Golf Views

Do you become tense or worse yet, get the case of the yips when you step onto the putting green? Even the simplest putt can be fraught with bad breaks, steep slopes, and unhelpful grain direction. All that is plenty to deal with when working the greens, which is why Nike Golf designed the IC line of putters.

Nike has taken a new approach to designing a better putter, by using optical engineering to tune out all visual noise and greatly reduce the visual footprint of the shaft and clubhead itself. I’ve been testing out the Nike IC 20-20 putter for three weeks now and I’m really impressed by how this putter has helped improve my game on the greens.

Look and Feel
The first thing you’ll notice about this mallet putter is the size of it’s square head. My initial reaction was that it seemed really large, almost as big as my driver’s head. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that I am used to the small footprint of a blade putter. The color scheme of the putter is dark green to blend in with the putting greens, everything from the grip, the shaft, and down to the putterhead are dark green. The only things you see when you line up the putter are the face of the putter and the white alignment marking. The optical engineering of the IC 20-20 tricks your eyes and brain into focusing only on the face and large alignment marking. This results in fewer miss-aligned putts and a lower score. I found this to be a huge benefit from up close, within the  8-10 foot range, where putting alignment is crucial. As a result I now have the confidence to make those putts, which I had previously all too often missed .

The next thing that jumped out at me was the weight of the club when I swung it back and forth. The square shape and weight of the putter creates a high moment of inertia, stabilizing the putter on off-center hits. This is a great feature, because I constantly used to pull putts left and right. Another great benefit gained from the weight of the clubhead is getting the ball rolling long distances. In my tests I was able to lag the ball greater distances without much effort. I appreciated this feature, because with my blade putter I was constantly lagging my putts too short.

The IC 20-20 plays small in stroke, with all the forgiveness and stability of a blade putter. A great combination for a highly underrated line of putters.  I liked using this putter so much that I’m going to be replacing my Ping Anser putter for the Nike IC 20-20.

Tech Specs
Face Width: 11.4cm
Front to Back: 8.9cm
Loft: 3
Shaft Lengths: 33in, 34in, 35in

The Nike IC 20-20 Putter retails for $159.