Most Famous Putters Part Three

Most Famous Putters Part Three

 

Number Two: Schenectady

Walter Travis, an American golfer in the early 1900s, was deadly with his putter. So deadly in fact that he mastered the tricky British Amateur greens and became the first American to win the British Amateur in 1904. His putter? The "Schenectady," named by inventor Arthur F. Knight after his hometown in upstate New York.

Having sinned against all of Britain by helping Travis hole putts from everywhere in 1904, the Royal & Ancient promptly banned the putter from all competitions – a ban which lasted until 1952. Though the official reason given was that the putter was considered a "mallet-headed type" similar to a center-shafted croquet mallet, the real reason was quite evident to all who witnessed or heard of Travis' performance that year.

Travis' actual Schenectady putter may have been lost to the sands (or greens) of time: its exact whereabouts are unknown at this time.

 

Number One: Odyssey Dual Force Rossie 2

Nick Faldo seems a rather unassuming fellow, and hardly one associated with putting. Though he "putted for dough" quite frequently, winning six majors, it was his superb accuracy and calm under pressure that set him apart.

One of Faldo's six majors occurred in the 1996 Masters, the year of Greg Norman's historic collapse. Faldo's putter that week was the unassuming Odyssey Dual Force Rossie 2, a mallet-shaped putter with an S-bend shaft. Both of those features were (and remain) fairly common, but the Rossie was the first putter with an insert. We see inserts in putters today, including just about every Odyssey putter (including the White Hot 2-Balls).

The insert and Faldo's win caused such a stir that golf shops couldn't keep up with orders for months to come. Players at the Senior PGA Championship a week after the Masters in 1996 had to buy their own Rossies from the pro shop because the Odyssey rep ran out of putters. Odyssey was later purchased by Callaway for a tidy $130M.

Recommended Odyssey Putters:

Odyssey White Ice 2Ball Putter

Odyssey White Ice #1 Putter

Odyssey White Ice Mini T Putter Odyssey White Hot Tour #1 Putter