LAB vs Bettinardi – Who Makes the Best Zero Torque Putter?

LAB vs Bettinardi Antidote, which is the best zero torque putter on the market right now? I test the L.A.B. OZ.1 vs Bettinardi Antidote SB2 head to head.

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i’ve had a chance to take a look at all of the zero torque putters on the market and I think I found what I think are the top two contenders the Lab Oz one and the Bettonardi SB2 these are the best zero torque putter offerings that I have found after testing literally every one there is to test and on today’s video I’m going to pit them head-to-head to see which one I think is best it’s going to be a lot of fun let’s get to work all right so first off I just want to get a little feel for both of these putters again because it’s been a little while since I’ve tested them and we’ll start here with the antidote now looking down at it this is the most traditional looking putter and I think if you are scared of the alien shape of a lot of these zero torque putters including the Oz one which they’ve done a better job for sure but it’s still kind of a weird look i think you’re going to feel pretty much at home with this one of course it’s still center shafted but I love the alignment lines my only real gripe is probably the grip being you know a little on the smaller side almost all of these zero torque options have a little meteor grip like a medium grip like the Lab has or even an oversized grip like PXG puts on theirs but nice clean look at a dress i’m about 12 ft out here let’s just see how it rolls how it feels nice roll on that one just missed that putt so a nice traditional feel and sound to this one as well i really do think Betard’s done a great job of again making you feel more comfortable more at home more like this is a traditional putter they’re doing it probably best in that department oh I just missed out on the other side now Lab on the other hand for the first time they’ve put this steel insert into their putter before they were all aluminum body aluminum frames and this was a collaboration with Adam Scott in order to improve the sound and feel of lab putters so now we’ve got this really nice milling and it is really an exceptional sound and feel I think now I’m looking down at this one again center shafted the other difference about this one is this shaft is actually coming out at an angle because this Lab putter is actually 2° pressed i’ve also got a press pistol grip on it so my hands are literally in front of the ball that is one piece of technology that I’ve only seen in two places lab being the first one I’ve ever seen it now PXG put it on their latest zero torque putter but it is something that you don’t necessarily get with the Bettonardi lab is also extremely customizable and looking down at this one I have a T alignment line but you can choose literally anything from like three dots to two lines to T’s to anything you could probably think of they’ve got now in terms of feel that has a nice soft kind of buttery feel coming off the face and again it wasn’t necessarily the same with their older models especially the DF2.1 and the DF3 those putters were a little mushier coming off the face this one has a little bit more of a clicky sound to it a little bit more pop and the feel like I said really exceptional something about the sound of that putter just sounds again more traditional as well so aesthetic-wise it’s kind of a tossup they both feel like a more traditional putter i think I probably just slightly ever so slightly looks wise give it to the Bettonardi but uh it’s hard to go wrong with either one of these so you might be thinking to yourself what is zero torque putters is it just a gimmick what does that technology actually do is it just a way to grab a few more dollars from me does it work and how can you test it well basically what zero torque technology does is it keeps that face completely balanced and by doing that it allows the putter to stay on plane throughout the entire stroke it’s not twisting over causing putts to turn left it’s not under rotating through the stroke causing putts to go right it literally stays on plane as long as you don’t add any torque with your arms now the best way that I’ve found to ensure this is by literally taking a very loose grip all right by doing that you’re not going to add any torque to this and I can just very lightly swing this putter and see that it stays completely on plane same thing with the Bettonardy now there’s also a device to measure this it’s called the revealer and if you were to put both of these putters in the revealer both of them you would see would not turn or twist at impact now I have actually tested some putters that claim to be zero torque on this channel and let me tell you they aren’t now the other way you can test them is literally by using what you’ve already got your finger and if I just twirl this on my finger you can see it doesn’t necessarily want to land in any particular direction not necessarily face up or toe down anything like that it spins fairly freely and kind of just lands where it wants same thing with the Oz one if we were to spin this around it will sort of land anywhere that’s how you know you’ve got a torque free putter and like I said I’ve tested a few on this channel that aren’t quite that way but is this technology legit you have to try it for yourself but after having tried it after having played with it for about a year I can tell you I’m a big believer that this is going to really help you hold more putts all right now let’s compare the pricing and the options available for these putters cuz this is very different now Lab is all about customization but there’s really two ways you can buy a lab you can go into a PGA Tour Superstore and just pull one off the shelf it’s going to be set up for a standard lie angle which I believe is 69 for lab and it’s going to have a stock shaft on it but the best way to buy a lab is to customize