- 5 minutes ago
Golf Monthly Staff writer and PGA Pro Joe Ferguson runs through the 6 most common mistakes golfers make when buying a new putter! With so much choice on the market, it can be easy to not consider everything you need to and overlook some key areas when it comes to ensuring your new putter is perfectly matched to you. Hopefully this video will ensure you don't make the mistakes some golfers make when choosing a new flat stick.
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00:00Right, we all know that putting is one of the most important parts of the game for your
00:03score, but I still see so many avoidable mistakes when people are buying new putters.
00:08For this video we've teamed up with Odyssey and they've provided us with some gorgeous
00:11models from their AI1 range, so let's take a look and see if we can help you make some
00:15better choices.
00:20First mistake I often see happens long before we even think about the putter we're going
00:25to use, it's to do with the golf ball.
00:27Take this for example, I found a beautiful model that I love the look of here, it's
00:31the AI1 No.7, sits great, feels great and I've been holding putts all over the place with
00:36it.
00:37But I've just noticed I've been using the Chrome Tour golf ball and my game would be the Chrome
00:41Tour X golf ball, so I've had all these great results and I'm going to order this putter
00:46but when it arrives I might get a significantly different feel because those are two very different
00:51feeling golf balls.
00:53Different golf balls will come off the putter face at different speeds which can affect
00:56your distance control.
00:57So it's not just a feel thing, it can actually be a performance thing.
01:01So the remedy for this is make sure when you're trying a putter, either just knocking it around
01:05in the pro shop or even in a custom fitting, use your game of golf ball so you can marry
01:09up the feel and the distance control and you don't have to make an adjustment further down
01:13the line.
01:18One mistake I see a lot is people buying their putter purely on looks, not really understanding
01:23the functionality.
01:24For example, these two putters here at first glance look identical but they're actually
01:29designed for very different stroke types and I'll show you why.
01:33The putter I've got here is actually a face balance putter but what does that mean?
01:37Well, if I hold it unaided and I just hold it at its balance point there, you'll see how
01:40the putter face is pointing pretty much straight up at the sky.
01:46Now this face balance style of putter doesn't want to rotate too much during the stroke so
01:50it tends to suit people with a very square-to-square path who don't want to see too much opening
01:55and closing.
01:56However, on the same head I've got a slightly different shorter slant neck here which gives
02:01us what is essentially a toe hang putter.
02:03So again, I'm holding it unaided there when I can find the balance point and the toe is pointing
02:09more down at the ground.
02:10Now putters can have different degrees of this toe hang and what that does is encourage
02:14a bit more face rotation through the stroke and that tends to suit people with a bit more
02:20of a pronounced arc.
02:21So it's really important you match that up with your stroke type but how do you find
02:25out what stroke type you've got?
02:28Now the smart and precise way of doing this is to head to your local PGA professional who
02:32will get you on some technology like Samputlab, Quintet Ball Roll, Capto, those types of things
02:37and give you an exact quantifiable number for your face rotation and your arc and they'll
02:41be able to make a really good recommendation of what style is going to work best for your
02:45stroke.
02:46But if for any reason that's out of your reach either financially or geographically there
02:49is another way you can begin to get a good starting point for what style of putter might
02:53work for you.
02:54Simply get a friend to video your stroke in slow motion from a vertical position.
02:59Ideally you'd put something like an alignment stick down here and just make a nice uninhibited
03:04stroke and you'll begin to see when you look at it back in slow motion how far your putter
03:10is coming away from that line and how much the face is rotating.
03:13Now it's not an exact science by any measure this but it might just give you a better idea
03:18of your stroke and where to begin your putter search.
03:24Another mistake that I see a lot of times is people not considering the grip that they've
03:28got on their putter.
03:29It's the only point of contact you've got with this putter so it's absolutely crucial
03:34to get right.
03:35Nowadays there's so many different shapes, textures and sizes of grip it can be very difficult
03:39to know where to start and it's not just feel that it affects it can actually influence
03:44performance.
03:45For example a lot of people using thicker grips have found that really useful to minimise
03:51the effect of the hands controlling the clubface and particularly useful on those shorter putts.
03:55However, some people also feel that the thicker grips can impede feel a little bit and lose
04:01a bit of distance control on those longer putts.
04:04So there can be a little bit of a trade off.
04:06Another thing that people don't think about is grip weight.
04:08There's such a variety, you can get grips from 50g to well over 100g and that can have
04:14a dramatic effect on the feel of the club through swing weight.
