Axis1 Joey Putter – Review

By Dave Wolfe

That’s Different. . .

This is the time of year in the golf industry when the skeptics and the idealists begin their annual battle of opinions. Some golfers really look to the innovations announced by the golf companies with optimism, anticipating that the new tech will lead to lower scores next season.

Others are skeptical of the golf companies claims. It’s almost like they feel that the golf companies have covert agendas that involve seducing golfers into buying products that they don’t really need by inflating their claims, lying outright, or just plain tricking you into giving them your money.

Be careful of that negative thinking, you may end up with an interesting new haircut.

I’m a golf gear optimist. I always get excited when new gear rolls out. Drivers, irons, or putters, it doesn’t matter. I look at each new club with the thought of maybe that one will help me play better. In spite of this, if you look in my golf bag, you will see clubs that are not recent releases. My driver is two seasons old, my irons are circa 2011, and my fairway released in 2008! I look forward to the new gear and designs, but newness alone doesn’t guarantee a spot in the bag.

However, there is no denying the spike in curiosity that comes for many of us when we see new club designs. Assuming, of course, that the designs are really something new. With putters, skeptics are often totally justified in saying “That’s just another ________!”. Feel free to insert anser, zebra, zing, 8802, or whatever model you wish into that blank. Designs that work tend to persist, and to be produced by various companies with minor tweaks to make them original.

Sometimes though, you get putters that are outside the design box. Axis1 putters fall into that category. They are making putters that are truly unique to their brand, with designs and features that could be easily called uncommon in the golf gear market.

The Axis1 Joey that we are looking at today is the latest incarnation of a putter design that Axis1 first produced in 2006. Mygolfspy took a look at their design concept back in 2009, labeling the Axis1 the Most Innovative Putter Design for 2009. That article predates my association with MyGolfSpy, and maybe yours as well, so before we get to the specifics of the Axis1 Joey, let’s look at what Axis1 putters are all about.

Perfect Balance

So what is perfect balance all about? With the Axis1 Joey, you have a putter that, like the other Axis1 models, is designed to stay balanced during the stroke. That means no twisting, or opening and closing if that makes more sense. Most other putters will open and close during your putting stroke, the degree of which depends upon features like toe hang, weighting, neck style, and so on. The addition of bulk to the heel of the Axis1 Joey, along with the small counterweight at the toe, allows the putter to set up totally balanced at address, and to remain balanced as you swing it, assuming you don’t try to add some twist to the equation. More on that later…

Specifications: Axis1 Joey

• Length 33”, 34”, 35”
• Head Material: 17-4PH Stainless Steel
• Offset: None, aligns with face
• Grip: Custom Winn
• Toe Hang: 12:00 (toe up)
• Shaft: Stainless steel with vibration dampening core.

Looks

The Axis1 Joey has issues in the looks department. That may sound harsh, but that’s not my intention. The issue is that the Joey just looks so different from anything else out there, with the exception of the other Axis1 putters. I score the looks as great and poor because people either seem to love, or hate the looks. There is no middle ground on this one. In terms of machining and manufacturing, the quality looks are spot on. Precision craftsmanship shows. The finish is bright, yet not glaring in the sun. It has many of the qualities that we all associate with good looking putters.

It’s the geometry that polarizes people. The Axis1 heel counterweight design that achieves the balance in the putter is the part of the putter that some folk just can’t overlook. It’s big and definitely present at address. Some found it distracting, to the point where they just couldn’t get past that visual element when rolling putts. For others, the visual impact lessened with play.

Feel

I didn’t really know what to expect with the Joey in terms of feel. After sessions with it, I would classify it as soft stainless feeling. It’s not crisp like many stainless putters, and it’s definitely not carbon steel soft. Smack dab in the middle of the hardness scale for this one.

The Axis1 Joey does have a very interesting feel component in terms of impact feedback. More so than other putters in recent memory, the Joey really lets you know if you have hit the center of the face. It’s not a click, but maybe that’s the best way to describe the on-center feedback. Maybe it is more of a click, combined with a ring, combined with a aluminum baseball bat hitting a wading pool of gelatin. I know that is a mess of imagery, but hitting the Joey’s sweet spot gives you a quick tactile and auditory retort, while feeling softer than impact on any other part of the face does.

