Super fast greens....soft face insert or softer ball?

Currently playing a Ping Vault 2.0 Dale in copper finish that I love BUT, having issues with distance control on our super fast greens. Ball of choice at the moment is the Bridgestone Tour BRX which I would not consider to be soft off the putter face. Question is, am I better off going to a softer ball to get it to come off the putter face a little slower or look for a putter with a softer face insert? I’ve become so afraid of hitting it 6’ past the hole, which causes me to be very tentative, especially on anything even slightly down hill, that I now 3 putt multiple times per round. Have no issues at all on slower greens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

When I want the ball to come off a little dead but still want to give a somewhat aggressive stroke I'll play it off the toe a bit more. Not sure a different feeling ball would do much. But I could be wrong.

I would say it is more the weight then the feel

> @SteveL1 said:

> I’ve become so afraid of hitting it 6’ past the hole, which causes me to be very tentative, especially on anything even slightly down hill, that I now 3 putt multiple times per round.

If your 6' figure isn't hyperbole, no ball/insert combination is going to fix that IMO. A different setup might feel softer coming off the face, sure, but it isn't going to reduce your roll-out by much if you're still hitting the putt too hard to begin with.

None, I'd go with a slightly heavier putter or just add some lead tape. Still, that may not help or could cause other issues. You could always.... practice, too.

get a lighter putter on faster greens, if you want more feel.

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> None, I'd go with a slightly heavier putter or just add some lead tape. Still, that may not help or could cause other issues. You could always.... practice, too.

> @bogeypro said:

> get a lighter putter on faster greens, if you want more feel.

Cool, one says lighter, one says heavier. I agree with the guy who suggests practice.

> @davep043 said:

> > @Z1ggy16 said:

> > None, I'd go with a slightly heavier putter or just add some lead tape. Still, that may not help or could cause other issues. You could always.... practice, too.

>

> > @bogeypro said:

> > get a lighter putter on faster greens, if you want more feel.

>

> Cool, one says lighter, one says heavier. I agree with the guy who suggests practice.

I mean... For me, I've used heavy putters on my typical 8-9 stimp muni greens and it was not good. Switched to a 345g putter head and I'm putting much better with a lot better speed control, rarely leaving putts short. If I personally was playing lightning quick greens, I feel like I would swing the heavy putter a little more intentionally (slower, basically) which could possibly translate into better speed control.

But yeah, practice always works, too.

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> I mean... For me, I've used heavy putters on my typical 8-9 stimp muni greens and it was not good. Switched to a 345g putter head and I'm putting much better with a lot better speed control, rarely leaving putts short. If I personally was playing lightning quick greens, I feel like I would swing the heavy putter a little more intentionally (slower, basically) which could possibly translate into better speed control.

>

> But yeah, practice always works, too.

I don't change putters, like ever. What I do is allow plenty of time before playing to get accustomed to the speed of the putting green. I don't practice 15-footers, I practice 30 and 40 footers, and 5-footers. The short ones get my stroke in good shape, the long ones get my feel in good shape.

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> > @davep043 said:

> > > @Z1ggy16 said:

> > > None, I'd go with a slightly heavier putter or just add some lead tape. Still, that may not help or could cause other issues. You could always.... practice, too.

> >

> > > @bogeypro said:

> > > get a lighter putter on faster greens, if you want more feel.

> >

> > Cool, one says lighter, one says heavier. I agree with the guy who suggests practice.

>

> I mean... For me, I've used heavy putters on my typical 8-9 stimp muni greens and it was not good. Switched to a 345g putter head and I'm putting much better with a lot better speed control, rarely leaving putts short. If I personally was playing lightning quick greens, I feel like I would swing the heavy putter a little more intentionally (slower, basically) which could possibly translate into better speed control.

>

> But yeah, practice always works, too.

I agree on slow greens I use a 330g-340g putter and then on super fast greens which is what I play most on I use a 375g putter. Let the putter do the work and small strokes. Putter really well yesterday on fast greens and if I had my light putter stroke would have been all over the place.

> @davep043 said:

> > @Z1ggy16 said:

> > I mean... For me, I've used heavy putters on my typical 8-9 stimp muni greens and it was not good. Switched to a 345g putter head and I'm putting much better with a lot better speed control, rarely leaving putts short. If I personally was playing lightning quick greens, I feel like I would swing the heavy putter a little more intentionally (slower, basically) which could possibly translate into better speed control.

> >

> > But yeah, practice always works, too.

>

> I don't change putters, like ever. What I do is allow plenty of time before playing to get accustomed to the speed of the putting green. I don't practice 15-footers, I practice 30 and 40 footers, and 5-footers. The short ones get my stroke in good shape, the long ones get my feel in good shape.

Same. I almost never make 10-12 footers anyway. I'll burn a few edges but most of the time I'm 2 putting outside 5-6 feet.

And there's the issue that if you do change putters or even keep the same one but add weight, you may change the launch conditions, etc then not only could your stroke get wonky, but your ball might skip, jump and so forth. I saw this on Quintic last year when I putted with a blade vs a Spider. All else equal I needed 2* less loft on the heavier and more rearward CG mallet.

putter weight overall, even swingweight

Diff weights and head styles and offset .... work for diff stroke types

Softer hands, soften up your hands through the stroke.

Have a few practice swings whilst looking at the hole to gauge how hard to hit it before you line up behind the ball.

I’m pretty sure the amount of compression on the ball would make a difference of less than 2%.

Practiced today for a couple of hours using a number of different balls and found that it really didn’t make any difference except for maybe the sound a firmer cover makes. Also tried a number of set up changes and found that if I set up with a more open stance like I do on chip shots, putts longer than 20-30 feet were much easier to judge. Thanks for all of the replies, and yes, I agree that practice is probably the best solution.

