- 4 minutes ago
In this video, equipment expert Joe Ferguson pits a LAB Golf Mezz.1 Max putter, arguably one of the most cutting-edge designs money can buy, up agains the old school Ping Anser and Wilson 8802 in a series of tests to find out if putter technology makes a real difference or if you should consider investing your money in other areas of your bag!
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00:00Right, lab putters.
00:01Now they might be the most talked about club
00:03in the game of golf over the past two years.
00:06Full of tech and full of science.
00:08But a lot of people think putting is more art than science.
00:11So let's find out.
00:23So I've teamed up with my friends at Golf Clubs for Cash,
00:25one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment
00:27in the UK.
00:28And I've delved into their archives
00:30to dig out two of the goats of putting.
00:33I've got the Wilson 8802, just a pure blade,
00:36and I've got the original Ping Anser.
00:39And I'm gonna be putting these putters
00:40up against one another in a series of little tests
00:43to find out how far technology has come
00:45and if it can actually help you.
00:47Right, before we start testing these putters out,
00:50I just wanna talk to you a little bit about the differences
00:51and the tech of what we've got in front of us here.
00:54So starting with the Wilson 8802,
00:56we could probably split this up into a couple of categories,
00:58but when I go into toe hang first.
01:00So this is very much just a pure blade putter.
01:03When I hold this unaided on the shaft
01:04and just let that putter hang how it wants to,
01:07the toe pretty much points straight at the ground.
01:09We call that like a full toe hang.
01:12What that tends to do is promote a little bit more opening
01:14and closing of the face during the stroke.
01:16Then we go up to the Ping Anser.
01:18That's kind of in the middle.
01:19It's got about a 45 degree toe hang.
01:21You'll notice the face, the toe doesn't point straight down.
01:24It's pointing off to the side a little bit
01:25at around that 45 degree angle.
01:27So that's kind of a mid toe hang putter, we'd call that.
01:30And then you get into the Lab, which we're calling zero torque.
01:33If I hold that unaided, it tends to wanna orientate itself toe up.
01:37And what labs suggest is there's zero torque force
01:39on the putter face.
01:40So it just wants to match the path of your stroke.
01:43So it'd be interesting to see how that performs from short range.
01:47The other bit I wanna measure here is kind of a stability story.
01:49And to me, that generally comes from the depth of the head
01:52I always find.
01:53So if we look again at this Wilson 8802,
01:56when you put it down on the ground,
01:57you'll see from the leading edge to the back edge,
01:59it's barely over a centimeter in depth.
02:02When you've got that, it's very difficult to put masses of MOI in.
02:05MOI tends to come from moving that weight back in the head
02:08and adding stability.
02:09So again, for me, that's gonna be interesting from long range.
02:12If I miss hit the putt, how much am I gonna lose from there?
02:15Now, the answer also from front to back isn't that deep.
02:18It's a touch deeper than the 8802.
02:20But what they have done is they've implemented some perimeter weighting.
02:23So we've got a bit of heel and toe weight,
02:25whereas all the mass evenly spread across that Wilson 8802.
02:29So in theory, that should give me a little bit more insurance
02:32on strike on those longer putts.
02:35Then we get into the lab.
02:36And again, clearly, this is the deepest front to back.
02:38We've got more depth from the leading edge to the back edge there.
02:42And we've also got these wings, which act as perimeter weighting.
02:46So we've got a lot of depth.
02:47We've got some perimeter weighting.
02:48So in theory, this should very much be the most stable.
02:51But let's not just talk about it.
02:53Let's test it.
02:53And let's go to eight feet.
02:55And I'll tell you why now.
02:5650% of putts from eight foot on the PGA Tour are missed,
02:59and 50% are holes.
03:01So this should be a good barometer and a good test for these putters.
03:03So we're going to hit 10 with each.
03:05We're going to count up the score and see how they get on.
03:07I'm going to start with the 8802 first.
03:10This is a relatively straightish uphill putt.
03:255 out of 10, bang on PGA Tour average.
03:27Let's go and try again, and let's see how the Ping Anser gets on.
03:45Okay, that's more like it.
03:46So that was three missed there.
03:48So seven out of 10.
03:49Let's get on and try again with the Lab.
04:04I have to say, I mean, I'm a big proponent of the Lab technology.
04:08And that kind of theory, the clubface doesn't want to rotate away from square.
04:12In my head, that makes a lot of sense.
04:14So there's a lot of people who just think zero torque is an option that can be fitted alongside
04:19toe hang and stuff like that.
04:21Again, to me, I'm maybe a bit more of an absolutist.
04:23I just can't fathom a world where I'd want my putter to actively rotate away from my path.
04:28And from short range, at least, that showed out really, really well.
04:31And come out on top there at 9 out of 10.
04:34But we all know putting is more than that, right?
04:35So we're not just going to have to hold out from eight feet.
04:37We're going to have to do some lag putting and get some feeling.
04:39And a lot of the tour players I've spoken to, actually, about zero torque,
04:43have commented to me that they struggle a little bit from longer range
04:46because they feel like when the face isn't rotating,
04:49they lose a bit of awareness of where that club head is in time and space.
04:52And as such, lose a little bit of feel on those longer putts.
04:55Well, let's put it to the test.
