Scotty Cameron Phantom X Putters

JStang

Just saw this on golf.com. Looks like a nice, modern approach to the Futura line. The 5.5 looks good.

third-times-a-charm

He's really running out of ideas

Rig14Port

third-times-a-charm wrote:

He's really running out of ideas

I don't see where it's going to be possible to modify these with the welded flow neck that has been so popular with the X5 and 5W heads.



The topline and face are one piece aluminum with stainless wings. Unless the heel wing has a stainless stub protruding up through the top that the flow neck could be welded too I'm not sure it can be done.



I imagine this could impact sales if not an option for an aftermarket customization



UPDATE: It does look like a stainless steel stub up through the aluminum topline but not going to be much room for welding. Mod capabilities TBD

bladehunter

At some point acushnet board members have to take away his decision making provledges. He’s hurting the brand at this point.

Golfer_1993

It's driving me nuts they offer so few putters for lefties. Of the 18 putter models they will sell this year, only 4 are available for lefties: Newport 2, Newport 3, Phantom X7 and X7.5. I'm not asking for all 18, but I think he would sell more X5/5.5 than X7/7.5, and probably the Squareback would be popular too.

MattyO1984

The colour scheme, is just absolutely horrific! It's like they are trying to make more business for the custom shop with this release.

Big Ben

I really like the X7 but that shabby yellow isn’t good man. I hope it’s much brighter in hand.

sheldonjhacker

DRRicks

It looks like the insert is gone...so, baby-steps to making quality putters again?

madaboutgolf

churning out models like spaghetti ...

SubaruWRX

The 8X looks a lot like

VNutz

DRRicks wrote:

It looks like the insert is gone...so, baby-steps to making quality putters again?

The entire black portion of the head is the insert material. They haven't done away with it, they've made it bigger.

jtitleist12

The best part is these are going to retail for $429!



- Josh

Lacey Underall

I'd like to see the 12 from the top line view. Looks pretty crazy.



Scotty is obsessed with his putter lab and trying to get a better "roll." Meanwhile, its a putter for crying out loud. Just go back to making stuff that looks and feels good.

Brizam

Scotty for me has got to the point where the only ones that are desirable are the Circle T blades and mid mallets. And I'm sure not dropping that much coin on a putter. That would be my whole putter buying budget for the year.....

Rig14Port

VNutz wrote:

DRRicks wrote:

It looks like the insert is gone...so, baby-steps to making quality putters again?

The entire black portion of the head is the insert material. They haven't done away with it, they've made it bigger.

yeah, still an aluminum face like the inserts of late.



BTW... this is A LOT more aluminum and A LOT less stainless than the previous models. That means the material costs should have decreased substantially yet the MSRP seems to be increasing. Designs also look like there will be considerably less stainless "waste" from the milling process (SS components not as deep or intricate so smaller blocks of SS and less cut-away material). Scotty trying to pick up some serious margin here...

VNutz

Rig14Port wrote:

third-times-a-charm wrote:

He's really running out of ideas

I don't see where it's going to be possible to modify these with the welded flow neck that has been so popular with the X5 and 5W heads.



The topline and face are one piece aluminum with stainless wings. Unless the heel wing has a stainless stub protruding up through the top that the flow neck could be welded too I'm not sure it can be done.



I imagine this could impact sales if not an option for an aftermarket customization

In looking at the Cameron website, it looks like there are .5 models for several of these heads. The standard model is what they are calling a mid bend and near face balanced, where the .5 model is a low bend shaft offering the putter head more flow. Sounds similar to the 5.5M heads.



I'm no welder but it does seem you're right in that there might be challenges faced with trying to weld necks to aluminum heads.

jrshelby

VNutz wrote:

Rig14Port wrote:

third-times-a-charm wrote:

He's really running out of ideas

I don't see where it's going to be possible to modify these with the welded flow neck that has been so popular with the X5 and 5W heads.



The topline and face are one piece aluminum with stainless wings. Unless the heel wing has a stainless stub protruding up through the top that the flow neck could be welded too I'm not sure it can be done.



I imagine this could impact sales if not an option for an aftermarket customization

In looking at the Cameron website, it looks like there are .5 models for several of these heads. The standard model is what they are calling a mid bend and near face balanced, where the .5 model is a low bend shaft offering the putter head more flow. Sounds similar to the 5.5M heads.



I'm no welder but it does seem you're right in that there might be challenges faced with trying to weld necks to aluminum heads.

the necks are all steel if you look close.

DFS PFD

He's increasing is margins for sure, has enough collectors to keep him happy, and now makes the production putters targeted at people who are gonna buy anything that says Scotty Cameron regardless of how repulsive or lackluster it may be.

cforselius

Rig14Port wrote:

VNutz wrote:

DRRicks wrote:

It looks like the insert is gone...so, baby-steps to making quality putters again?

