Putter experimenting

[mgranato]

Been doing some experimenting with different putters, mainly with loft, head shape, sight lines, and hosel configs. The loft test have been the most surprising so far. I've always bought into the 3* to 4* as being the ideal, but not anymore. My stroke has been measured several times and I consistently strike the ball just past low point. With that in mind, here are the vids of my loft tests. (Apologies for the blurriness, still trying to find the best light and settings ).

8802 style with 3* of loft:


Anser with 3.5* of loft:


Mallet with 1.5* of loft:

 

[Richie3Jack]

Yeah, loft makes a difference. I changed my Mizuno putter from a 4.5* loft to a 3* loft and that alone made a huge difference. Then I had the lie angle made 4* more upright and that reduced the skid even more. Then we worked with backweighting the putter and my skid increased. So then we tried some heavier putter heads and the skid greatly reduced. So it's not just hosels and loft and lie, but putter weight, etc.

That's why the Edel Vari-loft appeals to me. Not only are the Edels designed to get the golfer aiming square at the target naturally, but you can fool around with the loft depending on green speed and how you are stroking the putts that day.




3JACK

 

[softconsult]

Maybe, but one would have to wonder why Scotty Cameron and Titleist would settle on 4 degrees and 71 degree lie angle. I suspect there has been some very high end analysis that lead to that conclusion. Then there is Stan Utley, who has always played with 5 degree loft and flatter lie angles.

Obviously, you can take a 5 degree loft and de-loft it with your hand/impact position. I am currently playing with a Cameron Red X5 bent to 68 and 5. Works great. My Yes Golf Marilyn also worked just fine. The Yes guy definitely preaches hitting up on the ball. I am, however, debating whether my change to an arc stroke from Straight Back Straight Through is helping me putting. Some days wonderful, some days not so much.

I bought a Rife long putter this year. Tried to master it and failed. Thinking about trying a Rife Hybrid Putter. Something to do over the coming winter.

 

[mgranato]

Maybe, but one would have to wonder why Scotty Cameron and Titleist would settle on 4 degrees and 71 degree lie angle. I suspect there has been some very high end analysis that lead to that conclusion. Then there is Stan Utley, who has always played with 5 degree loft and flatter lie angles.

Obviously, you can take a 5 degree loft and de-loft it with your hand/impact position. I am currently playing with a Cameron Red X5 bent to 68 and 5. Works great. My Yes Golf Marilyn also worked just fine. The Yes guy definitely preaches hitting up on the ball. I am, however, debating whether my change to an arc stroke from Straight Back Straight Through is helping me putting. Some days wonderful, some days not so much.

I bought a Rife long putter this year. Tried to master it and failed. Thinking about trying a Rife Hybrid Putter. Something to do over the coming winter.

Cameron makes some very nice looking putters, but he is a putter designer, or depending on who you ask a design copier. Regardless, his "successful" designs are copies of classics from yester year. Designs that came about when greens were much morse than we enjoy today. Putting was closer to a chip-stroke than a putting stroke. The functional elements of those designs have virtually remained unchanged from then to now.

Utley teaches basically a chip-stroke (not my words) with a heavy forward leaning shaft. He has to add static loft to his putter.

As far as your own putter and putting stroke go, I'd say that you may not know exactly what kind of launch/skid you're getting until you see it on high speed video. I certainly had no idea the differences would be so dramatic with my stroke. By the time we look up, most of the "damage" has been done with respect to the quality of impact and it's consequences. I would venture a guess that the differences between a 5* putter and a 2.5* putter would be quite noticeable one way or the other.

 

[mgranato]

So then we tried some heavier putter heads and the skid greatly reduced.




3JACK

Interesting. I went back and found the head weights of the putters I used. The worst roll and highest loft was also the lightest, 325 grams. The best roll and least loft was also the heaviest, 360 grams. I've got a Spider with 3.5* of loft that I can get even heavier. Think I'll video it to see what happens.

 

[Richie3Jack]

Interesting. I went back and found the head weights of the putters I used. The worst roll and highest loft was also the lightest, 325 grams. The best roll and least loft was also the heaviest, 360 grams. I've got a Spider with 3.5* of loft that I can get even heavier. Think I'll video it to see what happens.

I found it very interesting as well. Especially when we backweighted it and the skid increased greatly, then we just moved the weight from the handle to the putter head and the results were vastly different.

That's one of the reasons why I like the Yes! putter line as they have a variety of putter heads with different weights. The Camerons are all very light with high lofts. That's a big reason why I stay away from them.

When I got putter fitted, I asked about the grooves that putters have and the putter fitter told me that they have found they do work (about a 10-20% improvement according to him). He actually mentioned that the best success they found from the Taylor Made line of putters that have their groove design on the face.




3JACK