L.A.B. OZ.1i HS Life-Tested Review: L.A.B.'s Biggest Leap Yet
I visited L.A.B. HQ and tested the new OZ.1i HS to get a first-hand look at L.A.B.'s evolution
The L.A.B. Golf that you know is becoming unrecognizable.
You probably met L.A.B. Golf within the last five years through passionate social media demonstrations that pleaded with you to accept the benefits of Lie Angle Balance and dared you to look past the odd-looking putters.
Suddenly, there’s more competition copying L.A.B.’s technology than questioning it. And now the brand that used to ask you to look past the design of its putters has released one worth looking at.
The L.A.B. OZ.1i HS, released August 26, 2025, is L.A.B.’s first heel-shafted putter. I made the journey to L.A.B. Golf headquarters in Creswell, Oregon, to find out how exactly L.A.B. created its first heel-shafted, Lie Angle Balanced putter. After two weeks of practice and play with the heel-shafted OZ, here’s my complete review.
L.A.B.’s Design Evolution
Not only is no one questioning the benefits of a zero torque putter, but everybody seems to be ripping it off.
As a brief aside, L.A.B. would actually prefer the zero torque category of putters use a different moniker, but it seems like the toothpaste is out of the tube on that one. I digress.
Those ugly putters that prioritize function over form? The function is still there, but they’re losing the unorthodox form.
L.A.B. putters have quietly been getting sleeker in recent years. The evolution arguably began with the Link, L.A.B.’s blade-style putter that, excepting L.A.B.’s staple center shaft and a not-so-compact blade length, is a fairly boring-looking putter, in a good way.
Then the DF3 arrived, a more compact version of the oversized DF2.1 putter that was L.A.B.’s flagship (also, spaceship) putter for years.
Most recently, the OZ.1 arrived, a half-moon mallet that, visually, brought L.A.B. closer to normalcy than any putter in its lineup.
But the heel-shafted OZ (that rolls off the tongue smoother than its formal name, the L.A.B. OZ.1i HS) takes L.A.B.’s subtle design improvements to the next level.
Inside the L.A.B OZ.1i HS
L.A.B.’s OZ.1i HS is breaking new ground with its cleanest design yet.
Yes, the OZ.1i HS is still Lie Angle Balanced. And yes, just like every L.A.B. putter, stock or custom, it’s hand-balanced by a professional builder before it ever leaves L.A.B. headquarters.
But unlike L.A.B.’s previous offerings, it’s heel-shafted and sleek.
The OZ.1i HS features a slightly redesigned head compared to the center-shafted OZ.1. And speaking of that head, because the putter is heel shafted, you can get a sightline that runs the entire length of the crown if you choose.
Those who follow L.A.B. closely know that the OZ.1 is available in two options, one with a stainless steel insert, the OZ.1i, and one without. The heel-shafted OZ is only available with that stainless steel insert. It’s simply not feasible to balance the heel-shafted putter without moving weight, in the form of that stainless insert, forward. So if you thought about waiting for the non-insert version of the heel-shafted OZ to drop, don’t hold your breath.
The insert gives the putter a firmer feel and slightly more ball speed, about 4-6% according to L.A.B.
Another element that carries over to the heel-shafted OZ.1i is the ability to fit a wide range of lie angles. L.A.B. can’t simply bend the shaft on the heel-shafted version to accommodate this range, because, again, that would throw off the axis of the shaft and the putter’s balance. Instead, it created a hosel mechanism it calls a riser. Using various length risers, L.A.B. can adjust the lie angle of the OZ.1i HS up or down. That keeps the axis precisely where it needs to be for L.A.B.’s balancing magic to work, while accommodating a range of lie angles from 65 to 74 degrees.
I was fit for a 66-degree lie angle, 3 degrees flatter than L.A.B.’s standard, and my heel-shafted OZ has one of the shortest risers in the lineup. If you end up with a more upright version, your riser would be noticeably longer.
