L.A.B. Golf unveils OZ.1i HS, its first heel-shafted putter with Lie Angle Balance

AI-assisted summary
• L.A.B. Golf's OZ.1i HS is a heel-shafted mallet putter designed for stability and a traditional look.
• It utilizes lie angle balance technology to keep the putter face square to the stroke path, regardless of putting style.
• The aluminum head and stainless-steel face insert provide a crisp feel and sound at impact.
• Available in various lie angles (65-74 degrees), each with a specifically designed riser to maintain balance.

Gear: L.A.B. OZ.1i HS putter

Price: $499 (stock), $599 and up (custom)

Specs: Aluminum body mallet putter with stainless-steel face insert. Available in 10 lie-angle configurations (65 to 74 degrees).

Who it’s for: Golfers who like the traditional look and flow of a heel-shafted mallet with little to no face rotation and enhanced stability.

What you should know: The OZ.1i HS is L.A.B. Golf’s first heel-shafted putter to feature the company’s lie angle balance technology.

The deep dive: The team at L.A.B. Golf reads all the feedback submitted about its putters on social media and the brand's website, and people in the Creswell, Oregon, headquarters have learned that most golfers fall into one of two camps: those willing to use a nontraditional-looking putter if it helps them make more putts and have more fun, and those who can’t get past the look of models like the DF 2.1 and DF3.

With the release of the OZ.1 and OZ.1i last November (a pair of center-shafted, semicircular mallets), the brand introduced a more traditional-looking option. Still, some golfers hesitated because of the center-shafted design.

For them, and for anyone who prefers a more conventional appearance but still wants the performance benefits of L.A.B. Golf’s weighting and balance systems, there’s the new OZ.1i HS—the company’s first heel-shafted mallet.

At the heart of the OZ.1i HS (HS stands for heel shafted) is lie angle balance technology, a weighting system that keeps the putter face square to the stroke path. Whether you have a strong arc, a slight arc or a straight putting stroke, this design helps return the face to the ball squarely, and that should lead to more putts rolling on your intended line and enhanced consistency.

The head of the OZ.1i HS is identical to that of the OZ.1i. It’s milled from aluminum and fitted with a fly-milled, stainless steel face insert to deliver a crisper sound and feel at impact compared to L.A.B.’s all-aluminum models. To preserve proper balance with a heel-shafted design, engineers developed a proprietary aluminum hosel system that L.A.B. refers to as a riser.

After extensive testing, the team selected aluminum over steel to reduce heel-side mass and prevent shifting the ideal strike point too far toward the heel. But the riser’s most unique trait is that it changes size depending on the putter’s lie angle. Why? To maintain lie angle balance, the shaft’s axis must align with the center of gravity, which is behind the center of the face. That’s relatively easy with a center-shafted design, but with a heel-shafted putter, the angle of the shaft axis moves based on lie angle: upright heads shift the shaft axis toward the heel, while flatter lie angles move it toward the toe.

To allow the company to offer a heel-shafted putter in more than one lie angle (while maintaining lie-angle balance), L.A.B. engineers crafted risers of different heights. Taller risers are used for more upright builds, while flatter putters receive lower-profile risers. The OZ.1i HS is available in lie angles from 65 to 74 degrees, and each version is built so the shaft axis extends through the putter’s center of gravity.

In the address position, all the OZ.1i HS putters look the same; you can't tell that one putter's riser is longer or shorter than another. Like other L.A.B putters, the OZ.1i HS has on-set, so the face protrudes toward the target side of the shaft instead of being positioned behind it, but that helps to create an unobstructed view of the ball. And, with the heel-shafted design, golfers now get an unobstructed view of the middle and back of the head when they look down at a putt.

Like other L.A.B. putters, the OZ.1i HS is offered in a stock version or fully customized offerings. Through custom order, golfers can select head weight, color, alignment system, shaft type, grip and more to tailor the OZ.1i HS to their stroke and preferences.