it and there’s again a couple ways you can do that you can go to a lab certified fitter and actually get fit for the putter or do what I did and literally send in a video they will find your lie angle and they will give you some other advice potentially on ways to really dial in a perfect putting instrument for you that’s going to come at a price though we’re going to talk about price here in a second but in terms of options those are the two you get from Lab now in terms of Betonardi really these putters are stock putters so again you’re going to buy them from either Betard’s website or you’re going to buy them from a golf retailer who’s going to have a few different stock options for you there might be a couple different shafts you can choose you do have the grips that you can choose at bettonardi.com now with Betardi you cannot customize the lie angle they have a standard of 70° so whether you buy it in store you buy it online 70° is what you’re going to get which is going to be best for the average person out there but it’s not going to be precisely lie angle balanced for you and your strokes that’s something that you’ve definitely got to consider but the trade-off is going to be the price the price of a betard going to be less than the Oz one 450 for the SB2 once you start to customize it a little bit both of these putters can get more expensive with the O1 you can customize shaft options grip options alignment options plus if you do opt for that online fitting it’s going to be $100 for that with the Antidote SB2 you’re going to be able to choose between a couple different grip options a couple different shaft lengths but really that is it but again it’s going to come in at a cheaper price point let’s go on to the actual testing next all right so this first real test here is going to be a long putt test and again historically the zero torque options this is where they’ve really struggled it’s harder to get the feel for a putt off an aluminum body again that’s where I think the Ozone really was leaps and bounds better than the Lab DF3 is on distance control and the Bettonardi again being that more traditional feel and look also performed very well in my initial test so let’s see which one does better here today we’ve gonna give ourselves about a 45-footer and let’s see if we can avoid the two putts i’ll start off with the lab here first now it’s true the Betardi is going to get a slight advantage because the second putt with the Bettonardy will have known the line a little bit better but this will even out throughout the testing here today so speedwise it was fair didn’t quite get that one to the hole and I now know that this putt does not break like I thought so like I said the Benton Art is gonna have a little bit of an advantage both of these putters have real nice pop coming off of them and that was a great putt i’m going to switch back to the Lab Oz one this will be a more fair shot for this one because again know the speed know the line and with both of them I did pretty darn well i will take one more here with the bet nardy but both these putters excellent when it comes to distance control once you dial them in let’s see if we can still make the two putts anyways I love tapins like that on long putts and we convert two for two with both either way but I’ll say both of these excellent excellent in terms of distance control here on the first test the other thing I will say about both of these putters and again about zero torque putters in general and if you watch my reviews you’ve heard it already but it’s a big thing when you’re taking a longer stroke it’s much harder to keep that stroke online with a traditional putter because it’s so much easier to miss your line take it a little inside take it a little outside when you’re taking a big long stroke on a long putt but these zero torque putters allow you to really not have to again worry so much about the putter path and really just to focus on again distance control and like I said with both these putters I think you’ll be able to dial in distance control after having used them for a couple of rounds let’s move on to the next test all right time for a short putt test critical distance obviously this is where zero torque I think really helps me out gives me more confidence because I feel like I can just take it straight back straight through and hold more of these putts as long as I get the line right so what I’ve done here is set up a little circle i’ve also staked it off here so that both putters will be from the exact same spot four different putts and we’re on a grade here which is going to give us different breaks some of these will be uphill and some will be down oz one up here first dead center again that’s where this technology really is an advantage I think because you’re going to certainly get it online more often takes out one of the three putting equations first you got to get the brake right you’ve got to get the speed right and then of course you got to hit the line this one is more downhill i think is just gonna maybe want to work slightly left right but it’s a fairly straight putt oh it went the other way on me i hit the line just it went the other way this one definitely has to go a little left to right yes sir so four for four at least on hitting the line i missed that one putt but the line was wrong let’s move over to the Bettonardi here all right so we’re going to do this again here with the Betardi now of course the Bettonard’s got the advantage because we know the lines for sure let’s see how it does putting him online woo i don’t know that wasn’t as definitive as the Oswan I don’t think oz one first one was like center of the cup that one That one was close that was perfect that was a testy putt on a sidehill all right this is the one where I know now it actually wants to go a little to my left your right all right i didn’t push that though i put that online i just hit that with more speed and uh again we missed that