I’ve been chasing the perfect putter for years now. You know the feeling—one week you’re draining everything, the next you can’t buy a putt. It’s maddening.
Over the past year or so, I’ve put serious time into LAB putters. Three months with the DF3, six months with the Mezz.1, and about four months with the new OZ.1 HS. And while I loved certain aspects of each one, there was always something that didn’t quite click.
So I had a question: Would getting properly fit at LAB headquarters actually make a difference? Or is it just expensive marketing hype?
I took a trip to Eugene, Oregon to find out.
What Makes LAB Putters Different?
Before I dive into the fitting experience, let me take a step back and explain what LAB Golf actually is. Because if you’re not familiar, their putters look…unconventional.
LAB stands for Lie Angle Balance. And that’s not just a clever name, it’s the core principle behind everything they do.
Here’s the problem with traditional putters: Even when you make what feels like a perfect stroke, the putter face can twist open or closed through impact. It’s called torque, and it’s caused by gravity, head weight, and how the shaft connects to the head. Even tour pros have to compensate for this twisting, which means tiny inconsistencies in face angle at impact and missed putts.
LAB’s solution? Engineer putters where the face naturally wants to stay square throughout your entire stroke. They do this by carefully balancing the head around the correct lie angle, strategically placing internal and external weights, and aligning the shaft in a way that eliminates torque.
The result is pretty wild: The putter head doesn’t want to twist. It stays square naturally, without you having to fight it or make compensations in your stroke.
Think of it like this: Most putters are designed to look good. LAB putters are designed to perform, looks be damned. That’s why some of their models (especially the DF series) have that “spaceship” aesthetic. They’re prioritizing physics over aesthetics.
And it’s working. When J.J. Spaun drained a 64-foot walk-off putt at Oakmont to win the U.S. Open, he was using a LAB DF3. That’s about as real-world as validation gets.
Each LAB putter is CNC-milled and hand-balanced in Oregon. They’re not mass-producing these things overseas, they’re precision instruments built one at a time. Which explains both the price tag and the 5-6+ week lead time when you order one.
My LAB Putter Journey (The Good and The Frustrating)
Let me be honest about my experience with LAB putters up to this point.
The DF3 was my first, and I reviewed it extensively. From 10 feet and in? Absolute money. It legitimately felt easier to hole shorter putts. The consistency was remarkable, and that lie angle balance technology really does eliminate the face twisting that plagues traditional putters.
But lag putting? That’s where things got challenging.
The feel off the face was too hard for my liking. I prefer a softer, mushier sensation at impact, and the DF3’s aluminum body with its firmer insert just didn’t give me the feedback I needed on longer putts. When you’re trying to judge a 40-footer, feel is everything. Without it, I found myself either leaving putts short or blowing them past the hole.
Here’s what I learned: LAB putters eliminate so much torque and face rotation that they can actually provide less feel and feedback than traditional putters. For some golfers, this is a dream, as there are fewer variables to worry about. But for players like me who rely on tactile feedback for distance control, it creates a new challenge. The putter does what it’s supposed to do (keep the face square), but you lose some of the sensory information that helps you gauge speed, especially on longer putts.
I then tried the Mezz.1, thinking maybe a different head design would help. The lag putting improved, it was better than the DF3, but still not perfect. When I tested both on my Puttr system at home, the data confirmed the Mezz was indeed a better fit for my stroke. But again, I wondered: what would a proper fitting reveal?
Most recently, I got my hands on the new OZ.1 HS, which is their first heel-shafted putter. This was the closest I’d come to my all-time favorite putter, the PXG Bat Attack ZT. The fact that LAB could engineer lie angle balance with a heel shaft is genuinely impressive. It’s like golf club voodoo magic.
The OZ.1 HS was the best of the bunch for me, but it only comes with a stainless steel face insert, which is harder than aluminum. This mattered more than I realized at the time.
After a year of buying LAB putters off the rack at Golf Galaxy and experiencing these issues, I had to know: Does a professional fitting actually solve these problems?
Walking Into LAB Headquarters
When you pull up to the LAB facility just outside Eugene, Oregon, you’re not prepared for what you’re about to see.
This isn’t some boutique operation in someone’s garage. They’ve grown to the point where they’re manufacturing, testing, and shipping up to 2,000 putters per day from this single facility. There are people everywhere, CNC machines humming, putters in various stages of assembly scattered across workstations. It’s legitimately impressive.
Even more so when you find out that just a few years ago, this space was health club. In fact, they just got done filling in the room with the old pool to create their new R&D center.
And then you head upstairs to the VIP fitting studio.
