SIK Golf Putter Fitting | Golf Monthly
Two golfers go through the comprehensive putter fitting process with SIK Golf to find their perfect match and hole more putts
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00:00 How many of you watching right now have been custom fitted for your putter?
00:03 I bet it's very, very few of you.
00:06 And while we all tend to rightly focus on our irons and drivers when we invest in
00:10 new clubs, we often neglect the club we use the most on course,
00:14 which is the putter.
00:15 Getting fitted for a putter should be done as meticulously as your irons,
00:19 if you're really intending on lowering your handicap and playing better golf.
00:23 To show you the process of a putter fitting and to give you an idea about why
00:27 they're so beneficial, we've teamed up with Sick Golf to educate you on the ins
00:30 and outs of a good and importantly, wide ranging putter fitting.
00:34 We'll also take a dive into the technology behind the latest range of Sick Putters,
00:38 which represents some of the most advanced technologies currently on the market.
00:42 We've brought along with us two Golf Monthly readers who have never been fitted
00:45 for a putter before, and they're also very curious about the process.
00:49 They've also told me they're really looking to improve their putting and are
00:52 willing to try any new techniques or equipment to help chip away at their
00:56 handicap. The technology used by our fitter, Ollie Leet today at his putting hub
01:01 here in Somerset will be able to give both of our readers a real education into
01:05 what their putting stroke is actually doing.
01:07 Whilst using Sick's extensive range of fitting options, they should both be able
01:11 to find the exact putter to help them out on the greens.
01:13 So with all that in mind, let's go and meet our readers at the wonderful
01:16 Tickenham Golf Centre, find out a bit about their golf and see how they get on
01:21 during their fitting.
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01:58 The putter I have been using prior to the fitting is a Scotty Cameron Dual
02:01 Balance putter, which I went to probably about four or five years ago just to
02:06 give, in my mind, more stability when I was putting because frankly I was a
02:11 pretty streaky putter, so I was trying to find something that would suit me but
02:15 was a little bit more consistent. I've never been fitted for a putter before, in
02:20 fact it's the only club in the bag that I've never been fitted for, which is
02:23 remarkable really when you consider how many times you use it. I found the
02:26 experience fascinating, frankly I had no idea of the amount of information that
02:30 could be captured from just hitting sort of 10 foot putts. It actually made a lot
02:35 of good sense for things because things that I instinctively or intuitively felt
02:39 were happening, in some cases were, but in other cases were completely different.
02:43 So the whole process, as well as chopping and changing different options and this
02:48 kind of thing and seeing the impact of them, I just found it fascinating. Sure, if
02:51 I'd had to characterise my poor putts coming into the putter fitting I would
02:55 have said I tended to push shorter putts but also hit off-centre with some of the
03:01 longer putts, I felt they were coming out the heel. As it turns out through looking
03:05 at the statistics that wasn't the case, in fact I was hitting them high out the
03:08 face rather than out the heel. I'd never seen a sick putter before, I did look
03:14 before this fitting, I did actually have a quick look at about what they were
03:17 about but didn't necessarily recognise that they would be radically different.
03:22 When I started hitting some putts I found that the actual quality of the
03:26 strike of the putt, even though it was telling me they were off the top of the
03:29 head, was actually an awful lot better. It felt a much purer strike even though
03:34 the loft was getting it rolling quicker than my current putter. So frankly,
03:40 and it wasn't anything I had to change, that just came with the technology
03:45 with Insect Putter, so that became very comfortable very quickly. It was great
03:49 from the perspective of having all the different combinations that I felt I
03:53 could try some different things, even some that I would not, if I'd have been
03:57 in a normal sort of purchase to go into a shop and try a few things, I'd have
04:00 never even picked them off the shelf. So although I've ended up settling for
04:04 something that's not a million miles away from what I originally had, it was
04:08 great to an extent to discount some of the other shapes, not because they were
04:12 bad but just because either they suited my eye less or I just found the putting
04:17 experience with them not quite as good. So Mike was putting well when he first
04:20 came in, he's been taking some tuition and been doing really well with it. So
04:25 what we identified with Mike was there was a few things we could improve. So his
04:29 face change from where he was aiming to where the face was at impact was a
04:33 little inconsistent, down at 50%. Another thing was his launch, so
04:37 interestingly with Mike, he was hitting it high on the face but he was adding
04:41 loft as well, so they're really losing a lot of energy through poor roll. We give
04:46 him the equivalent putter in the sick head and the launch just changed
04:49 massively on the slow motion. We could see before you know it was really taking
04:53 off and we got it down you know with the technology in the face to get that ball
04:58 rolling really really quick and it was super real game changer. So to get a good
05:04 roll, like the optimum launch for a putt, you would get the first 10% in the air,
05:08 the next 10% it'll be sort of bouncing and then it reaches true roll at 20%.
05:13 So Mike's was still bouncing outside of that 20% and when we changed the sick
05:18 technology, straight away within sort of 15-20% that ball was on a pure roll. So
05:23 the next thing we identified was the type of hosel that was suited for him.
