On Tuesday, Bettinardi unveiled two new shapes in its Antidote series of putters, which are low-torque, toe-up designs from the Bettinardi family. The trend has boomed over the last two years and doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so Bettinardi is doubling down with shape offerings by introducing the new SB3 fang style and SB5 half-moon style designs.
I had a chance to get over to Bettinardi Studio B in Oakbrook, Ill., to actually get fit for the best option for my game and both putters surprised me. Surprisingly, the SB5 would have been the last one in the lineup I would have reached for, but it became my personal favorite.
The SB3 has a fang-style design but it’s a compact look at address, and behind the ball the two-tone design really shines in its beauty. The two white lines that adorn the fangs of the putter in the flange area are easy to utilize for proper aim, and my favorite part about both new models is that although the hosel is set back of the top line, they made it its own section so the top line is still nice and thin.
Having a top-line design like this feels to me like you can use both edges (front and back) to help verify perpendicular alignment of the face to your intended putting line.
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When you flip the SB3 over to the sole you’ll see a clean sole plate design with cutouts in the 303SS backplate. That tells you that Bettinardi is trying to move the CG as far forward as the design will allow while maintaining the low-torque properties they are after, as well as the sound and feel that players expect from Bettinardi. Fang designs like this are really tricky to nail down the sound of because the fangs can act like tuning forks, but Bettinardi nailed it.
As you make impact with the ball you get a nice thud-like click off the face that gives you immediate feedback without feeling too soft. In my testing so far, and verified by my fitter Nick at Bettinardi Studio B, the SB3 is just a touch firmer and louder than the SB5, which brings us back to my choice in the Antidote lineup.
As I mentioned above, I’m not much of a half-moon mallet shape kind of player, but the feel from the SB5 is probably the best Bettinardi I have ever rolled. It’s a nice compressed thud off the face with just a slight click that gives you lots of confidence in the roll off the face. It gives enough feedback into the hands that you can feel your off-center strikes but feels pure as a well struck muscleback when you strike the putter outside the middle. Both putters feature Bettinardi’s FIT Face, which provides just enough ball speed for the putter to help you out without feeling like you’ve lost control. Roll wise, we saw great numbers on Quintec. The ball gets rolling very quickly and the FIT Face doesn’t hang onto the ball for long.
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What makes me so giddy about the SB5 though is the alignment. Rather than having a different colored 303SS backplate like the SB3, the entire SB5 is the same sort of musty satin silver that sheens well in good light and to the eye without reflecting in the sunlight outside. There’s a single navy sightline up top with two navy alignment aids adorning the bumpers of the putter in the flange area, and the way those bumpers and those navy lines frame the flange is just perfect. It’s not a different finish in this area of the putter, but the way the bumpers flow and are shaped creates an effect to your eyes as if this area in the middle of the flange, about the size of a golf ball, is brighter than the rest of the putter. To my eyes, every time I set the putter down behind the ball it looks like I can see this “line” from the flange all the way to the hole. I haven’t aimed a low-torque toe-up putter this well since I messed around with the Ai-One Max Stripe. And you can probably guess why.
Flip the SB5 over and you can once again see some material carved out of the back as they try to bring that CG closer to the face, which helps to improve feel and give you a “blade-like” playability, which I (as a lasting member of blade-putter nation) really appreciate.
