How does AI work in golf clubs?

Odyssey has launched its brand new Ai-One putters packed with – you guessed it – artificial intelligence. But what’s the thinking behind it? Let’s take a closer look. 

What’s the key similarity between the world’s best and us weekend hackers? We all mishit putts. And when miss the centre of the putter face, the ball doesn’t travel as far, so it’ll either stay out on either side of the hole, or left short.

Think about all the times you’ve three-putted. Those were mostly due to a lack of control from a mishit putt.

The Callaway boffins crunched the numbers and worked out that their players lost a combined $25 million in prize money in 2023 due to three-putts. At our level, meanwhile, the average 15-handicap player will three-putt more than three greens per round. There might not be as much on the line, but that will still cause a lot of damage on any scorecard.

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So when it came to Odyssey designing the Ai-One putter, the priority was to get the ball as close to the hole as possible with every putt. It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But if you can eliminate those three putts from your round, that will make a huge difference.

Callaway’s star man, Jon Rahm, has already swapped out his trusty White Hot that saw him become a two-time major champion, so they must be onto a winner. Here’s the lowdown on the method behind the madness…

What does AI look like in putters?

We have seen artificial intelligence used in drivers and irons. But when designing a putter, there’s a big difference in what brands want to do. The journey for Odyssey started back in 2019, when the idea of maintaining consistent speed across the face to get the ball closer to the hole more often was floated.

This is where the supercomputer came in, as there was a mountain of different variations which were thoroughly looked at. This included different face insert materials, shapes, and contouring on the back of the insert. This allowed for thousands of designs, using various materials to bring you two Ai-One putter face insert designs.

What Odyssey has created is the Ai-One Milled line, which is a champagne coloured insert made out of titanium, which sits in a milled stainless-steel head. With this what you can expect is the feel of a quality milled putter but with the added performance you might not expect in a milled design.

The Ai-One range is where Odyssey has stayed true to its roots with the White Hot, urethane soft-feeling insert. This has an aluminium back section which sits behind the face, with contours which deliver consistent ball speed, while marrying with the White Hot urethane face. This combo delivers the sound and feel that we’ve grown to love over the years.

How does the Ai insert perform?

Odyssey used its robot technology to test the AI-designed insert from 15 different parts of the putter face and, even on off-centre strikes, found it delivered a more consistent ball speed that, on average, ended up 21% closer to the hole. 

How do you get Jon Rahm to change putters?

The first thing you do is look at the stats. One that stood out to the team at Odyssey is that, on average, the first putt on each green for a PGA Tour player is from 34 feet. From outside that distance, players become more likely to three-putt than one-putt.

And, as we know, three-putting can get expensive very quickly.

Rahm’s stats show that he has three-putted 23 times on the PGA Tour in 2023, leaving him 23rd in Strokes Gained: Putting for the season. According to Odyssey, with a putter that gets him 21% closer to the hole, he would have eliminated 11 of those and that would have moved him up to 8th in that statistic.

In terms of money, eliminating 11 three-putts from Rahm’s season would have also added $2.5 million to his earnings. That’s a lot of cash.

Rahm isn’t a player that likes to make changes, but these numbers were enough to convince him to put the Odyssey Ai-One putter in the bag. Is it enough to convince you?

James Tait is bunkered’s Gear Editor. Want to know how the latest Callaway driver, Vokey wedge or Scotty Cameron putter performs? He’s the guy to ask. Better yet, just watch his videos on the bunkered YouTube channel. One of the biggest hitters in the UK, James also competes on the World Long Drive circuit and is a descendent of former Amateur champion Freddie Tait.

Gear Editor