Former British Open champion Paul Lawrie stood on the 18th green at St. Andrews' Old Course and took a deep breath. With the dreaded "Valley of Sin" between his ball and the hole, his chances of winning the Dunhill Links Championship were fading. He would need to sink this difficult 40-footer for the victory, his first since the 1999 Open.
Lawrie sunk the putt, claiming the trophy and drawing plenty of attention to his brand-new and rather odd-looking putter, the Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball. He'd put it in his bag on the eve of the tourney and called attention to it with strong play, which included a third-round 63.
"To have a major championship winner like Paul Lawrie put the Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball Putter in play -- and use it to win the first week it was in his bag -- is tremendous validation for this new product," said Ron Drapeau, president, CEO and chairman of Callaway Golf, which makes putters under the Odyssey brand. "Several top golfers have already put the Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball Putter in play, and we're very excited about the amount of attention it is receiving."
From October, when Lawrie won at St. Andrews, to now, the offbeat 2-Ball putter has attracted pros, golf writers and everyday duffers searching for a way to hole more putts -- and it won't even hit the market until January. Twenty-three pros, including Lawrie, used the putter the first week it was available to tour players. Bruce Fleisher, Charles Howell III and Annika Sorenstam all found success with the putter.
Why are so many people be interested in this large mallet putter with two golf-ball sized white circles behind the center of the face? Because of the visual assistance those two circles give the golfer when he's lining up a putt. With the actual ball in play forming the third circle, the golfer can see whether the putter is square to the target if all three balls form a line.
"In our testing, the vast majority of golfers who used the White Hot 2-Ball Putter increased their accuracy compared with their previous putter," said Richard C. Helmstetter, senior executive vice president of research and development and chief of new products for Callaway Golf. "Improved accuracy is a function of seeing the line better, and that leads to golfers feeling more comfortable -- which results in a more confident putting stroke on a regular basis."
But, like most things under the sun, the 2-Ball putter is nothing new. In fact, the concept for the club came from putting guru Dave Pelz, who introduced a Three-Ball putter in the 1980s. Pelz' putter featured three actual golf ball-like orbs behind the face, and it was used by PGA Tour pros Tom Jenkins and D.A. Weibring for a time.
"I realized I could make a long, white, dotted line appear if I made the putter out of golf balls, and set them in a straight line behind the ball in play," Pelz wrote in his 1989 book, Putt Like the Pros. "The longer this line of golf balls is, the more accurately you can aim that line."
But alas for Pelz, after the putter's introduction, the USGA ruled that the distance from face to back of a putter cannot be longer than the distance from the heel to the toe, making the Three-Ball putter non-conforming. Callaway's incarnation of the Pelz putter limits the line of "golf balls" to two so it will conform to USGA rules. But the concept remains the same.
"I had been struggling with my putting until this week," Lawrie said after winning at St. Andrews. "My ball-striking had been good, but I couldn't make the putts. All that's changed now. I really have confidence with this new putter."
And Odyssey has confidence that you will find the 2-Ball putter too good to pass up at any price. The putter will retail for $215, and will be available in right-handed and left-handed models in lengths from 33 to 36 inches.
