Method 004

The Method 004 is a face-balanced blade from Nike's Method line, built around the double-bend neck and the polymetal face treatment that ran through the series. Putterzone.com describes it as a face-balanced blade with three parallel sightlines along an extended flange, milled from 303 stainless steel with a polymetal face, milled steel with polymer. That same source lists a head weight of 343 grams, 2 degrees of loft, 71 degrees of lie, and an MSRP of $249, and notes the topline is beefier than the 001, a detail worth flagging since it places the 004 against its own sibling rather than the field at large. Best-putter.com's numbers agree on the face-balanced description, with putterzone.com adding the heel-shafted detail behind it.

Reviewers point the 004 toward a specific kind of stroke. Best-putter.com suggests favoring this putter if you routinely pull your putts or you're trying to produce a straight-back-straight through stroke, a line the site repeats when discussing the face-balanced setup on its own. Putterzone.com's read on feel is more particular: you still get nice click in the hands and ears, but there is very little tactile resistance on the sweet spot, particularly on the 004 model for some reason. That's an odd thing for a reviewer to single out on this specific head rather than the line generally, and it's worth noting as an opinion rather than something the Record can confirm.

Set against the rest of the Method line, the 004 reads as the face-balanced, straight-stroke option, distinguished from the 001 chiefly by that beefier topline and the sightline treatment along the extended flange. The soft, ephemeral feel praised elsewhere in the material tracks with putterzone.com's note about reduced tactile resistance at the sweet spot, though whether that's a virtue or a quirk seems to depend on who's holding it.