Squareback 1

The Squareback 1 entered the Studio Select line in 2008 as a graduation, not an invention. Scotty Cameron's own page on it is direct about the lineage: it became "a Studio Select production model after a season on the PGA Tour as an Xperimental Prototype," fine-tuned with "a double bend shaft-over-spud setup for those seeking a nearly face-balanced mallet." The maker's page ties its look explicitly to the Newport, noting it "will remind players of the Newport head style with its familiar lines," while giving the head its own identity through what the maker calls its "signature square flange," the feature that supplies the name.

Golfmonthly.com's review of the 2008 release focused on feel over first impressions. The reviewer admitted going in with low expectations, saying they hadn't initially expected much, by their own account a product of a general dislike of large-headed putters. That skepticism gave way once the putter was in hand: "If you were to ask me which one of these putters I would stash under my jacket at the end of today, I would have to go for the Squareback 1, if only for its superior feel." The same outlet's reporting also described a raised toe profile, a slightly thicker topline than others in the Studio Select range, and different interchangeable weights owing to the wider profile, details attributed to golfmonthly.com rather than confirmed by the maker.

By 2011, the Squareback 1 returned largely as it had arrived. The maker's page for that release repeats the same design language nearly verbatim, the same "signature square flange," the same "bold, Tour-inspired Cherry Dot graphics," the same "nearly face-balanced mallet" built on a "double bend shaft-over-spud" neck. Head weight is described as matching "other Studio Select models," and the face remains "precision milled 303 stainless steel." Whatever changed between the two releases, the core geometry and the language the maker uses to describe it did not.

The record here holds two releases, 2008 and 2011, both carrying the square flange that named the model and the Newport-adjacent lines that the maker points to as its inspiration. Beyond that, a 2019 press piece on the broader Select lineup notes the later arrival of a related but distinct model, the Squareback 1.5, introduced alongside the Select Fastback 2 with its own mini-slant neck and updated draft angle, a separate line from the one this record follows here.