Old & New Part II

Rating: 7 ponts
Pros: Blank-Face Scottsman Prototype, Orange Squareback Prototype
Cons: They Weren't Free

I reserve 7 point reviews for truly special pieces and these certainly fit the bill. I acquired both of these putters separately on eBay over the past month... and following a post I made about a year ago regarding Old & New items, I figured a sequel was in order. The first putter is a very early made for Tour Prototpe Scottsman 941 (or Mizuno Model I, you choose) with no face or sole stampings. The second is a Newport Squareback Tour Prototype that I sent in to Scotty's Custom Shop for translucent orange paint, Solar Squeeze CS Select headcover and Orange Baby-T grip.


The former was much discussed in multiple threads on TCC and the consensus on the model type is the same as mine... the lines seem a little too clean to be a handmade and the style is reminiscent of early 1990's Camerons. I'm not counting out the possibility of it being a handmade, as honestly I have never studied one in person before, but all indications are that it is not (although there are at least a few known handmades with no face stamping). There are also whisperings of this putter being made for PGA Tour (and now Champions Tour) player Andy Bean. All these details (which I consider minor) will be sorted out during authentication.


The latter is a putter that I've wanted since it first showed up several years ago as a one-off prototype on Tour with little information available, then more recently (by early 2008) had more proliferation on the PGA Tour, especially by Titleist staffer Nick Watney. The Prototype Squareback above is one of the few specifically made for Tour (this is a fine line and a touchy subject among some collectors)... mine is 330g with a plumbers neck and no removable weights. I was told by a distributor very early on that these would be hard to find, and although I have seen a few recently, they do tend to be elusive and less prevelant than the double bend and removable weight Tour versions (many of which may not have seen Tour players hands).

This model has been very popular and an Off The Rack version may be in the cards before too long, but I think the thing putts perfectly and the value will hold over time... and perhaps even improve if an OTR version makes it to market and demand for a Tour version rises. One of the other reasons I like this putter so much is the name... borrowing from the naming convention of a 1962 estate body Volkswagen, the Squareback is a cool looking car and bridges the gap between my father's affinity for post-war vehicles and mine for Scotty Cameron putters.

As I look at these two putters I see how far Scotty has come in design and production in the last 16 or so years... and imagine how far he will go in the next decade. It's fun to wonder about those things sometimes...