While LAB Golf’s usage on the PGA Tour has stabilized somewhat from the surge of a few years ago, it doesn’t take much for any of their new putters to earn wins on the PGA Tour.
Case and point was Austin Smotherman’s win this weekend to the Utah Bank Championshipto handle The new VZN.1i from LAB (pronounced Vision One Eye) putter.
U VZN.1i was released in June and is LAB’s most forgiving design since the original Directed Force 2.1 putter. However, the main features of the design are the strong visual cues that make the putter super easy to line up.
VZN.1i It also has a unique new shape to help golfers feel more confident that the putter is aligned where they want it.
Smotherman has been using a LAB putter since last season. He switched to the OZ.1 in June 2025 and used that putter to finish T2 at the Cognizant Classic in March of this year, shortly before formally signing on as an ambassador for the company, becoming only the second pro to do so.
But during his “offseason” between the Wyndham Championship and his first start of the fall at the Biltmore Championship Asheville, Smotherman went to LAB headquarters in Oregon to get in shape again for a LAB putter. He also said this season was his first job with Josh Gregory as his putting coach.
“I flew to Eugene, Oregon to get in shape at the LAB studio here, saw their headquarters where they produce every custom putter in the country, like 1,200 putters a day or something like that. It’s wild,” Smotherman said Friday after his PGA Tour-low 62 in the second round. “But I went through a whole putter fitting and ended up in the putter I’m playing now. I played it a week before Asheville and so it’s my second week in the tournament playing with it. So it’s pretty cool.”
Smotherman put in a solid performance on the greens over the first three rounds in Utah, collecting 5.3 strokes gained and finishing 20th in the category while securing his first PGA Tour victory.
Austin Smotherman’s LAB Golf VZN.1i Specs
It’s impossible to get it right if your goal is askew. A lot of players know that their aim is flawed. Others think their goal is true when it is not. However, if your putter is not aligned accurately, you will miss a lot of putts. We created VZN to make aiming easy, with a strategically designed head that is optically optimized to show precisely where the face is pointing.
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore, LAB Golf
LAB Golf VZN.1i
Length: 34.5″
Lie: 69.5˚
Alignment Aid: Short line
Insert: Flymill steel
Not even: LAB Golf x TPT
Grip: SuperStroke TLT
