Wilson Staff Buckingham Putter: A Familiar Bargain

Wilson Staff Buckingham Putter – Key Takeaways:

• The new Wilson Staff Buckingham copped Best Value in yesterday’s MGS Most Wanted Mallet testing.
• The Buckingham is a Spider clone: high MOI with a counter-balanced grip.
• It sells for $99. Presale is underway now and it will hit retail April 6.

Before you start, yes, the new Wilson Staff Buckingham putter is pretty much a copy of the TaylorMade Spider. But there are two things to consider.

First, pretty much every serious and even not-so-serious putter maker has their own version of the Spider. Clearly, there’s enough wiggle room patent-wise to allow anyone with the wherewithal to make the shape to go ahead and make the shape.

Second, and we can’t stress this one enough, is this: Yeah, it’s a copy. So what?

This $99 gem finished fifth overall in MyGolfSpy’s 2021 Most Wanted Mallet Putter testing and easily cruised to the Best Value title. So, do you want to sink more putts per dollar or do you want originality?

Wilson Buckingham Putter: The Bargain Brigade

It’s a great time to be a golfer on a budget, isn’t it? The direct-to-consumer pipeline is the best combination of value and performance this side of Costco. And companies such as Wilson Staff, Tommy Armour, Cleveland and even Costco can get you into a new, high-performing putter at a relative bargain price.

Wilson’s Infinite line has been dancing that dance since 2015. The first-edition putters, while inexpensive, were meh performers in Most Wanted testing. What’s more, the original line featured overly busy alignment aids and a dull gray PVD finish that made the putter look, well, cheap.

The 2018 Infinite update was substantial. Wilson upgraded to a black PVD finish, eased up on the alignment aids (below the radar, but a very key improvement), provided much nicer-looking grips and headcovers and improved the overall appearance. Wilson has dumped some models and added few new ones since 2018. The West Loop (blade) and The “L” (mallet) both copped Best Value in MyGolfSpy’s 2020 Most Wanted testing, with The “L” finishing second overall in strokes gained.

The new Buckingham is a worthy addition to the line, especially considering its fifth overall finish yesterday, continuing Wilson’s run as Best Value putter.

Not bad for $99.

Love and Marriage…

Wilson digs deep into its Chicago roots with the Infinite line. Each Infinite putter is named after a Windy City neighborhood, attraction or landmark. “Buckingham” refers to Chicago’s famous Buckingham Fountain, one of the most photographed fountains in the world. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “Married, With Children,” you’ve seen the Buckingham Fountain.

As we said earlier, the Buckingham head shape is a painfully obvious Spider clone. The high-MOI design can be traced back to Sean Toulon’s days at TaylorMade and the square-ish shape pushes weight both out and back for greater stability. Currently, TaylorMade has more than a dozen Spider offshoots in its stable. And everyone from Odyssey, Scotty Cameron and Evnroll to PING, PXG and even Tour Edge offer variations on the Spider theme.

Wilson’s Infinite line uses a 104-gram grip to provide counterweighting. That pushes the balance point closer to your hands. So, the combination of Buckingham’s heavy head (> 360 grams), its high-MOI weighting and the counterbalanced grip give you a putter that can help deliver a smoother, more stable stroke.

Revolutionary? No. Groundbreaking technology? No.

But not bad for $99.

Circulus in Probando

So, yes – the Buckingham is a Spider copy. But the key question remains.

So what?

Or, if you prefer, who cares?

So, it’s a copy. Sure, the original gets points for being the original but performance and value also count. And a $99 putter on the same medal stand as $220 to $400 putters is, at the very least, an attention-getter.

Putters and putting are often imprisoned in the same trap of flawed circular logic: If you’re a good putter, then you can put with anything. Its corollary is if you can putt with anything, then you’re a good putter. If that were the case, why do even reasonably accomplished golfers have their go-to putter shape? Why, during a putter fitting, do length, loft and lie make such a big difference? And why, if good putters can putt with anything, do many of us adhere to the “It’s personal, and I gotta love the looks and feel” concept?

Then there’s the whole “you can read a green or you can’t” tautology. Sure, being able to read a green is a critical element of putting but you still need to put the ball in motion. For that, you need a putter – preferably one you can square up consistently and stroke smoothly. Again, any good putter fitting shows loft, length, lie, weighting, grip and head shape can either help you or hurt you.

Wilson, Tommy Armour and others are proving a well-performing putter doesn’t have to cost an arm, a leg and a body part to be named later.

Wilson Staff Buckingham – Price and Availability

In case you missed it, the new Wilson Staff Buckingham, like the rest of the Wilson Infinite putter line, is $99.

The Buckingham will be available in 34- and 35-inch models for righties, and in 35 inches only for lefties. A 33-inch women’s model is available for both lefties and righties. The standard loft is three degrees while the standard lie is 71 degrees.

The Wilson Staff Buckingham is available for pre-order now on Wilson’s website. It will be available at retail on April 6.