What you need to know

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: L.A.B. Golf’s putters have made inroads in simplifying the putting stroke through its specially weighted and lie-angle balanced designs. The aim is to reduce the need for the hands to manipulate the face back to square at impact. Now, the company’s new VZN.1i mallets take aim at, well, aim. With a series of alignment lines and a more parallel wing shape, the VZN.1i boosts target awareness, while adding the feel of a 303 stainless-steel insert.

PRICE: $500. Offered with either 0-degree (vertical) or L.A.B.’s traditional 1.5-degree forward shaft lean. Custom version ($600) includes preferred shaft, shaft lean, lie angle, alignment markings, head weight and grip, as well as color. Available in eight colors. At retail June 9.

3 Cool Things

1. Straighter is as straighter does. The L.A.B. Golf way toward unlocking better putting largely has been led by the idea of reducing the torque effect in a putter head’s mass properties. That design makes for a stroke that is simpler because it reduces or even effectively eliminates how much the hands have to manipulate the putter to get it back to square at impact. Good work, but it doesn’t help all that much if you still don’t have that newly straightened stroke rolling the ball in the right direction. Enter the new VZN.1i (“VZN” like “vision,” one surmises) line, which takes the traditional mallet benefits of a larger shape with multiple alignment features to help the golfer better see straight.  

The VZN.1i features a wide aluminum frame that includes an opening (wide enough to pluck the ball off the green) and parallel wings that are joined by a rear bar. The whole effect of the shape is more square-ish to further enforce the aiming direction of the face angle. The alignment focus is also heightened through three framing lines on the topline and center line in the back bar. 

“VZN.1i was approached formulaically by combining everything we’ve learned from the success of previous L.A.B. Golf models into a familiar mallet shape that’s easy on the eyes and even easier to putt with,” said Cameron Day, senior vice president of product. “Every L.A.B. putter is engineered to roll the ball on its intended line through Lie Angle Balance technology. With VZN.1i, we took things a step further by simplifying another critical aspect of putting: alignment.”

2. Steel feel. Like several recent L.A.B. Golf models (Oz.1i, DF3i), the VZN.1i will feature a 303 stainless-steel insert. The idea behind adding the steel insert came from player research, said company founder and CEO Sam Hahn. “Our team has done some testing, and one thing that I found pretty wild is the actual ball speed differences are not as big as you think,” he said. “If you might guess, you would say something like 20 percent faster for the steel face, but really, it’s only about 4-6 percent. Still, in practice, that’s actually a lot. Of course, there’s also a lot of psychosomatic stuff that goes on, some brainy stuff that happens with sound and feel that has the body reacting differently.”

On the VZN.1i, the 303 stainless-steel insert, which is mechanically bonded to the aluminum frame, features a new, deeper milling pattern. The spiral pattern, which runs consistently across the entire insert, is similar to that on the Oz.1i, but the grooves are cut thicker to promote a softer feel. 

3. Leaner lean. Like all L.A.B. putters, the head on the VZN.1i utilizes a series of sole weights to achieve the right balance to match the center of gravity to the shaft axis. There are eight sole weights (four on the heel side and four on the toe side of the sole) that are customized to the head weight to maintain the company’s touted “lie-angle balanced” effect. 

Like on several new L.A.B. models, the company is offering options in its shaft angle, including the 0-degree, or vertical shaft lean, initially offered in the Oz.1 models. The VZN.1i will also feature the more traditional 1.5-degree forward shaft lean option 

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