Having taken the world by storm in the 1990s the Odyssey brand has been on a little voyage into the wilderness of its own until it returned to prominence in 2015 as the number one putter on the PGA Tour, thanks mainly to the Odyssey Works range.
This featured a steel mesh over the renowned White Hot face insert to give a firmer sound and feel. However this slightly firmer sound did not appeal to everyone and as a result Callaway has removed the steel, but kept the idea of the mesh within the TPU insert to create the White Hot RX putter.
The White Hot insert was originally derived from their golf ball business and this time the Odyssey designers headed back to talk to their oval brothers to find the best face/ball combination.
They tried 17 different combinations and what they came up with was a face insert with a firm cover over a softer core to give the right balance of feel. The oval mesh pattern was then created on the White Hot RX insert and covered with a textured coating to help the face grip the ball and get it rolling more quickly to help it stay on line more.
As usual with any kind of pattern on the face of the putter, this makes it feel softer as there are less points of contact at impact and when it combines with the White Hot material then your ball is caressed firmly to the hole.
The White Hot RX does feel very soft at impact, but I prefer the feel of it over the Works RX because it is a bit more 'genuine'. The steel mesh was a bit of a half-way house and despite its success, did not seem to have a sound that was either insert or metal.
Unless you like the feeling of two cushions coming together, then you probably will prefer the White Hot RX if you play with a mid to firm feeling golf ball rather than a soft ball and any of the ones on the market will do here.
Given Callaway's current main ball offering is the Chrome Soft then it will be interesting to see how many people put this in play with the White Hot RX putter. When asked about this, Callaway weren't saying and pointed to personal preference and I would have to agree with them on that. I do like the concept of the White Hot RX insert though and a firmer version would be nice to see for softer ball users.
There is a wide range of classic Odyssey heads sporting the White Hot RX insert including a new model for the West called the V-Line Fang.
The V-Line Fang has been the top seller in Japan recently and comes in the men's models with the blue flashes and the women's range with pink instead.
I like the look of the blue, but the pink looks pretty good too and we all know that only real men can carry off pink.
The other models feature a few tweaks with the classic Anser style #1 losing the notch on the top line by the hosel and the #7 and #9 models coming with a deeper face.
As well as the standard Odyssey Golf Pride pistol grip, which have always been a nice size, there is also the option for an Odyssey branded SuperStroke 3.0 grip for men and a pink version of the SuperStroke 2.0 for women for an extra £20.
At the launch, the Callaway designer claimed that the White Hot RX is the 'softest feeling insert with roll technology putter in the market' and I think he is probably right.
Putters are very personal and with such a wide range of heads, then if you like the feel, the Odyssey White Hot RX putters are everything you could want from a quality putter.