The Green Fee Once again its launch szn and this week some more Odyssey putters launched on tour. A few weeks ago we got new Toulon putters but this week Odyssey h as released their “new” Tri Hot putter. Just like last year Odyssey is recycling names and technology to get you to buy a new putter.
WTF is Tri Hot?
The original Tri-Hot debuted almost 20 years ago. It featured a heavy tungsten weight in the back to help…launch the ball? In all reality they were trying to increase MOI and the market (consumers) hadnt accepted a mallet shape as acceptable. The reason for the name Tri-Hot was because of the 3 (tri) layers it featured. The First was the super popular White Hot insert. The second layer was a Milled Carbon piece and then it was attached with a Tungsten Layer in the back. Since we only have pictures posted by Golfwrx to go by it does appear this has a tungsten area, a white hot insert and a metal chassis. Lets dig even deeper into the design of the putter
Weight Forward
When I wrote about the Taylormade FCG putter I blasted Taylormade for taking this tech from Cleveland like they created it. Odyssey is doing the same thing this year. For 15 years all we heard was that to increase MOI we had to get the weight further away. Cleveland said “Hold up wait a minute, somethin aint right.” and changed the whole game with the Frontline series. They went all in on the idea that MOI didn’t matter. It was an awesome putter and if you can get your hands on one I recommend it.
It seems it took a few years but Odyssey is jumping on board as well. The original Tri Hot had the tungsten in the back to increase MOI, it appears that the new Tri-Hot has the Tungsten up front. This should help get the ball rolling faster and provide more forgiveness. Weight forward is an interesting concept and ill readily admit it is interesting that Odyssey has moved this way. Taylormade has always taken risks so that was no surprise. Cleveland just needed to do SOMETHING different. Scotty will hop on in about 3 or 4 years like he usually does. Odyssey is usually conventional but will throw out a quirky head shape or insert type. To fundamentally change weight placement etc. is a big jump for them I think
Final Thoughts
I have to be honest. I think of the pictures that appeared today the Double Wide is pretty good looking. That being said this is a very disappointing release from Odyssey. Earlier this year they recycled a club release from 20 years ago and here we are again doing it again one year later. If Sean Toulon has run out of ideas or the R&D team are lost it may be time to change some stuff around. Let me guess in 2022 we are going to get a new DFX? OH WAIT THEY CANT BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALREADY RELEASED THAT SHIT AT BIG BOX STORES! All they have done is re-release old product lines with better milling. Then the new ‘tech” they have added to these putters is stolen R&D from Cleveland. The worst part is the original Toulon Design had some innovation and unique headshapes. The Indy was a unique shape and had unique tech. The Seattle was a kind cool headshape. The milling on the face had unique grooves to help channel noise to certain places. Now all the innovation taking place is making the milling look nicer on old tech.
All in all a very disappointing release. I wont rule it out completley before seeing it and hitting some putts with it but I am aggravted that it is being made. Callaway is the number one brand in golf and Odyssey is the number one brand in putters. Its time to act like it. Ill see you next year for Odysseys release of this magical new putter called the White Steel.
