These pictures were actually tweeted by Paul Casey from Nike’s Research & Development facilities in Fort Worth, Texas. Thanks Paul!
Lately, talk has centered around Tiger Woods potentially switching putters to the new Nike Method putter 001. Tiger’s current Scotty Cameron putter has been in his bag for over a decade, but in the latter part of the 2009 season his putting has been well below his “Tiger standards.” The controversy has started after Woods was given a Nike putter on the first tee at the pro-am for the Deutsche Bank Championship. He studied the putter for awhile, then gave it back to the Nike rep to make an adjustment with the grip.
With the Nike Method putter currently listed as his backup putter, my advice to Tiger is: ”DON”T DO IT!” Think of all the memories. 13 of your 14 majors (the 14th major was with a different Scotty Cameron putter). Nearly all of your 70 career wins.
I guess most tour pros don’t go an entire career with only one putter, but most tour pros don’t win 70 tournaments (and counting)! Does anyone find it odd, though, that Tiger’s backup putter is a Nike? Shouldn’t his backup putter be identical to his “first string” putter? I’m sure his backup 4-iron is the same make/model as his usual 4-iron. It almost seems as if he’s looking for an excuse to switch putters.
And let’s not forget that Scotty Cameron makes the best putters in the industry (not a paid endorsement, just an opinion…but seriously Titleist, can I get one of the new California series putters?). It should be noted, however, that this summer has been great for Nike, and they stand to gain a lot of market share after Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink both used the new Method putters to win majors.
Even the greatest golfer in the world will have rough stretches with the putter. So please, Tiger, let’s not do anything hasty!
On Tuesday, Nike officially announced the release of it new Method line of putters. There are five separated putters in the line, and the retail price will be $250. None of the head shapes are anything too exciting, but Nike is using a new putter-face technology that has been making news.
The grooves in the face of the Method putters are what Nike calls Polymer Groove Technology. A channel is cut in the sole of the club and behind the face. A soft polymer material is then forced into the channel and allowed to seep out of slots cut into the putter’s face (right). A portion of the polymer is then cut out, leaving a tiny gap between the soft material and the sharp stainless steel grooves.
“As the putter is coming up and through the ball, these tiny little knife edges of steel will actually dig into the ball, and the polymer will dampen the feel,” said Tom Stites, Nike’s director of product innovation.
When a golf ball is at rest on the green, it creates a small depression in the ground. Because of this depression, putters have a slight amount of loft (usually 2 degrees) to help get the ball out of the depression. Unfortunately, the loft also imparts backspin at the same time which causes the ball to tumble or skid after impact before it beings rolling.
“By taking the backspin off, the ball can just start to roll,” Stites said. “A putt that rolls more quickly and more true to the hole is more efficient, goes a little bit farther and stays on line much better.”
During research & development, Nike used high-speed video to show that Justin Leonard’s putts skidded an average of 3.6 inches after being struck with his old putter. With the Method putter, the ball only skidded 0.3 inches!
The Method putter will have limited public availability later this year, and will be fully released on February 1, 2010. It will be interesting to follow this putter on tour, to see if players’ putting stats improve at all. Maybe this technology advancement will force Tiger to switch to a Nike putter!