The Odyssey Toulon Design family of putters, the premium collection of classic milled designs that features modern technological elements in the face and shaft, adds two new models for 2020.
Even better, that lineup is part of the company’s Odyssey Fits interactive putting analysis tool that matches your stroke to a particular model in as few as five putts.
For 2020, the Toulon Design range adds a wider blade with the Chicago and a larger, open-frame mallet with the Seattle.
Each incorporates the technologies that have been at the heart of Toulon putters from their beginnings five years ago. The diamond milling face pattern creates tiny channels designed to control face vibration for a crisp sound and feel, while within each cross-hatch on the face a small groove is designed to enhance forward roll. There’s also custom weighting in the head through three sole weights (20-gram standard, with 7-gram and 40-gram options).
Last year, the line added the Odyssey Stroke Lab shaft. That graphite-steel combo helps reposition 40 grams in the head and butt end of the shaft for a higher balance point designed to produce a more consistent tempo to your stroke.
But for all those innovative elements, Sean Toulon, designer and general manager at Odyssey and senior Vice President at Callaway, believes what remains the focus for the line that bears his name is the precision manufacturing behind these milled putters. Once being churned out piecemeal by barely a handful of CNC milling machines, he said there are now over 50 working on the Toulon Design line alone.
“We knew we could make beautiful putters,” he said, alluding to the challenge of finding a high-quality manufacturing partner for this premium lineup. “Where we felt like we could make a step change was to bring real performance and real innovation and breakthrough technology that golfers could realize, and I think that’s what happened. More important to me is the level of quality that we’ve insisted upon and they’ve delivered. Not only do they fully understand it, they’re fully capable of doing it.
“We were only after one thing: To make the best milled putters in the world.”
Of course, just making a classic, technologically robust milled putter is half the battle. Getting the right one for each player might be the more impressive part of the equation. That’s why the company developed the Odyssey Fits system to bring instant putting analysis to the fitting process. Developed in conjunction with Hole More Putts, the tablet-sized device uses infra-red sensors to measures three performance attributes of your stroke via 6,600 readings per second: face angle at impact, strike point and putter face rotation.
Those criteria are used to create a HMP Index score that essentially assesses how well a putter is performing in your hands on a 100-point scale. The higher the number, the more a particular putter is achieving a square face with a consistently centered strike. Also, of course, the higher the number, the better the putter fits your stroke. The system matches putters across the entire Odyssey line-up, including the new Stroke Lab Black and Triple Track in addition to Toulon Design putters. The Odyssey Fits system is in place at more than 400 facilities in the U.S.
“Incredibly accurate and very simple, a tool that any level of fitter, novice or the best instructors in the world can use,” Toulon said.
The Odyssey Toulon Design collection now features three blades, including the Austin, San Diego and the new Chicago; and four mallets, including the Atlanta (with a new flow-neck hosel), Las Vegas, Memphis and the new Seattle. The new models will be in stores Feb. 27 ($450).