Gear: Odyssey Ai-ONE putters
Price: $299.99 (Ai-ONE) each with Stroke Lab 90 shaft and counterbalanced grip; $449.99 (Ai-ONE Milled)
Specs: Co-molded aluminum insert with grooved urethane coating (Ai-ONE); Milled stainless steel head with milled titanium face insert (Ai-ONE Milled)
Available: Nov. 3 at PGA TOUR Superstore
Who They’re For: Golfers who want improved distance control in a classic-looking putter.
The Skinny: To help golfers improve their distance control, Odyssey used artificial intelligence to design new face inserts that normalize speed over a larger portion of the hitting area. The result is missed putts that stop closer to the hole and fewer three-putts.
The Deep Dive: Odyssey’s research revealed to its designers and engineers that the club amateur and professional golfers now hold onto the longest is their putter. Simply put, golfers don’t change putters as often as they used to, which made it especially noteworthy when Sam Burns switched putters at the Tour Championship and Jon Rahm changed putters just a few weeks before the 2023 Ryder Cup to go with a new Odyssey Ai putter.
To compel golfers to switch putters, Odyssey knew it needed to create a family of clubs with a technology that golfers wanted. To make better drivers, Callaway engineers now rely on supercomputers and artificial intelligence (AI) to run thousands of simulations of different face designs. So in 2019, Odyssey began experimenting with AI to create putter faces that improved distance control, telling the computers to test various materials, insert shapes and designs.
The result is the two inserts found in Odyssey’s new AI-One putter family.
Shop Odyssey putters at PGA TOUR Superstore
The insert found in the standard Ai-ONE putters is made using aluminum and covered by the same urethane found in the White Hot insert that has been popular for two decades. While it looks like a traditional grooved insert on the front, there are a series of ridges and thickened areas on the back. The variable-thickness insert normalizes ball speed across a much more significant portion of the hitting area, so more mis-hit putts roll out to the same distance as well-struck putts, leading to improved distance control.
You see the back of the Ai-ONE’s insert through a window in the back of the head. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Just as Nike decided to show the Air cushioning system in the heel of its running shoes decades ago, Odyssey allows golfers to see the back of the Ai-ONE insert through a window on the back of the head.
While the Ai-ONE will have the soft feel of the White Hot insert, some golfers prefer the firm feel of a milled putter. For them, Odyssey has the Ai-ONE Milled. Instead of having a urethane cover over aluminum, the insert is milled using titanium with a copper-toned finish.
Odyssey Ai-ONE Milled putters have an insert that is milled using titanium. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Odyssey said the Ai-ONE insert results in putts that finish an average 21 percent closer to the hole. That means a putt that would have stopped 5 feet short should now come to rest just under 4 feet from the cup. That may not sound like a lot, but as every golfer who struggles with three-putts knows, every inch is critical.
For Rahm, Odyssey was able to show that switching to a putter with an Ai-ONE insert could have reduced his three-putt percentage by nearly 50 percent, which would have improved his strokes gained putting average from 0.48 before the start of the Tour Championship, which ranked 23rd on the PGA Tour, to 0.68, which would have been ninth. Odyssey also revealed to Rahm that his three-putts cost him more than $2.5 million in prize money.
The Odyssey Ai-ONE Double Wide putter (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Odyssey is splitting the launch of the Ai-ONE putters, with the #1 and Double Wide BD blades, along with the Rossie S and #7 S and CH mallets coming out now. In the Ai-ONE Milled family, the One T and Two T blades will be available starting November 3, along with the Three T, Six T, Seven T, Eight T and Eleven T mallets.
In February 2024, Odyssey plans to release the #2 and Double Wide CH blades, the Rossie DB and the #7 DB mallets. Odyssey is also releasing an Ai-ONE Versa Jailbird Mini and an Ai-ONE 2-Ball in February.
Shop Odyssey putters at PGA TOUR Superstore
Below are several close-up images of the new Odyssey Ai-ONE putters.
