Is the Milled Putter Going Extinct?

By Dave Wolfe

About a week or so ago, I put together a little piece about the first putter from the new company, Bellum Winmore, writing about how I thought that entering the milled putter market was risky. One of the byproducts of that article was that it started a discussion here at MyGolfSpy HQ about the future of milled putters in general. To put it simply (queue the ominous music),

 

Are we witnessing the decline and fall of the milled putter?

 

It’s tough to deny that we are in a period of decline. Are 100% milled putters still available? Of course they are. However, what was once a staple of putter corrals everywhere, is now becoming harder and harder to find. It we extrapolate out the trend, it’s not a huge leap to a day when the milled putter is no longer present.

Could we really see a milled-free market in the future? Maybe, but first let’s take a look at the current realities of the milled putter landscape.

 

Evidence of Extinction

Large companies have dropped milled lines.

Take a look at the big players in the market first. I can’t begin to imagine the planning and piloting it takes for a big golf company develop and launch new gear from season to season. In my simplistic view, it seems like products that sell, persist, and those that don’t go away. Obviously, it’s more complicated than that, but no one can afford to keep throwing money into sinking product lines. Companies cut the chaff, especially in the tight times, and it’s been very tight for everyone recently.

Bottom line, milled putter lines have slowly disappeared from major product lines.

Evidence you say? OK, how about we start with the biggest golf player, TaylorMade?

Many putter aficionados (and non-aficionados for that fact) believed that that TaylorMade’s TP (what they’d now call Tour Preferred) by Kia Mia line of milled putters was one of the nicest in any big OEM lineup. They were 100% milled, insert-free, and despite the fact that Kia Ma remains on the TaylorMade payroll, are now totally absent from the TaylorMade catalog. Actually, if you check out the TaylorMade site, you will not find one milled putter.

What about Never Compromise?

Just a couple of seasons ago, Never Compromise offered the Gambler, Dinero, and Connoisseur lines of 100% milled putters. I vividly remember how cool it was that you could goof around with the paint scheme on the putters to make them more custom. Are they still for sale? I don’t know. The website is still working, and it looks like you can still order one, but good luck finding one in your local pro shop. LOTS of fanfare about these putters, and then silence. As quickly as they came, the went. It would appear that Never Compromise, and maybe Cleveland Golf, are out of the milled putter business as well.

What about the Cleveland Classic you ask? Isn’t that a milled putter by Cleveland?

Well…no…not really. The Classic series is actually cast first, and then the faces are milled. That’s what they have “FACE MILLED” stamped into their faces. I’m not saying that they are not sound putters, but they are not 100% milled. I believe the last fully milled line under the Cleveland name was the VP Milled line, and they were excellent putters. My first expensive, milled putter was a VP Milled #2, and it was a joy to roll.

Those are just two examples. I’m willing to bet that you could find a few more to add to that list. The simple fact is that companies that once offered great milled putter lines are not making them any more. Keep in mind, these guys weren’t making poor product, the market simple shifted in a  different direction. 100% milled putters are not fiscally viable (at least not for the big guys).

Smaller milled putter companies are downsizing or disappearing as well. As recently as a few years ago you could order a custom milled putter from a fairly large number of small shops.

Where did they go?

I don’t know all of the stories, but many of those shops are just are not around any more. Was the product inferior? Of course not!

The only person who asks that question is the person who has never had a custom putter made for them by a small shop. It’s a different putter experience. Small shops can add customizations to the milled head that large shops reserve for tour players. Fully milled putters, to your specs, could be obtained from dozens of small shops. Not any more.

Why Has this Happened?

Expensive for the Company

I don’t make putters for a living; I only covet them. That being said, it’s fairly obvious even to the non-putter crafter that milling putters is a more expensive undertaking. Forgings are expensive, much more so than castings. Do I know what the numbers are? No, I’m basing this assumption on the forged vs. cast iron set math. Forged, then milled irons are more expensive than cast irons. So too then should forged, then milled putters be more expensive than cast putters. If you can decrease your production costs by going with a cheaper to make product, especially if the consumer isn’t interested in the higher-end product in any significant numbers, why not go the less expensive route? Low costs coupled with more demand is a recipe for higher profits.

Expensive for the Consumer

OK get ready for some more Daveconomics™. A $300 milled putter is more expensive to buy than a $150 cast, or polymer putter. Woah…I just blew your mind, didn’t I?

Money is tight these days, and the cost vs. benefit analysis of the milled purchase suggests going high-end doesn’t make fiscal sense for the majority of golf consumers. Granted, some are still buying them . Visit the Table Rock booth at the PGA show and you’ll see an abundance of milled putters moving off the shelves for ridiculous prices, but that is the exception not the rule. If there truly was widespread demand for milled products, you’d absolutely find more players in the market.

I mentioned in the Bellum Winmore review that the putter market is especially tough because most people stick with putters for a while. That “a while” gets longer when income is less disposable. Many people who paid the premium for a milled putter a few years ago are going to stick with that one for another season or two rather than shell out another $300. If you are wearing out your putters every season like your wedges, you probably really need a putting lesson.

A putter typically doesn’t need to be replaced, unless you have emptied all of the birdies out of it.

