Introduction
Earlier in 2025, Matt Fitzparick moved from his long-term putter, the Bettinardi DASS BB1, to a new Bettinardi DASS BB48 Proto. DASS stands for “Double Aged Stainless Steel”. I wasn’t aware that steel could age like a fine wine, but apparently it can. Anyhow, if this putter was good enough to get Matt to move away from the style of putter he’s been using since he was 16 and the putter he used to win the US Open, then there has to be something special about it.
To go from the BB1F above to the BB48 Proto below is a big change in style.
It’s actually been challenging to find any photos of the new putter, and the one above is from Golf WRX. Moving from a flow neck, high toe hang, blade and moving to what looks like a face-balanced, mid-mallet, is quite a change.
Close to Fitzy, but not a perfect match…
The closest retail model I could find was the slant nect BB48, and I managed to get the limited release “Violet Haze” model. I thought it looked good in the photos, but when it arrived, it surpassed my expectations. This is a very good-looking putter, and hopefully it will have performance to match.
The combination of the bronze head and the black shaft is fantastic. The short slant neck has a full shaft of offset, and the toe hang is around 33° (which is a bit more offset and a bit less toe hang than I would ideally like). Next to the ball, you can see that this is quite a compact head shape. I particularly like the way the bumpers taper from the face to the back and think it creates a very nice look at address. This is a second-hand putter and is fitted with a P2P Classic Tour grip, which I really didn’t like. I do wonder if that influenced the performance in testing, but if I changed the grip, I wouldn’t be able to send the club back. My favourite grip at the moment is the SuperStroke Tour 1.0, which is slim and almost circular in profile.
How Did It Perform?
I tested the BB48 at the St Andrews Links Academy putting green beside the Eden Course. It’s a fantastic, large green and remarkably underused. This used to be the old 2nd green on the Eden course before it was remodelled when they built the driving range, so it is a mature and well-established green that’s great for practice.
Despite the nice photographs, it was a cold and damp day, having rained heavily through the night. The green was therefore running quite slowly, but it has now fully recovered from being cored and sanded a few weeks ago.
The BB48 went through my usual testing protocol with 6 putts repeated 3 times from 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 feet, followed by a lag test from 30 feet and a start line gate test. The benchmark putter is my SeeMore MiniGiant FGP, which only does the tests once.
Pros and Cons
Alignment (+ve): I really like how this putter sits at address. It gave me a lot of confidence in my initial aim.
Grip (neutral): Bettinardi usually come with a Lamkin Deep Etched grip, which is an excellent option. Unfortunately, this has been replaced here, and I don’t like the replacement, but that should not count against it.
Feel (-ve): This was the biggest disappointment. Regular readers know that I much prefer milled putters over insert putters and I was excited to test this one after reading lots of other comments about how nice Bettinardi putters feel. Unfortunately, I don’t agree and found that the face felt extremely hard, almost to the point of being harsh. The face is nicely milled and looks great, but it almost feels like a flat face rather than one that’s been milled. Note that I use a firm ball (ProV1x, Mizuno Pro X), and that will likely exaggerate the firm feeling of the face. If you use something softer, such as the ProV1 or Chrome Tour etc, then this may be much less of an issue.
Maybe this is why their professional players use their DASS heads. Perhaps they are softer off the face. The Matt Fitzpatrick prototype model also features the circular “Yes putters” style milling, as you can see in the earlier pictures of his BB1F.
Head Cover (-ve): This is an excellent, well-padded cover, but it’s REALLY hard to get over the head. Why, with a mid-mallet design like this, are they using what appears to be a standard blade cover? This is a premium putter, and I would expect a bit more thought to go into the head cover. Surely they could produce a more mallet-friendly option.
Performance 1 (neutral): On the putting green, it performed pretty well and edged the SeeMore on the day. Confidence with alignment helped produce a confident stroke and a good hole-out rate over all distances. Forgiveness is not a strong point of this putter, with heel and toe strikes being punished and feeling terrible.
Performance 2 (neutral): I managed to get this putter onto the Strathtyrum course for a few holes. I found pace control a bit tricky, but alignment was good. It didn’t inspire as much confidence as my SeeMore.
Performance 3 (negative): I was lucky enough to test this putter briefly on SAM PuttLab, and it did not perform well. I will write more about the SAM session in a separate post, but while my initial aim with this was similar to the other putters I tested, my stroke was very inconsistent. Again, I don’t want to be overly critical here, as I think a large part of the problem was the P2P grip. In a perfect world, I would have been able to test with the same SuperStroke Tour 1.0 that’s fitted to the SeeMore.
Price (neutral): This is a limited-release model that is no longer available, but the standard head is currently on sale for around £440. That’s not ridiculous, but it puts this into the same price bracket as a Scotty Cameron. Bettinardi are not a particularly well-known or popular brand in the UK, and I wouldn’t expect this to hold its value as well as some other high-end putters.
Quality of finish (+ve): As mentioned, this is a limited-release finish and the putter is second-hand. Given the wear I saw on the grip, I was very pleasantly surprised to see minimal wear to the finish of the head. I’ve definitely seen other “coloured” putters suffer from more wear to the sole than was evident here.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a high-quality milled putter, then Bettinardi should be high on your list for consideration (if you can find a stockist). While the feel may not be to my liking, your own opinion may well be very different. The finish of this model was beautiful, and I particularly liked the combination of the copper head with the black shaft and how they continued that to the head cover design.
This BB48 gave my SeeMore a good run for its money, and in fact, outperformed it on the day of testing. But it wasn’t good enough to make me want to switch away from the SeeMore, which has been excellent since it was added to my bag. Combine the fact that I didn’t like the feel with the poor performance on SAM Puttlab, and this one is quite easy to return.
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