Golf Clubs n Tips

It’s the current rage since Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, even Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson have shown up in tournaments with a long putter. Rocco Mediate began using one in early in his career to help him with some long standing back problems. So, the real question is will you make more putts with one.

The answer is no one can tell until you personally go and try one.

The first decision is how long? Fitting is very important since if the ball position is too far away and your eyes aren’t over the ball there will be a tendency to line up too far to the right. You have decide whether the belly or the longer shaft is right for you and then get the shaft that keeps your eyes close to being over the ball.

Nothing will beat trial and error, but a club fitter can shorten the fitting time.

Our staff adviser chose the belly with a 43 inch shaft. Using a conventional reverse overlap grip (and you will see all kinds of grip variations with long putters), he felt from 12 feet in his alignment and percentage of made putts improved dramatically. Over 12 feet his ability to hit on a chosen line was still good, but pace, distance control, was not so good. After a week of practice and play, his distance control with the belly putter was improved but not up to his standard.

With the 14 club limit, it makes no sense to carry 2 putters.

Our pro decided that the belly putter would save some pars and enable him to make a few more birdies on make-able short putts and controlling pace on long putts could be further improved over time to mitigate the 3 putt tendency on long ones.

His advice is to try it. Demo a long putter if you can. One problem is that most golf retailers don’t carry enough lengths, head styles, etc. for golfers to find a long putter that’s right for them. In addition, if they do find one that works, they have to spend potentially hundreds of dollars, just to try it out!

Here’s an alternative that we found – Belly Putt. It attaches to any putter and it’s fully adjustable, so regardless of your height, you’re can custom fit the Belly Putt to the length that you feel comfortable with. You can start belly putting right away and you don’t have to invest hundreds just to try out a new way of putting and determine your long putter specifications. For more info, click below:

Tags: Putters by Golf Clubs N Tips Staff
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It seems that every manufacturer has new putters. Titleist (Scotty Cameron) has 17 models. Odyssey has 42 models in their lineup. Ping has 29 putter models. Different shapes, hosel designs, and improved optics all have a niche. Yes, putters are a very personal club and the level of design sophistication and marketing is reaching new heights. SAM PuttLab, Tomi and Adams Golf are are using diagnostic tools and mulitple angle cameras to analyze new designs.

We still believe that the single most important factor to consider is whether the putter is face balanced or toe hang. If your putting stroke is inside out, like Ben Crenshaw, then you really want a toe hang putter where the toe is heavier than the heel. If your putting stroke is more straight back and forward, then you most likely will putt more consistently with a face balanced putter. You can easily check. A face balanced putter will balance with its face squared and pointing up.

Toe Hang Putters

Odyssey Black Series (MSRP $270) has a carbon steel blade and half-shaft offset with a tungsten flange. The YES! Tracy III Plus (MSRP $280) is a heel and toe weighted 303 stainless steel forged head with semi-circular grooves. The RIFE Abaco (MSRP $180) is milled from 304 stainless steel with a mid-mallet head.

Face Balanced Putters

Ping IWI 1/2 CRAZ-E (MSRP $190) has adjustable heel and toe weights and an elastomer face insert. The TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy Spider (MSRP $200) is 20% smaller than its predecessor. The Seemore SB1 (MSRP $225) is a center shafted design milled from aircraft aluminum with a unique alignment system.

There are many, many more putters coming to the market in the new year. We expect to be somewhat overwhelmed by the new putter models at the upcoming PGA Show. Like many golfers, our garage is full of putters that felt and performed great….for awhile.

In these uncertain economic times, if laying down $200-$300 for a new putter has guilt associations, by mid-season, expect that some golfers will have tried the new models and will be recycling slightly used, almost new putters on eBay or other auction sites for a 50% or less than MSRP.

Tags: Putters by Golf Clubs N Tips Staff
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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.

Please visit our affiliate Austad’s for your golf equipment and accessories.

Tags: Putters by Golf Clubs N Tips Staff
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