Watch just about any tour event and witness a sea of familiarity. That white face as the putter makes impact with the ball is nothing short of a dynasty at the PGA Tour level. How did it get that way and where did it all begin?
Last month we featured a THP Live with Sean Toulon, where he took questions from golfers ranging from technical info to new releases. In a passing moment, the conversation shifted to tour usage and paid staff members vs non-paid. The number stood out enough that we wanted to take a bit of a deeper dive.
Odyssey Golf began producing putters back in 1991. These were one piece putter heads and they gained a fairly quick acceptance out on tour. The Rossie I and Rossie II models were mallets created using a polymer called Stronomic.
With in 5 years, the brand really took the next step and in 1996 magic happened. The big win came on the biggest stage. Nick Faldo had the Odyssey Dual Force Rossie II with a Stronomic insert in the bag and won the 1996 Masters. While already on the map so to speak, that win took Odyssey to new levels of being noticed.
Odyssey began expanding the number of models offered with new and revolutionary designs, as well as their take on popular styles. A year after that Masters victory, they established themselves as one of the premier companies in golf. That same year, 25 years ago, Odyssey was acquired by Callaway Golf and has been a part of the brand ever since.
While PGA Tour acceptance is extremely important, so is the recreational golfer, and in 2001 magic happened again. The Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter hit the market and has gone on to be the biggest selling putter model in the history of golf. The 2-Ball at the time featured two white discs on top of an oversized mallet that are the shape and size of golf balls to assist golfers in lining up more accurately. While that was fun to write, describing a 2-Ball to golfers is unnecessary, nearly everybody knows exactly what it is because of its incredible popularity.
This putter took the world both on tour and in golf stores by storm and continued to make Odyssey the number one putter brand in the world. That got us thinking, over the next two decades, what were some of the most dominant putter models? We asked Luke Williams from Odyssey Golf for the info.
“First and foremost, the White Hot insert. Then the models would be Odyssey 2-Ball, Versa, Stroke Lab, O-Works, 2-Ball Ten. If they are looking for specific shapes, I would say the Rossie, 2-Ball, Seven, #1, Double Wide, 2-ball Ten and with Toulon the Madison, San Diego, and Atlanta.”
Just how dominant is the brand currently out on tour? Well, using the word currently perhaps doesn’t even do it justice. As of this writing, and the Masters that just took place, Odyssey Golf has been the #1 putter across the majors for over a decade. To take it further with usage, Odyssey has won the tour count in 39 straight straight events across the PGA Tour, LPGA and Champions Tour.
This type of talk brings us back to what started this deep dive, which was the live stream we did and the mention of paid vs unpaid. We assumed (falsely) that it was about 50/50, which would still be a lot of players on tour using an Odyssey without compensation. The number was closer to 70/30 unpaid to paid on any given week according to Toulon. Luke Williams added this.
“The majority are unpaid players who choose to play Odyssey because it is the best performing putter for them.”
While many will view that as hype, the numbers do support it. Despite the above talking in the present, we are still not quite there and heading back a little more than a handful of years. In 2016, Callaway acquired Toulon Design, the premium milled putter company specializing in customization led by the company’s co-founder Sean Toulon. In the original press release, Chip Brewer, President and CEO of Callaway Golf had this to say.
“Sean is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable leaders in the golf equipment industry, and we are excited to have him come aboard to help us continue to lead the putter category with great designs and the highest performing innovations,” commented Chip Brewer, President and Chief Executive Officer at Callaway Golf Company. “With today’s announcement we fortify our position as the number one equipment company in golf and add valuable experience to our leadership team.”
Despite Odyssey’s amazing success, before the acquisition of the Toulon Design brand, the company had struggled to gain wide usage on tour with their milled releases. Many, such as the Metal-X Milled lineup, had rabid fans, but it didn’t translate to large amounts of tour use or sales. Part of that was due to the incredible popularity of the White Hot insert, but the company had a thirst for more.
The Toulon line of putters gave Odyssey a premium milled option to go along with their famous insert lineup. Luke Williams added this.
“It is the #2 Milled putter on Tour and has been extremely well accepted on tours around the world by players looking for that Milled putter feel and performance.”
The Odyssey line continued to innovate including a wide variety of new inserts such as MicroHinge and many others. Each offering some technology advances, but out on tour, it was still a sea of “White Hot”.
To understand the genesis of this amazing popularity, we go back to something mentioned earlier in the article. Stronomic inserts helped bring the brand to the forefront. It was lighter and softer than steel which helped with feel of the extremely firm golf balls being used at the time. It had its drawbacks from a technical sense including rebound, but it was very ahead of its time. After the Callaway acquisition, engineers were on the hunt for improvement, and according to the company, Ely Callaway said “Why not try using the same materials balls are covered in?”
Obviously that is a very simplified version of events that took place, but here we are 20+ years later and the insert that took the world by storm is still the most dominant at the highest level.
Did they make a mistake releasing alternatives and updates over the last decade or so? No. In fact, speaking to them, they will tell you that some of the recent offerings might even be more advanced from a technical sense. But the company listened. Not just to their engineers or tour players, but to the every day golfer who was asking year after year on places like the THP Forum for a new release of White Hot.
In 2021, the company did just that with the release of White Hot OG. They examined every detail and made some changes such as finish, surface milling and weight placement. White Hot came back with a bang and despite my personal disdain for the name OG, the popularity everywhere speaks for itself.
Will tour dominance and being the number one putter in golf continue? That is the million dollar question, literally.
For more information on any of the Odyssey Golf products, check out their website at www.odysseygolf.com.
