How in God’s name is this possible?! The New Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K: UPDATE w/ Video and Pics

It was the first thing I asked when first hearing what 5K meant. It was Sean Toulon who laid that bit on me in late 2021. “It’s a blade, though” I said, “I know” said Toulon with a smile. What I was to learn after simply spun my head around.

Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K Line Extension

So the blades were stable but how stable are the mallets?!

The new Tri-Hot 5K line extension which offers the classic Rossie, the cult favorite 7, a Triple Wide Center shaft and a Double Wide S took the stability in the initial and cranked it up even further. It’s hard to quantify just how much more forgiving they are in an article but in essence I’d say they took Apex DCB Irons and made them even more forgiving by adding an extra 5 pounds of muscle.

To do this the shapes will have a larger footprint than what you are used to seeing, which is oddly pleasing once you set them down. My first reaction when putting down the Tri-Hot 5K 7 was “that’s a big boy” but in the same breath all I wanted to do was go hit 10 footers with it. It looks incredible behind the ball.

So what we have now is a mallet in our classic shapes with all the feel and performance we have come to know over the past two-plus decades but in an ULTRA-FORGIVING package. You can’t make a putter OVERLY forgiving in my opinion. The trick is blending the tech in with the optics so that players can like what they see. In this case it wont be an issue. YES, it’s a bit larger but once you start hitting some putts it’ll look like the perfect size. Trust me on that.

Tri Hot 5K in a nutshell

The OG Tri-Hot was hands down my favorite putter performance-wise of all time. Introduced in the fall of 2000, the idea was to offer a premium, multi-material putter that created a new look at stability while maintaining the optics and precision shapes that put Odyssey on the map. I gamed one from 2001 until 2013…that’s unheard of for a gearhead like me. I had the #3, and if memory serves, it was the first piece of Tour Issue gear I ever got. It was at the then Bob Hope Classic, and a family friend brought me on the Callaway truck to check it out. The rep said, “you can’t leave without a club,” so he whipped up a putter, and off I went. I still can’t remember who the rep was, but THANKS!!

The Tech leap Odyssey has taken from the OG to the 5K compares the Zack Morris mobile phone to the iPhone 14PROMAX. The point is we have evolved…a ton.

What does 5K mean?

5K represents the number used to measure the Moment of Inertia, AKA forgiveness. Any strike that is not center punch will greatly affect where and how the ball will fly or, in this case, roll. Like your driver or any other club in the bag, it’s essential the clubhead maintains its stability through impact, regardless of how fast it’s moving.

“Using massive amounts of tungsten, we’ve developed an inertia level exceeding 5000 IZZ for incredible forgiveness that’s unmatched in the blade category, all while moving the CG closer to the face.” -OdysseyGolf.com

This is where it gets head scratchy for me. For example, I understand how all of this is done in a mallet-like 2B10 or OG 7. Those putters have a larger footprint, the CG is pulled back, and it essentially gives the putter a resistance to twisting that blades don’t offer. Until now.

Imagine having a set of Apex MBs that were as/or more forgiving than the Apex DCB. That’s what we are talking about here.

A 5K MOI number puts the Tri-Hot 5K #1 (for example) at a higher forgiveness metric than 2B10 and more or less every mallet Odyssey/Toulon makes.

According to Sean Toulon,

“5K refers to a measure of the club’s inertia. 

Simply, The higher the number the more forgiving the putter.

In this case, our putters have inertia exceeding 5,000.  Most blades are at least 20 percent less than that.  It’s a big reason why our performance is so much better.”

The Nitty Gritty:

I’ll leave all the tech talk aside here and just focus on what I have seen and experienced thus far.

The Tri-Hot 5K will make just about any golfer happy because it’s simply a cool thing to look at. Still, from a performance standpoint, it seems to work for the blade loyalists who want the mallet’s stability but have a hard time getting used to its optics. Take Min Woo Lee, for example, who has gone from a blade to a mallet for that exact reason; as you’ll see in the video below, Joe Toulon explains why blade loyalists will sometimes have trouble transitioning into a mallet.

I saw the Min Woo Lee Tri-Hot test happen firsthand at ECPC. He was hitting putts out of the toe and heel (on purpose) to see what kind of speed/dispersion data shook out. What we saw was actually fascinating; center toe and center heel strikes were extremely close in performance to what he saw with the center strikes from his previous blade gamer and outperformed his OG #1 across the board.

Check out this Video with Odyssey Tour Rep Joe Toulon!

I would encourage everyone to give this one a spin at your local pro shop or PGA Tour Super Store/Golf Galaxy etc. There is, without a doubt, something special here. I have seen more players instantly intrigued with the Tri-Hot 5K than any other putter we have offered. I’m in the midst of getting mine dialed in to recreate the magic of years back. The Tri-Hot 5K is simply a piece of technology that I have never seen. Yes, a few have tried the idea, but nobody has taken it this far with this level of optics and performance.

It’s built differently, and I suspect the 5K will continue to land in many bags on Tour this year. Every testing session I have witnessed, including Min Woo, resulted in a quick switch. Especially if they get on Quintec with Joe. The numbers don’t lie. Better is just better.

For any more info or questions, go to OdysseyGolf.com