Newport Beach

The Newport Beach line, as our record holds it, begins and ends with a single release: the Studio Stainless Newport Beach of 2003. It sits within the Newport family's long classic history on Tour with a winning reputation, as the maker's page frames it, but the Newport Beach itself carries its own signature detail that sets it apart from its siblings.

That detail is the slit. Verified specs list a slit cut into the face, stopping just short of the topline, a face treatment distinct from the flange work found elsewhere in the Newport lineage. The maker's page adds context on the thinking behind it, describing the slit as traditionally cut into the flange and moved closer to the face to manipulate sound pitch and feel. Whether that description matches every buyer's ear is the kind of thing best judged with a putter in hand, but the intent on record is clear: a deliberate change to how the putter sounds and feels at impact, not just how it looks.

The 2003 release was milled from 303 stainless steel, per the maker's page, and built to a 35 inch length, 71 degree lie, and 4 degree loft, all verified specs for this single edition. The maker's page also lists an original production quantity of approximately 100 putters, a figure that, if it holds, marks this as a limited run within the broader Newport story rather than a mainline production model.

With only the 2003 Studio Stainless edition on record, the Newport Beach line as we hold it is a single chapter rather than a multi-year arc. It stands as a variation on the Newport theme, defined chiefly by that face slit and its stated effect on sound, and by the small numbers in which it was made.