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S7K Putter
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Editor’s Conclusion
Despite all the tech ideas floating around the S7K, it’s quite a simple club to look down upon. While this means it won’t be offensive to the eye, it’s not exactly what you’d call a ‘premium’ looking club. The material and paint jobs are functional, rather than appealing, and the simple black shaft and grip draw no attention to themselves. But the point of this putter isn’t to look fancy, it’s to help you line up your putts properly, and almost all the visual aspects work well towards that goal.
Key Features
The S7K is a putter which is all about its features, so that feels like the right place to start. The idea behind the S7K is relatively simple: it’s all about alignment, such a deceptively simple but incredibly important part of putting - no matter how good your read or your stroke, you can’t make a putt if you’re setting up in the wrong place.
This seems to solve this problem by having the ability to stand up on its own - this means you can line up your putt, quickly check behind that you’re set up on your start line, and then make your stroke with confidence. The S7K’s website uses some statistics to back up the claims. Over a five-foot putt, an alignment error of just two degrees will cause an otherwise perfect putt to miss. When you get to ten feet, that margin of error drops to just a single degree.
The S7K’s ability to stand is a neat trick (albeit one that looks rather surreal when the putter is standing up on its own behind the ball on the green, and so might be avoided by self-conscious golfers!) that’s made possible by the putter’s unique weighting. The head is 400 grams - by comparison, a regular blade-style putter on tour will most likely only weigh 350g at most - and the shaft and grip are both extremely light, with the latter coming in at just 50g. It’s worth noting that because of this dramatic shift in the weighting, the S7K will likely feel very different from other putters.
Something like the Odyssey Stroke Lab series actually goes for the opposite effect, with a lot of the weight being put into the grip to try and balance the stroke. The S7K claims that it will stand up on any putt, on any green - no matter the slopes or conditions. Videos of product testing appear to back up that claim. However, I have seen videos of the wind knocking over the putter, something the company claim it shouldn’t do, so just be careful using this on very windy days!
It comes with a midsize grip as standard, which is a nice little boon on top of its more showy features. However, the grip is made from a new material, a super lightweight type of foam designed to make the self-standing element possible. Though it feels nice at address, it’s perhaps not as durable as other midsized grips such as Superstroke. It’s also worth noting that the S7K isn’t the first standalone putter ever Benross came out with the Innovator many years ago, a huge mallet that could do the same thing. However, the S7K has refined the idea into a much more palatable package.
The final feature of note about the S7K is the price. While not exactly cheap, its regular retail price of around $180 means it comes in at about half the cost of something like a Scotty Cameron Special Select. However, that cheaper price comes with the fact that it will be certainly less premium than the offerings from companies like Titleist and Taylormade - and you could pick up an Odyssey Stroke Lab Double Wide for a marginally more expensive price.
This seems to solve this problem by having the ability to stand up on its own - this means you can line up your putt, quickly check behind that you’re set up on your start line, and then make your stroke with confidence. The S7K’s website uses some statistics to back up the claims. Over a five-foot putt, an alignment error of just two degrees will cause an otherwise perfect putt to miss. When you get to ten feet, that margin of error drops to just a single degree.
The S7K’s ability to stand is a neat trick (albeit one that looks rather surreal when the putter is standing up on its own behind the ball on the green, and so might be avoided by self-conscious golfers!) that’s made possible by the putter’s unique weighting. The head is 400 grams - by comparison, a regular blade-style putter on tour will most likely only weigh 350g at most - and the shaft and grip are both extremely light, with the latter coming in at just 50g. It’s worth noting that because of this dramatic shift in the weighting, the S7K will likely feel very different from other putters.
Something like the Odyssey Stroke Lab series actually goes for the opposite effect, with a lot of the weight being put into the grip to try and balance the stroke. The S7K claims that it will stand up on any putt, on any green - no matter the slopes or conditions. Videos of product testing appear to back up that claim. However, I have seen videos of the wind knocking over the putter, something the company claim it shouldn’t do, so just be careful using this on very windy days!
It comes with a midsize grip as standard, which is a nice little boon on top of its more showy features. However, the grip is made from a new material, a super lightweight type of foam designed to make the self-standing element possible. Though it feels nice at address, it’s perhaps not as durable as other midsized grips such as Superstroke. It’s also worth noting that the S7K isn’t the first standalone putter ever Benross came out with the Innovator many years ago, a huge mallet that could do the same thing. However, the S7K has refined the idea into a much more palatable package.
The final feature of note about the S7K is the price. While not exactly cheap, its regular retail price of around $180 means it comes in at about half the cost of something like a Scotty Cameron Special Select. However, that cheaper price comes with the fact that it will be certainly less premium than the offerings from companies like Titleist and Taylormade - and you could pick up an Odyssey Stroke Lab Double Wide for a marginally more expensive price.
Looks
Despite its fun gimmicks, the S7K is a relatively normal looking oversized blade, which for many people will be a plus. Its slight flares at the back of the toe and heel add a bit of visual pizzazz and make the putter quite pleasing to the eye to look down upon. For a club that is all about alignment, it’s unsurprising that most of the design of the putter revolves around exactly that.
What really draws the eye are the three lines decorating the top of the putter (an idea which Callaway has also utilized in their triple track. This look is very confidence-inspiring, making you really feel like squaring up the blade is a simple task. Even the milling on the top of the toe and heel flares feels like it’s designed to help you line up the putter towards the hole - which, due to the nature of this club, I’m sure it is. The final flourish is a small dot in the center of the blade, which S7K calls ‘the strike dot’. The idea is you focus on that point - the point where the face should meet the ball - to help you get the ball striking the middle of the club.
What really draws the eye are the three lines decorating the top of the putter (an idea which Callaway has also utilized in their triple track. This look is very confidence-inspiring, making you really feel like squaring up the blade is a simple task. Even the milling on the top of the toe and heel flares feels like it’s designed to help you line up the putter towards the hole - which, due to the nature of this club, I’m sure it is. The final flourish is a small dot in the center of the blade, which S7K calls ‘the strike dot’. The idea is you focus on that point - the point where the face should meet the ball - to help you get the ball striking the middle of the club.
Performance
It’s really hard to assess the performance of a putter, as out of every aspect of the game of golf putting is the most personal. However, the S7K website is full of testimonies of golfers the club has helped, and most reviews point to it being a slightly strange and unique feeling but ultimately a very functional putter that does what it’s designed to do. The S7K’s sweet spot is designed to be low on the face, and the face itself is milled, producing a soft feel and pleasant sound.
Due to its design, the S7K also boasts what it calls ‘among the highest MOI (moment of inertia) on the market’ - MOI essentially boils down to how little the face twists on off-center strikes, and so a high MOI equals more forgiveness. The final thing of note is that due to the blade shape and neck bend, this is a putter with around three degrees of toe hang, making it more suited to those with an arcing stroke than a straight back and straight through.
Due to its design, the S7K also boasts what it calls ‘among the highest MOI (moment of inertia) on the market’ - MOI essentially boils down to how little the face twists on off-center strikes, and so a high MOI equals more forgiveness. The final thing of note is that due to the blade shape and neck bend, this is a putter with around three degrees of toe hang, making it more suited to those with an arcing stroke than a straight back and straight through.
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