Bettinardi BB Series putters for 2026: What you need to know

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Bettinardi BB Series, the classic one-piece milled shapes that have been the touchstone for the company’s putter line for more than two decades, takes a modern technology step forward for 2026. Each model sports a redesigned milling pattern on the face that features a range of variable depths and pattern densities in an effort to modulate ball speeds for more consistent distance control regardless of where impact occurs.

PRICE: $500. Models: 6. Blades: BB-1, BB-8W, BB-28 (also in armlock); Mallets: BB-49, BB-6.0 (Spud and Mini Plumber’s necks), BB-7.0. Lengths: 33-42 inches. Pre-order: Jan. 20, at retail early February.3 Cool Things

1. Not just a pretty face. Bettinardi’s BB Series has led the vanguard of high-end, jewelry-like milled putters for more than a quarter century (the first BB putter was launched in 1999). While these precisely milled putters have experimented with feel-based technologies a time or two, their intent largely has been to perfect the look and feel of a one-piece milled design. No face inserts here, no grooves, either, largely as the juice commercial used to say, “simply unfooled around with.” The 2026 BB line, however, looks toward new possibilities.

Beyond the feel of its milled design, the face texture on the new BB Series models covers nine separate regions across the face with distinct depths and densities, what the company is calling variable depth flymill. The nine regions in a checkerboard pattern include varying swirls and crosshatch patterns in a range of depths that runs from eight-thousandths to eighteen-thousandths of an inch. The deeper regions are in the center and low-center of the face, while the lightest are in the high heel and toe. The idea with variable depth is to create consistency of impact and energy transfer, said Sam Bettinardi, company president.

“Those hits toward the heel and toe are affecting not only the speed of the ball, but the spin, and that’s affecting the rollout” he said. “By changing the depth of the fly mill, we've kind of mitigated the loss of smash factor, which is essentially ball speed.”

Bettinardi said its own testing of its new “variable depth flymill face (compared to a standard flymill) showed that the standard deviation of heel and toe hits vs. center hits was 30 percent tighter, while spin consistency improved more than 40 percent."

2. Still true to its name. Of course, don’t think for a minute that the BB Series has forgotten about balancing its new science with its old art. These models will still exhibit the classic blade and traditional mallet shapes the company has been producing for years, and doing so at its CNC milling operation in Tinley Park, Ill., outside Chicago. Each of the heads is milled from a solid block of 303 stainless steel in a one-piece design. That’s the steel preferred by tour players who’ve used Bettinardi putters through the years, including staffer Matt Fitzpatrick. The tint on the finish is a distinct darker azure that the company calls Savannah Blue, and there are white paint fill alignment markings and aesthetic trim. The blades offer different blade widths, softer curves or crisper angles, while the mallets incorporate selective hollowed out regions in the sole to redistribute mass to the perimeter for more stability on off-center hits.

3. Options. While there are six different shapes across the BB lineup for 2026 (three blades, three mallets), the family includes four neck options (spud, plumber’s, mini plumber’s, slant). As well, the company continues its development of the overlength category with an armlock option on the BB-28 widebody blade. That model is built with a 400-gram head, shaft lengths that stretch to 42 inches and the option of a 17-inch grip to facilitate a more natural setup position. Meanwhile, the BB-6.0, an almost traditional parallel winged mallet, comes with the option of either a spud or mini-plumber’s neck to fit distinctly different toe hangs for both straighter and arcing strokes.