Austin Smotherman notches first win for L.A.B. Golf's newest mallet | Gear

Austin Smotherman notches first win for L.A.B. Golf's newest mallet | Gear | GOLF.com

Posted by Admin October 5, 2026 Golf

While L.A.B. Golf’s usage on the PGA Tour has steadied somewhat from the momentum of a few years ago, it still doesn’t take long for any of their new putters to earn wins on the PGA Tour.

Case and point was Austin Smotherman’s win this weekend at the Bank of Utah Championship, wielding’s L.A.B.’s new VZN.1i (pronounced Vision One Eye) putter.

The VZN.1i was released in June and is L.A.B.’s most forgiving design since the original Directed Force 2.1 putter. However, the main design characteristics are the strong visual cues that make the putter super easy to line up.

VZN.1i also has a newly shaped sole to help golfers feel more confident that the putter is lined up where they want it to be.

Smotherman has used a L.A.B. 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, just before he formally signed on as an ambassador for the company, becoming just 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 L.A.B.’s headquarters in Oregon to get fit again for a L.A.B. putter. He also said this season was his first working with Josh Gregory as his putting coach.

“I flew to Eugene, Oregon to go get fit up at the L.A.B studio there, 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 on Friday after matching his PGA Tour-low of 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 then this is my second week in tournament play with it. So it’s working out pretty nice.”

Smotherman put in a solid performance on the greens over the first three rounds in Utah, collecting more than 5.3 strokes gained and ending up finishing 20th in the category as he secured his first PGA Tour win.

Austin Smotherman’s L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i Specs

L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i Custom Putter

It’s impossible to putt well if your aim is askew. Plenty of players know their aim is faulty. Others think their aim is true when it isn’t. Either way, if your putter isn’t accurately aligned, you’ll miss a lot of putts. We created VZN to make aiming easy, with a strategically designed head that’s optically optimized to show you precisely where the face is pointing.