Ram was once one of the leading manufacturers in golf and in the company’s heyday it had more than 50 PGA and LPGA Tour pros in its stable, headlined by the great Tom Watson. In Europe, up-and-coming young superstars Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros were both using Ram equipment.
The company would eventually fall upon hard times though as the golfing equipment landscape changed, and after being bought and sold several times and briefly disappearing completely, Ram has been reintroduced as a performance/value brand.
Previously, the only Ram putter I’d ever used was the classic Ram Zebra which featured on our list of the 10 best putter designs of all time. The original Ram Zebra putter was huge in the 1990s and was used by Nick Price and Raymond Floyd amongst others. It has since been rebooted as a premium putter under the Zebra umbrella rather than Ram.
Ram’s new putter line up is considerably less expensive than Zebra and when it comes to quality combined with price, the latest Ram offerings compare favorably with any the best value putters out there. The Ram FX-01 is a CNC Milled blade putter that retails for just £79.99, which is certainly on the low side for a milled face blade putter.
My first impression of the FX-01 when I took it out of the box was very favourable. I liked the jumbo style black grip and the matching graphite shaft, while the leather head cover was really nice. It looked much nicer than I would expect from something in this price range. Upon taking the head cover off I was further impressed by the quality of the head. The black finish genuinely looks great and I liked the branding on the sole too. So in terms of looks, Ram has smashed this one out of the park.
When it comes to the tech side of things, in this price range I am not expecting A.I. generated face inserts and adjustable weighting like you’ll find in the ultra premium Odyssey Ai-One Milled Two T putter. Sure enough, there is none of that here as it’s a fairly simple wide blade design with no fancy tech other than the face milling.
In terms of performance, I tested the FX-01 extensively at home on my artificial turf putting green as well as on the practice green at Hurlston Hall Golf Club before then taking it for a spin over 18 holes at Berrington Hall Golf Course in St Helens. I used the best golf balls and given how many putts I struck with it, I believe I got a really good handle on how this putter performs.
Firstly I’ll address the one negative and get that out of the way. The sound of this putter is definitely not going to appeal to everybody. The noise was so high pitched and jarring that took me by surprise. What made it seem worse was that I’d spent the previous few days testing the Teardrop TD-7 putter which is one of the softest feeling and nicest sounding putters I’ve used this year, so that did the FX-01 no favors!
Onto the positives now though, and there are plenty. I’ve mentioned the aesthetics already, but I also liked how the FX-01 framed the ball at address. It’s wider than a standard blade (but not exaggerated like a 'double wide' design) and it seems to have more offset than I’m used to in a blade, but I liked that as it suited my eye. That’s very much subjective though.
The grip felt nice in my hands too and my overall experience with the FX-01 was a good one. The feel out of the center was nice and solid but off center strikes (particularly on the heel) did not feel particularly good, but then I would argue that they aren’t supposed to so I’m not viewing that as a negative.
It isn’t especially forgiving though and if you are someone who tends to miss the sweet spot quite often then you may get quite inconsistent results, but the flip side to that is it should encourage you to work on finding the middle more often, where you will definitely be rewarded. This makes it a good putter for beginner golfers who are looking to improve their stroke.
I terms of distance control, initially I had a lot of difficulty in reaching the hole as the FX-01 isn’t particularly fast off the face. That’s not a problem in the long term as all putters take some getting used to. I had to hit this a little harder than I usually would but with practice I became more comfortable with it and began to judge the speed much better. When I struck it well the roll was very true and consistent and as I‘ve already mentioned, the feel when it comes out of the sweet spot is pleasant enough. Eventually I even got used to the sound and stopped noticing it. It is very high pitched though, especially with premium golf balls such as a Titleist Pro V1 or a Callaway Chrome Tour.
Overall I think this is a great putter for the price point it comes in at. There are other head shapes in the range to cater for most tastes and I also got to try out the FX-05 mallet design which had an even higher pitched sound but performed really well for me. Neither would make our list of the most forgiving putters but a milled face and a premium look isn’t to be sniffed at for under 100 bucks and Ram has done a good job here creating a nice product at a very competitive price.