To me, softer inserts cause the ball to go farther/faster off the face, than my milled face, for the same swing. I tried inserts for a bit, but then the balls and covers got softer and found I had to really reduce my putting stroke or they'd just go sailing by. But, that's me and my stroke. YMMV. (And I've been playing a #7 for many, many, many years... just different iterations of them. You can pull my #7MXM out of my cold dead hands).

I like the practice idea. It's really amazing and revolutionary.

--kC

Try hitting the ball intentionally off the toe to deaden the strike.

I prefer greens almost always faster than slower. And I have found I putt better on fast greens with lighter putters with no insert. My home course greens are medium to fast at times, and I have used several insert putters o some varying degree of success this year, the latest was a Ping Tyne 4 and before that was an O'Works 2 ball. I played a statewide amateur tournament a couple of weeks ago, and in the practice round I was struggling terribly with speed control, the greens were much faster than I was used too, neither of my recent putters seems to be working. However, I normally feel I putt better on real fast greens once I get used to them. After the practice round, I pulled out my older Never Compromise Dinero Baron, its 340 grams IIRC. After about 10 minutes on the practice green I seem to have the speed down and decided to go with it. Played both days with the Never Compromise, and my speed control was actually phenomenal. I can almost never remember hitting so many 15-30 footers and longer that stopped about a foot from the hole, and putted the shorter putts fairly well. I did have one 3 putt in two days, a 20+ footer straight down hill where I outsmarted myself and was actually afraid of leaving it short and hit it 8 feet past and missed the come backer. I can't say I made a lot of long putts, but I never was really afraid of 3 putting on the course. Now tee to green, my game was not very good, missed the cut by one.....

One idea that has worked for me on fast greens is the Rickie method. Just hover the putter head behind the ball (just off the ground) at address and before taking the back-stroke. Then swing intentionally and with deliberate purpose. Deadens the strike a little and makes you focus on the exact length of the backswing. Works really well to get the right roll and distance control for me on fast greens.

> @SteveL1 said:

> Currently playing a Ping Vault 2.0 Dale in copper finish that I love BUT, having issues with distance control on our super fast greens. Ball of choice at the moment is the Bridgestone Tour BRX which I would not consider to be soft off the putter face. Question is, am I better off going to a softer ball to get it to come off the putter face a little slower or look for a putter with a softer face insert? I’ve become so afraid of hitting it 6’ past the hole, which causes me to be very tentative, especially on anything even slightly down hill, that I now 3 putt multiple times per round. Have no issues at all on slower greens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Why would you ever want to change the 2 variables you can actually control when green speeds change?

Stick with what you have, practice more.

> @OutBackHack said:

> > @SteveL1 said:

> > Currently playing a Ping Vault 2.0 Dale in copper finish that I love BUT, having issues with distance control on our super fast greens. Ball of choice at the moment is the Bridgestone Tour BRX which I would not consider to be soft off the putter face. Question is, am I better off going to a softer ball to get it to come off the putter face a little slower or look for a putter with a softer face insert? I’ve become so afraid of hitting it 6’ past the hole, which causes me to be very tentative, especially on anything even slightly down hill, that I now 3 putt multiple times per round. Have no issues at all on slower greens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

>

> Why would you ever want to change the 2 variables you can actually control when green speeds change?

> Stick with what you have, practice more.

I use a different putter for slow greens then I do for fast greens!

> @luke1333 said:

> > @OutBackHack said:

> > > @SteveL1 said:

> > > Currently playing a Ping Vault 2.0 Dale in copper finish that I love BUT, having issues with distance control on our super fast greens. Ball of choice at the moment is the Bridgestone Tour BRX which I would not consider to be soft off the putter face. Question is, am I better off going to a softer ball to get it to come off the putter face a little slower or look for a putter with a softer face insert? I’ve become so afraid of hitting it 6’ past the hole, which causes me to be very tentative, especially on anything even slightly down hill, that I now 3 putt multiple times per round. Have no issues at all on slower greens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

> >

> > Why would you ever want to change the 2 variables you can actually control when green speeds change?

> > Stick with what you have, practice more.

>

> I use a different putter for slow greens then I do for fast greens!

Why don't you keep 2 putters in the bag, one for uphill, one for downhill..

I wouldn't change your ball just for the greens. Use a lighter putter or slower stroke

> @Isaunders said:

> Try hitting the ball intentionally off the toe to deaden the strike.

Great way to start a ball offline!

I have a putter with adjustable weights and have gone that route ONLY if we are talking a significant difference. As in playing local munis at a 7-9 speed and now talking rolled greens running 11-12's. Other wise just a good putting session on the practice green gets me dialed in normally.

I think it's a feel thing. I have a soft insert very light putter that the ball comes off "dead" that I like when the greens are very fast. A local private club runs 12-14 and when I play there I like that putter a lot.

I use a heavier "hotter" putter when the greens are slower to moderate (and I use this putter 90% of the time). For me, it keeps me swinging the putter with similar effort regardless of the speed of the greens. I can see why others do the opposite, it's just whatever works for you.

As a follow up, after changing my stroke to a longer, slower stroke than normal for me, I shot a 3 over 74 on Tuesday that included four three putts. All four of those 3 putts were on holes that had notorious pin positions that included significant amounts of break, and we’re at least 30 feet or more in length. Made four birdie putts which is a huge improvement for me and I had a lot more confidence on anything inside of 12 feet. Bottom line is that I will keeping the Vault 2.0 in play and figure out a way to spend more time on the practice green each week.