Pimp My Putter

The restoration included a new, orange "Custom Shop" logo grip ($37; other options start at $15), matching headcover ($72; others start at $25) and shaftband (included; old-school types may opt for New Old Stock, which are freshly minted items that look and perform like the original equipment).

It also covered a free check that the putter's loft and lie angles were in their original specifications (customers can also request adjustments to particular angles and/or change the length of their putter -- within reason, as Cameron won't alter the design or performance if it transgresses upon the club's original concept and principles); and a remilled, buffed and polished head that looked brand-spankin' new ($110).

Cameron does the remilling himself, taking away a mere 1-2 grams of weight and thus not altering the club's balance or functioning. It's sort of an antiplastic surgery. I could have had added virtually rustproof, low-maintenance Pro Platinum plating ($30), but decided against that anachronism.

This time, I'll use the headcover and cleaning cloth provided, promise.

Bring on the Bling

Had the restoration been the extent of the services, it would have been plenty. But I had not yet begun to pimp.

Again, I already had my initials stamped on the face, but as tattoo fans tell me, it's hard to stop at just one.

So I added a Cameron Money logo ($30) too, instead of the Custom Shop or yin-and-yang stamps also available. The idea, of course, is that I will be money on the greens; drive for show, putt for dough, as the adage goes.

In a more useful but no less cool vein, I requested a single dot ($30) to be added on the head's top line to help me aim. In a rare show of restraint, I decided against additional sight lines for $10 each, and kept my original shaft rather than opt for the $45 re-shafting option; with certain mallet-style models, customers can add an extra 10 or 20 grams of weight, presumably not in the form of diamonds, for $35.

For those doing the math at home, my putter pimping already ran $279, or more than the original sticker price.

Cameron and his team executed both additions. What I wasn't expecting -- for I had failed to note that a sufficiently substantial order gets customers a choice of two paintfill colors, whose application location Cameron himself selects -- and what thrilled and delighted me, was the artistry of the paint job.

	A Putter to Remember

The once-white "E.J.R." was redone in, appropriately enough, gold, to match the dollar sign. All the other lettering on the putter, including the "Scotty Cameron" on the face and the "Cameron" on the neck (like Bob Dole used to say about Bob Dole, the man knows how to get his name out), was done in orange, to match the grip, shaftband and headcover.

Although I fully expect to start making putts with it again, it's so damn good-looking that I don't mind just gazing at it.

Scotty's Custom Shop has revitalized more than 10,000 Cameron putters since opening, including rusted-out ones fished from the bottom of lakes, even though tossing a Cameron into a lake may be golf's ultimate sacrilege.

Almost no Scotty is beyond repair to like-new or better, to the point that some mouth-agape customers purportedly call to check that the putter they're holding is indeed the one they sent in and not a replacement. Rest assured, there's no need to send it back in for reauthentication.

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