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WRX Spotlight: Ricky Johnson Putters Wide Body Series No. 3

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Ricky Johnson is a man who loves the game of golf and has incredible skills working with metal. Johnson is a machinist and welder by trade and built his first putter in his machine shop for himself. He got requests from friends and soon a small hobby has now turned into a business. Johnson is proud to make all of his putters from the finest 303 stainless steel stock and machined right in the USA, Texas, to be exact. He takes pride in combining great materials, extreme precision, and attention to detail to make sure that every putter that leaves the shop is the best it can be for its new owner.

We got our hands on the Five-O-Six Wide Body No. 3 putter for our review. The Five-O-Six Wide Body No. 3 looks similar to a traditional Anser shape, but with a longer flange and double-stepped bumpers. When ordering your own Ricky Johnson putter you have a bunch of options, from finish to style of neck, as well as the standard loft, lie, and length you would expect. I went with the double bend neck so the putter would be face balanced, similar style to what I have been using for years.

Out of the box, you can tell that this is a quality putter with a great satin finish and minimal milling lines. Even without those milling marks, you can tell the putter is milled from the sharp, crisp lines and perfectly beveled edges. The face contains their “RJ” logo, a built-in Texas symbol, and their own GameFace technology milling. GameFace uses a combination of loft and geometry to help get the ball rolling immediately without the skidding and hopping of traditional putters. Keeping the alignment simple is what I like and Johnson nailed it with a single, thick site line on the elongated flange.

If you desire something different for alignment, or nothing at all, Johnson can customize a putter with pretty much anything you’re eye desires. The shape of the Wide Body No. 3 is very square with sharper corners and bumpers but for you who like a little softer shape, the Wide Body No. 2 is available as well. This putter came with the Pure Big Dog oversized putter grip and for me, it is a little too round and soft. Not a big issue at all since Johnson offers many other grip options when you order.

On the course, the Five-O-Six Wide Body No. 3 really performs well. I didn’t think much of the GameFace technology, but it performed as described and got the ball rolling smoothly right away. Even on these rougher fall greens, the GameFace created a smooth, consistent roll that was easy to dial in. Sometimes these technologies that help roll can make distance control a little more of a guessing game, but not with the Wide Body. Putts were very consistent and you never had one come off the face hot and roll past the hole more than expected. Alignment for me was point and shoot simple with the longer site line and the thicker top line. The combination of those two made it easy to line up the ball on my intended line, giving me more confidence that I could make the putt I was looking at.

The Five-O-Six Wide Body No. 3 is a really well-balanced putter, even for being on the slightly heavier side. Johnson’s putters are between 350 and 360 grams depending on options but it never felt too heavy, like you were having to control the putter during the stroke. Simply pull the putter back and let the well-balanced head do the work on its way through the ball. The feel on this putter is Goldilocks porridge perfect, not to firm and not too soft. Impact will give your ears a slight audible click while your hands feel the solid impact and the ball leave the face. This 303 stainless putter gives great responsiveness on all your putts, hit on center or not. Heel contact is actually pretty soft, just slightly more harsh than center, but the rollout and accuracy is close to spot on. Toe contact will give you a little more harsh vibration, letting you know you missed, and coming up just a bit short of your intended target.

Overall, the Ricky Johnson Putters Wide Body Series No. 3 is a great putter from a brand you probably haven’t heard of yet. I think they are really high-quality flatsticks, with lots of custom options, that you can tailor to fit your needs and wants. Make sure to check them out at rickyjohnsonputters.com.

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I have been an employee at GolfWRX since 2016. In that time I have been helping create content on GolfWRX Radio, GolfWRX YouTube, as well as writing for the front page. Self-proclaimed gear junkie who loves all sorts of golf equipment as well as building golf clubs!

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  1. Joe

    Nov 16, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    It’s astonishing to me how many makers still just copy the same old routine (Ping Anser).

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Whats in the Bag

Maverick McNealy WITB 2024 (July)

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Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 “Dot” (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD XC 6 TX

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X

7-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Red 8 X

Irons: TaylorMade “Proto” (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (46-10F, 50-08F, 54-08M), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-L @59)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putters: Toulon Design Prototype

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Check out more in-hand photos of McNealy’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Sam Burns WITB 2024 (July)

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Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond S (9 degrees @10)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 TX

3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond T (15 degrees @16)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Black 75 TX

Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Irons: Callaway Apex TCB ’24 (4-PW)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 56-14F @55, 60-08M)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 Tour Issue (56, 60)

Putter: Odyssey Ai-One #7SB

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align

Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X

Check out more in-hand photos of Sam Burns’ WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

Wesley Bryan on using 2 drivers last week and his “oopsie” hybrid

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from an article our Andrew Tursky filed for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over to PGATour.com to read the full piece.

It’s been well-documented that Bryan uses two 4-irons in his golf bag – including a Takomo 101U Driving Iron, and a Titleist T200 – but that’s not the only notable oddity throughout his bag.

As Bryan revealed on Wednesday, he actually played in last week’s Barracuda Championship with two drivers: a Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max, which has been his gamer throughout 2024, and a new Titleist GT2 driver. According to Bryan, the dual-driver setup allowed him to work the ball both ways off the tee more easily.

“One was a little more friendly to draw, and one was a little more friendly to fade,” Bryan said.

This week at the 3M Open, however, Bryan says he’s sticking with just one driver: the Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max, which he enjoys for its forgiveness, especially on shots that he misses on the toe of the face.

“The reason I like this driver so much is… a lot of guys hit the ball in the middle of the club face; and, yes, that’s probably the way you’re supposed to hit driver. I try to utilize a lot of the face,” Bryan said jokingly. “You see…my tee marks go anywhere from (the center of the face) all the way to over here (on the toe of the face). So I like to utilize about an inch and a half of the club face here. The forgiveness on the toe of this driver is second to none, and again, I hit it pretty poor, as you guys know, off the tee most of the time, although it’s getting a lot better. This driver offers a lot of forgiveness.”

In addition to the driver movement at the top end of his setup, Bryan has also introduced a new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max 3-wood into his lineup to match up with his driver.

“I had a (TaylorMade) Stealth 3-wood in there for a while, but I enjoyed the Ai Smoke driver so much that I got Johnny Thompson (a Callaway Tour rep) out here to build up a 3-wood as similar as possible,” Bryan explained. “This club was used just yesterday in a round to take some money off of Tom Whitney and Zach Johnson on the final hole. I drove it in the hazard, which is obviously not uncommon. Dropped it on a side hill in the rough from 265 yards, hit it to 10 feet… and made birdie the hard way. So this club, I’ve really been enjoying it; it’s been in the bag for about three weeks now.”

Bryan also uses a TaylorMade Stealth 2 hybrid, which interestingly ended up in his bag by accident last year.

“[My hybrid] was built just as a backup while I was waiting for my clubs to arrive [at the John Deere Classic last year], and I needed stuff I could go play the pro-am with, so this was just kind of an ‘oopsie’ hybrid… it turns out I love it. It’s been in the bag ever since.”

 

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Head over to PGATour.com to read the full piece.

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