THE DEEP DIVE: For several years, Ping has made its PLD (which stands for Putting Lab Design) putters available to its tour staff, with players such as Viktor Hovland, Joaquin Niemann, Bubba Watson and Tony Finau putting the highly customized putters in play.

Milled Putters A CNC milled putter is actually a putter that has been milled out of a brick of aluminum which allows them to be extremely exact, and more importantly, adds more consistency to your putting.

Phoenix molded the PING PP58 grip, both of which were designs used in the original model. 3M (St. Paul, Minn.), which supplied the grip tape in 1966, is the manufacturer of the grip tape in the new model. The limited-edition Anser is finished and assembled at PING's headquarters in Phoenix.

Anser. The winningest putter in history is updated using tungsten toe-heel weights to improve stability and forgiveness, and the shallow milled face delivers a firmer feel and consistent ball speed with pleasing acoustics.

They are milled from forged 303 stainless steel billets. The putters feature Deep AMP (Aggressive Milling Pattern) faces and designs tuned for speed, looks, sound and feel. PING says each head takes four hours on the mill to complete. Remember that stat when you wonder why they are so expensive (MSRP $485).

You may ask 'what does PLD stand for?' Well, it is in recognition of their 'Putting Lab Design'. As well as bags, we've also seen players wearing the PLD letters on their caps.

A putter with more visible mill marks will have a softer feel and more muted sound because less surface area of the face is being contacted by the ball. This lower amount of face contact caused by the valleys in the milling makes the putter head vibrate at a lower frequency, with the end result being a softer feel.

When you mill a putter from a billet of steel, the integrity of the material stays intact - you might compare the resulting feel to that of a forged iron (versus one that's cast). Milled putters require more individual attention and are mostly made by hand and in smaller batches instead of on an assembly line.

In addition, the Anser's straight lines and right angles helped golfers square it up easily. It was balanced, stable and more forgiving than any other putter going. Karsten applied for a patent on March 21, 1966. Exactly one year later, the U.S. Patent Office granted the PING Anser design patent number 207,227.

Throughout most of Woods' amateur days as a junior and collegiate golfer, he used a Ping putter. In his younger days - around 1990 and 1991 - Woods used a bronze Ping Anser model.

Anser Putter: Technology Triumphs. The putter's design was the first of its kind, featuring an offset hosel that provided golfers a clean view of the face. The cavity-back putter also featured a low center of gravity and lines parallel to the face to help golfers in squaring the putter.

Ping PLD Anser 2 Putters The matte-black head is designed to contrast against the short, single white alignment line to eliminate distractions and make it easier to aim. It differs from the classic Anser as it has a longer, slimmer profile which inspires confidence at address.

You may ask 'what does PLD stand for?' Well, it is in recognition of their 'Putting Lab Design'. As well as bags, we've also seen players wearing the PLD letters on their caps.

They are milled from forged 303 stainless steel billets. The putters feature Deep AMP (Aggressive Milling Pattern) faces and designs tuned for speed, looks, sound and feel. PING says each head takes four hours on the mill to complete. Remember that stat when you wonder why they are so expensive (MSRP $485).

Pitching wedge What other letters are used?

The first feature of a putter you should consider is the head balancing. Depending on whether your stroke is straight path or slight arc, you will need either a face-balanced putter or a toe-hang putter. Having a face-balanced putter allows the golfer to more easily maintain a square putter face throughout the stroke.