Most overrated and underrated putter brands

[ephmen]

I thought this would be interesting to hear your opinions. Let it fly.

[AmateurAmateur]

Overrated: Everything, not a single major OEM has a putter out there that is worthy of its MSRP. 

 

[vandyfan]

Overrated: Most Scotty Camerons, especially the anser clones
Properly Rated: LAB Putters
Underrated: Axis1

[Meanbeav77]

IMO

Overrated: Scotty Camerons
Underrated: SeeMore & Cleveland

[mjf34g]

Overrated - Scotty by a mile. The retail line is just another SS computer milled head that almost ANY manufacture can duplicate.  His success is born of his Tour presence which holds no comparison to the retail stuff.  He maybe though the BEST at marketing his "genius" to the masses who somehow believe there's magic in them there wands. LOL. 

 

Underrated - Mizunos M Craft 

 

[jrdubbb]

Overrated: Ping (don't shoot the messenger)

 

Underrated: Cleveland & Mizuno

[Puttersaurus Rex]

Overrated - Any unfitted putter that costs over $200

[bhard315]

Overrated: Scotty and Odyssey

Underrated: Yes and Cleveland

[KansasHacker]

Overrated: LAB 

 

Underrated: Cobra with Sik/LAGolf face 

[ephmen]

Overrated: Scotty

Underrated: Cleveland, would have said Betti several years ago but not anymore

[driveandputtmachine]

I started typing and mine turned into an over priced vs under priced so I saved it.

 

Making putts is key to scoring and putting is SUPER person dependant. If you make putts with it, then it is not overrated. 

[southpaw72]

Isn’t it almost warm enough for most of the country to be out playing and not making these posts?

[mat562]

Overrated: Scotty Cameron. A master of marketing, certainly, and of making people lust after a Ping Anser copy and pay wildly over the odds for it.

 

The early ones are good putters. I own several, and they are undoubtedly quality bits of kit. The whole headcover nonsense, stamping craze and silly little cognoscenti touches that supposedly quadruple the value though? I'm out.

 

Underrated: old Ping putters. 'They're not GSS,' 'they don't feel as good with the new balls,' 'there's no face milling,' 'they're not 350 gram headweights...'

 

Watch Seve, Ollie or whomever putting the lights out with an Anser, a Zing or a Pal back in the day. If you can't shoot 65 around Royal Lytham or beat Jack Nicklaus around Pebble Beach, it's you, not the old putter.

[Puttersaurus Rex]

11 minutes ago, southpaw72 said:

Isn’t it almost warm enough for most of the country to be out playing and not making these posts?

Key word: almost

[btyh]

Overrated: current cameron. And the ones hating scotty because he makes "ping clones" and they go to another "boutique" brand that also makes "ping clones" who are also Overrated. 

 

Underrated:  tp mills 

[MattM97]

Overrated: Everything you don't like the look or price tag.

 

Underrated: Everything you like the look of or price tag.

 

[Long_Left]

Overrated: Any milled SS blade style putter. They are all the same club, $200-$2000 they do the same exact thing. And for $100 you can get a cast version that also does the same exact thing. 

 

Underrated: This is a stretch, because they are so commonly seen, but the TM Spiders are genuinely great putters for me. I used a SC Newport 2.5 for over 20 years until my back wouldn't tolerate a 33" putter anymore, bought an Evnroll ER2, my mistake I only went to 34", used it for 2 seasons, last two years have been in a 35" Spider (23 GTx and now a 24 Tour X) and it's been a big success. I'd imagine I could put a 35" shaft in the SC or Evnroll and have similar results, but the cost of that is similar to a new putter, and I like new putters...

[T-MAC]

Putters are so personal.  Everyone's "feel" preferences are different and so are everyone's ideas on "value" and "quality".

Off the top of my head, here are the putters that I personally see as "overrated".
This could be because I think they feel like crap, pushing a "technology" that I don't think works (for ME), or are overpriced (in MY opinion) for what you are getting (or a combination of all 3) :

LAB
EvnRoll
Lamb
Current Scotty Cameron's (love his older stuff).

