---
title: "SIK Pro C-Series vs T.P. Mills Trad II: the SIK corrects a wandering forward press, the Mills is a one-off you buy for the craft"
url: "https://ifrothgolf.com/read/sik-pro-c-series-vs-tp-mills-trad-ii"
type: "comparison"
topic: "putters"
author: "Ross Hamilton"
published: "2026-10-07T10:00"
publisher: "ifrothgolf"
---


# SIK Pro C-Series vs T.P. Mills Trad II: the SIK corrects a wandering forward press, the Mills is a one-off you buy for the craft

> Bryson DeChambeau putts with one and Jordan Spieth with the other, and they could hardly come from more different beliefs. One face is engineered to cancel out what your hands do at impact. The other is a single hand-finished head whose selling point is the person who made it.

## In short

- The SIK Pro C-Series uses Descending Loft Technology, four milled face planes a degree apart, to keep launch consistent however much shaft lean you bring to impact. That makes it a real tool for golfers whose hands vary, and the reason it suits Bryson DeChambeau's armlock. LA Golf bought SIK in 2022, so a Pro C is now a used or old-stock buy that needs a fitting check. The T.P. Mills Trad II that Jordan Spieth switched to in 2025 is a hand-finished Swiss German stainless blade with a 357-gram head, sold by the maker as one-off pieces at four-figure prices. It corrects nothing and is bought for the craft. Inconsistent hands: the SIK. Repeatable stroke and money to spend on an heirloom: the Mills. Missing your line: neither, get fitted first.

## Side by side

| Spec | SIK Pro C-Series Putter | T.P. Mills Trad II |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Club type | putter | putter |
| Putter style | milled blade, compact classic head | traditional heel-toe weighted blade |
| Target player | blade players wanting consistent roll | feel players wanting a classic custom blade |

_Specs as published by each manufacturer._

Two of the most-watched putting strokes in golf finish with a milled blade, and the two blades were built on opposite beliefs. [Bryson DeChambeau](https://ifrothgolf.com/witb/bryson-dechambeau) presses a [SIK Pro C-Series](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/sik-pro-c-series) against his lead forearm, a putter whose entire reason to exist is a face engineered to forgive what his hands do. [Jordan Spieth](https://ifrothgolf.com/witb/jordan-spieth) retired the Scotty Cameron 009 he had putted with for most of his career and switched in 2025 to a [T.P. Mills Trad II](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/tp-mills-trad-ii), a blade whose entire reason to exist is that one person finished it by hand.

We have already set both out as two of the five ways to spend milled money in [whether a milled putter is worth it](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/milled-putter-worth-it). This is the head-to-head, and it turns on two things that piece never had room for: what each head is built to correct, and what buying either one involves in 2026. The second turns out to matter more than the first.

## The SIK is an argument about your hands

Every putter has loft, usually somewhere around three or four degrees, because the ball sits in a slight depression on the green and needs a fraction of lift to start rolling cleanly. The trouble is that your hands change that number on every stroke. Lean the shaft forward at impact and you take loft off. Lean it back and you add some. A golfer who presses a little on the short ones and not at all on the long ones is launching the ball at a different angle from putt to putt without knowing it, and launch is a large part of how far the ball goes for a given hit.

SIK's answer is Descending Loft Technology: four flat planes milled into the face, each a degree less lofted than the one above it. Retailer spec sheets list them at four, three, two and one degrees. The claim is that as shaft lean changes, the plane that meets the ball changes too, and the change in loft cancels out the lean, so the launch angle stays the same whatever your hands did. Golf Monthly's review of the Pro C came to a conclusion that fits the claim: very consistent launch and roll, and pace that was easy to judge. Its one real knock was cosmetic. The raw, dull finish is there to kill glare, and it looks almost unfinished.

The rest of the head is conventional. Spec sheets describe it as CNC-milled from 303 stainless, and the slant-neck version lists a 72-degree lie with half a shaft of offset. It came in slant neck, plumber's neck, double bend and armlock builds, which covers most stroke shapes.

The armlock version explains Bryson. Anchoring the grip along the lead forearm builds a lot of forward shaft lean into the method by design, which is exactly the variable the face exists to neutralise. Pair a technique that adds lean with a face built to stop lean costing you launch and you have one of the more coherent equipment decisions on tour, whatever you think of the look.

## The Mills is an argument about the object

Read T.P. Mills' own listing for the Trad II in its J.S. Design trim and you notice there is no performance claim at all. It is handcrafted by David Mills from what the maker calls Swiss German stainless steel, which is worth knowing because the putter is often described as carbon steel. It is a classic cavity-back blade with a 357-gram head, a plumber's neck, toe-hang balance, a deep-milled face, a single white sightline and a dark flamed finish, hand-stamped with the J.S. Design mark.

The detail that changes how you think about it: the listing states that the putter in the photographs is the actual piece for sale, that one individually finished head is available, and that the playing length is chosen before assembly, from 32 to 35 inches. You are not ordering a model. You are buying a specific putter, the way you would buy a specific watch rather than a reference number.

As a shape it suits the most common good stroke in golf. Toe hang and a plumber's neck want a gentle arc, and Spieth's version sits under a SuperStroke Zenergy Flatso 1.0 grip. There is nothing in the head that helps a stroke that is not already repeatable, and nobody at T.P. Mills pretends otherwise.