And speaking of fitting, our visit to L.A.B.’s HQ and in-person fitting also proved to validate L.A.B.’s remote fitting system. Another player who was fit the same day I was, had experienced the virtual fitting months ago, and was prescribed the same length and lie specs in-person as he was during his virtual fitting.
Heel-Shafted OZ Performance
Up to this point, I’ve been gaming the OZ.1 all year (with the exception of a few rounds testing other putters). And up to this point, that had been my favorite putter, but the OZ.1i HS is better. Sure, that’s just my opinion, but here’s why I like it.
Heel Shaft
I’ll start with the obvious, but there’s a reason L.A.B. pushed to create a heel-shafted putter. It’s what most people are used to, and what most people prefer.
Sure, plenty of players over the last few years – myself included – gladly accepted a center-shafted putter as a minor trade-off to reap the benefits of zero torque, but the instant I put the heel-shafted OZ behind a ball, it felt like the best of both worlds.
Stainless Steel Insert
I had no qualms with the feel of the all-aluminum OZ, but the heel-shafted OZ with the stainless steel insert (or the center shafted OZ.1i for that matter) delivers a firmer strike which I found more satisfying than that all-aluminum version.
That insert also creates a touch more ball speed than the aluminum face, which helps me with my infuriating tendency to leave putts dying in the jaws.
Tailored Fit
It’s rare to directly compare two nearly identical putters, one stock, one custom fit, but that’s exactly what I did.
Compared to the stock OZ.1, the custom fit OZ.1i HS I ended up with was 3° flatter (66° instead of the stock 69°), has a slightly heavier head, no shaft lean (compared to the 2° of shaft lean in my stock OZ.1), a full-length sight line, and a stiffer TPT shaft.
This shouldn’t be surprising, but the difference is night-and-day better. The custom fit putter naturally sits flush on the ground with my setup position, meaning I get consistency instead of compensations on every putt. Meanwhile, the stiffer shaft and slightly heavier head (along with the firmer face) help me hit putts past the hole rather than leaving them just short of the cup.
If you think custom fit doesn’t make a difference, think again. A L.A.B. putter is a significant investment, and having it fit to your specs is the difference between having a putter built for your natural stroke, or compensating your stroke to fit your putter. Plus, after seeing just how accurate L.A.B.’s remote fitting is, there’s really no excuse not to get it built to your specs.
Customization vs. Personalization
Beyond the customization available to fit the putter to your specs, L.A.B. offers an insane range of personalization options. From a variety of head colors to choose from, to the countless number of sightline combinations, and personalized engraving, L.A.B. putters are fully customizable beyond simply building it to the specs that fit your stroke.
Hand Balancing
Here’s one more interesting tidbit I picked up from my visit to L.A.B. HQ.
I already knew every L.A.B. putter is hand-balanced, including stock putters off the rack.
But if all stock putters are built to the same specs, why hand-balance them individually? The answer revealed just how detail-oriented L.A.B. is about its putters.
Even though each component – the head, shaft, and grip – is built to a specific weight, there are small tolerances for each component, plus variables in each build step, that could compromise the balance of a putter if gone unchecked.
We’re talking about maybe a half gram from one grip to another, a drop more epoxy from one hosel to another. Maybe a touch more grip tape here or there. This might add up to less than the weight of a dollar bill, still L.A.B. excruciates over these details. That’s why expert builders maneuver those signature head screws to make sure every single L.A.B. putter is absolutely perfectly balanced before it leaves L.A.B. HQ.
That process – and L.A.B.’s unwillingness to compromise on any element of its putters in general – is part of what justifies the premium price of L.A.B. putters.
L.A.B.’s Evolution
In many ways, L.A.B. is still the same company that caught your attention on Instagram five years ago, but in many ways, it’s not.
You might still see revealer videos pop up here and there, but by now the people who have been paying attention aren’t questioning the validity of Lie Angle Balance technology.
Unlike year’s past, L.A.B.'s biggest challenge today isn’t convincing people that their technology works. It is (besides perhaps fulfilling the crushing demand), implementing its technology into new designs and new products.
I think that’s an evolution worth tuning into.