Wishon Smooth Series 6 Putter
The Wishon Smooth 6 Series putter review came about after a review we did on another component companies product “ULTIMATE REVIEW! – Dynacraft Prophet Tour Iron (HIREKO GOLF)”. Up to this point on MGS we had not covered any components…although we think that there are many components that offer a good product at a good price…so we thought it would be a good idea to review all types of clubs to help you make the best decision possible when purchasing new clubs. And honestly we were a little shocked at how many emails we got thanking us for putting a spotlight on this type of product. So we decided to do some more component testing and reviews for you guys.
The Wishon Smooth Series 6 putter at first glance might not look like anything special or much different from whats on the market when it comes to mallet putters. Although Tom Wishon who has long been one of the most well respected leaders when it comes to not only custom fitting golf clubs but golf club design as well. And as usual Tom had a few tricks up his sleeve with this particular design that might get overlooked by most golfers. And to be honest when we first tried the putter out we knew it felt good but we wanted to know what made it special as well. So we decided to pick Tom’s brain about it, because no one better to ask then the man that designed the club himself. And often times looks can be deceiving…there are often many hidden components to what makes a putter successful in regards to the actual design itself. And before I get to Tom’s words below I will say that this is one of the most balanced putters throughout the stroke you are going to find.
From Tom Wishon Himself (On The Smooth Series Putters)
The origin of the Smooth Series mallet style putters came from a combination of some R&D we were doing at the time related to putter face and ball impact behavior as well as my design desire to create a series of high MOI putter heads which could be customized for a very wide range of headweight requirements for golfers.
R&D wise, we had been doing some high speed camera work with an outside engineering firm to observe the action of the ball when it was stuck by the face of a putter. We observed that for putts struck with a “mistake stroke”, meaning when the golfer makes a little mistake and the stroke path is outside in or inside out, we could see that the higher the friction between the face and the ball at impact, the more the putt was pushed or pulled off line. This told us that if you make the face of the putter from a face insert material that is softer than the metal alloy from which the putter is formed or if you make the face with any type of grooves, both will increase the friction between the face and the ball, and the result can be seeing the ball move more off line when the golfer makes a mistake in their stroke path.
The Reason For The Smooth Face
From this we decided that if the striking face of the putter were made to be very smooth, we could lower this friction between the face and ball at impact. For the poor path strokes that a golfer would make that would hit the ball at the right or left lip of the hole, with less friction between the face and ball a few more of these putts could possibly drop in the hole rather than be pushed or pulled the tiny bit more off line from a higher friction face to end up being missed putts. So we created a center area on the face of the Smooth Series putters which was very finely CNC machined to be flat and then highly polished with an CNC polishing operation to keep the face flat but to be as smooth and friction free as possible. Hence the name of the putters, SMOOTH Series.
I chose to forge and then surface CNC machine the bodies of the Smooth Series mallet putters from 6061 aluminum alloy. I chose 6061 because it is a higher quality grade of aluminum and thus will not develop surface irregularities when you machine it. This is what allows the face striking area of the putters to be able to be polished so smooth, yet still offer a soft feel at impact from the softer characteristics of an aluminum alloy.
Multiple Headweight Options
For the aspect of allowing the putter to offer a very wide range of headweight fitting options to golfers, we created a large diameter weight chamber on the very back sole surface of the heads. The weight chamber on the rear sole of the Smooth Series putters will hold up to a total of five, 14 gram tungsten weight disks. This allows the putters to be offered to golfers in a weight range from a low of 335 grams up to 405 grams and in between as desired for the fitting feel of the golfer for the best headweight feel that allows them to be more consistent in their stroke.
Not Just An Alignment Aid
Finally, the tungsten rods embedded in the top of the two different Smoooth Series models both raises the center of gravity of the putter heads to enhance better forward roll of the putt, but they also afford an option between the two models for a different look for an alignment aid.
They are available in two models, Smoooth Series 6 and 7. Both versions are available in heel shaft entry or center shaft entry for golfers who wish to correspond the shaft position to a straight back or inside to inside type of putting stroke. The center shaft version of the Smooth 6 and 7 are RH only but the heel entry shaft versions are available in RH and LH as well.
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Robert Gallagher
10 years ago
I have Toms 919 driver, 929 fairway woods, 560 irons, micro groove sand wedges and his utility woods all fit to my specs and all purchased without ever hitting a shot. I will purchase a smooth series 6 putter due to my total satisfaction with all his designs.
Thank you for your reviews but for me Tom hits the bulls eye on every design so why not his putters as well?