Method 001

The Nike Method 001 arrived in 2010 as the flagship head in Nike's first serious run at the premium putter market, a classic Anser-2 profile built, as our review noted, in a shape that seemed aimed squarely at what Tiger Woods was already carrying. Our review of the Method covered the whole five-head lineup, but singled out the 001 as the most common of the bunch, and pointed to the putter's arrival on the back of two 2009 major wins, with Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover both playing prototypes before the retail version shipped. That pedigree, our review noted, helped land the Method on the 2010 Golf Digest Hotlist.

The defining feature, per our own testing, is the Polymetal Groove Technology milled into the face, which our review described as a hybrid of insert, sound-slot, and deep-groove milling that gets the ball rolling almost immediately off the face with minimal skip. We measured our test unit's loft at 3.5 degrees, and made a point of noting that this wasn't a putter leaning on the old trick of building in just a single degree to fake a smoother roll. The maker's page, per 2ndswing.com, backs this with claims of more forwardspin than a standard milled steel putter, generated by that same Polymetal Groove system, along with internal weight shifted to the perimeter for added MOI and a heel-toe weighted head. Putterzone.com's account of the technology differs somewhat in mechanics, describing a polymer face layer designed to give way to secondary steel grooves underneath for a controlled forward roll, and lists loft at 2 degrees and lie at 71 degrees, with a head weight of 343 grams, figures our own review did not independently confirm beyond the loft measurement.

Our review also praised the bead-blasted 303 stainless finish for cutting glare and the magnetic headcover for its quiet, non-flashy protection, and flagged the price, 249.99 dollars, as notably reasonable for what it called a serious putter for serious golfers. Putterzone.com's own take on the same release was harsher on looks, calling out uninspired paintfill choices and ho-hum finish work, and elsewhere on the Community side the Method's styling drew criticism as either too underdone or too overdone depending on who was looking, with one putterzone.com commenter going further and calling the look a constant failure for Nike. Against the rest of the Method line, the 001 sits as the most traditional blade shape on offer, the head most reviewers reached for first when talking about where Nike was trying to plant its flag in a market it had struggled to crack before.