04:57I can see a really nice kind of 80-foot uphill swinger here.
05:01Let's test all three out against one another.
05:02How we're going to do it is I'm going to take my little tape measure.
05:05We're going to go from the same place.
05:06We're going to hit six putts with each, three up, three back.
05:09We're going to measure them all out.
05:11And the winner of this round will be the putter
05:13that has the cumulative lowest distance from the hole.
05:16I hope that makes sense.
05:17Let's go and hit some putts.
05:18Right, so for the second part of this test,
05:19we've come for a long-range putt.
05:22So this one I've found here is that top flag up there on the putting green.
05:25It's the best part of 70 feet up the hill, up a couple of tiers, actually.
05:29So this will be a good test for these putters.
05:31But before you get in the comments and start complaining about
05:34it's not a fair test because of the order and stuff, I agree.
05:37It's difficult to get a scientifically spot-on test.
05:40So I've tried to mix up the order a bit here
05:41because inevitably I'm going to learn a little bit about this putt as I go along.
05:45So I'm starting with the ping answer.
05:46And that said, I have hit this putt a few times beforehand just to get a feel of it
05:50so I know what's going on to try and make it as fair as possible.
05:52So what I'm going to do, I'm going to hit six putts with each of these putters.
05:55I'm going to hit the first three, go up there and measure the cumulative distance away
05:59of each three putts, come back, hit three more, do the same again.
06:02And the winner of this round is going to be the putter, obviously,
06:05that has the lowest cumulative distance.
06:07So let's start with the ping answer and roll some away.
06:10It's going to need hitting up that hill.
06:17Should get a little bit of help off the slope on the right.
06:19It hasn't quite made it.
06:22Not bad.
06:24Right, let's hit a few and see how we get on.
06:34Right, so that's the first three done at 14 feet cumulatively.
06:38So it's one foot five and a half and seven and a half feet.
06:49Right, so that was 24 and a half feet second time round.
06:53I didn't really learn much there.
06:54That's not great.
06:5524 and a half and 14 is 38 and a half feet to beat for the other two.
07:01Let's go with the lad next.
07:12Okay, so 15 and a half feet there cumulatively.
07:16I thought it was a bit better than that.
07:17The one I thought I'd miss hit didn't quite make it as far up as I'd like and left me.
07:22I think it was eight and a half feet.
07:23It's a 15 and a half.
07:25The first lot of the ping was 14 and a half, so I'm behind schedule.
07:29So let's see how the second lot goes.
07:46Right, I've got to do my maths here.
07:47It's at 17 feet in total for the second lot.
07:5015 and a half for the first, so 32 and a half feet.
07:54Let's see how that Wilson 8802 gets on.
08:04Right, so 16 and a half feet to start with, so very similar to the first two.
08:11So yeah, it's crunch time.
08:12Let's see if the olden can come up trumps on the last three putts.
08:26Right, let's put the cat amongst the pigeons.
08:28I was on 16 and a half feet and I was cooking on gas there with those next two.
08:33Well, just under two feet, so we'll add that one.
08:35So that's two feet together and nine feet.
08:3811 feet to go with 16 and a half feet is 27 and a half feet.
08:43That's a comprehensive victory for the Wilson 8802 there.
08:47Right, outros and summaries are usually a little bit easier than this,
08:50but that was, as you've seen, relatively inconclusive.
08:52In terms of the shorter putting test, that was more comprehensive.
08:57The lab was pretty much bulletproof there.
08:59Nine out of ten was a great performance in that regard.
09:02And I have to say, I really did notice the difference of the face awareness
09:07or the face not wanting to move away from square.
09:10It felt a little bit more automatic to me in terms of just pointing,
09:14pulling the trigger, not manipulating face, and the ball was starting on line.
09:17With particularly the 8802, it scored a little bit lower.
09:20That was five out of ten.
09:21I did feel like I was trying to have to find square a little bit.
09:24I could actively sort of feel that putter.
09:26And that's a really strong example of toe hang.
09:29But I could feel it kind of working against me and trying to have to re-find square from when
09:34I set up.
09:35However, then, when we went to the longer range test, the Wilson 8802 was brilliant.
09:39I nearly hauled three of them.
09:40And it comprehensively won that test, which is against what I thought might happen,
09:44based on the strike discrepancies and the lack of MOI and stability.
09:49So it really put the cat amongst the pigeons for me there.
09:52But I think you'll agree that's a pretty small sample size.
09:55It's not a hugely scientific test.
09:57It's just a little glance at what's possible.
09:59So I have to say, make a bit what you will.
10:02Draw your own conclusions from it.
10:04But I have to say, I really did enjoy putting with these older putters.
10:08The feel of the face of the Ping Anser was just beautiful.
10:11Really lively.
10:12It's got that very familiar Ping Ting.
10:14And actually, on the longer putts with the 8802,
10:16I really enjoyed the feel of flow of the toe through the straight,
10:20which might have something to do with the results.
10:22Like I said, I don't know what to make of it.
10:24I'm going to leave you to draw your own conclusions.
10:26But if you are in the market for any secondhand equipment,
10:29there's some brilliant bargains to some great old clubs
10:31on the Golf Clubs for Cash website.
10:33So get yourself over there.
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