Wilson Tour Special

I recently picked up a Tour Special II putter on eBay for the bargain price of $8.75.  For those not familiar, the Wilson Tour Special is a forged, flange blade style putter with a slight offset shaft.  It has a matte silver finish.

Wilson Tour Special II - circa 1980s

This version Tour Special II is marked by its straight hosel instead of a slight offset.  A real scalpel. It also has a leather wrapped grip (original) with the Wilson red and white shield button logo on top.  The shaft appears original (no tags) and is a straight, no steps, steel shaft.

This flange blade style is very traditional, going back to the 50s and likely early to post WW2 design.  Putters were originally very simple paddle styles. The prototypical version is the Acushnet Bullseye which is center shafted and  could be used left or right handed.

Bullseye putter - circa 1960s

The flange style rose in popularity in the 50s, with the MacGregor Tommy Armour Ironmaster.  This added weight behind the face added some feel but the rear shaft likely caused more difficulty in hitting a consistent “sweet spot”.  To add to the confusion, the center line marked was usually not the actual sweet spot.

MacGregor Tommy Armour Ironmaster  - circa 1950s

Not to be outdone by its competitor, Wilson produced its version with the rise of the next star of the 60s Arnold Palmer.  The Wilson “Designed by Arnold Palmer” was a beefier version of the Ironmaster.

In 1964, Wilson and Arnold Palmer split up.  Arnold got the name, but Wilson kept the putter.  Renamed simply after its model number, the Wilson 8802 would rise in fame with the next generation of the 70s, Ben Crenshaw.  

Back in those days, when a player would use the same club for 20 years, Crenshaw’s 8802 would acquire Excalibur-like status and its own name Little Ben.  Like Willie Nelson’s guitar called Trigger, both Crenshaw and Nelson would claim that they tried multiple copies and versions of the same instrument, but it was just “not the same.”

Willle and Trigger - a Martin N-20 that he bought sight unseen

For whatever reason, the model 8802 was briefly discontinued in the 70s leading to a first collectible boom for that style.  It reemerged in the late 70s renamed as the Wilson Tour Special I. It combined the 8802 style with the 8813 top line ball marking.  It had a matte finish rather than a chromed finish and had its own particular 1970s style.

The model would run through most of the 80s.  A straight hosel version, the Tour Special II came next, followed by the Bullseye flange-evoked Tour Special III.  But change was in the air and the flange’s days were numbered.

An aircraft engineer, Karsten Solheim took the flange blade and worked to improve it by heel/toe weighting, therefore removing the biggest weakness of the style (the undefined sweet spot).  Additionally, he added a much larger and pronounced offset to keep the hands in front of the ball at impact, the second biggest weakness. His version of the flange blade, aptly dubbed, the Anser, caught on in the 1970s and went from a fringe invention to the new standard and the old style was on the way out.

At some point the patent on the Ping Anser must have run out and now every company has a version of that plumber’s neck, heel/toe weighted/ face insert, top line right on sweet spot club.  This new standard is even referred to as a “blade putter”. 

Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5 - circa 2000s - clearly a version of Ping Anser

Those players who came of age with the old technology, most notably Phil Mickelson, stuck with the style as long as they could.  New companies like Odyssey emulated the look, but added weight and more mass behind the ball. It appeared that the blade was going the way of the “woods”.

But the style like all styles never really goes away, it just circles back around.  

You can now buy a Ping version of the forged flange blade.  The artisan Scotty Cameron copied the look and called it a Napa and those are collectors items already.  Like a classic car, the lines of design from the 1950s and 60s are still beautiful, but modern technology adds a dose of reliability.  But you pull an old classic blade out of the bag, your playing partners will gasp in awe and amazement. I’d say that’s worth a whole lot more than $8.75.