05:28 So we tried in the face balance which is what he had, not a lot of change in the
05:31 in the consistency of the face change. As soon as we went to the plumber's neck,
05:36 it really made a huge difference of delivering that club face back to square
05:40 more often which is key what we were looking for. From memory it went from 50
05:44 to 77% and then we messed around with heads and sight lines and we got that
05:49 consistencies up into the 90s which it's a real game changer really to know he's
05:54 hitting it where it's aiming, 90% of the time rather than 50% of the time.
05:57 Current putter, like bag is tailor-made spider. Had it for about five years. Generally it's
06:03 pretty reliable. A few you know errors, a push and a pull but that's standard goal
06:07 for you. Today got fitted for the show in a face balance. In the end it was kind
06:14 of robotic you know with the stats. It was more so how many I make more than I
06:18 miss. Yes you know really good experience and good fun. With the fitting today
06:23 with the technology used in SICK was very interesting. My current putter,
06:27 the spider, when we put it on the Sam putt lab there was a lot of check to it.
06:31 So it was a lot of bouncing. It kind of lifted in the air, bounced a couple times
06:34 then spent on which on average potentially losing a yard or two which
06:38 on that longer putt could be the sake of missing it you know three foot short or
06:42 next to the hole. Yeah so once I started hitting the SICK putter it felt very
06:47 different. It was completely contrasting to what I'm using in the spider.
06:51 Where I felt I was hitting off the face it just rolled. It just straight off the
06:56 face no matter if I hit it a bit low, a bit high, it just went off like a rocket.
06:59 You know so for me it'll be a learning curve to my weights now of how to hit
07:04 the putt and to get it going but it's a smooth putter. It come off lovely.
07:09 It's just really good technology behind the head. Yeah I'd say if
07:13 you've never been for a putter fitting and it's something you're considering I'd say
07:16 do it. At the end of the day it's where we save the most shots potentially on a
07:20 course. Our long game can be brilliant but it's no point if you're on a
07:23 two, three, four putt on every green. Having the right putter that works
07:26 for you and you can work on that putting and get used to it you know that's
07:30 fitted to the optimum performance for yourself. As I said previously I've
07:33 walked in and just put one off the shelf made it work for me. Now got a proper
07:37 fitting I realize how different I would have gone if I had that fitting from day
07:41 one. Matt was using a spider putter and he was putting really well. He had a
07:46 great ability to return the face to where he was aiming so we made sure we
07:51 didn't lose any of that during it but what was really inconsistent was his
07:55 path and the arc. I think the path consistency was 14% and the arc was 18%
08:01 so really poor. Although the delivery of the face was pretty good, matching
08:06 the arc and the rotation of the stroke was a little bit more
08:10 difficult. I think like part of the putter fitting there's always going to
08:13 be an element of coaching in there. Today with Matt we were noticeably
08:18 going outside the line and quite short on the way back and then a big
08:22 acceleration through so we did talk a little bit of technique there to allow
08:26 him to bring that club inside the line and a bit further which certainly helped
08:31 him with the start line. He had his club face, his hands were back 2.9 degrees
08:36 launching the ball at five and a half degrees and from the slow-mo video we
08:40 can see that it's hopping and skipping outside of that 20% range. We just give
08:44 him the sick putter, didn't do anything and straightaway within the 15-20% the
08:49 ball was rolling well, gaining energy and now we can't stop hitting the ball too
08:52 far past the hole. Yeah we went for the show head which really suited him
08:56 it was slightly heavier than his tailor-made spider and it felt heavier as
09:02 well because it was a thinner grip than he had on the 2.0 Superstroke
09:06 was on his current club so just by having that lighter, thinner grip give
09:11 him a bit more head weight, the face balance really helped for his off-centered
09:14 strikes and he just aimed it beautiful and stroke it beautiful so
09:19 it was nice, good to see. The sight lines on the putters are really interesting it
09:22 can change absolutely everything or it could change nothing. I think it's a lot
09:28 of trial and error but typically like more lines on putters, golfers will aim
09:32 further left, less lines or lines near the top line will aim further right as a
09:37 rule of thumb but I've seen it go both ways so left eye dominant tend to prefer
09:42 the line on top rather on the bottom but again it's sort of trial and error and
09:46 through the fitting process we try them all and we find which one gets you
09:51 aiming like a laser and putting like a laser. Well there you have it we've had a
09:54 fantastic day here at the Tickenham Golf Centre learning the ins and outs of
09:58 everything that goes into a good putter fitting. As well as that we've seen some
10:02 fascinating technology and innovation in the latest range of SICK putters that
10:06 have helped both of our readers, different golfers with very different
10:10 putting strokes, find a solution on the greens. It's been fascinating to see how
10:14 many solutions there were on offer for each of them and hopefully you've seen
10:18 today the importance of a good putter fitting with a wide variety of heads and
10:23 shafts available to help them with their putting stroke. But for now a massive
10:27 thanks to Oli Leet at the Oli Leet putting hub here in Somerset. Thanks for
10:30 watching this video, see you next time. To explore the full range of SICK golf
10:34 putters for yourself you can visit their website at www.sickgolf.com
10:41 you
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