## What buying each one involves in 2026

This is the part the comparison usually skips. LA Golf bought SIK in February 2022 and carried the Descending Loft face into its own putter, a carbon-composite head with a SIK face insert. A SIK-branded Pro C is no longer a mainstream retail item: Carl's Golfland lists the slant-neck model as out of stock, and the brand's old web address no longer leads to a putter company. Bryson still games one, according to the 2026 bag lists, but for everyone else this is now a used or old-stock purchase. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to take it to a club tech before you trust it, because a second-hand putter arrives in somebody else's length and lie.

The Trad II sits at the other extreme. The J.S. Design pieces on T.P. Mills' own store are priced well into four figures, several times what the same maker asks for its production Club Champ and Tour Issue heads. If what you want is a T.P. Mills in the bag rather than this particular head, those production lines are the realistic route, and they are not the putter Spieth uses.

## The real decision

Buy the SIK if your hands are the inconsistent part. The tell is distance control that wanders more than your start line does: a stroke that feels the same and sends one twenty-footer two feet by and the next three feet short. If you press on short putts and release on long ones, or you are drawn to armlock, the face is designed for exactly your problem. Buy the slant neck for a moderate to strong arc, and check the neck before you check the price, because on a used market you take what turns up.

Buy the Trad II if your stroke is already repeatable, you putt with a slight arc, and part of what you want is the object itself. That is a legitimate reason to spend money, and in this head it is the main one. The head will not correct anything, and its value lies in the craft, the steel and the fact that there is only one of it.

Buy neither if your miss is start line. A face that steadies launch does nothing for aim, and a hand-finished head does less. Most golfers who miss left and right are holding a putter that is too long, which is the case we made in [why your putter length is probably wrong](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/putter-length-is-probably-wrong), and a fitting fixes it for a fraction of either of these. If you want stability rather than character, the mallets in our [best putters](https://ifrothgolf.com/guides/best-putters) guide are the better place to look.

## Which one I would spend on

For almost anyone reading this, the SIK. Not because it is the better putter in a vacuum, but because it is the only one of the two that does a job, and a good used Pro C in the right neck, checked by a club tech, leaves most of the budget for the fitting that matters more. The Trad II is the more beautiful object and the worse purchase for nearly everyone. If you already putt well, have the money and want something you will still be using in twenty years, I would not argue you out of it. Just buy it knowing that you are paying for the hands that made it, not for anything the head does.

## The takeaway

The SIK Pro C-Series uses Descending Loft Technology, four milled face planes a degree apart, to keep launch consistent however much shaft lean you bring to impact. That makes it a real tool for golfers whose hands vary, and the reason it suits Bryson DeChambeau's armlock. LA Golf bought SIK in 2022, so a Pro C is now a used or old-stock buy that needs a fitting check. The T.P. Mills Trad II that Jordan Spieth switched to in 2025 is a hand-finished Swiss German stainless blade with a 357-gram head, sold by the maker as one-off pieces at four-figure prices. It corrects nothing and is bought for the craft. Inconsistent hands: the SIK. Repeatable stroke and money to spend on an heirloom: the Mills. Missing your line: neither, get fitted first.

## FAQ

### Is SIK still making putters?

Not as a standalone brand. LA Golf acquired SIK Golf in February 2022 and carried its Descending Loft face technology into LA Golf's own putter, a carbon-composite head with a SIK face insert. SIK-branded models such as the Pro C-Series are now mostly found used or as old stock, so have a club fitter check the length and lie before you rely on one.

### What is SIK Descending Loft Technology?

Four flat planes milled into the putter face, each one degree less lofted than the plane above it, listed on spec sheets as four, three, two and one degrees. The idea is that when shaft lean at impact changes, the ball meets a different plane, and the change in loft offsets the lean so the launch angle stays consistent from putt to putt.

### What putter does Jordan Spieth use?

A T.P. Mills Trad II blade with a SuperStroke Zenergy Flatso 1.0 grip. He switched to it in 2025, retiring his long-serving Scotty Cameron 009 as his gamer.

### Is the T.P. Mills Trad II worth the money?

Only if you value the craft. The J.S. Design version is a hand-finished Swiss German stainless blade sold as individual one-off pieces at four-figure prices, and it has no performance technology. For a golfer with a repeatable stroke who wants a putter to keep for decades it is a defensible purchase. For anyone still working on their stroke, a fitting and a more forgiving head will do more.

## Products mentioned

- [SIK Golf SIK Pro C-Series Putter](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/sik-pro-c-series) · $450 approx — Pick if your hands sit in a different place at impact from one putt to the next. The face is built to keep launch the same anyway.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071CK5WS1?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_sik-pro-c-series) (affiliate link)

- [T.P. Mills Trad II](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/tp-mills-trad-ii) · $2,400 approx — Pick if your stroke is already repeatable and you want a hand-finished blade you will keep for decades.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at T.P. Mills](https://tpmills.com/products/sgss-trad-ii-jordan-spieth-design-gss-putter-4)

---

Source: [ifrothgolf](https://ifrothgolf.com) — independent golf-gear editorial.

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