Product Review: MLA Golf Tour Classic Black Edition

You’ve done everything right. You’ve taken the time to read the break from multiple angles, have the speed dialed in and make the perfect stroke. Somehow, you still missed the putt. Frustrating, but avoidable.

You can have all the pertinent information at your disposal, but if your aim is off, you’re not going to drain the putt. Unfortunately, traditional putters do little to assist with aim. Most just have a notch or single line on the head to point you in the right direction.

MLA Golf has a solution - Multiple Line-detector Activation. This Swiss company activates the “maximum number of coordinated detectors for optimal aiming judgment.”

According to Dr. Lennart Högman, Ph.D., who has studied the science between the human’s perceptions and their motor skills, having more than one line is ideal.

“An alignment system that acts upon multiple line detectors is a key to obtain veridical motion perception and a perfect in-line stroke surface.”

MLA explains it like this: “The brain consists of 100,000 line detectors that are divided into a number of groups that help us decide what is straight. A simple line, for example, activates a group of detectors. When several groups of detectors are activated, these help the brain to make correct judgments.”

Merely adding more detectors is not necessarily better, however. Too many can create a “competition” between the line detectors that will lead to different degrees of (so called) optical illusions. The simple three-part bracket-like marking on top of the MLA putter helps your eye zone in on the correct line.

Having suffered from poor aim in recent years, I took the MLA Tour Classic (Black Edition) out for some tests. This full-milled beauty has a sleek look and buttery soft feel. Strike the ball on the large sweet soft and there’s zero vibration and the faintest of sound.

I feel as though the thick, white paint running perpendicular to the putting line benefited me most. In conjunction with the alignment mark on my ball, I was confident in my aim for the first time in many months.

The head weight of the Tour Classic is substantial - 384g - which is nice. Considering standard putters generally fall in the 330-350g range, while heavy putters are in excess of 450g, MLA fits nicely in the middle. If you want to add weight, however, it’s easy. Simply remove the 5g weights and replace them with 10g or 15g weights to customize the putter to your needs.

Check out www.mla.golf to view the entire line of putters - blades and mallets. Prices range from $99 to $399. The MLA Tour Classic (Black Edition) sells for $349.