In case you’re not very familiar with LAB Golf, all you need to know is that these guys are specialized in manufacturing putters, and their philosophy can be best described as KISS: keep it simple, stupid! The point being, LAB Golf believes that you shouldn’t overcomplicate things like rolling a golf ball into a hole. Here their new BLaD.1 Blade

Putter comes into play. This putter was designed following a simple precept: old-school tradition meets cutting edge technology, and they have a beautiful baby. End of story.

Joke aside, the BLaD.1 Blade putter is a very interesting beast, as it boasts the company’s Lie Angle Balance (LAB, right?) technology, which is nothing short of revolutionary, thus making for the only blade putter in the world (and the first) to be designed in such a way. What does it mean, you asked? Here’s Sam Hahn, the CEO of LAB Golf describing their new product:

“With the typical blade putter, the player takes on the challenge of controlling the face,” The beauty of ours is you kind of don’t have to. And when players realize they don’t have to do that as much, the grip pressure gets lighter, speed control improves, direction on short putts improves. We think it leads to a stroke where the face is more square to the arc rather than screwing it open against the arc and closed through impact.

After many, many prototypes, we’re excited to launch a putter specifically for blade lovers. BLaD.1 is a truly modern blade that doesn’t just look the part; it offers real technology that will change the way golfers think about putting. We feel we’ve removed a massive variable that has made the stroke un-natural. Putting is supposed to be the most natural motion, but it’s not because we add this one variable of having to keep the face square. What we’re trying to do is make putting like all of those different stroke sports, more like shooting a free throw and throwing a dart and rolling a ball. Not this complex combination of trying to be smooth and artistic and rhythmic, but controlling this face that is fighting you throughout the stroke.

“The idea is to make the putter an extension of the hand.”

Okay, that really explains pretty much everything, but here are more details about the BLaD.1 Blade putter: the design was very much inspired by one of the most iconic putter designs in golf, and we’re talking about the bull’s eye putter design, of course, which has been introduced almost seventy years ago. However, old school design is doubled-down by space-age technology, or something along these lines, as the BLaD.1 Blade putter comes with the Lie Angle Balance thing we’ve told you in the preamble of the article, a clever innovation that seeks to literally obliterate torque from putter design.

That’s a very ambitious goal by any definition, and the end result makes the BLaD.1 Blade putter rather unique. According to LAB Golf’s SVP of R&D and founder Bill Press:

“Bringing Lie Angle Balance to BLaD.1 wasn’t easy, but we were fully committed to making it happen. In every sense, this was a passion project for us. We asked ourselves, ‘Can we really offer the feel and simplicity of a bullseye and include all the benefits of Lie Angle Balance?’ We weren’t going to stop until we figured it out.”

If you’re already sold, you must learn that you can order the new and revolutionary BLaD.1 Blade putter in two versions, as there’s a stainless steel model and a brass model. However, regardless of your choice, each of the two models is milled to perfection (100 percent milled) from a solid block of material, whether we’re talking brass or stainless steel, and, very importantly, proudly made in the USA. There’s also a very special program for LAB Golf customers, and we’re talking about the Remote Fitting process. To make a long story short, you can order your ideal BLaD.1 Blade putter online after going through a questionnaire of sorts, which is aimed at helping you determine your optimal specs, things like lie angle, putter length, grip type and shaft type.

There are many custom shaft options to choose from, including the LAGP OZIK TP, BST Stability Shaft or the FST Tour, which is available in matte silver and matte black.

Finally, you can order the BLaD.1 Blade putter online from LAG Golf’s official website or through L.A.B. Golf Authorized Retailers. But what about price, right? The star of the show retails currently for $399 online, and if you want to get more bang for the buck, you can order the DF 2.1, LAB Golf’s oversized, high-MOI mallet putter which starts at $425 and it’s available in red, black and blue color ways. To give you a little bit of context, the DF 2.1 putter was introduced back in 2016, and the DF particle stands for Directed Force. The main difference between the DF 2.1 and the Blad.1 is that the latter has a very simple shape, which makes for a modern take on the traditional bulls eye design, while the former is more complex in this regard. Its beauty is its simplicity, and that’s the lesson to be taken home about the Blad.1

And speaking of simplicity, Hahn also said:

“One of the goals with the Blad.1 was to make it a little bit easier to walk in to a store and buy one. The idea behind this putter was simplicity and elegance. Looking down on it, it would appear as though it’s just a block of steel on the end of a stick, but if you took an X-ray through, it looks like the inside of a supercomputer. It’s a highly complex process.”

Good luck, have fun!