Coming Soon: Nike Method Origin Putters

While photos of Nike’s new Method Origin putters have only recently worked their way into circulation, versions of the putter have been available to Nike staffers since last fall. To date, between Rory McIlroy and Charl Schwartzel, the Origin putter has played a role in four international wins.

Beginning in April, you’ll be able to put one in your bag too.

Technical Details

The Method Origin leverages a 3-piece construction consisting of the face, the large back piece (which Nike calls secondary mass), and a layer of Nike’s RZN material compressed between two.

According to Nike, the RZN layer is activated on off-center hits, and is actually designed to slow down the center of the face (i.e. decrease ball speed). While that likely sounds counter-intuitive, Nike isn’t the first to realize that, unlike a driver, there’s no functional need to maximize the peak ball speed generated by your putter.

By progressively decreasing responsiveness (i.e. speed) as impact moves away from the edges and closer to the center of the face, one effectively increases relative speeds towards the perimeter. The result is more consistent performance (again…speed) across the entire putter face.

Put really simply, if you slow down the center, it’s easier for the edges to keep up.

What Nike is trying to do with RZN is similar to what PING accomplished with the variable depth TR grooves found on, among other models, the Ketsch. Sufficed to say that the concept appears to have some merit.

…and speaking of grooves

After what reads like a fairly extensive amount of feedback from Rory McIlroy, Nike’s engineers tweaked the design of Origin’s polymetal grooves. The actual groove count has been doubled (compared to previous Method putters) and the length has been extended to cover the full heel to toe width of the putter.

According to Nike, this results in a face that, in addition to offering improved consistency, has an increased coefficient of friction that promotes an earlier forward roll while offering softer feel at impact.

Nike’s Method series putters have generally tested very well for us. If there’s a consistent knock it has been the feel, which we’d describe as a bit more clicky than many of us would like. It should go without saying that we’d welcome improved consistency with better feel.

While McIlroy’s recent run of less-than-stellar putting has been topic of much discussion, perhaps the 59-footer he drained on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational can be taken as a sign of better things to come.

For his part in this story, Schwartzel has seen his average putts per round drop by 1.3 strokes. More meaningful still, his Strokes Gained Putting average has improved from -.561 to +.227, while his Strokes Gained Putting ranking has climbed significantly from 169th to 62nd.

Availability and Pricing

The Nike Method Origin will be available in two models. The B1 has a sharper, linear style, while the B2 (the McIlroy version) has softer, more flowing lines.

Head weights are 345g in 32″ and 33″ lengths and 353g in 34″ and 35″ lengths. The CounterFlex model weighs 370g.

Availability begins April 22nd at Nike.com and other select retailers.

Retail price is $349.99 for standard models and $419.99 with CounterFlex weighting.