Gear: Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K putters
Price: $399.99
Specs: Stainless steel heads with tungsten weights and White Hot face insert.
Available: Feb. 4
Over the past five years, a growing number of professional and amateur golfers alike have switched into compact and mid-size mallets that feature some toe-hang, making them ideally suited for players who want the forgiveness of a mallet without sacrificing an arched putting stroke.
Some golfers, however, are not willing to change. The stability and forgiveness of a mallet are not enough to sway them from the classic looks of a heel-toe-weighted blade, so they stick with a blade putter.
Now, for golfers who insist on playing a classic-looking blade, Odyssey is offering the Tri-Hot 5K, putters that offer high moments of inertia for stability without sacrificing classic looks.
If the name Tri-Hot rings a bell, you are remembering a family of putters Odyssey featured in the early 2000s. Like those putters, the new Tri-Hot 5K putters utilize multiple materials to achieve performance attributes that would not be possible otherwise.
Odyssey Tri Hot putters have large tungsten inserts in the heel and toe that are covered by an aluminum back piece. (Odyssey)
With designers mandated to stay within specific shape parameters, Odyssey made the hitting area, hosel and topline of each new Tri-Hot 5K putter using stainless steel, then attached an exceptionally light aluminum back flange. Using aluminum allowed designers to reposition mass and add a pair of internal tungsten weights that combined for more than 120 grams. The Tri-Hot 5K putters also have a pair of 28-gram adjustable tungsten weights in the sole.
The result of using so much tungsten in a blade putter is mallet-like stability and moment of inertia in a club that looks like a classic blade.
While the Tri Hot One looks like a classic blade, it has mallet-level stability and MOI (Odyssey)
The added benefit of the Tri-Hot 5K design is the extreme perimeter weighting is complimented by the forward center of gravity. Odyssey said one of the shortcomings of high-MOI mallets is after taking the club back, many golfers struggle to rotate the face and square it at impact. Instead, they leave the face pointed slightly to the right because the center of gravity is so far back. The Tri-Hot 5K’s center of gravity is significantly more forward, so rotating the face and squaring it is easier, Odyssey said.
The Tri-Hot 5K family is comprised of five putters.
The Tri-Hot 5K One is a classic-looking heel-toe-weighted blade with rounded bumpers and a single white alignment line. The Two is like the One but has more angular back bumpers, a thinner topline and a longer blade length. Both the One and Two have plumber’s neck hosels.
Odyssey Tri Hot 5K Three putter (Odyssey)
The Tri-Hot 5K Three has a curved back flange with extra mass in the heel and toe. It also has a short, curved-flow neck hosel.
The Tri-Hot 5K Double Wide has the same shaping as the Two, but the back flange extends farther out. The Triple Wide is even wider still and features a double-bend shaft to create a face-balanced option for golfers who have a straight-back-straight-through putting stroke.
Odyssey Tri Hot 5K Triple Wide putter (Odyssey)
All five Tri-Hot 5K putters come standard with Odyssey’s steel-and-graphite Stroke Lab shaft.