HIGH M.O.I. PUTTER : THE REVIEW

We had to deal with a weight issue.

By Inesis

January 11^th, 2022

We left the design team with two high MOI putter concepts. Charles was working on the "Aviation" and Thomas on the "Automotive". Alexandre, the 3D modeller, had started to model these two versions to switch from a two-dimensional drawing to a 3D digital object. The purpose? From there, we can get a very specific idea of the position of the centre of gravity and the weight distribution to see if these meet the technical specifications. And unfortunately, it wasn't the case with these two designs.

TIME TO STREAMLINE!

Alexandre explains: "We quickly realised that we had a big problem with overall weight. A high MOI putter is significantly bigger than a blade, mallet or half-moon putter and adding the body to both designs was leading us to a weight that was way over what we were aiming for."

The technical team also expressed doubts as to the integration of this part in manufacturing. And, for us, the assembly and the quality of the end product have to be above reproach.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the conclusion was: we have to rework the design. Back to the drawing board for Thom and Charles!

THE PERFECT COMBINATION?

Thomas, the designer, explains: "to produce a putter with a high MOI (moment of inertia), you have to put a maximum of the weight towards the heel and extremities of the putter. It makes it very stable for miss-hits. So we, therefore, want to keep the same overall shape as on the "Automotive" and "Aviation" designs but we have to save weight. Therefore the idea is the make the body out of aluminium, which is a much lighter material than steel. We are going to use CNC machining to get a great finish.

A WELL-BALANCED PUTTER HEAD.

The weight saved on the body allowed Kevin, the club's product engineer, to precisely work on the weight distribution. He subsequently added the weight (areas in blue) where it's necessary for a very high MOI. You will notice that both weights are not symmetrical. It is smaller at the bottom because the hosel weight has to be integrated, evenly distributing the weight 50/50 between both halves of the head. You subsequently obtain a perfect balance.

IT’S THE FAMILY.

The new High MOI putter will of course form part of the Inesis putter range: The Half Moon, the Blade and the Mallet: It reuses established style codes and the insert to get the same feel throughout the entire product range. The decision criteria are based on the putting movement:

Arc putting: Blade or Half Moon
Putting straight through: Mallet or High M.O.I.

What are the next steps? We are going to work on the putter head's finish and markings. And the hidden part of the iceberg, but so important, is to work on the product's industrialisation. It ensures that all the putter heads, which will come out of the factory, will perfectly comply with our product quality expectations.