The space is massive. There’s a huge putting green with various breaks and undulations, along with two different PuttView machines that project the ideal putting line directly onto the green. These aren’t just for show, they become important tools during the fitting process to help you dial in your reads and really understand what the putter is doing.
The VIP Fitting Experience
Here’s how it works: You get two expert club fitters working with you throughout the entire session. Not one person juggling multiple clients, but two people completely focused on finding your perfect putter.
I started by just rolling some putts, getting warmed up, and getting a sense of the different options. And let me tell you, there are hundreds of putters to choose from. Every model, every iteration, every shaft combination you could possibly want. I had no idea how much of a difference something as simple as a shaft could make in a putter. (Spoiler: it makes a huge difference.)
Once I was warmed up, they set me up with the Quintic machine. This is basically the TrackMan of putting. It measures everything:
- Launch angle
- Ball speed
- Skid distance
- Forward rotation
- Impact location
- Face angle at impact
- Path
- And about a dozen other metrics I’d never even considered
One of the biggest focuses? Skid.
We wanted to see forward rotation right out of the gate, which leads to a truer, more consistent roll. To my surprise, we didn’t get great results with the DF3. The numbers were better with the Mezz, but then significantly better with the OZ putters.
The OZ was the only one that achieved less than 30 inches of skid with forward rotation starting at zero. That immediately explained some of my lag putting struggles, if the ball is skidding for the first 30 inches instead of rolling true, your distance control is going to suffer on longer putts.
This is where the fitting gets really granular. We tested:
- Different head designs
- Various levels of shaft lean
- Multiple shaft options (steel vs. graphite, different weights, different flex profiles)
The shaft testing alone blew my mind. I always thought “a shaft is a shaft” when it came to putters. Wrong. The Accra shaft across the board was my favorite. It provided the softer feel I was looking for and helped with the overall balance of the putter.
It didn’t hurt that of their premium shafts, this was one of the least expensive.
After we had all the technical data, it came down to feel and confidence. Because here’s the thing: you can have all the perfect numbers in the world, but if you don’t feel comfortable standing over a putt, you’re not going to make it.
The Decision
From a pure performance standpoint, the standard center-shafted OZ was the winner. With that head, I could get an aluminum face, which would deliver the softer feel I craved.
But then there was the OZ.1 HS. Remember how I said earlier that this was my favorite LAB putter ever?
The heel-shafted version just looked and felt right to me. But there was a problem.
As of now, it only came with the stainless steel face, which was firmer.
This is where a fitting becomes more art than science. My fitters weren’t pushy. They laid out the data, explained the trade-offs, and let me make the call.
I went with the OZ.1 HS.
Yes, the feel wasn’t quite as soft as the aluminum-faced options. But confidence matters. When I stood over the ball with the HS, I just felt more comfortable. All the numbers were among the best we’d seen, and that intangible feeling of “this is right” won out.
Then came the fun part: customization. I chose from three different grip options and a variety of color combinations. The final result was the most personalized putter I’ve ever owned—built specifically for my stroke, my preferences, my game.
Early Results
I’ve only had one round with the new putter so far, but the results have been promising. The lag putting feels noticeably better, and I’m carrying more confidence on those crucial 4-6 footers.
It’s still early, but I’m optimistic this is finally the putter that clicks for me. I’ll come back and update this with more detailed results once I have half a dozen rounds under my belt with it.
Is the VIP Fitting Worth It?
Here’s the real question: Should you fly to Eugene and drop extra money on an in-person fitting?
First, let me be clear, the experience is genuinely cool. You don’t realize just how deep the rabbit hole goes on putter fitting until you’re there with two experts geeking out over your Quintic numbers. There’s so much more that goes into optimizing a putter than I ever imagined: head design, shaft lean, shaft material, grip style, lie angle, loft, insert material… the list goes on.
For most people? You’re going to get 85-90% of the way there with LAB’s remote fitting process. It’s thorough, it works, and it’s significantly cheaper.
But if you want that extra 10-15%…
If you want the experience, the data, the peace of mind knowing you explored every possible option…
…then yes, the VIP fitting is worth it.
My recommendation? Fly into Eugene and hit the fitting on your way down to Bandon Dunes. Make a golf trip out of it. Between the LAB experience and playing some of the best courses in the world, you’re going to have one hell of a week.
A LAB VIP fitting won’t magically solve all of your putting woes, but if you’re willing to drop a little bit of money? Honestly, it may just solve some of them.
I’ll update this post soon both with photos of my specific putter that I got fit for, as well as a performance update after I spend more time with the club.
