TaylorMade Men’s Ghost Manta Center Putter

“We like to call Ghost Manta a ‘high-performance mallet’ because it’s so easy to aim at address, so stable and forgiving at impact and delivers such a smooth roll off the face.” - Brett Wahl, TaylorMade Senior Director - Iron, Wedge and Putter R&D

There’s something almost cute about this TaylorMade Ghost Manta putter, with its white finish, simple lines and soft curves. But that soft look hides a variety of interesting ideas.

The white finish is by this time a pretty established notion. A couple of years ago, a study determined that the contrast of the white against turf makes aiming easier. That’s been a part of much of TaylorMade’s recent lineups: white putters, white drivers and white fairway woods (thus far, no white irons).

To stabilize the putter, there’s a pair of 50-gram tungsten stabilizing weights and a user adjustable weight in the center. These are hidden in the sole to prevent distraction. The 35 inch putter weights 370 grams. By way of comparison, the Heavy Putter weighs in at 450 - 550 grams and a standard blade putter often between 320 and 350 grams. 

The face of the putter is TaylorMade’s Pure Roll design, constructed of Surlyn (as with golf ball covers) for a soft feel.

Press release follows:

Acer CB6 Putter - Custom Assembled

Advertised as a cross between a blade and a mallet, Acer has designed this club to pull the weight to the out on two wings for additional moment of intertia (resistance to twisting).

It caught my eye because at first glance it looks like one of those Starship Enterprise Star Trek putters GolfSmith was selling a few years ago. The principle’s certainly the same.

One of the big thrills each year at the Detroit Auto Show (this week!) is the unveiling of various concept cars: state of the art vehicles that likely will never see the showroom floor but some of whose ideas probably will make it into production models.

Nike’s Method Concept putter, on the other hand, will soon make it to a pro shop near you. “Inspired by the notion of the Concept car,” Nike says, it “blends art with science without sacrificing the game-changing performance that Nike Method technology delivers – a smoother stroke and a truer roll with far less skid.”

It’s certainly original looking. The idea is to to give the impression of a blade, while offering the stability of a mallet. The red, contrasted with the black, certainly seems to give the desired impression.

It’ll be available February 17, and you no doubt will be able to buy it at You can get it at Golfsmith Golf & Tennis

The complete press release follows

Hireko Golf sent me one of their new Hindsight Putters for a test, and it is without a doubt one of the most unusual I’ve encountered. Indeed, at first glance, I thought it it was a left handed model. That’s because the centered shaft leans forward, putting the head behind the shaft. It just looks wrong. Once I set up with it, though,  I saw immediately what Hireko’s designers had done. The club hangs naturally, and is in perfect position for a forward press stroke. Belying its looks, the Hindsight is perfectly balanced.

Here’s what the literature says:

The Dynacraft Hindsight putter was scientifically designed to get the ball rolling forward sooner by using two key features in unison - a forward press and roll face technology. The forward hand press is said to create a fluid, rhythmic stroke, but more importantly to keep the hands moving through the stroke. The Hindsight putter incorporates a 3 degree forward press or just enough to position the hands even with the leading edge.

With roll face technology as incorporated into the Dynacraft Hindsight putter, it normalizes the effective loft at impact to create the proper amount of loft to extract the ball from any indentation and get the ball rolling as quickly as possible for better distance control.

Lastly it is completed with grooves into the roll face as well as face balanced. The Dynacraft Hindsight is a unique putter producing extraordinary results!

In a short putting session on the carpet at GolfBlogger World Headquarters, I found I liked the putter’s performance. My preference has always been for straight-in center shafts, so it sets up well for my eye. The forward angled shaft works for me, too.

I like it.

Grade A
Teachers Comments: the Radi-Eye applies an old principle to a new stick to good results.

One upon a time, when woods were made of persimmon they were carved (or players sanded them) with slightly curved faces to take advantage of the “gear effect.” With a little bulge built into the clubheads, balls that caught the outside edges of the face had a tendency to spin back toward the center. Theoretically, this will make your shots stay closer to the target line. The design in many cases was quite pronounced—much more so than any metal “woods” that still employ the idea today.

What the folk at Radi-Eye have done is to employ this principle in putter design.  The faces of their “flatsticks” are not flat at all, but convex. It looks rather strange, but makes me wonder why it hasn’t been done before. (perhaps it has, but for some reason didn’t catch on.)

In practice, I found the design effective. Once I adjusted my putting stroke (I normally play a straight-in shaft on a mallet style putter) I found I really liked the way it performed. Non-scientific experiments convinced me that off center impacts did indeed pull a little back to center with this stick. Due to the short distances and slower ball speeds, however, the effect will not be as pronounced as with a driver or wood—there just won’t be as much spin. Perhaps not surprisingly, I thought it performed especially well on lag putts.

The inventors of the putter claim that it can compensate for 4.5 degrees of push or pull during a putt. I think that’s probably about right. You won’t notice it, though, if you already have a putting stroke that consistently allows you to hit the sweet spot.

Other than the curvature of the face, the Radi-Eye looks like any other blade putter on the market. In a putter police lineup there wouldn’t be any other distinguishing characteristics. But then, a bulge on a flatstick should be enough. The head is milled form a single piece of 1018 steel, and can be configured as a long or belly putter, thanks to the 360 gram weight. I would, however, like to see them expand the design into other styles, such as a mallet, and straight-in shafts.

I think the Radi-Eye would be worth a look for players who have trouble making contact with the sweet spot on their putters. They’ve got a 30 Day Refund policy (minus shipping), so this could be worth your while.

You can see a video of the putter in action below:

You can get the putter here.

NIKE Method Core Putter

What caught my eye about the Nike Method Core is that it comes with in a straight, center shafted model—my favorite style. Its also got an interesting polymer-aluminum insert. I’ve seen polymer inserts, and I’ve seen metal inserts. This is the first combination insert I can recall. The design goal is the same as virtually every other putter: to reduce skid and get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

Looks like I’ll have to take a trip to my local pro shop to try one out.

NEVER COMPROMISE X-Ray Putter

These unusual looking putters feature a “Suspended Face Technology” that’s supposed to limit the surface area in contact with the ball to improve directional dispersion and providing consistent ball velocity across the face. The dual density insert uses isolated ribs embedded in a softer composite, which provides ultimate dampening yet a responsive feedback. By using the ultra lightweight face material, 25% of the putter s head weight is moved into the extremities of the design, offering great MOI properties. Additionally, the NC X-Ray series incorporates a gray and red alignment feature that helps you achieve a consistent setup and improved alignment.