New Putters – Fall 2008
Putter Optics – The New Trend
Abundant theories of what we see when we putt, gaze patterns, fixation points, even eye dominance, have been engineered into the new crop of putters. Some are amusing and some have scientific foundation. The science of optics is what we actually see when putting and how it affects our alignment and stroke. Our brains stitch together a lot of data. We assemble information on the cup, the contour of the green, the grain of the grass, the implied pace and we construct the illusion of the intended pace and path of the golf ball.
Titleist has the new Scotty Cameron Studio Select Squareback with an extended flange and fairly compact face. It has a white alignment groove extending over the large flange. MSRP at $300.
Yes!Golf’s Sandy has triangle cutouts at the heel and toe as alignment aids. MSRP $190.
Seemore’s M2, in their first ever offset series, has an optical aid designed to be hidden by the shaft when the alignment is square. It is a small red dot on the heel that will not be visible when addresses square to the line. MSRP $325.
Nike’s 20-15A has a green head and shaft to blend with the green and focus attention on the two white alignment swooshes. MSRP $140.
Nike’s theory is to suppress non-critical data and focus on the club face alignment. Most attempt to create a longer sight line, a concept that has been around and success for some time.
We really believe that while optics can assist our sight line and alignment, the choice of which putter to use is almost as personal as which girl we date. The only factors that we had total staff agreement on was that the putter had to feel and look right at set up.
We do like the Seemore dot alignment system, but one of our guys still putts with a Bullseye. My personal favorite is the Scotty Cameron Studio Select Squareback. For most golfers, we believe the optics of a longer sight line and grooves, marks, and or color to focus more on squaring the club face to the line are key elements.
We have general agreement that short game practice is the single most important factor.
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