Alignment

First, let’s look at the actual alignment aids. I like that Axis1 has both a topline and a cavity alignment graphic on the Joey. The presence of these elements are critical since the altered lines of the Joey’s head are different from your usual heel-toe weighted blade. Personally, one of my tried and true alignment techniques for Anser-style heads is lining up the edges of the cavity with the target line. With the Joey, this works on the toe end, but the little nub toward the heel end is just not the same visually as a full-sized heel bumper.

Once again though, at address, we must address the impact of the Joey’s atypical head architecture. If you hold your hand over the above photo, covering the heel portion of the putter, the Joey looks like any other heel/toe weighted blade, perhaps having a thinner profile than usual. Now cover up the toe end. You really can’t say like any other with that heel section. It is visually very different, and as we know, distracting visual elements at address will effect alignment and ultimately accuracy.

For some of our testers, the alignment T was bold enough that they could overlook the heel geometry. For others, that predominant heel was too much visually to feel confident in aiming the Joey.

Performance

Atypical looks aside, what it really comes down to is how well the putter gets that ball to the hole. Love of appearance can quickly turn to hate if your coveted new flatstick can’t find cup. As we all know, looks are subjective anyway, varying greatly from person to person. As always, MyGolfSpy doesn’t base our putter performance scores on opinions. We base it upon data. Here is how the Axis1 Joey scored:

A score of 76 places the Axis1 Joey right with the bulk of the putters that we tested this year in the 2013 MyGolfSpy Most Wanted Blade Test. It scored better that some, worse than others. It would seem that the unique torque balance nature of the Joey was not enough to separate it from the other putter peers.

Part of the reason for this likely comes from the simple fact that the Joey looks different, and plays different than other putters in the golf marketplace. It’s not a huge jump for a tester to go from an Anser to a Newport, but an Anser to the Joey is a big jump. There are a couple of specific features that I think explain the lower than expected score.

Counterweighted Heel Geometry

I have mentioned this heel bulge more than once in this article. I’m willing to bet that it jumped out at you in some of the photos as well. Did you notice it? Our testers sure did. To have this piece of metal extending in front of the face was unnerving for some. One of our guys kept commenting that he thought he was going to hit it each time he putted. That kind of mental discord is not going to produce solid numbers. I played quite a few rounds with the Joey, and I can attest that like with the Futura X, the initially obtrusive geometry fades from consciousness with familiarity. Testers don’t have that luxury of exposure.

Torque Balance and Shaft Alignment

Again, one of the fundamental features of the Joey could be responsible for its scoring issues. Think of it this way, how many of you have rolled a zero offset, torque balanced putter? It’s different. I know that I keep saying that, but it is. Your putter has some built in rotation in its design. If you have played with it for a considerable period of time, that rotation has become part of your putting. Take that familiar putter rotation away, or worse, try to force rotation on a non-rotating putter, and things will go wrong in a hurry.

I can only share my experiences with you, but as soon as I really focused upon not manipulating the Joey’s face angle during the stroke, accuracy jumped by a large margin. On my practice green in my garage, 9′ putts quickly went from miss most to make most.

Overall, I think that anyone’s accuracy with the Joey will improve with familiarity. What could be an issue for Axis1 sales though is that it may take more than a casual couple of putts in a shop’s putter corral for this improvement to happen. My gut says that there is real significance to the Axis1 design, but that the average golfer will need a bit of education to use one effectively. Hopefully shop pros are clued into what Axis1 putters are all about and can help educate their customers.

So Would I Rate The Axis1 Joey as “Play” or “Pass”

In the spirit of total honesty, my initial take on the Axis1 Joey was pass. Now I lean much more toward play. What changed my mind on this putter was specifically how it plays. I am still not a fan of the looks of the Joey, but I don’t think that anyone is buying this putter to hang it on the wall for viewing pleasure. Once I really spent some time putting with the Joey, and tuned into what the design is all about, my precision and enjoyment putting with the Joey went up significantly.

I would relate the experience to the similar one that I had when I first rolled SeeMore putters. Being unfamiliar with the intended mechanics of the SeeMore RST and overall SeeMore putting style, I putted terribly with their putters. Once I learned the SeeMore style, the SeeMore putter became a whole different tool.

That’s what I feel will happen with the Joey for most people. You probably won’t grab this putter and immediately start sinking everything. However, if you head to the Axis1 site, and research what the putter is all about, then I would expect that your putting with the Joey, or with the other Axis1 models will improve past your un-Axis1-educated attempts. Regardless, these are worth a roll.