It's been a while since the last time we offered an authentic vs non-authentic guide, so we apologise for that, but we've managed to secure a couple of recent Super Special NP2's to help guide you a little towards being hopefully able to spot a fake, before you hand over your hard earned. This guide uses a lot of the same wording and explanations as used in our previous Studio Select guide.
Be it a putter, headcover or ball marker, we aim to point you in the right direction and not only help you in your purchasing, but also help each other, in reporting counterfeit's. Something which you can do here.
PART 1
Here we are comparing the Super Select Newport 2.
If you have already purchased a Scotty Cameron putter, but are concerned about its authenticity and if it's one of Scotty's newer stainless steel models, you can check by taking a magnet to it. The fake's are normally cast steel and the magnet will stick to it. Stainless is not normally magnetic, but you may find there is a very slight pull of the magnet, should you place it up to a stainless head. A lot of Scotty's older model's were made from carbon steel, which IS magnetic. His current range of putter's, along with the previous Black Mist Select series, Studio Select like below and some older model's like the Studio Style, are stainless and not magnetic. There is also a few aluminium models out there, which are of course not magnetic either.
Colour and finish is vastly different when comparing the real against a fake, but hopefully you can learn to see the difference from the below pictures.
General headshape is poor, the neck show's it is badly finished and you can see the sole bulges slightly around the weight. Spacing of the sole engravings are not correct and face milling is not comparable to the genuine Scotty putter. There is a silver paint appearance of the fake, whereas the real one you can tell is milled stainless steel. Stainless can rust, if the putter hasn't been looked after, but the fake will wear extremely quickly and rust will start to show very quickly indeed. You can also expect the shaft to start rusting quickly too.
Some quick notes to point out, when assessing your possible purchase...
Thickness of bumpers - fakes appear clunky
Shape of shoulders - concave vs convex
Milling or lack of it - a genuine Scotty normally shows some amount of milling
Quality of engravings - crisp edges
Finish - should always look like metal and not silver paint
The putters we have compared above, have different grips on them, so not able to compare like for like and also, the OG shaftband of the authentic NP2 has been removed, so again we can't compare, however, the shaftband on the fakes are normally on the front face of the shaft. Scotty places all his shaftband's on the rear of the shaft, so it isn't noticeable at address.
If you ever have any concerns regarding an item you have purchased, or thinking of purchasing, please fill in the contact form here, or email us at contact-us@customcameron.co.uk and we will get back to you ASAP.