Special Select

The Special Select line on our records runs to a single dated launch, 2020, with the broader "Special Select" entry standing as the general reference point for the family it introduced. That 2020 arrival brought eight models into the line at once, the maker's page listing Newport, Newport 2, Newport 2.5, Squareback 2, Del Mar, Fastback 1.5, Flowback 5, and Flowback 5.5 as the lineup. Scotty Cameron's own pages describe the individual heads with care: the Del Mar as "a modern heel-shafted compact mallet precision milled from a solid block of 303 stainless steel," and the Flowback 5.5 built around "a new slantback neck inspired by prototype putters made for players on the worldwide professional golf tours." Across the family, the maker's page for the Newport model notes it was "crafted from solid milled 303 stainless steel without an insert and with new performance balanced tungsten sole weighting for a larger sweet spot and increased stability," a detail that lines up with 2ndswing.com's report that the 2020 line was "completely milled, insert-free."

That insert-free construction is also where the record shows some friction in how the line played versus how it looked. 2ndswing.com praised the 2020 line for "expert craftsmanship and attention to detail" and a "sleeker updated shape," but also flagged a tradeoff: a "firmer and louder impact noise than models with insert." Tgw.com's Hatfield, writing about the Special Select putters generally, took a warmer view of the feel itself, noting that every putter in the line felt perfectly balanced during the swing, with distance control he called great and a responsive stainless steel face that let a player know where they were hitting their putts. Golf.com went further still, calling the Special Select putters "the perfect marriage of classic looks, shape, feel and renowned craftsmanship." Whether the firmer, no-insert feel reads to a given player as honest feedback or as a step away from softer contact is left open by these accounts, and it's worth weighing both sides before drawing your own conclusion.

Tgw.com's reporting adds a few more threads to the record: tungsten weights in the blades, stainless steel weights in the mid-mallets, and milling done in the USA, alongside its own count of eight putters in the collection, consistent with the maker's published lineup. The Newport archival page also points forward, noting that "for the current model equivalent, please check out the Super Select line of putters," marking the Special Select generation as a closed chapter with a successor named on the maker's own site.