What Happened to Odyssey? The $130 Million Putter Brand Callaway Bought to Fight Scotty Cameron

On Sunday the fourteenth of April, 1996, Nick Faldo stood on the last green at Augusta National. The putter in his hands had come from a pro shop. Not a club built for him. Not one a company had paid him to carry. He had picked it off a rack at Lake Nona, in Orlando, earlier that year, and paid for it like anybody else. It was a black mallet, and the face was not metal. Greg Norman had started the day six shots ahead. He shot 78. Faldo shot 67 and won by five. The putter in his hand was an Odyssey. Fifteen months later, Callaway paid $130 million for the company that made it — a company the seller had bought for $17 million barely two years before. This is the story of what Callaway actually bought: a serial inventor named Jim Flood (the man behind the first graphite shaft), a 34-year-old president who didn't play golf, a $1,000 bonus check to a Masters champion, and a putter drawn by a NASA scientist whose bankrupt company became Adams Golf. It is the story of the White Hot insert, the 2-Ball that was supposed to sell 30,000 and sold 300,000, the rival across town named Scotty Cameron — and the day Odyssey's own chief designer went to work for him. Did you ever own an Odyssey? A Rossie, a Dual Force, a White Hot, a 2-Ball? Tell me which model and which year in the comments — and whether it's still in the bag, or whether a Scotty Cameron took its place. Subscribe for the stories behind the names in your golf bag:    / @persimmonarchive   Chapters 0:00 Augusta, 1996 [fill from final render] Two Inventors [fill] The Pro Shop at Lake Nona [fill] Seventeen Million Dollars [fill] The Hundred and Thirty Million [fill] The Crash and the Insert [fill] Two Balls [fill] What Happened to Odyssey [fill] The Thousand-Dollar Check Odyssey putters, Odyssey golf history, what happened to Odyssey, Odyssey 2-Ball, Odyssey White Hot, Odyssey Rossie, Odyssey Dual Force Rossie II, Stronomic insert, Jim Flood golf, Michael Magerman Odyssey, Callaway buys Odyssey 1997, Nick Faldo 1996 Masters putter, Greg Norman 1996 Masters, Scotty Cameron vs Odyssey, Titleist Scotty Cameron 1994, Austie Rollinson, Dave Pelz 2-Ball putter, Dave Pelz Adams Golf, Odyssey Jailbird, Odyssey Ai-One, Toulon Design Odyssey, Sean Toulon, Ely Callaway, U.S. Industries Tommy Armour, Odyssey #1 putter on tour, golf club history, golf brand documentary Sources: Sports Illustrated (29 Apr 1996, "Hot Stuff: $10 Million Putter"); Callaway Golf 8-K and press release, 21 Jul 1997; New York Times, 22 Jul 1997; Golf Digest, "The biggest deals in golf business history"; MyGolfSpy, "The Story of an Icon: The Tommy Armour 845s"; Golf Digest, "The PowerPod makes its return" (17 Mar 2011); Sports Illustrated (16 May 1983, Basakwerd putter); Reference for Business, Aldila Inc. history; Today's Golfer, "Inside Odyssey: Part 1"; Golf.nl, "Het verhaal achter Odyssey putters"; Forbes, "Odyssey Celebrates 25 Years as No. 1 Putter on Tour" (30 Oct 2025); National Club Golfer, "People you should know in golf: Austie Rollinson" (2017); ScottyCameron.com, Austie Rollinson profile (Mar 2025); Wikipedia: Austie Rollinson, Dave Pelz, Callaway Golf Company; Golf Digest, Dave Pelz obituary (26 Mar 2025); Callaway Golf press release, Toulon Design acquisition (29 Aug 2016); Wisconsin.golf, Sean Toulon profile; Motley Fool, Callaway Golf (June 1999); Topgolf Callaway Brands Form 10-K FY2024; GolfMagic, Mickelson 2010 Masters bag.