This Zebra Continues to Change its Stripes

Zebra Putters’ revival continues with a family of clubs milled from soft carbon-steel

By Tony Dear

After Ray Floyd won the 1976 Masters with one, the Zebra Putter enjoyed soaring popularity which it retained well into the ‘90s following the North Carolinian’s win at the 1986 US Open and Nick Price’s victory at Turnberry in the ’94 Open Championship. The original design – a hollow, D-shaped, dome-crowned, face-balanced mallet with a removable sole and 11 alignment lines – was created by a gentleman named Dave Taylor who licensed the rights to produce the putter to Ram which then purchased the trademarks, patents, and everything else in 1980.

The Ram Zebra became one of the game’s most successful putters and it’s likely your father or grandfather has one knocking about somewhere. You may even have given it a spin at some point and been impressed with how well it rolled the ball.

When sales began to falter in the late ‘90s, and Callaway, TaylorMade and Ping began asserting their dominance, Ram (along with Zebra) was put up for sale and purchased by successful venture capitalist Rudy Slucker who also acquired Teardrop and Tommy Armour. Slucker’s previous momentum stalled, however, and the various brands went through numerous owners before being sold to Sports Authority which, in 2016, went bust leading to their acquisition by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

In 2019, English entrepreneur Simon Millington bought Teardrop, Ram and Zebra from Dick’s and, early last year, he was finally able to re-introduce Zebra to the world, launching the AIT Series (Artificial Intelligence Technology) that putter-making legend Austie Rollinson designed.

The AIT 1 was modeled on the classic Zebra but was significantly larger to raise its Moment of Inertia (MoI) and lengthen the alignment stripes. The AIT 2 was a fang design, the AIT 3 a wider, longer mallet with a hole cut from the body to both enhance MoI and aid alignment and the AIT 4 a wide-bodied Anser-style club. All came with standard 15g (and optional 10g and 20g) heel/toe weights and milled steel face inserts.

Each of the quartet of putters in the new series was designed by another great name from the putter world – Larry Tang, formerly of Odyssey – and all four are milled from a billet of carbon steel. They were supposed to be launched earlier in the year, but a paint issue, now resolved,  held that back a couple of months (fair play to Zebra for ensuring the putter was 100% ready before its release).

The Milled Series 001, though not of the classic Zebra shape, is an oversized, rounded mallet that’s available in both Face Balanced (360g) and Toe Hang (370g) versions. It has a single white alignment line in the center surrounded on each side by three grey lines. As with its siblings, 10g heel/toe weights come standard though 5g and 15g weights are also available.

The 363g Milled Series 002 has a fang design, while the 360g 003 has a wide-body, Anser-style head. The 350g Milled Series 004 also has an Anser-style head that’s narrower than the 003’s.

Being a Direct-to-Consumer brand, Zebra can offer these putters at a great price, though not being able to demo the club before buying may be a problem for some. Because of that, Zebra offers a 30-day free trial so, if it’s not what you hoped for, just return it as close to unsoiled as possible for a full refund.

Shipping is free in the lower 48.

$300
Loft – 3˚
Shaft – KBS Stable-Stepped
Length – 33”, 34”, and 35”
Available in right and left hand.
zebragolf.com

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