Michelle Wie made her first cut in a men’s tournament this weekend (historical!), and finished in a tie for last place (yawn).

But I’m not here to debate the relative merits of the SK Telecom Open as a respectable Asian Tour event. I’m here to comment on the putter Wie played – the Nike OZ Black T130.

I’m in the process of reviewing this putter for TravelGolf.com, and have yet to decide just how much I like it. I’ve had trouble with it in a round (admittedly a very early round in the season, when nothing much was going right in my game), but it has performed well on the practice green.

The thing I really LOVE about this putter though is that I can pick up my golf ball with it. I have grown quite fond of mallet putters, not least of all for the built-in alignment aids incorporated in their designs. But I HATE the fact that the protruding, bulbous back-ends of the putter heads don’t allow you to scoop up the ball off the green, flip it into the air, and catch it with an insouciance that belies the bottled-up rage caused by triple-bogey gimme your playing partner has just conceded (with a snide, “That’s enough” rather than the usual “That’s good.” Funny.)

Well, Nike got this part right on the OZ Black T130. Not only are their alignment aids, high MOI, and pendulum-swing-inducing weighting in this putter, but there is also a handy channel in the back of the clubhead that allows me to flip my ball up in the air while I give that snide playing partner the finger before I snatch the ball.

I haven’t seen whether Wie flips up her ball in this way on the practice green (yawn) or bends over to pick up her ball (hooray!).

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