Softly Does It

16 Jul 2019

Named after the beautiful locale of its Californian headquarters, the new Huntington Beach SOFT putters deliver score-dropping technology in a finely crafted package. SOFT or Speed Optmised Face Technology provides consistent distance on centre strikes and mishits in six tour-proven shapes.

Aesthetically businesslike in a milled matte finish, the engineering is where the money really is, beginning with 304 stainless steel for a feel that’s 51% softer than 17-4 stainless steel. The soft 304 steel and deep CNC face milling on each Huntington Beach SOFT putter combine to create feel that in turn creates the confidence to sink more putts.

Speed is critical to both sinking putts and getting lag putts close. And in testing, Cleveland discovered that with a regular putter, when a putt misses the face centre, even by a little, ball speed is lost, leaving putts short. SOFT utilises a unique milling pattern on each putter to normalise ball speed across the face, no matter where on the face you strike your putt, for consistent speed and distance.

So what SOFT means is that towards the toe or heel, the milling pattern becomes less coarse, and it will actually feel a bit firmer on heel or toe hits in order to get more ball speed, so you won’t leave those putts short. Where the sweet spot is, there is more groove and less face. As you move away from the sweet spot, there is more face and less groove.

Some competitor putters do feature milling patterns that normalise distance on mishits, but they use the same face pattern on every putter shape they make, even though CG and MOI properties differ from model to model. Huntington Beach SOFT uses a custom face milling pattern for every head shape, providing perfectly consistent distance on each of your putts, with each Huntington Beach SOFT model.

The collection features two blades and 4 differently shaped mallets in five different neck configurations to suit all strokes. Consider a face-balanced putter if you tend to miss right (for a right-handed golfer), and go for a putter with toe-hang if your typical miss is to the left.

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