Here is MY list of underrated putters :

SeeMore (especially milled line)
Wilson (milled)
Cleveland
TP Mills
Never Compromise

 

[scott406]

Overrated: Scotty Cameron  ( but would still buy a Phantom 7)

 

Underrated: PXG ( because I game one)

[btyh]

35 minutes ago, MattM97 said:

Overrated: Everything you don't like the look or price tag.

 

Underrated: Everything you like the look of or price tag.

 

You pretty muched nailed it. 

[MattM97]

3 minutes ago, btyh said:

You pretty muched nailed it. 

 

That's literally what each of these threads basically are anyways. The brands people like they sucks in their eyes and what they like is the best thing ever, sad cause they probably miss out on some good gear for their biases. 

[ephmen]

1 minute ago, MattM97 said:

 

That's literally what each of these threads basically are anyways. The brands people like they sucks in their eyes and what they like is the best thing ever, sad cause they probably miss out on some good gear for their biases. 

nobody made anyone click on it. They should move along if not interested. 

[jlevitt9]

Overrated: Scotty Tour Putters. This is coming from a guy who collected Cameron stuff for 12+ years and owned some.

 

Spoiler alert, Scotty doesn't stamp them, they're stamped by some dude being paid $20-$25 an hour then sold for $4,000+

[gsteitz]

I always seem to roll the Tommy Armour options so well in the store, great feel.

Edited March 19, 2024 by gsteitz

[dmecca2]

Overrated: My current gamer

Underrated: All of the putters on my ebay watchlist.

[StoutKing]

Underrated - PING PLD custom program, new Toulons

 

Overrated - Cameron OTR.  They hold decent value though

[cgasucks]

Overrated - Scotty Camerons, Toulon 

When some of their headcovers and stand bags cost more than their own retail putters you know they're overrated.  Toulon is also super overpriced as well, especially for their recent line of Small Batch putters.

 

Underrated - Cant think of any.  A putter is only as the person who is using it.

Edited March 19, 2024 by cgasucks

[dfeldss]

2 hours ago, mat562 said:

Overrated: Scotty Cameron. A master of marketing, certainly, and of making people lust after a Ping Anser copy and pay wildly over the odds for it.

 

 

Not coming at you specifically, but this take always confuses me. The bolded part is true of every single company that makes putters.

 

Does the name hold more value than it should? Maybe to the masses, but the golf nuts (AKA WRXers) all know the deal. A scotty is no better than a Ping, Ping no better than a Betti etc etc. Besides LAB they're all roughly the same shape too

[btyh]

23 minutes ago, dfeldss said:

 

Not coming at you specifically, but this take always confuses me. The bolded part is true of every single company that makes putters.

 

Does the name hold more value than it should? Maybe to the masses, but the golf nuts (AKA WRXers) all know the deal. A scotty is no better than a Ping, Ping no better than a Betti etc etc. Besides LAB they're all roughly the same shape too

There's a good group of people that come after scotty because he "copied" ping. But every other brand is immune to "copying" ping. Never understood it. 

 

But to the debate about cameron and is success and prices. He remains Supreme because of the tour players using his putters. And also the only brand that will custom make you a one off putter. Or just custom stamp a blank putter. No one has come close to compete with him on tour like that. (I want to say tpmills did have a few on tour in the 90s) but that was before my equipment craze. 

[PJE]

Well all putters do the same thing so I suppose “overrated” and “underrated” is a function of value or price. I think that has already been pointed out.
But, by that metric all of the retail milled putters at $400 + ( Camerons, Bettis, PLDs) are overrated; underrated would be the same design by other OEMs (Mizuno, Cleveland, Wilson).  

Scotty Cameron became the Rolex of the milled market via the prowess of Tiger Woods and aggressive Tour based marketing by Acushnet. There’s nothing special about a Newport 2; it’s an Anser variant.  If Karsten Solheim would’ve had the foresight to mill a putter and get it into Woods’ hands, then the “Art of Putting” and all the Cameron cachet would’ve been non existent. 
Overrated is in the eye of the beholder.