2013 Bettinardi BB1

The 2013 BB1 sits early in what's become one of Bettinardi's longest-running model lines, and the record on this specific release is thin. Pluggedingolf.com's coverage lists the finish as a pewter PVD, which is worth noting here as reported rather than confirmed, since it's the only detail we hold on this particular year's execution.

What we don't have for the 2013 version is any of the maker's own language describing it at the time, or a Putter Talk review putting hands on it. The closest thing to maker prose in our files concerns a much later iteration, the DASS BB1 Flow that Matt Fitzpatrick used to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, milled from Double-Aged Stainless Steel with a two-tone black oxide and tour blast finish and the "pre-cursor face milling to our new Roll Control face." That's a different putter, years removed from this one, and shouldn't be read backward onto the 2013 release.

So the 2013 BB1 stands here mostly as a placeholder in the BB1 lineage: a pewter PVD finish per one publication's account, and little else confirmed. Readers looking to place it against later BB1 Flow builds, tour-driven and more heavily documented, will want to weigh how much a single finish detail from a third party tells them about the putter as it actually played.