same putt twice in a row one more here to finish it off and we’re three out of four here with the Bettonardy as well again all four times I think I hit my line that one that I missed there again just it was speed so again there’s three components to making more putts and that’s why a lot of people think these things are gimmicks they’re not gimmicks they take away one of those components but there’s still two others you got to get right one of those reasons again I think these putters have a little bit more pop off them which gets them rolling straight those milled faces also put over spin better than the aluminum frame versions and all in all just two exceptional putters here from short distance all right next test up here is going to be the medium putt test for me this is a critical test because if you can see this chart on your screen a PGA tour player is going to make from this distance about 50% a lower handicapper someone sub 10 something like that is going to make these putts convert them about 40% of the time and a high handicapper is only going to convert an 8-footer about 27% of the time so less than 30% this is a place where so many of us mere mortals can make up strokes on the golf course and it’s a place that I really think the zero torque putters really shine and give you a much better chance to make them let’s put these two to the test and see who comes out on top now what I’m going to do here is set up four different stations and the Bettonard is going to go first it’s going to be the guinea pig on this first one but we are going to switch each station so some of the lab will go first some of the Bettonardy will go first and from 8 ft we’ll see which putter comes out on top all right bettonardy first oh I got to hit it a little harder I think and probably give it just a little bit more break so that’s what I’m saying there’s a little advantage to putt two here into the putter going second in the order that enough yes so when we know the line we can make more putts it’s nice to have a caddy out here but unfortunately I don’t have one of those all right so we know the line we know the speed now the Oz one should be at a little bit of an advantage here we were one for two with the Betardi let’s see what this one does there we go putt two here with the Oz one all right we’re going to switch stations here all right now for this putt we are going to be going Oz one here first all right I know the break now not as much as I gave it there let’s see if we convert on put two we do it’s such an advantage to know the line now the betardy is up [Music] yes all right so so far the Oswan has a one stroke advantage but there’s two stations left all right station three here betardy is up to bat first now downhill moving left to right do we give it enough yeah don’t need a whole lot of speed on that putt just got to get the line [Applause] right i go two for two [Music] yes all right oz one up next definitely know the line there’s really no excuses here as long as I can put it on that line that’s what these zero torque putters do best just like that destroying the high handicap average right now even the pro average yes sir that’s Wow i was counting my chicken before it was hatched there i thought that was four for four okay well we’ve got an even ball game here going to the fourth station now this time Betardy will have the advantage the Ozwan goes first i see this is a pretty straight putt see what happens see if I read that right straight putt the hardest one to hit but we do it on the first go and oh oh boy all right well bet Nardy’s got a chance if it can convert two for two here to win the medium putt test i thought that second putt was in did I hit it oh my gosh I left it short oh my gosh one more just got to get the speed so medium putt test pretty much in a dead heat they both perform exceptionally from 8 ft and again I think you’re going to shave some strokes with these zero torque options here from this distance all right so wrapping this one up both of these putters really performed exceptionally for me in all the testing I have done with them and I have tested them more than even what you’re seeing here today and I love them both they’re both like my children but I’ve got to make a decision for you and if I had to choose between my two children what I think are the two best torque free putters on the market right now I’d say if I was going off the rack if I was walking in a PGA Tour Supertore if I was buying off a website cold I think I’d be leaning towards the Betardi Antidote SB2 i just think it offers a great design it’s much more traditional in both looks feel and sound i love the milling i just love everything about it and what an exceptional performer absolutely a torque-free putter the Betard is going to save you a couple bucks off the rack as well because that retail price just a little bit lower now if I was going the custom route you’re going to run out of options with the Antidote and it’s got to be for me the Oz i do love the press pistol grip i love this new mil insert that they’ve come up with i think that offers much better sound and feel than what we got with the aluminum versions and the DF3 the 2.1 and some of their other offerings from Lab it is a fantastic putter and you’re going to have a bevy of options for shafts grips lie angle and the like so really honestly you cannot go wrong with either one of these two but those would be my picks depending on your circumstance so I know this is going to spark a lot of debate and I’m here for it i would love to hear down in the comments what you think let me know if you’ve tried both of these putters or one of them if they’re in your bag I want to hear it all i hope you enjoyed this video and if you’re going to continue the torque-free journey and want to look a little deeper into these putters I’ve got a video here on the Oz One and one here on the Betardi SB2 catch you back here next time on another edition of Let’s Play Through