on major tours around the world

Is there any other putter that has been as successful as the Anser developed by Carsten Solheim, the founder of Ping? The Answer putter marked the birth of the Ping Empire. So far, he has won more than 500 victories on major tours around the world.

When Ping Answer was first released in 1966, the market reaction was lukewarm. But the following year, when Julius Boros won the Phoenix Open as an answer, he gained explosive popularity 안전놀이터among players. Then Solheim also quit GE and founded his family’s company, Ping.

Answer is also the beginning of the modern putter. The technology that is still applied to modern putters, such as the cavity bag dug out from the back of the head, perimeter weighting that relocates the surplus weight to the surrounding area, and the low center of gravity, originated from the Answer putter. When the design for the Answer putter expired in the 1980s, numerous imitation products were poured out. The prototype of Scotty Cameron Newport 2 used by Tiger Woods is also Answer.

One of the greatest scenes in Masters

history is the birdie putt on the 17th hole in the 4th round when Jack Nicklaus won the championship in 1986. After a successful putt, Nicklaus was delighted by holding up the MacGregor Response ZT putter with his left hand.

Nicklaus was 46 at the time, when everyone said his prime was over. In fact, it hasn’t won since 1984. Nicklaus, however, shot a 65 on the final day of the 1986 Masters, beating Greg Norman and Tom Kite by one stroke and winning his 18th major. In particular, he boasted an exciting putting feeling to the point of showing 1 putt six times in the second half only.

Developed by Clay Long, the Response ZT had a cavity back design with a large aluminum head. ZT is an abbreviation for Zero Twist, and it has excellent stability. However, it was not popular because of its large head. Then, after Nicklaus’ masters victory, it became famous and sold about 350,000 copies.

Over 5 million sold … The important thing in the ‘two-ball’ putter created by the Odyssey legend

is precise alignment and feel. The Callaway Odyssey Two Ball, released in 2001, was a revolution. The design of two balls of the same size as the actual balls behind the head enables intuitive alignment. By putting more weight on the back, the skid phenomenon in which the ball slips in the beginning is also dramatically reduced. The insert on the face gave a soft and sure shot feel.

As soon as the two-ball putter appeared on the market, it attracted a lot of attention from both players and the public. Between 2002 and 2003, for every four putters sold, one was a two-ball putter. Beyond simple popularity, it led to a phenomenon called the popularization of mallet putters. ‘Eternal golf empress’ Annika Sorenstam also used a two-ball putter in her prime. As a lesson pro, Michael Block, who achieved good results at the PGA Championship, a major tournament in May of this year and became a ‘rapid star’, still uses a two-ball putter.

It has been more than 20 years since the two-ball putter was released, and various versions have been released during that time, but the basic concept still does not disappear and is made in various variations. Over 5 million two-ball putters have been sold so far.