Odyssey opens TRTL putter pre-orders ahead of a Nov. 6 retail launch

Odyssey launched its TRTL putter family on Wednesday and opened pre-orders, with the putters due at retail on Nov. 6, according to the company's release published by GolfWRX and Golfweek's review. The name is pronounced "turtle."

There are four models. The standard TRTL mid-mallet comes in crank hosel, double bend and S-neck versions for $349.99. The TRTL Max Square 2 Square is the zero-torque option, built to keep the face from rotating through the stroke, and lists at $399.99. Golfweek says the Max is about six percent larger than the standard head and has roughly 20 percent higher moment of inertia.

What's in the head

Odyssey pulled weight out of the middle and put it in the corners. The body is a steel frame with a black PVD finish, a light ABS shell and an aluminum sole, and four corner weights let a fitter move the center of gravity front, back, heel or toe and change toe hang.

The face uses a new Ai-Star insert, an aluminum layer behind a firmer urethane striking surface with 19-degree sloped grooves meant to get the ball rolling quickly. Golfweek notes the insert is thinner toward the heel and toe to hold ball speed on mishits. Long parallel Twin Track lines run back from the face for aiming.

Golfweek reports the shape began as a sketch by Odyssey's product team in Japan. Odyssey says the putter swept the top four sales spots there and pushed it past 50 percent market share, a company claim we haven't seen independent data on. The release also lists Min Woo Lee and LPGA winner Yuna Nishimura among the players using it.

"Conceptually, it maximizes MOI and that's something that we believe in," said Eric Stubben, Odyssey's R&D director of putters.

What to do now

If you're shopping for a forgiving mallet, pre-orders are open now, and stores get stock Nov. 6. Most of the performance claims so far come from Odyssey, so it's worth waiting for independent roll and launch-monitor testing, or getting fit, before choosing between the standard head and the zero-torque Max.