California-based golf equipment company LA GOLF has launched two new Gen 2 carbon putters – the Bel-Air, a heel-toe weighted blade, and the Malibu, a midsize mallet.
Each putter features descending loft face technology, and a P-Series anti-vibration shaft, and boasts an MOI 7,000, which the company says makes it the most forgiving on the market in the UK, with the previously the largest figure being around 5,000 MOI.
The Beverly Hills-based company, founded by Reed Dickens, first went to market in 2021 with premium aftermarket handmade shafts, and some of the world’s best players took note, including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Michelle Wie West, who joined as partners, board members and assist with R&D.
The playing partners are more than just faces at the forefront of the brand strategy. These players are engaged in every aspect of the business and their unique on-course expertise is used to help design and test every LA Golf product, including shafts, putters and the new LA Golf ball, which launches in the UK later this year.
Dickens commented: “We don’t make or use stock shafts. Nobody had innovated shafts in 50 years, every shaft is mass produced and rolled like an ice cream cone in factories overseas. You have golfers using putters with a flat face, a solid steel head, a tiny sweet spot and a $5 shaft – now you have an alternative that addresses all of those flaws.
“We figured out how to make an even better putter for less money,” he added. “Our sweet spot is larger, our graphite shaft is completely stable, so the head doesn’t contort on impact, and we have the ‘Descending Loft’ face so no matter where you strike the ball in the arc, it’ll have optimal roll off the face.”
The design goal for the newly engineered P-Series graphite shaft (£349, when sold separately) was simple: eliminate shaft twist on off-centre putts. To do so, the shaft is extremely stiff – the flex is equivalent to Tour Extra Stiff – with low torque (1.8°). Just as critical, the proprietary materials used produce a much softer feel than the static measurements might suggest.
“The density of carbon fibre/epoxy is more than five-times lighter than stainless steel,” said Jeff Meyer, Chief Design Officer at LA GOLF. “Therefore, we have much more discretionary weight to help optimize the centre of gravity and Moment of Inertia. Most stainless steel putter heads weigh around 350g. Our Bel-Air carbon body weighs only 50g. We use 200g of tungsten weight in the heel and toe to achieve our large MOI.” In other words, the uber-stable, 360g blade helps putts stay on-track and roll out their full distance.
LA GOLF’s Bel-Air and Malibu series are both available now at www.lagolfglobal.co.uk, priced at £499.