Update: 4/18/18

Odyssey announced today that the three EXO models highlighted below — each with head perimeters made from 17-4 stainless, center sections made from 6061 aluminum, and “White Hot Microhinge” inserts in the faces — will be available in stores on May 18. Read below for in-depth tech information we gathered from the 2018 PGA Show.

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Along with the multitude of putters that Odyssey recently launched, the company had three new putters on its putting green at the 2018 PGA Show Demo Day in Orlando.

They’re called the EXO putters — at $299 they’re more affordable than the $500 Odyssey EXO 2-Ball — and the whole idea is to create a line of putters that has the ultimate in forgiveness. But that forgiveness is created by not only shifting weight toward the perimeter, but also by making center of gravity (CG) shallower in the club head, according to chief-designer at Odyssey, Austie Rollinson.

Here’s everything you need to know about the EXO putters, as described by Austie himself.

See all of our photos from the 2018 PGA Show Demo Day here.

The high-MOI, but shallow-CG design

Austie says: “The whole idea behind the EXO putters is to create high-MOI designs. The center section being aluminum takes all that weight out to redistribute weight into the perimeter. So the No. Seven (EXO) compared to the regular No. 7 is about 50 percent more inertia. That really gives you a lot of forgiveness on off-center hits. We got a new insert in it, as well: a White Hot Microhinge insert. It’s a firmer version of the standard microhinge. We got some feedback from the players that the standard microhinge has great performance, great roll, but it’s a little quiet, a little soft. So we wanted to get more sound. That’s why you see the bigger hinges on it, as well as a little firmer material… you get more sound out of it. But the key to it is that it’s designed to get more inertia for more forgiveness.

The other thing we’ve done, which we’ve learned through the years, is a lot of times you make something big, like in drivers, the CG gets deep because you make it bigger, and that actually hurts you for forgiveness. Even though the inertias big, if the CG gets too deep, actually the side angle goes up. So, on these designs we wanted to get the inertia big, but also the CG pretty shallow. A lot of these, the CG is about an inch to an inch-and-an-eighth deep. Versus some we’ve had are an inch-and-a-half to two inches.

Even though you have high inertia, you start losing forgiveness. That’s another thing we tried to engineer into these by using multiple materials is to control the center of gravity position and then enhance the MOI.”

A Toulon-like Indianapolis, a No. “Seven” and a bigger Rossie

Austie says: “The thing we changed from the Toulon (Indianapolis) is that we flipped the materials. On that one we had an aluminum face with a steel sole to try and get the CG low on that one. We flipped it (for the EXO) so it’s a steel front and an aluminum sole, and then some steel weights in the back. So the inertia is a little bit higher. The (Toulon) Indianapolis is already high, so (MOI) is about 5 percent higher, but the center of gravity is almost a half-inch shallower, so that really enhances forgiveness.”

“We’ve also brought the No. Seven design, which is one of our iconic shapes. And then the Rossie type shape. It’s a little bigger than the Rossie shape, but it’s reminiscent of that design.

So three really cool progressive shapes in (the EXO) line.”

Release dates and pricing

The EXO line of putters will be available in May, and they will sell for $299… a bit lower than the EXO 2-Ball that Odyssey recently released.

Austie says: “That one is (the EXO 2-Ball), we spared no expense to machine every part. It’s a very complicated shape. But, the result of that is a really cool, rich look. This one we wanted to make a bit more affordable. We know $500 is out of reach for a lot of golfers, but $299 is not that big a price. We’ve done a combination of casting and skim-milling on the bodies, then the tresses are all forged and machined. So that helps us make them a reasonably priced product. They’re not coming out until May.”

See all of our photos from the 2018 PGA Show Demo Day here.