Lone Star Jackrabbit vs. Alfa Snoopy — World Series of Putters Regional Championship Round

We’re back today with more Regional Championship action in the Disc Golf Reviewer World Series of Putters! In this series, we are searching for the best putter in the world and hoping to provide the disc golf community with a plethora of information along the way to help everyone decide what putter is right for them. This is an NCAA basketball style tournament and project where every day I test two putter molds against each other on the putting green in a head-to-head competition before posting here about my experience and the results.

It’s the P2 Regional Championship between two putters that I’m pretty sure nobody predicted would make it this far, the 12 seed Lone Star Disc Jackrabbit and the 15 seed Alfa Discs Snoopy.

On their way to this round, both discs compiled an impressive list of discs they defeated in earlier rounds. The Lone Star Jackrabbit defeated the 5 seed Kastaplast Reko in the first round (62 to 33), the 13 seed Uplay Zeal in the second round (65 to 52), and the 1 seed Discmania P2 in the Round of 16 (58 to 52). The Alfa Snoopy took down the 2 seed Gateway Wizard in the first round (49 to 38), the 7 seed MVP Ion in the second round (71 to 59), and the 3 seed Latitude 64 Pure in the round of 16 (64 to 56).

You can find the full results of every first and second round match over at our main World Series of Putters post.

In the first round I gave an overview of each disc. In the second round I shared what surprised me about each disc. In the round of 16, I shared what I like best about each disc. This round, I’ll share something I got wrong about each putter–an incorrect assumption I made or something I’ve learned about it after putting with it for four separate rounds.

Lone Star Jackrabbit

An assumption I made the first time I held the Jackrabbit was that the Victor plastic would hold the Jackrabbit back in this competition. The Victor Jackrabbit is very soft and flexible, and while I still think the stiffer V2 Jackrabbit would be preferable for me, The Victor Jackrabbit’s softness has not held it back at all.

The best quality of this plastic blend for me is its superb grip that makes the softer feeling plastic more manageable. While the softness of the plastic was at the forefront of my mind in the first couple matches, now I don’t really notice it when I putt until it connects with the chains.

The Lone Star Jackrabbit is an excellent putter with a really nice beaded shape that comes in high quality plastic blends that in my experience so far, only help to improve the disc’s performance.

Alfa Snoopy

Similar to my assumption about the Jackrabbit, I thought the plastic blend of the Snoopy would be a problem for the Snoopy in this event. Though a base line plastic blend is in the works, Alfa currently only makes the Snoopy in Crystal plastic blend, which is a clear, stiff, premium plastic blend not usually used for putting.

Premium plastics have generally not done well in this event, but the Crystal Snoopy has proven over and over to be the exception. Maybe the Crystal Snoopy is a touch grippier than other premium plastics, or maybe it has just gotten lucky. But for whatever reason, I still haven’t had a true spit out with this disc, and it has continued to eliminate popular, top selling putters throughout this event.

Specifications and Flight Numbers

Like we do in every match, let’s take a look at some of the specs courtesy of the PDGA and break down the major differences between these two putter molds.

Jackrabbit

Snoopy

Flight Numbers: 3/3/0/3

Flight Numbers: 2/4/0/2

Max Weight: 175.1gr

Diameter: 21.1cm

Height: 2.0cm

Rim Depth: 1.5cm

Rim Thickness: 1.2cm

Inside Rim Diameter: 18.7cm

Rim Depth / Diameter Ratio: 7.1%

Rim Configuration: 57.25

Flexibility: 10.68kg

Max Weight: 175.1gr

Diameter: 21.1cm

Height: 2.1cm

Rim Depth: 1.6cm

Rim Thickness: 1.1cm

Inside Rim Diameter: 18.9cm

Rim Depth / Diameter Ratio: 7.6%

Rim Configuration: 55.00

Flexibility: 4.77kg

An interesting element of this match is that both of these discs were just PDGA approved and released earlier this year. In fact, half of the final 8 discs have been on store shelves for less than a year. Is this a coincidence, or could we argue that disc design is improving?

Both of these putters are straight to overstable putters, but the Jackrabbit is beaded while the Snoopy is beadless. The Jackrabbit is rated to be a bit more overstable than the Snoopy, which is likely in part because of its beaded rim, though on the putting green I found these discs flew very similarly to each other in terms of stability. The Snoopy maybe held straighter and resisted fade just a touch longer on a handful of putts.

The Snoopy also measures in a touch taller than the Jackrabbit, though I think the Jackrabbit feels a touch taller in my hand due to its beaded rim. Usually taller discs tend to have more float and glide to their flight, but I can’t say I was really able to notice much of a difference between these two discs in terms of their glide.

The Match

For more info on the format and scoring system I used to test these putters against each other, be sure to check out our main World Series of Putters post.

I conducted this match on a cool windless evening under a conveniently placed streetlight at my local disc golf course on a permanent Innova Discatcher basket. After warming up, I flipped a coin to see which putter would be thrown first for the first round of putts, and it was the Lone Star Jackrabbit. Here is how it all played out:

(12) Jackrabbit Scorecard	(15) Snoopy Scorecard
20ft: Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y (9/10 putts made)=27 points	20ft: Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y (9/10)=27 points
30ft: N Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Y (7/10)=28 points	30ft: Y N N N Y Y Y N N N (4/10)=16 points
40ft: N N Y N Y Y Y N N Y (5/10)=25 points	40ft: N Y Y N N N N N N Y (3/10)=15 points
Total: 80 points	Total: 58 points

The Winner

When you tie the highest score of the entire tournament, odds are pretty good you are moving on to the next round. That’s exactly what the 12 seed Lone Star Jackrabbit did to bring the 15 seed Alfa Snoopy’s magical run to an end. Final score: 80 to 58.

Notes from the Match

The Lone Star Jackrabbit has put up solid scores all throughout this event, but it seems to be peaking at just the right moment coming down the stretch. I’ve been wondering more and more if the 80 points the Discmania Link put up in the first round was a fluke that would prove to be unreachable again. The Jackrabbit had other plans, and it even had a dead center spit out from 40ft that would have added another 5 points to this total had it stayed in the basket.

The Alfa Crystal Snoopy has been phenomenal this whole event and still put up a solid score tonight. But I do believe the difference maker tonight was the base putter plastic blend vs. the premium plastic blend. Specifically on the longer putts, I just felt so much more confident in my grip with the Victor Jackrabbit. It helped to provide a more consistent release, as several 40ft putts with the Crystal Snoopy had a weird release and were not even close in the end.

Consistency is so crucial on the putting green, and the many rounds in this event helps to function as a test of that consistency. The Jackrabbit is right up there with the Discraft Luna in terms of consistency in scoring, with only one round scoring below 60 points (58). When you just look at the consistency of scores remaining in this event, you’d have to believe there is a really solid chance this event will come down to a matchup between the Luna and the Jackrabbit. But who knows?! We will find out for sure soon enough!

My Recommendation

If you think you might want to try out the Alfa Snoopy for a putting putter, I’d recommend waiting for a base plastic version to be released. But even in a base plastic, I think I’d still have to recommend the Lone Star Jackrabbit as my putter of choice in this matchup.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to find out the winner of the Envy Region, as the 1 seed Axiom Envy will look to hold off the unique 11 seed Yikun Hammer.