Oh, my $20 putter, how do I really like thee?
Let me depend the methods …
I really like that after I maintain you in my fingers I not often must depend to 3.
I really like that whenever you miss that first putt, you nearly at all times go away me a simple second putt, irrespective of the place that first putt comes from.
And I actually love the truth that when that second putt is a little bit of a tester (and I blame myself for that, expensive buddy, not you), I can nearly at all times knock it in.
Sure, my darling $20 putter, you could have stolen my coronary heart. Our souls are intertwined. We’re inseparable. I’m your Romeo. You might be my Juliet.
For now, at the least.
My $20 putter
Whereas I’m not remotely near our putter pundit Dave Wolfe in the case of a putter assortment, I’ve a number of.
Nicely, seven.
My $20 putter is an previous Rife 2-Bar Hybrid Mallet, circa 2008. It joined the staff this previous April, courtesy of the used part at Golfer’s Warehouse in Danvers, Mass. After some bench time, it lastly discovered its manner into the beginning lineup a month in the past.
In the case of putters, I trip the new hand. For many of the season, that was a Scotty Cameron Phantom X 11s, additionally courtesy of the used part at Golfer’s Warehouse. A L.A.B. DF2.1 can be a part of the rotation. When the L.A.B. is sizzling, it’s thermo-nuclear for me however the Scotty was extra constant for a lot of the season.
Till it wasn’t.
A few month in the past, I figured I’d ship each putters a powerful message and provides the Rife a begin. Since then, it’s been full-on Linsanity for the Rife whereas Scotty and the L.A.B. sit in my workplace, Wally Pipped by a 16-year-old relic.
(Look ‘em up.)
It’s not just like the Rife is sinking every thing in sight. It can sink the occasional bomb however the distinction is in distance management. What doesn’t go in is shut sufficient to the cup to be both a tap-in, a gimme or makeable.
Golf is much more enjoyable that manner.
The Rife 2-Bar backstory
You most likely know Guerin Rife as the person behind Evnroll however his story is an enchanting one. Rife began in promoting. He was an artwork director for a Chicago advert agency with no connection to golf. He moved to Florida within the ‘90s and began his personal agency. One in every of his early shoppers was David Leadbetter, who requested Rife to assist him design a coaching assist.
That led to a lifelong fascination with putters.
Rife’s first creation was a patented cavity-back mallet referred to as True Blue. He admits he didn’t do an excellent job writing the patent however he would study that lesson very properly in a while.
His second patent, for face grooves, was constructed on True Blue’s low mass and heel-toe weighting. In accordance with Rife, eradicating all that mass within the cavity created raise at influence. By including grooves and decreasing loft, Rife’s putters would cut back skidding and get the ball rolling ahead faster. Skidding, whether or not you’re placing or driving a automotive, slows you down as a consequence of friction. Rife’s grooves promoted a ahead roll sooner, which made for a smoother roll that may be much less prone to come up a revolution or two in need of the cup.
Rife at first licensed the know-how to Spalding/High-Flite however would finally exit on his personal. The unique 2-Bar putter got here out within the wake of the Odyssey Two-Ball within the mid-2000s and have become a mini-blockbuster. At its peak, upwards of 40 gamers on the PGA Champions Tour had been utilizing Rife’s creation and it was gaining momentum on the PGA Tour. The corporate shortly grew, prompting Rife to dump items of his firm to traders to maintain up with that progress.
That will quickly change into an issue.
The two-Bar goes tropo
The unique 2-Bar had a form of gumdrop-looking mallet head with two bars to advertise steadiness and stability and to assist with goal. The know-how was referred to as Twin In-Line Second of Inertia with the weighting designed to withstand twisting on off-center strikes. Rife offered a boatload of them at $199 a pop, which interprets to almost $300 in as we speak’s {dollars}. Within the two months from December of 2005 via January of 2006, Rife estimates he offered $1.5 million value of 2-Bars.
A yr later, Rife expanded the road together with his “Island” sequence with putters named after islands within the Caribbean. The Barbados, Antigua and Martinique fashions debuted on the 2007 PGA Present and every featured Rife’s patented RollGroove know-how. The Martinique and Antigua had been blades whereas the Barbados was a rounded mallet with openings on both aspect of the middle piece together with some beefiness on the perimeter. The two-Bar Hybrid Mallet, launched in 2008, was merely Rife placing the Barbados and 2-Bar collectively to see what would occur.
“It was a solid physique with weight plugs within the bars with 70 grams of discretionary weight,” Rife tells MyGolfSpy. “It additionally had a face insert with a polymer backing.”
The two-Bar Hybrid Mallet (there was additionally a 2-Bar Hybrid Blade) got here with a particular bending device and an educational DVD so you may alter the lie angle by yourself, in addition to a magnetic headcover with a zippered pouch to retailer the additional weights.
The October crash
2008 was the high-water mark for Rife. Gross sales hit the $10 million mark, making the corporate one of many largest impartial putter manufacturers going.
Then got here The Crash.
The worldwide monetary disaster of 2008 did in lots of firms, massive and small. Rife, by giving up shares to traders to assist fund his speedy progress, had successfully misplaced management of his personal firm. Moreover, the corporate had a ton of stock for its now world enterprise on the time of the crash. It was left holding the proverbial bag and possession was on the lookout for a manner out. Talks with COBRA-PUMA in 2009 stalled earlier than the corporate was offered to the Seattle-based firm Innovex in 2011.
Rife was on his personal and couldn’t use his personal final identify to make putters anymore, however he did begin a brand new putter firm referred to as Guerin. That finally led to Evnroll and its extra aggressively patented elongated parabolic grooves that turned MyGolfSpy putter testing on its ass in 2016.
Which brings us again to my $20 putter.
My $20 putter: Greatest cash I’ve ever spent
Rife wasn’t terribly impressed with my $20 treasure.
“I believe you overpaid.”
Not in accordance with eBay. You’ll find a beat-to-hell Rife 2-Bar Hybrid Mallet as little as $40 whereas a nicer one with a weight equipment may run as excessive as $150. Mine wanted a brand new grip however, in any other case, it’s in fairly fine condition for a putter that got here out throughout the Hannah Montana years.
What makes the Rife 2-Bar Hybrid Mallet work for me is the mix of size, lie and weight, all of that are pure luck. I are likely to desire a shorter putter with a comparatively flat lie and a head weight of round 360 grams. Whoever owned this earlier than set it up good as I may inform it match after I first picked it up at Golfer’s Warehouse.
The anodized aluminum face insert has a polymer backing for a splendidly non-intrusive really feel. It’s delicate sufficient to not be clicky and agency sufficient to not be squishy. I additionally just like the blue tone of the face, which properly matches the brand new Lamkin pistol grip.
Golfers like to dismiss putter becoming by merely counting on “seems and really feel.” Nonetheless, having gone via a number of putter fittings, I firmly consider a correctly match putter will feel and appear good.
“Individuals are lastly understanding the worth of putter becoming,” says Rife. “If we get the precise look, the precise lie angle, the precise size, the precise launch angle, together with the precise really feel and the precise consolation in your fingers, then you could have this little piece of magic that simply feels excellent.”
We golfers can spend an terrible lot of money and time looking for that little piece of magic.
However generally, it simply may discover you.
For now, anyway.
Scotty and the L.A.B. are nonetheless there. Ready.
The put up Can You Purchase a Respectable Putter for $20? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