The entire black portion of the head is the insert material. They haven't done away with it, they've made it bigger.

yeah, still an aluminum face like the inserts of late.



BTW... this is A LOT more aluminum and A LOT less stainless than the previous models. That means the material costs should have decreased substantially yet the MSRP seems to be increasing. Designs also look like there will be considerably less stainless "waste" from the milling process (SS components not as deep or intricate so smaller blocks of SS and less cut-away material). Scotty trying to pick up some serious margin here...

I dont know how it is on your side of the pond but here aluminum is more expensive than Stainless steel. So you got that wrong. He is still using the same weight system i.e 10g/15g/20g so the ratio should be approximately the same.



From a manufacturing standpoint I dont think he has optimized the "waste" any more than before. All designs are optimized to keep manufacturing costs down. Thats a big part on why they look like they do.

Lancj1

I think they look superb - are you seriously telling me any of you prefer the look of a TM spider...... ?



With this and the Pings yesterday I better book some extra shifts!

Rig14Port

cforselius wrote:

Rig14Port wrote:

VNutz wrote:

DRRicks wrote:

It looks like the insert is gone...so, baby-steps to making quality putters again?

The entire black portion of the head is the insert material. They haven't done away with it, they've made it bigger.

yeah, still an aluminum face like the inserts of late.



BTW... this is A LOT more aluminum and A LOT less stainless than the previous models. That means the material costs should have decreased substantially yet the MSRP seems to be increasing. Designs also look like there will be considerably less stainless "waste" from the milling process (SS components not as deep or intricate so smaller blocks of SS and less cut-away material). Scotty trying to pick up some serious margin here...

I dont know how it is on your side of the pond but here aluminum is more expensive than Stainless steel. So you got that wrong. He is still using the same weight system i.e 10g/15g/20g so the ratio should be approximately the same.



From a manufacturing standpoint I dont think he has optimized the "waste" any more than before. All designs are optimized to keep manufacturing costs down. Thats a big part on why they look like they do.

Price per pound for aluminum may be more expensive but you get a larger block of aluminum at equal weights to stainless. I will differ to someone that knows more about market prices for 6061 Aluminum vs 303 Stainless...



He has definitely reduced the starting block size needed for the milling of the SS parts in these putters as compared to past Futura model releases. Again, I will differ to someone that knows more about milling...



In an economy that is seeing major margin compression across every industry you would be crazy to think they aren't looking for ways to reduce costs by using lower cost materials, optimizing production, and/or reducing waste

Equipto

Really aren’t my cup of tea, but he is limiting the market for these even more by not offering a variety of neck options.

jordanrookie

Is the yellow highlight for these slightly different than the accent color used on the tour models we saw last week? Looks slightly more brown/muted and frankly worse.

MarkFromTheUK

Can’t think where he got the idea for the shape of that X12.

PeanutsDaddy

I’m in the like camp if the paintfill is changed.

golf9596

I do like mallets and Scotty has always delivered with quality in my opinion. I'm in for the 5.5 or 7.5...

BigSky59

I want to see the ones that DIDN'T make it to the production stage...

eagle2838

Bringing this back from the dead a little bit: I agree with most of the comments here that the Phantom X's look garbage in photos, but they are far, far better in person. I want to hate them (and the bigger ones in the series do look ridiculous to me), but I was playing around with them in the shop this evening and the 5.5 sets up to the ball and rolls so, so well. The colors aren't great, but I can get past that.

I agree that it feels wrong to pay $400+ (!) for something that is mostly aluminum, but frankly this putter had a more pleasing setup and a fantastic combination of alignment/stability and toe flow than pretty much anything I have seen. The Betty Queen Bees right now are 100x more beautiful to look at and have that expensive feel, but for me the Phantom X are almost definitely better putters for getting the ball in the hole. There might be something to these...

Now, if we're talking modern Scotty retail blades, there is a reason I play one that is 11 years old...and the ones older than that were even better.

SuperBombin

Agree with some here that it looks terrible in photos but looks better in person. Rolled them today and just didn’t suit my style and felt they are way over priced. I’m thinking they should be around 350 range.

eagle2838

@SuperBombin said:
Agree with some here that it looks terrible in photos but looks better in person. Rolled them today and just didn’t suit my style and felt they are way over priced. I’m thinking they should be around 350 range.

“Should be” and “what Scotty can get away with” are two different things! I totally agree with you that $350 feels much more palatable, but on the flip side if Scotty can get $429 for it from a whole bunch of people, then I guess capitalism wins.

Doesn’t feel special but works super well and priced accordingly? Feels like the TM MO the past few years.