Gateway Super Soft Wizard review

“So, it’s the moped joke,” eltreedr said.

This story does not begin well.

We were standing on the 16th tee at Timmons Park and I was trying to explain how I felt about the Gateway Super Soft Wizard.

“See, it’s like that girl in college that looks exceptionally plain, but…well, you know…” I ventured. He was right. It’s the moped joke.

I like having mail delivered to my house addressed only to “Otis,” and when the plain white package arrived at Mt. Otis, I knew immediately it was a disc from Disc Golf Station. For lack of something better to do, we recently accepted an offer from the sales web site to give us a free disc a month on the condition that we review and link to it here. We’re allowed to say whatever we want about the disc and give an unbiased review. The company gives us a free disc and gets a link. (There’s your full disclosure).

Disc Golf Station sent us all the Super Soft Wizard, a putt and approach disc that purports itself to be the second-softest of all Gateway Discs. Again, this doesn’t begin well.

The disc is ugly. There is no getting around that sad fact. It has an old-milk color to it and the wizard printed on the front looks like it was doodled during a long economics lecture. It could be the ugliest disc I’ve ever owned. And if this is the second-softest disc the company makes, I can only assume the more rigid discs are called The Viagra. This disc is not soft and has very little bend to it.

We are a Champion Aviar putter blog. For the past two years, we’ve thrown the Champion Aviar exclusively. We’ve both adopted different putting styles in that time, but we both had no desire to switch away from the Aviars. However with a new disc to review, we set out on Timmons and left the Aviars in our cars.

I’d take you through the whole round, but let’s just cut to the chase: I didn’t miss a putt through the entire round. It was as if the 173g piece of ugly was on tracks from my hand to the chains. When the disc hit the chains, it didn’t bounce, carom, or skate off the side. The Wizard hit the chains and dropped into the basket like a rock.

I am not a good disc golf player. I am better than a beginner and I’ve been playing for a while, but I’m not really very good. So, it may be that the unfamiliarity with the disc made me concentrate extra hard, a college kid with a new girl for the first time, or something like that. Nonetheless, if I threw the disc at the chains, it went straight in and fell. Eltreedr had never seen anything like it. If I putted like that every round, I might actually be competitive.

Meanwhile, eltreedr was slower on the uptake. Apart from a spectacular 40-ft uphill putt for birdie on #8, eltreedr wasn’t putting with his regular accuracy. More often than not, the Wizard was dropping short. It took 18 holes but together we agreed the following:

After that, our agreement ended. I’m keeping the Wizard in my bag for now. If I keep putting like I did with it this week, I’m going to shave two or three strokes off each round. Eltreedr, meanwhile, isn’t sold.

“I’ve already put my Aviar back in the bag and taken the Wizard out,” he said today. “I don’t think it glides in a way that works for my putting style.”

He’s right about that. Over time, I’ve adopted a fairly aggressive approach to putting.

“The Wizard is actually better suited for your style,” eltreedr said. “You really fire at the basket, while I have a finesse approach, and I don’t think the Wizard has the glide I need.”

Conclusion: For $9.99, the Super Soft Wizard might be a putter you want to check out. Players with aggressive putting styles might be more suited for the disc, if they don’t mind their friends seeing them play with it or ride home on a moped.