With the release of The BB family of Bettinardi puntersBettinardi unveiled the new Flymill variable-depth face technology that creates nine different grinding zones on the face to support off-center hits. The heel and toe have a bit more support to hold speed and launch lines, and the top and bottom of the face are milled to provide nice forward spin even if you’re not controlling your dynamic loft well.
But the real question is – does it actually help you on the golf course? This is what I decided to find out.
Short shots
We headed to The Crosby Club outside of San Diego to test the Bettinardi BB. I chose BB28 because I like a balanced blade shape with the face and the wider platform looks great behind the ball. Starting with a few quick 12-foot putts, things felt good. You can definitely feel the difference when you hit the driver off-center, but the support the grind provides worked well. The main thing I noticed was the starting line control. One of the biggest problems you can have with a putt is off-center (toe-to-heel) kicks by kicking the ball off-line on short putts. Whether it’s a birdie putt or a long lag second putt, you need to make sure those shots have the best chance of finishing in the hole, and the BB with the VDF grind kept things on track. Speed ​​isn’t really an issue at this distance, so it’s crucial to make sure the shooter is helping to stabilize your starting lines.
You’ll also see that at the end of the video below, I did some “cleanup” work with a bunch of delayed shots we hit, and the benefits became clear. I know I don’t consistently deliver loft on every shot, and that’s where the high and low grind points on the face help. Each putt still had great forward spin that held its line and took the hole up. I was hitting shot after shot so far off center it was actually laughable but I ended up clearing 7 of the 8 shots left on the field.
Medium range shot
As we returned to about 25 feet, speed became much more critical. Making sure putts were hitting the hole, especially having to climb a hill, was crucial. I recently learned a very cool speed fact from PGA Tour putting guru Stephen Sweeney. He said that a putt that misses low velocity (not enough) will be negatively affected more than 30% of a putt (too much velocity) that misses on the high side. So in the case of our mid-range, uphill shot at The Crosby, speed was absolutely critical. No amount of technology will ever allow a ground object to spin at the same speed everywhere on the face, but what we can do is make the bad ones as close to the good ones as possible.
Off-toe is usually the slowest part of the shot and I was impressed with the support the VDF face gave to these off-center shots. Again, if you watch the video, I wasn’t consistently handing the ball off either, and I never skipped or bounced the ball off my face. The grind pattern was responding to my erratic stroke and providing a clean spin. Will it turn bad shots into putts that go in the hole? No. But it certainly helped eliminate some embarrassing three-shots.
From long distance, speed starts to become less important. Since you know you have to hit the putt hard anyway, short putts won’t really be a big factor. However, how the putt initially starts to roll will have an impact on the ball reaching the hole. So while it’s not about speed necessarily, we’re still concerned about the ball rolling to the hole. This also happens to be my personal setup nightmare: delayed shots.
What we need to focus on is how the ball starts its initial spin, making sure it provides clean and efficient spin while creating a nice cluster that can be a two shot. Through eight putts I ended up hitting a bunch of putts with such confidence that I ended up hitting them all off-center again just to prove the point, and 7 of the last 8 putts ended up going into the hole for a two-putt from about 65 feet. For me? This is close to a miracle.
A close-up look at the nine grinding windows in the new Bettinardi BB 2026 family of machines.
Bettinardi Golf
Grinding technology is difficult
Technology and machine grinding don’t usually go together. The whole purpose of a milled barrel is to feel milled. It is not intended to offer a lot of rotation technology. Milled shooters, like Bettinardi’s BB series, are meant to look good, sound right, and deliver feedback. Only recently have companies begun to implement roller technology into their grinding offerings. The tricky part is making sure these grinding technologies don’t change the more solid feel players are looking for with a grinding offering.
I think Bettinardi has done a really good job here of staying true to its US heritage, and they’ve provided the discerning fan with an offering that really helps the ball roll a little cleaner, especially if you’re a player who often misses up and down the face (like me).
;)
