Detroit Putter Company “Grand River” Putter Review

Detroit Putter Company Grand River Putter Review

Detroit Putter Company Grand River Putter
Grade: A+
Teacher’s Comments: The best putter I have ever used. Made In Detroit for real golfers by people who understand blue collar workers.

Detroit Putter Company

I borrowed a Grand River putter from the Detroit Putter Company in August and after playing it for a month, have decided that it is the best putter I have ever used.

The Grand River is perfectly balanced, beautiful to behold and deadly accurate. It really is quite remarkable. I’m dropping putts with it from all over the green.

My gamer has long been a Scotty Cameron Newport. My putter in my second club set at the cottage “Up North” is a Cleveland HB Soft. The Grand River would put either one of them in a corner of the garage. It is that good.

Precision milled from a block of 503 Stainless Steel, the Grand River is a classic Ping Anser style putter with material carved out from the center, leaving bulkier sections in the heel and toe. This design helps provide better balance and stability than, say, a classic bullseye putter. The Detroit Putter Company has gotten it exactly right in their design. Shots off the face go exactly where I imagine in envisioning the putt.

One of the most interesting things about the Grand River is the incredibly intricate milling on the face. I think it has a lot to do with the way the ball starts rolling immediately and precisely on line after impact. There is never a hop. I know the direction that the ball is going with the Detroit Putter Company’s Grand River; the only question is whether I have correctly judged the speed of the greens.

Where green speed is concerned, it is all about feedback. In my quest to play as many courses as possible (I have played nearly 300 golf courses in Michigan alone), I am faced with an unending variety of speeds and conditions. There’s more than enough feedback in the Grand River to help me adjust within a green or two.

Am I raving? Yes I am. Have I become an unabashed fanboy? Yes I have.

The Grand River is a bit heavier than a typical Anser-style putter at 370 grams. I think that contributes significantly to my ability to make a smooth and consistent stroke. For years, I played with a Boccieri Heavy Putter. The ridiculous weight of that club made it impossible to make anything but a smooth putt from the big muscles in the shoulders. The Grand River has a similar — but far less extreme — effect. I just smooth that ball into the hole with no wristiness at all.

The Detroit Putter Company may be new to golf, but is not new to precision milling. DPC has its roots in a family milling business that began in 1942 in Detroit. Long suppliers to the auto industry, the family developed expertise in engineering, tooling design and metallurgy. As a distraction, they occasionally milled putters for their own use.

After retiring from the auto industry, the family formed the Detroit Putter Company in 2022.

The company has several models — all named after Michigan landmarks. The Grand River, for example, flows 252 miles across lower Michigan.

Other models are the St. Clair, a mallet named after the lake; the M-10, a mallet named after a north-south highway in Michigan; the 313, a blade named for Detroit’s area code; the Ambassador, a mallet named for the bridge that connects Detroit to Windsor, Canada and the Woodward, a blade named for an iconic thoroughfare through Detroit.

Are there River Rouge and Eight Mile models in the future? I bet there will be.

The Eight Mile should be the funkiest design of the lot.

If you’re in Michigan, you can find Detroit Putter Company models at Carl’s Golfland, Miles of Golf and Boyne Country Sports. Or you can just take my word for it and order one.

I’ve got a hankering to try some of their other models.

Highly recommended.