I used to work with a guy named Ned. Ned's been retired for a while, just he had this down-dwelling, folksy manner of letting you know he'd been in that location and done that, specially if yous hadn't.

If you lot had it in you lot to shut up and listen, y'all could acquire something from Ned.

Golfing with Ned was a trip because I swear Ned was the inspiration for that "Putt It" video. Ned looked at chips, pitches and bump-and-run shots the mode a vegan looks at a Porterhouse – cloy laced with a little fright. No lie – I saw Ned putt from a good 35 yards off the light-green once. He didn't get upward and down, but he didn't skull his pitch over the green and into a trap, either.

Ned gamed a very sometime Wilson putter. It wasn't expensive when information technology was new, and Ned picked information technology up used for about 10 bucks. "I used to take a Scotty," he told me. "Couldn't putt worth a damn with it. This one's skilful plenty."

Good enough is an interesting concept when it comes to putters. What is skillful plenty and how much would you lot spend on information technology? If y'all're thinking effectually $100.00, yous may want to take a expect at Wilson Staff'south upgraded Infinite line. The changes from the previous line are almost entirely corrective (just badly needed), and the bottom line is an intriguing option for the budget-witting golfer.

Wilson Infinite Putter - 27

To Infinity And Beyond

I'm non certain if it tin be called a trend, merely you can find good quality, milled-face OEM putters at prices that would make ole Ned grin. Cleveland's Huntington Beach putters are some of MyGolfSpy's Most Wanted top performers and are priced to motion at $99.00. Cleveland's new TFi putters toll a bit more, only there's enough of applied science packed into a still modest price.

First introduced in 2015, Wilson Staff's $99.00 Infinite line was as bare bones and straightforward as you can go – substantially Wilson'south milled-face take on popular doodle designs. The unabridged line had an industrial, commonsensical wait and feel to it, with lots of steel gray and white. If a 19th Century German business firm frau played golf game, they were what she'd putt with. The Infinites featured skinny, middling and fat Anser-blazon blades, a couple of mid-mallets and three full mallets, including a center-shafted model Padraig Harrington used to win the Honda Archetype in 2015.

Wilson Infinite Putter - 5-1724

Over the past three years of Most Wanted Testing, Wilson'southward Infinites had, shall we say, meh to less-than-meh performance, but still finished alee of far pricier models from Scotty, TaylorMade, and Bettinardi. Regardless of functioning, nonetheless, a three-year product wheel might advise that putters remain a bit of an afterthought for Wilson. Nevertheless, the Infinites are getting a makeover.

First off, the Infinite line is a tad more than, uh, finite – whittled down by a couple of models to simply 3 blades and three mallets. A trademark of the Infinite line, each putter carries the name of a Chicago street, neighborhood or landmark.

For blade-lovers, y'all accept the skinny Lake Shore, the middling Windy City (both with Plumber'south Neck hosels) and the fat (for a blade) Michigan Ave. For mallets, there's the Grant Park (an Odyssey #9 clone), the heart-shafted (and Harrington-approved) South Side, and the large daddy called The Bean. The names and head shapes remain the same from the original Infinite line, but it appears the mid-mallet Lincoln Park and 41" full-mallet Midway models are being discontinued.

Wilson Infinite Putters - 30

The rest of the changes are, quite frankly, corrective.

A Little Touch Up, A Footling Pigment

Ned used to always call them equally he saw them, one time referring to a immature manager's bright new initiative as "a new dress on an erstwhile girl." The cynic out there could say the same affair near the new Space line – the updates are purely cosmetic. But requite Wilson credit, the old girls do look pretty abrupt in their new outfits.

The original Infinite line featured industrial-looking smoked-gray heads with an overly busy alignment help – three white lines separated past two blackness lines. The soles had chrome strips and a ton of branding,  and the whole thing looked slapped together. The new heads, however, practice get their sexy on.

Wilson Infinite Putter - 9-1750

They've been cleaned upward significantly, with a black PVD glare-reducing finish and the Wilson Staff shield added to the heel of each double-milled putter face. The alignment lines are cleaner – the contrasting blackness lines are gone, leaving only three white lines to frame the ball. The shield logo on the sole adds to the improved – and much classier – look.

The oversized grip looks better, too. It's the same grip as the previous models, merely the new black and white color scheme pops much better than the original battleship gray and white. At 104 grams, information technology'south a heavy grip, and it gives you lot a nice, counter-balanced experience for a smoother stroke. A new black head cover, with the Wilson Staff shield embroidered on top, rounds out the look.

Wilson Infinite Putter - 18-1780

It may be a new dress on an old daughter, but Wilson clearly went Yves Saint Laurent footling black dress, with a prissy Gucci bag on the side. Okay, perhaps the dress and bag are imitations, but it's an infinitely better await.

The new Infinites are available at retail and on Wilson's website beginning today, with all models priced at $99.00. The stock models are 34 and 35 inches, and the Bean and Windy Metropolis models are available in women's models (the merely difference appears to exist less red and more pulverisation blue). You won't exist able to custom order for length, loft or lie on Wilson'due south website, but Wilson says y'all tin special order a custom length through your retailer. Loft and prevarication adjustments will apparently need to be made at the retailer.

Wilson Infinite Putter Specs

Infinite Possibilities

Make no fault: unless in that location's something Wilson isn't telling us, these new Infinites are the aforementioned as the old Infinites, in a much nicer looking bundle. So now comes the hard question.

Despite the data MyGolfSpy regularly bombards you with, and despite proven groove technology in putters from PING, Evnroll, and others, enough of golfers yet insist on one fundamentally flawed assertion and 1 value judgment:

  • Looks/feel are the near of import criteria for selecting a doodle. Tech matters less, because yous accept to dearest the expect and feel.
  • "Tech" putters are also damned expensive.

Many golfers yet agree these to be cocky-evident truths, completely disregarding data that suggests otherwise. And many more than will say the doodle itself doesn't matter because putting success lies solely with the person holding the doodle, which substantially creates a circulator statement feeding the fundamentally flawed assertion listed above.

Wilson Infinite Putter - 16-1773

And then the difficult question is this: if looks and feel are really the nearly important criteria for selecting a putter, and if putting success has little to practise with the club and virtually everything to exercise with the golfer, and if tech putters (and boutique putters, for that thing) are too damned expensive….

Is a $99.00 Wilson, Cleveland or whatever putter good enough?

Wilson is giving you is dainty-feeling, milled-face, counter-balanced putter for under a hundred bucks. And while the Infinites may not accept the eye-candy entreatment of a Scotty or the milled sexiness of a Bettinardi, they're a hell of a lot improve looking than they used to be. And fifty-fifty though it's subjective, there is a bit of a experience difference between the Wilsons and, say, a Bettinardi, only $300 worth of divergence?

The sub-$100 milled putter motion (is it a movement? It feels like a movement) is challenging golfers to rethink preconceived notions on putters and on cost. OEMs like Wilson and Cleveland are giving you articulate alternatives. In Wilson's case, that alternative may exist a new dress on an old girl, merely the quondam girl does have a new appeal.

Then what say you lot, golfers? If good enough actually is adept enough, will you exist trying a $99.00 putter?