Tiny headed putters have been around for a while but are mainly used as an aid for putting practice. There are exceptions as Jesper Parnevik used one in 2001, while Jaco Van Zyl used a Cleveland Smart Square Stubby putter at the 2017 Joburg Open.
The new IB Putter Sweet Spot is not being marketed as a training aid, however, but as something that golfers will want to take onto the course with them. I did just that and will explain how I got on below.
But first the backstory. The IB Putter Sweet Spot is the brainchild of Ivan Ballesteros, nephew of Seve Ballesteros, and he initially came up with the idea during the COVID lockdown.
When I spoke to Ivan his enthusiasm for his creation was infectious and his faith in it was absolute. While it looks a lot different to the best putters on the market right now, the logic behind this unusual design made a lot of sense when Ivan explained it to me, so I was happy to suspend my disbelief and keep an open mind. In fact, full disclosure, I’ve never been more excited to try a new product.
I was like a kid at Christmas when it came to unboxing. I’d seen images online but that doesn’t prepare you for when you actually get the IB Sweet Spot in your hands. Mallet putters generally don’t tend to look like actual mallets, but you could knock tent pegs in with this thing.
The head was even smaller than I expected but it was also clear that this is a premium product made from high quality materials. The grip feels fantastic in the hands and honestly might even be the best putter grip I’ve used, while the head design is very striking despite the unusual shape. It has a strong alignment line and you can use it right or left handed too.
So why is the face is so small? Put simply, because it gives you very little margin for error. You probably think that sounds like a bad thing, but there is method to the madness. It means you are more locked in on your stroke, simply because you have to be. You can’t miss on the heel or toe because there is no heel or toe!
The face on this putter is narrower than the width of a golf ball so when you look down and see nothing either side of the ball, it focuses your mind on hitting it out of the center of the face. With a normal sized putter golfers tend to not think like that.
If you are anything like me then prior to putting you will have a million and one other things going on rather than simply “make a good stroke”. With the IB Putter Sweet Spot you don’t have that luxury. Take your eye off the ball and you might miss it completely.
After unboxing I immediately nipped outside to give it a little spin on my artificial turf putting green at home and I made half a dozen in a row from six feet. That’s good for me but it’s not the same as being out there on the course. That would be the real test.
I used it for a dozen holes at Effingham Golf Club and found that on short range putts I was indeed able to really zone in on the contact I was making with the ball and push every other thought out of my head. From inside 10 feet I had a confidence that I rarely have on the greens. I made birdie putts from six and eight feet so that was a big plus.
However, I also had four three-putts as I struggled badly from distance, especially as the greens were particularly slow that day. A lot of longer putts were left well short, often due to poor contact.
This is a centre shafted putter that promotes a pendulum action, which is a good thing in terms of consistency of stroke, but for longer putts on slow greens, I find that a pendulum stroke won’t get the ball to the hole and I need to use my hands more. When you try to give this putter a bit more “oomph” it’s easy to miss the centre of the face and come up well short.
If all of my putts were inside 10 feet I would stick this putter in the bag. If I played on super fast greens all the time then I’d give it serious consideration too. Unfortunately it’s just completely impractical for me to use it on the slow greens I play on here in the UK, especially at this time of year.
I have no doubt that practicing with this putter will improve your ability over time to find the center of the face and it would certainly make a useful training aid, albeit an expensive one. I’m also open to the possibility that with enough practice I might be able to sharpen up on those long ones, but currently I definitely need the assistance you get from the most forgiving putters.
If you do see the IB Putter Sweet Spot in your local golf retailer you should hit a few putts with it just to see how it feels. You may love it, you may not, but it’s something fun and different and definitely worth a look.
The IB Putter Sweet Spot retails at £349 and will be available in American Golf stores throughout the UK and Ireland from mid-November. It will hit stores in the US in early 2024.