04:18Essentially if you put a lighter grip on the club the swing weight of the club will increase
04:22because the bulk of the mass is distributed down the head end then.
04:27Conversely if you get a very heavy grip you can start to lose the feel of the putter head
04:32because it feels lighter from a swing weight point of view because there's more mass at
04:36the butt end.
04:37It's really important you get this right for the feel that you want and again a good custom
04:41fitter will be able to guide you through that process.
04:44Before we get on to the next mistake if I can ask you if you're enjoying this video please
04:47hit the like button, subscribe to the channel so you can see all of the upcoming videos and
04:52comment down below if you ever made any big mistakes when buying a putter.
04:59One of the most underthought about areas of the putter is the shaft.
05:02We've all spent ages procrastinating over which style, flex, weight, bend point of driver
05:08shaft we need but I'd wager that many of you out there have never even considered the
05:12shaft in your putter.
05:13Well companies over the last few years have put a lot more research into this area particularly
05:18someone like Odyssey with their Stroke Lab 90 shaft.
05:21This is a very lightweight steel shaft that features 20 to 30 grams of counter weighting
05:26depending on what weight of head it's going into.
05:29There's graphite shafts available, there's different flexes and different profiles all the way through
05:33putting and as the vessel that carries the impact feel all the way up here to your hands it's
05:39one of the biggest influences on feel and it's a real opportunity to fine tune that.
05:45So make sure you have a real think about what shaft is going to work best in the putter that
05:49you select.
05:53Another thing that people overlook when selecting a putter is the multitude of styles available
05:59now and I don't just mean the different types of heads I mean styles of putting.
06:03Switch on any PGA Tour golf and for everyone you see putting with a normal length putter right
06:08below left you'll see at least as many people using some more unconventional methods such
06:13as broom handle, arm lock or even this cruiser model here that I've got from Odyssey so this
06:18is the cruiser number seven and what's different about this well for starters it's longer so
06:23standard putters tend to come in around the 34 inch mark this is 38 inches and this introduces
06:29a bit of counterbalance it's heavier than a standard putter in all places the grips heavier the heads
06:35heavier and the shaft heavier here so most of the Odyssey range has the stroke lab 90 this has 140
06:41gram version and the idea with this cruiser putter is the the weight distribution where it's put around
06:47the putter it helps the putter swing really freely and uninhibited it's almost like it's swinging itself
06:53and it's done a really good job for the likes of Ricky Fowler and Wyndham Clark over the last couple of
06:57years and when I think of the effect the broom handle and things like that have had on the careers of
07:02people like Will Zalatoris and Lucas Glover I think if you're not considering one of these more
07:07unconventional styles you might be doing yourself a disservice
07:13and finally the biggest thing I see that people don't pay enough attention to is alignment you can
07:18have the most glorious putting stroke owned over hours of practice but if you can't point your putter
07:24at the intended target then you're not going to hold many putts and the important part about getting
07:29your putter aligned correctly is selecting the correct alignment cue and what do I mean by alignment
07:34cue or alignment aid well take this Odyssey 2 ball for example this is one of the most blatantly clear
07:41alignment aids you can get in golf and it's really stood the test of times we've got these two balls
07:46here that you simply line the third ball up with to show you the intended start direction and get your
07:52face square on this model they've gone a step further and they put the tour line through it as well for those
07:57you see a little bit more in straight lines now Odyssey offer a multitude of alignment cues from
08:04small lines in the flange of a putter to lines on the leading edge and some models with no alignment
08:09aids whatsoever and it's important they do that because we all see square very differently what I
08:14can line up well you might really struggle with and vice versa but how do you figure out what alignment
08:20cue is going to work best for you well the most accurate way and this is the answer to a lot of the
08:25problems the most avoidable problems that we've mentioned in this video is to go for a putter
08:29fitting now a good fitter will try you out with a number of different models with all sorts of
08:34different alignment cues and use a laser to accurately figure out what you're aiming the best and what
08:39you're aiming most consistently but once again if that's out of your reach you can use your friends
08:44to help you with that simply just getting someone to crouch down behind you you're telling them where you
08:48think you're aiming the putter blade and they can give you the feedback as to where you actually are aiming it
08:53or if you don't trust them make sure they use a phone so you can prove it that's another really
08:58good way to make sure you've got an alignment aid that is accurately aiming that putter blade for you
09:04right i hope that's helped avoid those mistakes and go and hold some putts
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