Milled is not Magic

This one hurts me to even consider, but could it be that inserts make for better performing putters? I don’t have tour stats memorized (and you’re a big boy, you know how to use Google), but I believe that Odyssey is still the most winning brand on the pro tours. While there are some milled offerings in the Odyssey stable, their big winner last year was the Versa line, featuring the much-loved White Hot Pro insert. Proponents of the milled putter believe that the precise machining of the head allows the craftsman to create a geometry and face that puts the best roll on the ball. It’s a nice story, but what if an insert is just better?

Titleist ran (is still running?) ProV1 ads talking about their ball being the #1 ball on tour. Why don’t they run the same ads for Cameron putters?

I am a genuine fan of Scotty Cameron putters. The milled Futura X was a true 2013 stand out. Adam Scott putted lights out with the long version of the Futura X, but the reality is that Odyssey’s inserts still won more tournaments.

Phil Mickelson, the king of club tinkerers, won The Open Championship with the Versa. Justin Rose, hardly the tour’s best putter, won the US Open with TaylorMade’s SpiderBlade. That has an insert as well.

What we are seeing in the consumer market reflects what’s happening on tour. Pros are winning with cast insert putters, and consumers are buying them in bulk. I think they call that the pyramid of influence.

 

Evidence of Milled Survival

Golf Marketing Cycles

For the sake of calming down my alarmism, what if what we are seeing is just a dip in the natural market cycle rather than a plunge toward milled extinction?

In all fairness, I swiped the gist of that idea from one of the comments on the MyGolfSpy Facebook page. Honesty aside, I think it raises a truism about the golf market: it’s beholden to trends . We see things get hot, and then cool off. It happens all the time. Have we seen the last square driver? I bet one will surface again at some point.

Something will be the new hot thing in the future. That thing could be a return to milling.

Small Shops are Still Making Milled Putters

I believe what we are seeing is a shrinking of the milled putter market as opposed to its demise. Smaller companies like Bettinardi, Byron Morgan, Edel, Machine, Nead, and other will continue to produce high quality, limited run milled putters for the golfers who want them. There will always be some level of milled demand. Hopefully it’s enough to keep these companies and others in business. New companies, like Bellum Winmore and Low Tide, will take their shots at the market too; perhaps carving enough out of the diminished pie to keep their dreams alive while still making their mortgage payments.

 

Big Companies are Still Making Milled Putters

It may actually prove to be the big companies that keep the milled putter alive. While Odyssey does focus a great deal on their insert lines, like the Versa, their milled lines persist. The 2014 Metal X Milled line is all milled, as are is the ProType series. That’s something, but even with a significant number of new Metal X Milled models in the offering, insert Odysseys outnumber milled ones by at least two to one.

 

Scotty Cameron Makes Milled Putters

Have you asked your screen “What about Scotty Cameron?” yet? I’m not ignoring Mr. Cameron’s creations one bit. I think that in many ways Cameron putters are both the savior and the potential nemesis of the current milled market.

Scotty Cameron is the name in milled putters for the golf masses. Why would you spend $300+ for a putter that doesn’t have Cameron’s name on it?

Calm down small putter shop lovers. I’m coming from the land of regular golf shopper. I know that a golfer can get a Byron Morgan, Bettinardi, or a Machine putter for around $300, but the average consumer doesn’t likely know those names.

Some of those guys may not even know Scotty Cameron’s name, but they know Titleist. Titleist has brilliantly marketed themselves as “the best” in the market. People like to buy “the best”, and many will pay to get “the best”.

If you like milled putters, Titleist being “the best” is a good thing. It’s a HUGE GOOD THING actually. Cameron/Titleist putter sales perpetuate the perception of 100% milled putters being the best you can buy. Knowing that 100% milled is the best will drive people to ask “Who else makes 100% milled putters?”

That simple question makes the market bigger. Titleist and Cameron putter sales will keep the milled putter market going, assuming they don’t destroy it first.

What’s the danger?

Cameron putters set the price point. I was not pleased (and you probably weren’t either) when the price of a Cameron putter jumped from $299 to $349. $349 really turns me off, and I love many of Scotty’s putters.

I can almost see an impulse $299 purchase, but at $349, I say no. I assume that operating costs at the Cameron/Titleist shop went up, and that Titleist had to pass these costs along to the consumer to maintain profit margins. Maybe $349 is still a viable price for a milled putter, but the next bump…$399, or even $449; that could be fatal.

There is a point where even the most die hard Scotty fanboy will say “that’s too expensive”. That’s not a good thing for the milled market  overall .

As I said, the milled putter will carry on in the market. Titleist and Odyssey, along with the small shops will keep them alive. However, I reserve the right to change my mind should we ever see a new line of Scotty Cameron putters featuring plastic inserts.

That, my milled loving friends, would be horseman number four.

 

Will the Milled Putter Make it?

What do you think?

Am I way off the mark here? Is the milled putter alive and well and I’m just seeing things?

If so, what do you think the putter market will look like in 5 years? In 10 years?

The only constant in golf equipment is change. For all we know, some new technology, like 3D printing, could emerge and change the putter market completely? How can any putter, especially an expensive milled one, compete against a putter that is printed to spec right in the pro shop? Maybe I’m just being overly concerned, and seeing the sky falling, but I for one would miss the milled.