Special Select Flowback 5

The 2021 Special Select Flowback 5 sits in the mid-mallet corner of the Special Select line, built off the GOLO 5 as its design reference according to the maker's page. It carries a polished head finished with hand-applied red translucent paint, a look that sets it apart from the standard bead-blasted Special Select finishes seen elsewhere in the family. The maker's page describes the back cavity as carrying the signature three red dot pattern, done with what it calls "a new look for the Special Select line."

Mechanically, this is a full-offset, mid-bend putter with a near-face balanced setup meant to limit toe flow, stainless steel weights, and an integrated 6061 aluminum sole plate for the underlying weight distribution, per the maker's page. The face carries a recessed milled circular channel rather than an insert. These are the same structural ingredients found in the Flowback 5.5, its slantback-neck sibling, though the 5.5's own archive page describes a different offset figure and toe flow reading for that variant, so the two shouldn't be read as identical performers wearing different necks.

Where the Flowback 5 lands in the broader lineup is as the rounder-profile, more face-balanced half of the Flowback pairing, distinct from the 5.5's heel-angled slantback neck and higher toe flow. The 2021 Special Select edition's contribution is largely cosmetic and material, the translucent red paintfill and the refreshed cherry-ring cavity treatment, layered onto a shape and weighting scheme otherwise shared across the family.